hours – only two days – are you sure he said that?"
"Yes, Jacob. I wish I could do anything to make you live longer."
"You're a good boy, Tom. I – I'm afraid I haven't been a good friend to you."
"Yes, you have, Jacob. We have always been good friends."
"But I helped do you a great wrong. I hope you will forgive me."
"I don't know what it is, but I will forgive you, Jacob."
"Then, perhaps, Heaven will forgive me, too. I'll do all I can. I'll leave you all my money."
Tom did not pay much regard to this promise, for he did not know that Jacob had any money beyond a few shillings, or possibly a few dollars.
"Thank you, Jacob," he said, "but I can earn enough to pay my expenses very well. Don't trouble yourself about me."
"There's no one else to leave it to," said the old man. "It isn't much, but you shall have it."
Here he drew out, with trembling fingers, the key suspended to a piece of twine which, through all his sickness, he had carried around his neck. He held it in his hand a moment, and a spasm convulsed his pale features. To give it up seemed like parting with life itself. It was a final parting with his treasure, to which, small though it was, his heart clung even in this solemn moment. He held it, reluctant to give it up, though he knew now that he must.
"Take this key, Tom," he said. "It is the key to my box of gold."
"I didn't know you had a box of gold," said Tom, rather surprised.
"It is not much – a hundred dollars. If I had lived longer, I might have got more."
"A hundred dollars, Jacob? I did not think you were so rich."
"It will never do me any good," said the old man, bitterly. "I was a fool to go out in the street that day. I might have lived to be as old as my father. He was seventy-five when he died."
Tom would like to have comforted him, but he would give him no hope of life, and that was what the old man longed for.
"Where is the box of money?" he asked, seeking to divert Jacob's mind, as well as to gain a necessary piece of information.
"It is under the floor of the room. You lift up a board just before you get to the pantry, and you will see a tin box underneath. You will find something else in it, Tom. It is a paper in which I wrote down all I know about you. You said you would forgive me for wronging you."
"Yes, Jacob."
"Perhaps you can get back your rights; but I am afraid not."
"My rights!" repeated Tom, bewildered.
"Yes; I can't tell you about it; I am too weak; the paper will tell you."
The old man began to show signs of exhaustion. The excitement of learning his hopeless condition, and the conversation which he had already held with Tom, had overtasked his feeble strength, and he showed it by his appearance.
"I am afraid I have staid too long, Jacob," said Tom, considerately. "I will go, now, but I will come back to-morrow morning."
"You won't look for the box till I am gone, Tom?" said the old man, anxiously. "I – the doctors might be wrong; and, if I get well, I would want it back again."
"No, Jacob, I will not look for it while you are alive."
"Promise me," said Jacob, suspicious to the last, where money was concerned.
"I promise, Jacob. Don't be troubled. I would rather have you live than take all the money."
"Good boy!" said Jacob, faintly, as his head sank back on the pillow.
Tom left the hospital ward with one last glance of compassion at the miserable old man, who clung to life, which had so little that is ordinarily counted agreeable, with despairing hope. It was the last time he was to see Jacob alive. The next day, when he called to inquire after the old man, he was told that he was dead. He sank steadily after his last interview with our hero, and, having parted with the key to his treasure, it seemed as if there was nothing left to live for.
CHAPTER VI.
THE REVELATION
Tom had already made up his mind upon one point. He would accept the bequest of his old companion, since, in so doing, he was robbing no one better entitled to it. So far as he knew, the old man had no relatives or friends, except himself. But he was determined that, since Jacob had money, he should not be buried at the public expense. He would take so much of the hundred dollars as might be necessary, and place it in the hands of the doctor at Bellevue Hospital to defray the expenses of Jacob's funeral. He would say nothing about it, however, till he had actually found the money. It might be a hallucination of Jacob's, and have no real existence.
"When will he be buried?" he inquired at the hospital.
"Day after to-morrow."
"How much will it cost?"
"Do not trouble yourself about that," said the physician, who judged that Tom was poor. "That will be done at the expense of the city."
"But," said Tom, conscientiously, "he left a little money. At least he told me so. If I find it, I will pay out of it whatever it costs."
"It is not necessary."
"I would rather do it; that is, if I find the money. It didn't do him any good while he was alive, and he lost his life in getting a part of it."
"Then, if you find this money, you may pay the expense of the coffin."
"How much will that be."
"From ten to fifteen dollars."
"I will bring you fifteen dollars to-morrow," said Tom.
Of course Tom might easily have saved this money, and applied it to his own use; but his feeling was one that did him credit. As he had for years supported Jacob, he had of course spent for him much more than the hundred dollars, and so might have considered himself justly entitled to all the money, but this thought never occurred to him.
After leaving the hospital, Tom went home at once. It was his duty now to ascertain whether Jacob had labored under a delusion, or whether he really possessed the money he had spoken of.
Entering the room, he locked the door from motives of prudence. Then, following the directions of the old man, he went to the part of the room indicated, and, getting down on his knees, soon found the board beneath which the treasure lay. Carefully removing it, he lifted from beneath the box already described. By means of the key he opened it, and there lay before him, bright and glittering, the scanty treasure which had been so dear to the old man's heart. But to Tom it did not seem scanty. Brought up as he had been in the hard school of poverty, it seemed like quite a fortune, and he was filled with surprise at Jacob's having accumulated so much. But the old man had taken advantage of Tom's absence during the day to go out on frequent begging expeditions. Whenever he had obtained enough to amount to a gold piece, he was in the habit of carrying it to a broker's and effecting an exchange. So, little by little, he had obtained a hundred dollars, ninety of which were in gold, the remainder in silver.
Tom
