've been expecting that some day there would
be inquiries down here, for no one ever found out what Jake did with his
granddaughter. Her disappearance was about as mysterious as that of Jake
himself, and between you and me, Jake put his granddaughter away and
then joined her, that's all, and gave out that he was dead, or rather
made it appear that he was drowned; but I never took any stock in the
drowning story. I believe Jake lived a good many years, for he was a
very strong, healthy man. He may even be alive yet--yes, I've known of
people living to be a hundred, and really Jake was not as old as he
looked. Trouble made him look older than he was, and he had led a
hard-working life. I don't believe he was much over fifty but he looked
like a man over sixty; but he wasn't drowned on that October day forty
years ago, I'll swear to that."

Jack adopted new tactics. He saw that the old man Berwick was a peculiar
character, and he concluded not to show any more interest in the
Canfield mystery, and commenced to talk about something else; but
Berwick's mind had got started on the Canfield mystery, and it was a
subject he often brought up, as Jack later learned. The old man, seeing
that our hero did not ask any more questions, said:

"I'll tell you about Jake's troubles."

Jack made no reply, and old Berwick continued:

"You see, Jake in early life married a very nice girl, the daughter of a
clergyman. She died, leaving one child, a son, and this son lived and
married and had a daughter, Jake's granddaughter, and this granddaughter
was only about five years old when her father, Jake's son, was drowned.
In the meantime, Jake married a woman, a widow with several children.
This second Mrs. Canfield was a she-devil, one of the worst women I ever
met in all my life, and her children were imps. You see, Jake had a
little money, and they were down on his little granddaughter from the
start, and here was where Jake's real troubles first commenced. He was
true to his little granddaughter, and it was said that his will was in
her favor. Well, this just made Jake's life a living misery, and one day
the granddaughter disappeared. Every one knew Jake had taken her away
because he feared his wife and her sons; the latter were rowdies, born
criminals, that's true. Jake would never tell what he had done with his
granddaughter, as I said, and the war commenced. His family just
tortured him almost into his grave, and so one morning Jake we