understand, not by any means the main purpose of my voyage to America."

"What is the name of this family?" asked the Doctor, abruptly.

"The man whose grave I seek," said the stranger, "lived and died, in
this country, under the assumed name of Colcord."

"How do you expect to succeed in this ridiculous quest?" asked the
Doctor, "and what marks, signs, directions, have you to guide your
search? And moreover, how have you come to any knowledge whatever about
the matter, even that the emigrant ever assumed this name of Colcord,
and that he was buried anywhere, and that his place of burial, after
more than a century, is of the slightest importance?"

"All this was ascertained by a messenger on a similar errand with my
own, only undertaken nearly a century ago, and more in earnest than I
can pretend to be," replied the Englishman. "At that period, however,
there was probably a desire to find nothing that might take the
hereditary possessions of the family out of the branch which still held
them; and there is strong reason to suspect that the information
acquired was purposely kept secret by the person in England into whose
hands it came. The thing is differently situated now; the possessor of
the estate is recently dead; and the discovery of an American heir
would not be unacceptable to many. At all events, any knowledge gained
here would throw light on a somewhat doubtful matter."

"Where, as nearly as you can judge," said the Doctor, after a turn or
two through the study, "was this man buried?"

"He spent the last years of his life, certainly, in this town," said