Winkle: the Eel-Man 163 



say. You don't need the money much as I 

 do, and if there's more in that mud-bank, 

 why, let me have it fur the gettin'," and 

 saying this he handed me a still rather bright 

 Mexican half-dollar. 



Two thoughts came to my mind at the 

 same moment. The coin did not appear as 

 if it had been lying in the mud for more 

 than a century ; and, again, why should 

 money have been left on the Betsy Ann ? 

 Perhaps Winkle was playing a joke on me, 

 and soon I would be the laughing-stock of 

 the country-side. But, then, I recalled that 

 these were only suspicions, and probably 

 unjust. I could verify nothing of all I 

 thought; but, putting little faith in what 

 people say, as we meet them from day to 

 day, I naturally included this fish-like hu- 

 man, Winkle, though there was some reason 

 for thinking him more honest than his neigh- 

 bors. He might be all that, and yet not alto- 

 gether true. But as I continued to handle 

 the half-dollar better thoughts came to me, 

 and I promised all he wished. Any dollars 

 left in the wreck of the Betsy Ann he was 

 quite welcome to. They were as much his as 

 mine anyhow, and I certainly would not dive 



