are Kidd Discovery Company folks? They was swindlers, they
was."

"Never heard of such a company before. Get my things aboard, and let us
be away," replied the stranger, in a tone of command.

It required the strength of both boatmen to carry the valise
comfortably; and when they had got it aboard and the stranger seated in
the stern, for he said he could steer, they pulled away for the opposite
shore. Not a word was spoken for several minutes. At length the stranger
broke the silence. "How pleasant it seems," he said, "to get back on the
old Tappan Zee. Everything looks so familiar--"

"You have been here before, then?" enquired the man pulling the stern
oar, and who had acted as spokesman.

"Yes," returned the stranger. "My home was just out of Nyack not many
years ago. I may find things changed there now. Do you know many people
over there?"

"Why yes--nearly everybody--"

"Dominie Payson--is he living?"

"If he didn't die since yesterday. He was over here yesterday."

"And Doctor Critchel--you know him, I suppose? Is he alive?"

"Why, help you--he never intends to die."

"And you know, I suppose;" here the stranger hesitated, and his voice
thickened; "you know, I suppose, Hanz Toodleburg--and his--. Are they
living?"

"Living! That they are--and right hearty, too. They tried to get the old
man mixed up in the Kidd Discovery affair--but they didn't." The boatman
bent his head approvingly.

"There was a Chapman family--are they still in Nyack?"

"They're there--but its not sayin' much for Nyack. They went to New York
proud, and as folks thought rich, for Chapman had his finger in schemes
enough to get other people's money; but he com'd back poor as a crow,
they say."

The stranger's mind seemed to have been relieved of some great anxiety
by these answers, and he at once became more cheerful and talkative. He
at the same time avoided saying anything that might discover who he
was.

This caution excited the boatman's curiosity to such a pitch that he
resolved to make a bold push to uncover the stranger.

"Wouldn't take it amiss, would you?" said he, "if a man like me was to
ask what your name was? Needn't mind if there's any cause o' keepin' it
a secret."

The stranger smiled, hesitated, and stammered in reply: "Hanz Toodleburg
is my father."

"Well, well! Just what I expected. Didn't say nothin' you see; but I
thought as how you was him," exclaimed the boatman.

"I have been over three years a