sold to them, were inscribed. He seized it and rapidly turned over its leaves, and his emaciated thumb fixed itself on one of the pages.
"There!" he cried, "there! this old iron clock, sold to Pittonaccio! It is the only one that has not been returned to me! It still exists, it goes, it lives! Ah, I wish for it, I must find it! I will take such care of it that death will no longer seek me!" And he fainted away.
Aubert and Gerande knelt by the old man's bedside, and prayed together.
CHAPTER V
THE HOUR OF DEATH
Several days passed, and Master Zacharius, though almost dying, rose from his bed and returned to active life, under a supernatural excitement. He lived by pride. But Gerande did not deceive herself; her father's body and soul were forever lost.
The old man got together his last resources, without thought of those who were dependent upon him. He betrayed an incredible energy, walking, ferreting about, and mumbling strange, incomprehensible words. One morning Gerande went down to his shop. Master Zacharius was not there. She waited for him all day. Master Zacharius did not return.
"Where can he be?" Aubert asked himself. An inspiration suddenly came to his mind. He remembered the last words which Master Zacharius had spoken. The old man only lived now in the old iron clock that had not been returned! Master Zacharius must have gone in search of it. Aubert spoke of this to Gerande.
"Let us look at my father's book," she replied.
They descended to the shop. The book was open on the bench. All the watches or clocks made by the old man, and which had been returned to him out of order, were stricken out, excepting one." Sold to M. Pittonaccio, an iron clock, with bell and moving figures; sent to his château at Andermatt."
It was this "moral" clock of which Scholastique had spoken with so much enthusiasm.
