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.