And as I looked at him, it occurred to me
that the suffering which had set its mark so deeply upon him was
not altogether the grosser anguish of the body. Now for our
criminal who can still feel morally there is surely hope. I think
so, anyhow! For a long moment there was silence, while I stared
into the haggard face below, and the Imp looked from one to the
other of us, utterly at a loss.
"I wonder if you ever heard tell of 'the bye Jarge,'" I said
suddenly.
The convict started so violently that the jacket tore in my grasp.
"How - how did ye know - ?" he gasped, and stared at me with
dropped jaw.
"I think I know your father."
"My feyther," he muttered; "old Jasper - 'e ain't dead, then?"
"Not yet," I answered; "come, get up and I'll tell you more while
you eat." Mechanically he obeyed, sitting with his glowing eyes
fixed upon my face the while I told him of old Jasper's lapse of
memory and present illness.
"Then 'e don't remember as I'm a thief an' convict 49, master?"
"No; he thinks and speaks of you always as a boy and a pattern son.
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