“Didn’t he refuse?” asked Paul, in surprise.
“No, and a good reason why. He was out of his head, and so I asked Mr. McQuade, downstairs, to come up and help me. And niver a word the old man spoke, but seemed dazed like.”
“Where are his clothes?” inquired Paul, eagerly.
“Shure there they are!” said the nurse, pointing to a pile of wretched garments on a chair near the bedside.
“I’ll stay here ten minutes, Mrs. Hogan,” said Paul, “and give you a chance to go to your room.”
“Thank you, Paul. I’ll go and make a bit of tay for the old man.”
Paul locked the door after her, and eagerly took up the shabby old suit which had been worn for years by old Jerry. He instituted a careful search, and found himself richly rewarded. In one pocket he found a bank book on the Bowery Savings Bank. His eyes opened with amazement when he found nearly three thousand dollars set down to the old man’s credit. There was another book, marked the Union Dime Savings Bank, a bank in the upper part of the city. On this book deposits were entered to the amount of eight hundred and ninety dollars. Feeling something stiff behind the lining of the coat, Paul hastily ripped it open, and found a certificate of one hundred shares of Erie, then selling at forty eight dollars per share. This appeared to be all, except a few dollars in money.
“It is my duty to take care of them,” reflected Paul. “Mrs. Hogan is no doubt honest, but others might enter the chamber who would not scruple to rob the old man. I will take care of them, and deposit them in a safe place.”
He made a hasty calculation, and found that the two savings bank books contained deposits amounting to three thousand eight hundred dollars. The value of the Erie stock he afterwards ascertained to be four thousand eight hundred, making in all eight thousand six hundred dollars.
“How strange that a man with so much money should be willing to live so miserably!” he thought. “Probably he has shortened his life by this means.”