the boy, it ain't. But Lord! when I think 'ow near I come to lettin' the
policy fall through." He chuckled. "It's three weeks gone since I took
it out," he said contentedly, "an' paid three weeks' money in advance,
an' at threepence a week, that makes ninepence, an' the thought o' them
nine half-pints I might 'ave 'ad out o' money 'as drove me 'arf wild
with thirst, over an' over. I should 'ave 'ad to pay again come Monday,
if only 'e 'ad 'ave lived."

"If only 'e 'ad lived--" repeated the engineer in a strange far-away
tone, "Oo's 'e?" he asked eagerly.

"You know old Abey Turner as keeps the little sweet-an'-tobaccer shop
over to Dorton Ware?" pursued the stoker. "Old Abey is a agint for the
Popular Thrifty Life Insurance Company----"

"I know 'e is," confirmed the engineer.

"Abey 'as bin at me over an' over again to insure my life," explained
the stoker, "but I told 'im as I didn't 'old with laying out good money
wot wouldn't never come 'ome to roost-like, until I was dead. Then Abey
leans over the counter an' ketches me by the neck 'andkerchief an' says,
'Think of the worst life you know, an' 'ave a bit on that.' Naturally,
talkin' o' bad lives, you're the first chap whose name comes into my
'ead."

"Me!" ejaculated the engineer, starting.

"But it wasn't wickedness old Abey meaned," continued the stoker, "only
un'ealthiness in general. Somebody wot wasn't likely to live long,
that's the sort o' man or woman 'e wanted me to insure. 'A child'll do,'
says 'e, smiling, an' tells me 'ow a large family may be made a source
of blessing to parents 'oo are wise enough to insure in the Popular
Thrifty. Then it comes into my mind all of a sudden as 'ow Billy 'ud do
a treat, an' I names 'im to Old Abey. 'That young shaver!' calls out old
Abey, disgusted like. 'Why, 'e's as 'ard as nails. Wot's likely to
'appen to 'im?' 'If you was to see the 'andling 'e gets when my mate is
in 'is tantrums,' I says to old Abey, 'you'd put your bit o' money on
'im cheerful an' willin'.' 'Is Alfred Evans such a savage in 'is drink?'
says old Abey, quite surprised----"

"I'll surprise 'im!" muttered the engineer, "when I meets 'im!"

The stoker continued: "So the long an' the short is, I insured Billy,
an' Billy's dead!"

"You don't really think so?" cried the engineer, in shocked accents.

"I don't think," said the stoker, in a hard, high tone, "I knows 'e is."

"Not--burned with the van!" gasped the engineer.

"Burned to cinders