The minister turned back to the sobbing criminal, and touching him gently, said, "Davie, my son, come wi' me." David rose hopelessly and followed him.

They went into the room where they had seen the minister take the stranger who had entered the house with them.

The stranger was still there, and as they entered he came gently and on tiptoe to meet them.
"Dr.Fleming," said the minister, "this is David Callendar, your patient's late partner in business; he wishes to be the poor man's nurse, and indeed, sir, I ken no one fitter for the duty." So Dr.Fleming took David's hand, and then in a low voice gave him directions for the night's watch, though David, in the sudden hope and relief that had come to him, could scarcely comprehend them.

Then the physician went, and the minister and David sat by the bedside alone.
Robert lay in the very similitude and presence of death, unconscious both of his sufferings and his friends.

Congestion of the brain had set in, and life was only revealed by the faintest pulsations, and by the appliances for relief which medical skill thought it worth while to make.
"'And sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death,'" said the doctor solemnly.