y," said he, as he came up, and not heeding Jack's wrathful looks,
"is it true what I hear, that that boy was killed last night?"

"Who told you so?" demanded Jack.

"I heard it from Daly. And Masham has bolted. Is it true, then?"

"No!" said Jack, "and no thanks to you it isn't, you coward!"

Crow had evidently been too much frightened by the news he had heard to
resent this hard name. He answered, meekly, "I'm glad it's not true.
I'm ashamed of that affair last night, and there's no harm in telling
you so."

This was a good deal to come from a fellow like Crow. We did not reply,
but entered the office.

There, for a few hours at least, hard work drove away all other cares.
At dinner-time Jack rushed home, and brought back a further good report
of the patient, whom the doctor had seen, and pronounced to be making
satisfactory progress.

As for me, I stayed at the office and made up for the lost time of the
evening before. Part of my work was a grand balancing up of the petty-
cash, which, as Hawkesbury was due back next morning, I would then have
to be prepared to hand over. It was no small satisfaction to find that
my accounts were right to a penny, and to know that in the fair copy of
those accounts which I drew up no ingenuity or patience would be able to
discover an error. Indeed, I was so particular, that, having made a
minute blot in my first fair copy, I went to the trouble of writing out
another, absolutely faultless, preserving the other in my desk, as an
occasional feast to my own eyes in my self-satisfied moments.

That evening I was strongly tempted to unburden my secret to Jack as we
walked home. But I could not bring myself up to the point. At least, I
could not do so till we got to the door of our lodgings, and then it was
too late, for Jack had rushed to Billy's bedside, and it was hopeless to
get him to think of anything else. So I had to wait on, and once more
to endure the sight of Mr Smith's anxious, frightened face.

The following morning brought a letter from my uncle, addressed, not to
me, but to Jack Smith. It contained a five-pound note, which he said
might be useful when Billy's doctor's bill had to be paid, and anything
that was over might go to buy the boy a suit of clothes! My uncle was
certainly coming out in a new light! It was like him writing to Jack
instead of me, and I thought nothing of that. But for him to send a
five-pound note for the benefit of a little str