awing out
several more discolored dollars threw them on the table. "Te great big
Kidd Discovery Company is one great fixed fact--one grand success,
gen-tle-men. When ze customer come wiz his money, we shall say here is
ze zing what makes you one grand fortune; invest your money and put your
trust in Topman and Gusher."

Here, indeed, was the capital stock on which the enterprising firm of
Topman and Gusher had started a great and flourishing joint-stock
company. The boatmen listened to what they had heard with surprise and
astonishment. They, in short, firmly believed that what they had seen in
the bucket was treasure taken from the place in which it had been buried
by Kidd.

CHAPTER XVII.

MR. GUSHER IS INTRODUCED TO MATTIE.

The Reverend Warren Holbrook was left in the farm-house to further
develop the discovery, and lift the great enterprise into popularity
among the confiding people in that portion of the country. The rest of
the party, including Gusher, returned to the boat near sundown and set
off for Nyack, the sturdy oarsmen singing a merry song. There in the
bottom of the boat was the bucket containing the black sand and
discolored dollars--the capital stock of the great Kidd Discovery
Company--which Chapman and Gusher affected to guard with particular
care.

They reached Nyack the next day about noon, looking fatigued and
careworn, for they had enjoyed but little sleep since leaving. During
their absence all sorts of wild rumors had been circulated concerning
the object of the expedition. Imagination had made some of its highest
flights, and even found a relative of Kidd, who was to join the
expedition a few miles up the river, and who possessed the power to make
the devil surrender sounding-rock--in case he proved obstinate and
refused to acknowledge Hanz's authority. Titus Bright's inn was the
place where all the wisdom of the settlement concentrated of a night.
And it was here that all the various features of the great expedition
were discussed over ale and cider. Sundry honest Dutchmen shook their
heads suspiciously, and declared no good would come of it if Chapman got
his finger in. Others said it was all clear enough now where Hanz
Toodleburg got his dollars and his doubloons. It was no wonder that he
was so much better off than his neighbors. Another declared that he had
more than once told Hanz he would never get to heaven, and that secret
on his mind.

When the boat reached the landin