k which belonged to nobody, he felt bound in honor
by his agreement with the nurse to make the division of it with her, in
accordance with the conditions of the contract.

He desired very much to speak to his father about the diary; but he did
not feel at liberty to do so. It did not appear that the mason with whom
Leopold was at work had told Mr. Bennington, or any person, of the
finding of the package. After his questions had been answered, he seemed
to feel no further interest in the diary, and probably forgot all about
it before he went home to dinner. The discovery of it did not seem to
him to be a matter of any importance, and Leopold kept his information
all to himself.

[Illustration: LEOPOLD MAKES A DISCOVERY. Page 149.]

Removing the string from the package, the young man proceeded to unwrap
the oil-cloth, shaking the soot and lime dust into the fireplace as he
did so. The diary came out clean and uninjured from its long
imprisonment in the chimney. Leopold's agitation increased as he
continued the investigation, and he could hardly control himself as he
opened the book and looked at the large, clear, round hand of the
schoolmaster. The writing was as plain as print.

He turned the leaves without stopping to read anything, till he came to
the record of the last day whose events Harvey Barth had written in the
book; but those pages contained only an account of his illness, and a
particular description of his symptoms, which might have interested a
physician, but did not secure the attention of the young man. He turned
back to the narrative of the loss of the Waldo. It was very minute in
its details, and contained much "fine writing," such as the editor of
the newspaper had struck out in the manuscript for publication.

Leopold had read the account in the newspaper, and he skipped what he
had seen in print, till the name of "Wallbridge" attracted his
attention. The first mention of the passenger that he saw was made when
he went into the cabin, after his recovery from the effects of the
lightning, and returned with something in his hand. The reader followed
the narrative, which was already quite familiar to him, till he came to
the landing of the party in the whale-boat on the beach; and at this
point he found something which Harvey Barth had not written in his
newspaper article, or mentioned during his stay at the hotel. Leopold
read as follows:--

"As soon as we had landed on the beach, Wallbridge told m