Part 35

Tears, groans, and imprecations against himself followed; and then, to the astonishment of his benefactor, Johnston poured forth an abject confession of the truth—how he had deceived him with the letters, and actually meditated a midnight robbery with violence against the very hand that was now pressing his own in such gratitude and affection.

Mr Cooper, though shocked and horrified, heard the narration as only a Christian man could. He could not believe that Johnston was half as depraved and wicked as he imagined himself, and gently and feelingly reminded the cowering wretch that he had already confessed to many faults and shortcomings. In the end Johnston was shown out, and grasped as warmly by the hand in parting as if what he had just confessed had raised him tenfold in his benefactor’s estimation. As they were thus bidding each other good night, in the expectation of meeting again in the morning to arrange for the passage to the Cape, I stepped out of the shade close by the doorway, and laying my hand on Johnston’s arm, said sharply to Mr Cooper—

“Do you know that this man is a released convict, and a thief and housebreaker?”

“I know all that, and more, for he has just confessed all to me,” was the mild reply.

“Let me warn you that he has this very day bought some housebreaking tools, which he may use at any moment, even upon your own house,” I continued, a little astonished that Johnston made no attempt to escape.

“I know that also, for he has already delivered the tools into my hands,” said Mr Cooper. “If you choose to come in, you may take them away with you.”

Quite nonplussed, I accepted the offer, allowing Johnston to depart, and in a few minutes was told all that had happened. I placed no reliance upon Johnston’s contrition, and while taking the implements, again warned Mr Cooper to be strictly on his guard in dealing with such a wretch.

Very early next morning Johnston returned to the house at Bonnington, and spent nearly the whole day with the sick child, tending it, nursing it, and conversing as sweetly and gently as any mother could have done. This continued for some days, till at length the doctor pronounced the child out of danger, when Mr Cooper actually, in the height of his joy and gratitude, went down on his knees before the degraded minister, and blessed God aloud for sending the man to his house. A few days later a passage was taken for the apparently contrite and reformed rogue to one of the colonies, and Mr Cooper made no secret that he intended to give Johnston, when fairly aboard the vessel, £50 to start a new life with on the other side. But on the very morning when the passage-money was paid, Johnston discovered something wrong with his throat, and his pulse high and fevered, and went to the Infirmary to ask advice. The house surgeon looked at his throat, and told him he must remain as an indoor patient, as the trouble was diphtheria, and the case a serious one indeed. Before night Johnston had lost his voice, and next day the disease was in his windpipe. His last words were a written message to Mr Cooper and his grandchild, bidding them farewell, and adding—“I was asleep in sin, but God through you awakened me, and now I am not afraid to die.”

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE

Original spelling and grammar have been generally retained, with some exceptions noted below. Original printed page numbers have been removed. Original small caps are now uppercase. Italics look _like this_. Both of the original footnotes have been converted to inline text surrounded by square brackets, and placed where the original footnote anchors were placed. The transcriber produced the cover image and hereby assigns it to the public domain. Scottish or Irish proper names such as M^cGovan, M^cBain, M^cKendrick, etc. were originally printed with a turned comma, similar to the Unicode character [‹ʻ› U+02BB; MODIFIER LETTER TURNED COMMA] in place of the superscripted _c_. This character is poorly supported in current browsers, and so these names have been rendered herein with superscript _c_. The author of this book is William Crawford Honeyman (1845–1919), whose pen name is “James M^cGovan”, as shown on the title page. Original page images are available from archive.org—search for “tracedtrackedorm00mgovrich”.

Page 19. The phrase ‹and is the light onl at› was changed to ‹and is the light only at›.

Page 41. Right double quotation mark was added after ‹something being “hidden safely there,›.

Page 53. Full stop was added after ‹no Corny appeared›.

Page 57. The full stop in ‹common streets of Stockbridge, close by. The Fin then decided› was changed to comma.

Page 69. Right double quotation mark was added after ‹Oh, what will become of him when I’m away?›.

Page 85. The phrase ‹point at which he had broken of,› was changed to ‹point at which he had broken off,›.

Page 86. Comma in ‹as ordinary buyers with lots of money,› was changed to full stop.

Page 91. The phrase ‹companion. I was there› was changed to ‹companion. “I was there›.

Page 96. The phrase ‹prepaid—“Sent by James Paterson, to Robert Marshall, Linlithgow. To lie at station till called for.”› was changed to ‹prepaid—‘Sent by James Paterson, to Robert Marshall, Linlithgow. To lie at station till called for.’”›.

Page 111. The phrase ‹paid a visit to Mr Baninster› was changed to ‹paid a visit to Mr Bannister›.

Page 116. The phrase ‹but with your protrait always› was changed to ‹but with your portrait always›.

Page 122. The phrase ‹id ntifying our man› was changed to ‹identifying our man›.

Page 133. Changed ‹establishment in Princes Street,› to ‹establishment in Princes Street.›.

Page 155. Changed ‹when I’m in you’re hands› to ‹when I’m in your hands›. Also changed ‹clumsy flatttery› to ‹clumsy flattery›.

Page 198. Changed ‹Greenside was reached There a› to ‹Greenside was reached. There a›.

Page 225. Left double quotation mark was added to ‹Alfred Johnston, I’ve›.

Page 233. The phrase ‹who asisted me› was changed to ‹who assisted me›.

Page 262. The phrase ‹and that John and she were soon to be made one.”› was printed with a right double quotation mark which has no matching left mark in the text. This mark has been removed in this edition. However, another possible interpretation might be ‹and that John and she were “soon to be made one.”›.

Page 300. The phrase ‹with some biterness› was changed to ‹with some bitterness›.

Page 315. The phrase ‹it’s a thing ane o⸲ the bairns› was printed with what would now be represented by the Unicode codepoint [‹⸲› U+2E32 TURNED COMMA] after ‹o›. The phrase has been changed herein to ‹it’s a thing ane o’ the bairns›.

Page 337. The phrase ‹that particular night. The› was changed to ‹that particular night.” The›.