er his
forehead, as if to cover up the wrinkles age had written on it.

"Mine taughter, mine taughter," he resumed, grasping Mattie's hand
firmly, "I'se gettin' old now. Tare von't pe no more of old Hanz
Toodleburg shoon. You never know'd nothin' pad of old Hanz
Toodleburg--does you, mine taughter?"

"Never, never! Why, Father Hanz, nobody has been saying anything against
you," replied Mattie, smiling.

"Dar has, too," resumed Hanz. "What I lives for now is mine goot name,
and mine poor Tite. I pees a friend to everypody what needs a friend,
and now what I needs mineshelf is one goot friend. You she, mine
taughter, if mine little farm he pees gone, and if mine sheep, and mine
cows, and mine everything pees gone, den der is nothin' for mine Tite
when he comes home."

The old man paused for a moment. It was impossible for him to keep the
secret of his trouble from Mattie any longer. He opened his heart to her
and disclosed the fact that it was her own father who had brought sorrow
into his home. Yes, it was her father who had led him like a child into
trouble, and then thrown around his acts such a chain of suspicious
circumstances that you could scarcely find a man in the village, where
but a short time ago Hanz was so great a favorite, who did not believe
him guilty of inventing the Kidd Discovery Company, and bringing ruin
and distress on his neighbors. There was the paper Hanz had signed,
setting forth that he possessed the secret of where Kidd's treasure was
buried, and bearing the proof that he had sold it for a consideration.
Chapman understood the value of this, and went about the village showing
it as a proof that there was at least one man innocent, and that man was
himself. There, too, was the old story that had clung to him through
life--that he knew all about Kidd, his father having sailed with him on
the Spanish Main. And there was the expedition up the river, in which he
had played so prominent a part.

Chapman well understood the effect these things would have on the minds
of the ignorant and superstitious, and he turned them against Hanz with
such skill as to completely get the better of him. In short, he would
assert his innocence with so much plausibility that the simple-minded
settlers began to believe him the saint he set himself up for, and Hanz
the sinner who had got all their money.

Mattie heard this strange declaration made by Hanz against her father
with feelings of sorrow and surprise. S