Page:Ballantyne--The Battery and the Boiler.djvu/417

 "No! O no!" exclaimed the sick man, clutching Slagg's arm with a trembling grip, "don't leave me, Jim—don't, don't! I shall die if you do! I 'm dyin' anyhow, but it will kill me quicker if you go."

"Well, I won't go. There, keep quiet, my poor old Stumps."

"Yes, that 's it—that 's it—I like to hear the old name," murmured the sick man, closing his eyes. "Say it again, Jim—say it again."

"Stumps," said Slagg, getting down on his knees, the better to arrange and grasp his former comrade, "don't be a fool now, but listen. I have come to look after you, so make your mind easy."

"But I 've been such a beast to you, Jim; it was so awful shabby," cried Stumps, rousing himself again, "and I 've been so sorry ever since. You can't think how sorry. I have repented, Jim, if ever a man did. An' I 'd have come back and confessed long ago, if I 'd had the chance, but I can get no rest—no peace. I 've never spent a rap of it, Jim, except what I couldn't help—for you know, Jim, body an' soul wouldn't stick together without a little o' suthin' to eat an' drink; an' when I was ill I couldn't work, you know. See, it's all here—all here—except what little—"

He stopped abruptly, having raised himself to open the lid of the box at his elbow, but his