“I know all that, and more, for he has just confessed all to me,” was the mild reply.
“Let me warn you that he has this very day bought some housebreaking tools, which he may use at any moment, even upon your own house,” I continued, a little astonished that Johnston made no attempt to escape.
“I know that also, for he has already delivered the tools into my hands,” said Mr Cooper. “If you choose to come in, you may take them away with you.”
Quite nonplussed, I accepted the offer, allowing Johnston to depart, and in a few minutes was told all that had happened. I placed no reliance upon Johnston’s contrition, and while taking the implements, again warned Mr Cooper to be strictly on his guard in dealing with such a wretch.
Very early next morning Johnston returned to the house at Bonnington, and spent nearly the whole day with the sick child, tending it, nursing it, and conversing as sweetly and gently as any mother could have done. This continued for some days, till at length the doctor pronounced the child out of danger, when Mr Cooper actually, in the height of his joy and gratitude, went down on his knees before the degraded minister, and blessed God aloud for sending the man to his house. A few days later a passage was taken for the apparently contrite and reformed rogue to one of the colonies, and Mr Cooper made no secret that he intended to give Johnston, when fairly aboard the vessel, £50 to start a new life with on the other side. But on the very morning when the passage-money was paid, Johnston discovered something wrong with his throat, and his pulse high and fevered, and went to the Infirmary to ask advice. The house surgeon looked at his throat, and told him he must remain as an indoor patient, as the trouble was diphtheria, and the case a serious one indeed. Before night Johnston had lost his voice, and next day the disease was in his windpipe. His last words were a written message to Mr Cooper and his grandchild, bidding them farewell, and adding—“I was asleep in sin, but God through you awakened me, and now I am not afraid to die.”
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
Original spelling and grammar have been generally retained, with some exceptions noted below. Original printed page numbers have been removed. Both of the original footnotes have been converted to inline text surrounded by square brackets, and placed where the original footnote anchors were placed. The transcriber produced the cover image and hereby assigns it to the public domain. Scottish or Irish proper names such as McGovan, McBain, McKendrick, etc. were originally printed with a turned comma, similar to the modern Unicode character [‹ʻ› U+02BB; MODIFIER LETTER TURNED COMMA] in place of the superscripted c. This character is poorly supported in current browsers, and so these names have been rendered herein with superscript c. The author of this book is William Crawford Honeyman (1845–1919), whose pen name is “James McGovan”, as shown on the title page. Original page images are available from archive.org—search for “tracedtrackedorm00mgovrich”.
Page [19]. The phrase ‹and is the light onl at› was changed to ‹and is the light only at›.
Page [41]. Right double quotation mark was added after ‹something being “hidden safely there,›.
Page [53]. Full stop was added after ‹no Corny appeared›.