"I am sorry for that. Don't you want to buy something to take to him?"
"If you'll give me a shillin', sir, I'll ask him what he can eat. Sick folks can't eat the same things as the rest of us."
"To be sure. You are right. Well, here's a shilling."
"The boy little thinks that I have known many a time what it is to be without breakfast or money to buy any," thought Tony. "I'll do something for the poor man, if only to show how grateful I am for my own good fortune."
He followed the boy for about ten minutes, until they reached rather a shabby building. This was No. 7.
The two went up till they reached the room indicated by Rudolph. The boy pushed the door open.
A sound of groaning proceeded from the bed.
"Grandfather, I've brought a kind young gentleman," said the boy.
In an instant Rudolph had thrown off the clothes and had him seized by the arm.
"There's your money, boy. Go!" he said to the other, flinging a half-crown.
"I've got you at last!" he shouted. "Now, you young villain, I'll get even with you!"
His face was almost fiendish with rage, as he uttered these words.
To say that Tony was not startled would not be true. Without a moment's warning he found himself in the power of his old enemy--completely in his power, knowing, too, the desperate character of the man, which would let him stick at nothing.
"I've been waiting for this," he said. "It's a great joy to me to have you here in my power."
By this time Tony had collected himself, and had become composed.
"Rudolph," he said, "what makes you hate me so?"
"Haven't you tried to injure me--didn't you get me arrested? Do you forget that night in the old miser's hut?"
"No, I don't forget it, but you forced me to act as I did. But even if I did injure you, you took your revenge."
"When you threw me into the well. How could you do such a dark deed? What had I done that you should seek to murder me?"
"How did you get out?" asked Rudolph, giving way to curiosity.
"By means of the wall that lined the well. Finally I got hold of the rope."
"So that was the way, was it? I ought to have made surer of your fate."
"By throwing some rocks down on you," answered the tramp, with a malignant frown.
"I am glad I have not such a wicked disposition as you, Rudolph," said Tony, looking at him fixedly.
