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.