«Was you in my room night before last?»
«No, your majesty»-which was the way I always called him when nobody but our gang warn't around.
«Was you in there yisterday er last night?»
«No, your majesty.»
«Honor bright, now-no lies.»
«Honor bright, your majesty, I'm telling you the truth. I hain't been a-near your room since Miss Mary Jane took you and the duke and showed it to you.»
The duke says:
«Have you seen anybody else go in there?»
«No, your grace, not as I remember, I believe.»
«Stop and think.»
I studied awhile and see my chance; then I says:
«Well, I see the niggers go in there several times.»
Both of them gave a little jump, and looked like they hadn't ever expected it, and then like they HAD. Then the duke says:
«What, all of them?»
«No-leastways, not all at once-that is, I don't think I ever see them all come OUT at once but just one time.»
«Hello! When was that?»
«It was the day we had the funeral. In the morning. It warn't early, because I overslept. I was just starting down the ladder, and I see them.»
«Well, go on, GO on! What did they do? How'd they act?»
«They didn't do nothing. And they didn't act anyway much, as fur as I see. They tiptoed away; so I seen, easy enough, that they'd shoved in there to do up your majesty's room, or something, s'posing you was up; and found you WARN'T up, and so they was hoping to slide out of the way of trouble without waking you up, if they hadn't already waked you up.»
«Great guns, THIS is a go!» says the king; and both of them looked pretty sick and tolerable silly. They stood there a-thinking and scratching their heads a minute, and the duke he bust into a kind of a little raspy chuckle, and says:
«It does beat all how neat the niggers played their hand. They let on to be SORRY they was going out of this region! And I believed they WAS sorry, and so did you, and so did everybody. Don't ever tell ME any more that a nigger ain't got any histrionic talent. Why, the way they played that thing it would fool ANYBODY. In my opinion, there's a fortune in 'em. If I had capital and a theater, I wouldn't want a better lay-out than that-and here we've gone and sold 'em for a song. Yes, and ain't privileged to sing the song yet. Say, where IS that song-that draft?»
«In the bank for to be collected. Where WOULD it be?»
«Well, THAT'S all right then, thank goodness.»
Says I, kind of timid-like:
«Is something gone wrong?»
The king whirls on me and rips out:
«None o' your business! You keep your head shet, and mind y'r own affairs-if you got any. Long as you're in this town don't you forgit THAT-you hear?» Then he says to the duke, «We got to jest swaller it and say noth'n': mum's the word for US.»
As they was starting down the ladder the duke he chuckles again, and says:
«Quick sales AND small profits! It's a good business-yes.»
The king snarls around on him and says:
«I was trying to do for the best in sellin' 'em out so quick. If the profits has turned out to be none, lackin' considable, and none to carry, is it my fault any more'n it's yourn?»
«Well, THEY'D be in this house yet and we WOULDN'T if I could a got my advice listened to.»
The king sassed back as much as was safe for him, and then swapped around and lit into ME again. He give me down the banks for not coming and TELLING him I see the niggers come out of his room acting that way-said any fool would a KNOWED something was up. And then waltzed in and cussed HIMSELF awhile, and said it all come of him not laying late and taking his natural rest that morning, and he'd be blamed if he'd ever do it again. So they went off a-jawing; and I felt dreadful glad I'd worked it all off on to the niggers, and yet hadn't done the niggers no harm by it.
«No, your majesty»-which was the way I always called him when nobody but our gang warn't around.
«Was you in there yisterday er last night?»
«No, your majesty.»
«Honor bright, now-no lies.»
«Honor bright, your majesty, I'm telling you the truth. I hain't been a-near your room since Miss Mary Jane took you and the duke and showed it to you.»
The duke says:
«Have you seen anybody else go in there?»
«No, your grace, not as I remember, I believe.»
«Stop and think.»
I studied awhile and see my chance; then I says:
«Well, I see the niggers go in there several times.»
Both of them gave a little jump, and looked like they hadn't ever expected it, and then like they HAD. Then the duke says:
«What, all of them?»
«No-leastways, not all at once-that is, I don't think I ever see them all come OUT at once but just one time.»
«Hello! When was that?»
«It was the day we had the funeral. In the morning. It warn't early, because I overslept. I was just starting down the ladder, and I see them.»
«Well, go on, GO on! What did they do? How'd they act?»
«They didn't do nothing. And they didn't act anyway much, as fur as I see. They tiptoed away; so I seen, easy enough, that they'd shoved in there to do up your majesty's room, or something, s'posing you was up; and found you WARN'T up, and so they was hoping to slide out of the way of trouble without waking you up, if they hadn't already waked you up.»
«Great guns, THIS is a go!» says the king; and both of them looked pretty sick and tolerable silly. They stood there a-thinking and scratching their heads a minute, and the duke he bust into a kind of a little raspy chuckle, and says:
«It does beat all how neat the niggers played their hand. They let on to be SORRY they was going out of this region! And I believed they WAS sorry, and so did you, and so did everybody. Don't ever tell ME any more that a nigger ain't got any histrionic talent. Why, the way they played that thing it would fool ANYBODY. In my opinion, there's a fortune in 'em. If I had capital and a theater, I wouldn't want a better lay-out than that-and here we've gone and sold 'em for a song. Yes, and ain't privileged to sing the song yet. Say, where IS that song-that draft?»
«In the bank for to be collected. Where WOULD it be?»
«Well, THAT'S all right then, thank goodness.»
Says I, kind of timid-like:
«Is something gone wrong?»
The king whirls on me and rips out:
«None o' your business! You keep your head shet, and mind y'r own affairs-if you got any. Long as you're in this town don't you forgit THAT-you hear?» Then he says to the duke, «We got to jest swaller it and say noth'n': mum's the word for US.»
As they was starting down the ladder the duke he chuckles again, and says:
«Quick sales AND small profits! It's a good business-yes.»
The king snarls around on him and says:
«I was trying to do for the best in sellin' 'em out so quick. If the profits has turned out to be none, lackin' considable, and none to carry, is it my fault any more'n it's yourn?»
«Well, THEY'D be in this house yet and we WOULDN'T if I could a got my advice listened to.»
The king sassed back as much as was safe for him, and then swapped around and lit into ME again. He give me down the banks for not coming and TELLING him I see the niggers come out of his room acting that way-said any fool would a KNOWED something was up. And then waltzed in and cussed HIMSELF awhile, and said it all come of him not laying late and taking his natural rest that morning, and he'd be blamed if he'd ever do it again. So they went off a-jawing; and I felt dreadful glad I'd worked it all off on to the niggers, and yet hadn't done the niggers no harm by it.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
BY and by it was getting-up time. So I come down the ladder and started for down-stairs; but as I come to the girls' room the door was open, and I see Mary Jane setting by her old hair trunk, which was open and she'd been packing things in it-getting ready to go to England. But she had stopped now with a folded gown in her lap, and had her face in her hands, crying. I felt awful bad to see it; of course anybody would. I went in there and says:
«Miss Mary Jane, you can't a-bear to see people in trouble, and I can't
—most always. Tell me about it.»
So she done it. And it was the niggers-I just expected it. She said the beautiful trip to England was most about spoiled for her; she didn't know HOW she was ever going to be happy there, knowing the mother and the children warn't ever going to see each other no more-and then busted out bitterer than ever, and flung up her hands, and says:
«Oh, dear, dear, to think they ain't EVER going to see each other any more!»
«But they WILL-and inside of two weeks-and I KNOW it!» says I.
Laws, it was out before I could think! And before I could budge she throws her arms around my neck and told me to say it AGAIN, say it AGAIN, say it AGAIN!
I see I had spoke too sudden and said too much, and was in a close place. I asked her to let me think a minute; and she set there, very impatient and excited and handsome, but looking kind of happy and eased-up, like a person that's had a tooth pulled out. So I went to studying it out. I says to myself, I reckon a body that ups and tells the truth when he is in a tight place is taking considerable many resks, though I ain't had no experience, and can't say for certain; but it looks so to me, anyway; and yet here's a case where I'm blest if it don't look to me like the truth is better and actuly SAFER than a lie. I must lay it by in my mind, and think it over some time or other, it's so kind of strange and unregular. I never see nothing like it. Well, I says to myself at last, I'm a-going to chance it; I'll up and tell the truth this time, though it does seem most like setting down on a kag of powder and touching it off just to see where you'll go to. Then I says:
«Miss Mary Jane, is there any place out of town a little ways where you could go and stay three or four days?»
«Yes; Mr. Lothrop's. Why?»
«Never mind why yet. If I'll tell you how I know the niggers will see each other again inside of two weeks-here in this house-and PROVE how I know it-will you go to Mr. Lothrop's and stay four days?»
«Four days!» she says; «I'll stay a year!»
«All right,» I says, «I don't want nothing more out of YOU than just your word-I druther have it than another man's kiss-the-Bible.» She smiled and reddened up very sweet, and I says, «If you don't mind it, I'll shut the door-and bolt it.»
Then I come back and set down again, and says:
«Don't you holler. Just set still and take it like a man. I got to tell the truth, and you want to brace up, Miss Mary, because it's a bad kind, and going to be hard to take, but there ain't no help for it. These uncles of yourn ain't no uncles at all; they're a couple of frauds
—regular dead-beats. There, now we're over the worst of it, you can stand the rest middling easy.»
It jolted her up like everything, of course; but I was over the shoal water now, so I went right along, her eyes a-blazing higher and higher all the time, and told her every blame thing, from where we first struck that young fool going up to the steamboat, clear through to where she flung herself on to the king's breast at the front door and he kissed her sixteen or seventeen times-and then up she jumps, with her face afire like sunset, and says:
«The brute! Come, don't waste a minute-not a SECOND-we'll have them tarred and feathered, and flung in the river!»
Says I:
«Cert'nly. But do you mean BEFORE you go to Mr. Lothrop's, or-«
«Oh,» she says, «what am I THINKING about!» she says, and set right down again. «Don't mind what I said-please don't-you WON'T, now, WILL you?» Laying her silky hand on mine in that kind of a way that I said I would die first. «I never thought, I was so stirred up,» she says; «now go on, and I won't do so any more. You tell me what to do, and whatever you say I'll do it.»
«Well,» I says, «it's a rough gang, them two frauds, and I'm fixed so I got to travel with them a while longer, whether I want to or not-I druther not tell you why; and if you was to blow on them this town would get me out of their claws, and I'd be all right; but there'd be another person that you don't know about who'd be in big trouble. Well, we got to save HIM, hain't we? Of course. Well, then, we won't blow on them.»
Saying them words put a good idea in my head. I see how maybe I could get me and Jim rid of the frauds; get them jailed here, and then leave. But I didn't want to run the raft in the daytime without anybody aboard to answer questions but me; so I didn't want the plan to begin working till pretty late to-night. I says:
«Miss Mary Jane, I'll tell you what we'll do, and you won't have to stay at Mr. Lothrop's so long, nuther. How fur is it?»
«A little short of four miles-right out in the country, back here.»
«Well, that 'll answer. Now you go along out there, and lay low till nine or half-past to-night, and then get them to fetch you home again
—tell them you've thought of something. If you get here before eleven put a candle in this window, and if I don't turn up wait TILL eleven, and THEN if I don't turn up it means I'm gone, and out of the way, and safe. Then you come out and spread the news around, and get these beats jailed.»
«Good,» she says, «I'll do it.»
«And if it just happens so that I don't get away, but get took up along with them, you must up and say I told you the whole thing beforehand, and you must stand by me all you can.»
«Stand by you! indeed I will. They sha'n't touch a hair of your head!» she says, and I see her nostrils spread and her eyes snap when she said it, too.
«If I get away I sha'n't be here,» I says, «to prove these rapscallions ain't your uncles, and I couldn't do it if I WAS here. I could swear they was beats and bummers, that's all, though that's worth something. Well, there's others can do that better than what I can, and they're people that ain't going to be doubted as quick as I'd be. I'll tell you how to find them. Gimme a pencil and a piece of paper. There-'Royal Nonesuch, Bricksville.' Put it away, and don't lose it. When the court wants to find out something about these two, let them send up to Bricksville and say they've got the men that played the Royal Nonesuch, and ask for some witnesses-why, you'll have that entire town down here before you can hardly wink, Miss Mary. And they'll come a-biling, too.»
I judged we had got everything fixed about right now. So I says:
«Just let the auction go right along, and don't worry. Nobody don't have to pay for the things they buy till a whole day after the auction on accounts of the short notice, and they ain't going out of this till they get that money; and the way we've fixed it the sale ain't going to count, and they ain't going to get no money. It's just like the way it was with the niggers-it warn't no sale, and the niggers will be back before long. Why, they can't collect the money for the NIGGERS yet-they're in the worst kind of a fix, Miss Mary.»
«Well,» she says, «I'll run down to breakfast now, and then I'll start straight for Mr. Lothrop's.»
«'Deed, THAT ain't the ticket, Miss Mary Jane,» I says, «by no manner of means; go BEFORE breakfast.»
«Why?»
«What did you reckon I wanted you to go at all for, Miss Mary?»
«Well, I never thought-and come to think, I don't know. What was it?»
«Why, it's because you ain't one of these leather-face people. I don't want no better book than what your face is. A body can set down and read it off like coarse print. Do you reckon you can go and face your uncles when they come to kiss you good-morning, and never-«
«There, there, don't! Yes, I'll go before breakfast-I'll be glad to. And leave my sisters with them?»
«Yes; never mind about them. They've got to stand it yet a while. They might suspicion something if all of you was to go. I don't want you to see them, nor your sisters, nor nobody in this town; if a neighbor was to ask how is your uncles this morning your face would tell something. No, you go right along, Miss Mary Jane, and I'll fix it with all of them. I'll tell Miss Susan to give your love to your uncles and say you've went away for a few hours for to get a little rest and change, or to see a friend, and you'll be back to-night or early in the morning.»
«Gone to see a friend is all right, but I won't have my love given to them.»
«Well, then, it sha'n't be.» It was well enough to tell HER so-no harm in it. It was only a little thing to do, and no trouble; and it's the little things that smooths people's roads the most, down here below; it would make Mary Jane comfortable, and it wouldn't cost nothing. Then I says: «There's one more thing-that bag of money.»
«Well, they've got that; and it makes me feel pretty silly to think HOW they got it.»
«No, you're out, there. They hain't got it.»
«Why, who's got it?»
«I wish I knowed, but I don't. I HAD it, because I stole it from them; and I stole it to give to you; and I know where I hid it, but I'm afraid it ain't there no more. I'm awful sorry, Miss Mary Jane, I'm just as sorry as I can be; but I done the best I could; I did honest. I come nigh getting caught, and I had to shove it into the first place I come to, and run-and it warn't a good place.»
«Oh, stop blaming yourself-it's too bad to do it, and I won't allow it
—you couldn't help it; it wasn't your fault. Where did you hide it?»
I didn't want to set her to thinking about her troubles again; and I couldn't seem to get my mouth to tell her what would make her see that corpse laying in the coffin with that bag of money on his stomach. So for a minute I didn't say nothing; then I says:
«I'd ruther not TELL you where I put it, Miss Mary Jane, if you don't mind letting me off; but I'll write it for you on a piece of paper, and you can read it along the road to Mr. Lothrop's, if you want to. Do you reckon that 'll do?»
«Oh, yes.»
So I wrote: «I put it in the coffin. It was in there when you was crying there, away in the night. I was behind the door, and I was mighty sorry for you, Miss Mary Jane.»
It made my eyes water a little to remember her crying there all by herself in the night, and them devils laying there right under her own roof, shaming her and robbing her; and when I folded it up and give it to her I see the water come into her eyes, too; and she shook me by the hand, hard, and says:
«GOOD-bye. I'm going to do everything just as you've told me; and if I don't ever see you again, I sha'n't ever forget you and I'll think of you a many and a many a time, and I'll PRAY for you, too!»-and she was gone.
Pray for me! I reckoned if she knowed me she'd take a job that was more nearer her size. But I bet she done it, just the same-she was just that kind. She had the grit to pray for Judus if she took the notion-there warn't no back-down to her, I judge. You may say what you want to, but in my opinion she had more sand in her than any girl I ever see; in my opinion she was just full of sand. It sounds like flattery, but it ain't no flattery. And when it comes to beauty-and goodness, too-she lays over them all. I hain't ever seen her since that time that I see her go out of that door; no, I hain't ever seen her since, but I reckon I've thought of her a many and a many a million times, and of her saying she would pray for me; and if ever I'd a thought it would do any good for me to pray for HER, blamed if I wouldn't a done it or bust.
Well, Mary Jane she lit out the back way, I reckon; because nobody see her go. When I struck Susan and the hare-lip, I says:
«What's the name of them people over on t'other side of the river that you all goes to see sometimes?»
They says:
«There's several; but it's the Proctors, mainly.»
«That's the name,» I says; «I most forgot it. Well, Miss Mary Jane she told me to tell you she's gone over there in a dreadful hurry-one of them's sick.»
«Which one?»
«I don't know; leastways, I kinder forget; but I thinks it's-«
«Sakes alive, I hope it ain't HANNER?»
«I'm sorry to say it,» I says, «but Hanner's the very one.»
«My goodness, and she so well only last week! Is she took bad?»
«It ain't no name for it. They set up with her all night, Miss Mary Jane said, and they don't think she'll last many hours.»
«Only think of that, now! What's the matter with her?»
I couldn't think of anything reasonable, right off that way, so I says:
«Mumps.»
«Mumps your granny! They don't set up with people that's got the mumps.»
«They don't, don't they? You better bet they do with THESE mumps. These mumps is different. It's a new kind, Miss Mary Jane said.»
«How's it a new kind?»
«Because it's mixed up with other things.»
«What other things?»
«Well, measles, and whooping-cough, and erysiplas, and consumption, and yaller janders, and brain-fever, and I don't know what all.»
«My land! And they call it the MUMPS?»
«That's what Miss Mary Jane said.»
«Well, what in the nation do they call it the MUMPS for?»
«Why, because it IS the mumps. That's what it starts with.»
«Well, ther' ain't no sense in it. A body might stump his toe, and take pison, and fall down the well, and break his neck, and bust his brains out, and somebody come along and ask what killed him, and some numskull up and say, 'Why, he stumped his TOE.' Would ther' be any sense in that? NO. And ther' ain't no sense in THIS, nuther. Is it ketching?»
«Is it KETCHING? Why, how you talk. Is a HARROW catching-in the dark? If you don't hitch on to one tooth, you're bound to on another, ain't you? And you can't get away with that tooth without fetching the whole harrow along, can you? Well, these kind of mumps is a kind of a harrow, as you may say-and it ain't no slouch of a harrow, nuther, you come to get it hitched on good.»
«Well, it's awful, I think,» says the hare-lip. «I'll go to Uncle Harvey and-«
«Oh, yes,» I says, «I WOULD. Of COURSE I would. I wouldn't lose no time.»
«Well, why wouldn't you?»
«Just look at it a minute, and maybe you can see. Hain't your uncles obleegd to get along home to England as fast as they can? And do you reckon they'd be mean enough to go off and leave you to go all that journey by yourselves? YOU know they'll wait for you. So fur, so good. Your uncle Harvey's a preacher, ain't he? Very well, then; is a PREACHER going to deceive a steamboat clerk? is he going to deceive a SHIP CLERK?
—so as to get them to let Miss Mary Jane go aboard? Now YOU know he ain't. What WILL he do, then? Why, he'll say, 'It's a great pity, but my church matters has got to get along the best way they can; for my niece has been exposed to the dreadful pluribus-unum mumps, and so it's my bounden duty to set down here and wait the three months it takes to show on her if she's got it.' But never mind, if you think it's best to tell your uncle Harvey-«
«Shucks, and stay fooling around here when we could all be having good times in England whilst we was waiting to find out whether Mary Jane's got it or not? Why, you talk like a muggins.»
«Well, anyway, maybe you'd better tell some of the neighbors.»
«Listen at that, now. You do beat all for natural stupidness. Can't you SEE that THEY'D go and tell? Ther' ain't no way but just to not tell anybody at ALL.»
«Well, maybe you're right-yes, I judge you ARE right.»
«But I reckon we ought to tell Uncle Harvey she's gone out a while, anyway, so he won't be uneasy about her?»
«Yes, Miss Mary Jane she wanted you to do that. She says, 'Tell them to give Uncle Harvey and William my love and a kiss, and say I've run over the river to see Mr.'-Mr.-what IS the name of that rich family your uncle Peter used to think so much of?-I mean the one that-«
«Why, you must mean the Apthorps, ain't it?»
«Of course; bother them kind of names, a body can't ever seem to remember them, half the time, somehow. Yes, she said, say she has run over for to ask the Apthorps to be sure and come to the auction and buy this house, because she allowed her uncle Peter would ruther they had it than anybody else; and she's going to stick to them till they say they'll come, and then, if she ain't too tired, she's coming home; and if she is, she'll be home in the morning anyway. She said, don't say nothing about the Proctors, but only about the Apthorps-which 'll be perfectly true, because she is going there to speak about their buying the house; I know it, because she told me so herself.»
«All right,» they said, and cleared out to lay for their uncles, and give them the love and the kisses, and tell them the message.
Everything was all right now. The girls wouldn't say nothing because they wanted to go to England; and the king and the duke would ruther Mary Jane was off working for the auction than around in reach of Doctor Robinson. I felt very good; I judged I had done it pretty neat-I reckoned Tom Sawyer couldn't a done it no neater himself. Of course he would a throwed more style into it, but I can't do that very handy, not being brung up to it.
Well, they held the auction in the public square, along towards the end of the afternoon, and it strung along, and strung along, and the old man he was on hand and looking his level pisonest, up there longside of the auctioneer, and chipping in a little Scripture now and then, or a little goody-goody saying of some kind, and the duke he was around goo-gooing for sympathy all he knowed how, and just spreading himself generly.
But by and by the thing dragged through, and everything was sold
—everything but a little old trifling lot in the graveyard. So they'd got to work that off-I never see such a girafft as the king was for wanting to swallow EVERYTHING. Well, whilst they was at it a steamboat landed, and in about two minutes up comes a crowd a-whooping and yelling and laughing and carrying on, and singing out:
«HERE'S your opposition line! here's your two sets o' heirs to old Peter Wilks-and you pays your money and you takes your choice!»
«Miss Mary Jane, you can't a-bear to see people in trouble, and I can't
—most always. Tell me about it.»
So she done it. And it was the niggers-I just expected it. She said the beautiful trip to England was most about spoiled for her; she didn't know HOW she was ever going to be happy there, knowing the mother and the children warn't ever going to see each other no more-and then busted out bitterer than ever, and flung up her hands, and says:
«Oh, dear, dear, to think they ain't EVER going to see each other any more!»
«But they WILL-and inside of two weeks-and I KNOW it!» says I.
Laws, it was out before I could think! And before I could budge she throws her arms around my neck and told me to say it AGAIN, say it AGAIN, say it AGAIN!
I see I had spoke too sudden and said too much, and was in a close place. I asked her to let me think a minute; and she set there, very impatient and excited and handsome, but looking kind of happy and eased-up, like a person that's had a tooth pulled out. So I went to studying it out. I says to myself, I reckon a body that ups and tells the truth when he is in a tight place is taking considerable many resks, though I ain't had no experience, and can't say for certain; but it looks so to me, anyway; and yet here's a case where I'm blest if it don't look to me like the truth is better and actuly SAFER than a lie. I must lay it by in my mind, and think it over some time or other, it's so kind of strange and unregular. I never see nothing like it. Well, I says to myself at last, I'm a-going to chance it; I'll up and tell the truth this time, though it does seem most like setting down on a kag of powder and touching it off just to see where you'll go to. Then I says:
«Miss Mary Jane, is there any place out of town a little ways where you could go and stay three or four days?»
«Yes; Mr. Lothrop's. Why?»
«Never mind why yet. If I'll tell you how I know the niggers will see each other again inside of two weeks-here in this house-and PROVE how I know it-will you go to Mr. Lothrop's and stay four days?»
«Four days!» she says; «I'll stay a year!»
«All right,» I says, «I don't want nothing more out of YOU than just your word-I druther have it than another man's kiss-the-Bible.» She smiled and reddened up very sweet, and I says, «If you don't mind it, I'll shut the door-and bolt it.»
Then I come back and set down again, and says:
«Don't you holler. Just set still and take it like a man. I got to tell the truth, and you want to brace up, Miss Mary, because it's a bad kind, and going to be hard to take, but there ain't no help for it. These uncles of yourn ain't no uncles at all; they're a couple of frauds
—regular dead-beats. There, now we're over the worst of it, you can stand the rest middling easy.»
It jolted her up like everything, of course; but I was over the shoal water now, so I went right along, her eyes a-blazing higher and higher all the time, and told her every blame thing, from where we first struck that young fool going up to the steamboat, clear through to where she flung herself on to the king's breast at the front door and he kissed her sixteen or seventeen times-and then up she jumps, with her face afire like sunset, and says:
«The brute! Come, don't waste a minute-not a SECOND-we'll have them tarred and feathered, and flung in the river!»
Says I:
«Cert'nly. But do you mean BEFORE you go to Mr. Lothrop's, or-«
«Oh,» she says, «what am I THINKING about!» she says, and set right down again. «Don't mind what I said-please don't-you WON'T, now, WILL you?» Laying her silky hand on mine in that kind of a way that I said I would die first. «I never thought, I was so stirred up,» she says; «now go on, and I won't do so any more. You tell me what to do, and whatever you say I'll do it.»
«Well,» I says, «it's a rough gang, them two frauds, and I'm fixed so I got to travel with them a while longer, whether I want to or not-I druther not tell you why; and if you was to blow on them this town would get me out of their claws, and I'd be all right; but there'd be another person that you don't know about who'd be in big trouble. Well, we got to save HIM, hain't we? Of course. Well, then, we won't blow on them.»
Saying them words put a good idea in my head. I see how maybe I could get me and Jim rid of the frauds; get them jailed here, and then leave. But I didn't want to run the raft in the daytime without anybody aboard to answer questions but me; so I didn't want the plan to begin working till pretty late to-night. I says:
«Miss Mary Jane, I'll tell you what we'll do, and you won't have to stay at Mr. Lothrop's so long, nuther. How fur is it?»
«A little short of four miles-right out in the country, back here.»
«Well, that 'll answer. Now you go along out there, and lay low till nine or half-past to-night, and then get them to fetch you home again
—tell them you've thought of something. If you get here before eleven put a candle in this window, and if I don't turn up wait TILL eleven, and THEN if I don't turn up it means I'm gone, and out of the way, and safe. Then you come out and spread the news around, and get these beats jailed.»
«Good,» she says, «I'll do it.»
«And if it just happens so that I don't get away, but get took up along with them, you must up and say I told you the whole thing beforehand, and you must stand by me all you can.»
«Stand by you! indeed I will. They sha'n't touch a hair of your head!» she says, and I see her nostrils spread and her eyes snap when she said it, too.
«If I get away I sha'n't be here,» I says, «to prove these rapscallions ain't your uncles, and I couldn't do it if I WAS here. I could swear they was beats and bummers, that's all, though that's worth something. Well, there's others can do that better than what I can, and they're people that ain't going to be doubted as quick as I'd be. I'll tell you how to find them. Gimme a pencil and a piece of paper. There-'Royal Nonesuch, Bricksville.' Put it away, and don't lose it. When the court wants to find out something about these two, let them send up to Bricksville and say they've got the men that played the Royal Nonesuch, and ask for some witnesses-why, you'll have that entire town down here before you can hardly wink, Miss Mary. And they'll come a-biling, too.»
I judged we had got everything fixed about right now. So I says:
«Just let the auction go right along, and don't worry. Nobody don't have to pay for the things they buy till a whole day after the auction on accounts of the short notice, and they ain't going out of this till they get that money; and the way we've fixed it the sale ain't going to count, and they ain't going to get no money. It's just like the way it was with the niggers-it warn't no sale, and the niggers will be back before long. Why, they can't collect the money for the NIGGERS yet-they're in the worst kind of a fix, Miss Mary.»
«Well,» she says, «I'll run down to breakfast now, and then I'll start straight for Mr. Lothrop's.»
«'Deed, THAT ain't the ticket, Miss Mary Jane,» I says, «by no manner of means; go BEFORE breakfast.»
«Why?»
«What did you reckon I wanted you to go at all for, Miss Mary?»
«Well, I never thought-and come to think, I don't know. What was it?»
«Why, it's because you ain't one of these leather-face people. I don't want no better book than what your face is. A body can set down and read it off like coarse print. Do you reckon you can go and face your uncles when they come to kiss you good-morning, and never-«
«There, there, don't! Yes, I'll go before breakfast-I'll be glad to. And leave my sisters with them?»
«Yes; never mind about them. They've got to stand it yet a while. They might suspicion something if all of you was to go. I don't want you to see them, nor your sisters, nor nobody in this town; if a neighbor was to ask how is your uncles this morning your face would tell something. No, you go right along, Miss Mary Jane, and I'll fix it with all of them. I'll tell Miss Susan to give your love to your uncles and say you've went away for a few hours for to get a little rest and change, or to see a friend, and you'll be back to-night or early in the morning.»
«Gone to see a friend is all right, but I won't have my love given to them.»
«Well, then, it sha'n't be.» It was well enough to tell HER so-no harm in it. It was only a little thing to do, and no trouble; and it's the little things that smooths people's roads the most, down here below; it would make Mary Jane comfortable, and it wouldn't cost nothing. Then I says: «There's one more thing-that bag of money.»
«Well, they've got that; and it makes me feel pretty silly to think HOW they got it.»
«No, you're out, there. They hain't got it.»
«Why, who's got it?»
«I wish I knowed, but I don't. I HAD it, because I stole it from them; and I stole it to give to you; and I know where I hid it, but I'm afraid it ain't there no more. I'm awful sorry, Miss Mary Jane, I'm just as sorry as I can be; but I done the best I could; I did honest. I come nigh getting caught, and I had to shove it into the first place I come to, and run-and it warn't a good place.»
«Oh, stop blaming yourself-it's too bad to do it, and I won't allow it
—you couldn't help it; it wasn't your fault. Where did you hide it?»
I didn't want to set her to thinking about her troubles again; and I couldn't seem to get my mouth to tell her what would make her see that corpse laying in the coffin with that bag of money on his stomach. So for a minute I didn't say nothing; then I says:
«I'd ruther not TELL you where I put it, Miss Mary Jane, if you don't mind letting me off; but I'll write it for you on a piece of paper, and you can read it along the road to Mr. Lothrop's, if you want to. Do you reckon that 'll do?»
«Oh, yes.»
So I wrote: «I put it in the coffin. It was in there when you was crying there, away in the night. I was behind the door, and I was mighty sorry for you, Miss Mary Jane.»
It made my eyes water a little to remember her crying there all by herself in the night, and them devils laying there right under her own roof, shaming her and robbing her; and when I folded it up and give it to her I see the water come into her eyes, too; and she shook me by the hand, hard, and says:
«GOOD-bye. I'm going to do everything just as you've told me; and if I don't ever see you again, I sha'n't ever forget you and I'll think of you a many and a many a time, and I'll PRAY for you, too!»-and she was gone.
Pray for me! I reckoned if she knowed me she'd take a job that was more nearer her size. But I bet she done it, just the same-she was just that kind. She had the grit to pray for Judus if she took the notion-there warn't no back-down to her, I judge. You may say what you want to, but in my opinion she had more sand in her than any girl I ever see; in my opinion she was just full of sand. It sounds like flattery, but it ain't no flattery. And when it comes to beauty-and goodness, too-she lays over them all. I hain't ever seen her since that time that I see her go out of that door; no, I hain't ever seen her since, but I reckon I've thought of her a many and a many a million times, and of her saying she would pray for me; and if ever I'd a thought it would do any good for me to pray for HER, blamed if I wouldn't a done it or bust.
Well, Mary Jane she lit out the back way, I reckon; because nobody see her go. When I struck Susan and the hare-lip, I says:
«What's the name of them people over on t'other side of the river that you all goes to see sometimes?»
They says:
«There's several; but it's the Proctors, mainly.»
«That's the name,» I says; «I most forgot it. Well, Miss Mary Jane she told me to tell you she's gone over there in a dreadful hurry-one of them's sick.»
«Which one?»
«I don't know; leastways, I kinder forget; but I thinks it's-«
«Sakes alive, I hope it ain't HANNER?»
«I'm sorry to say it,» I says, «but Hanner's the very one.»
«My goodness, and she so well only last week! Is she took bad?»
«It ain't no name for it. They set up with her all night, Miss Mary Jane said, and they don't think she'll last many hours.»
«Only think of that, now! What's the matter with her?»
I couldn't think of anything reasonable, right off that way, so I says:
«Mumps.»
«Mumps your granny! They don't set up with people that's got the mumps.»
«They don't, don't they? You better bet they do with THESE mumps. These mumps is different. It's a new kind, Miss Mary Jane said.»
«How's it a new kind?»
«Because it's mixed up with other things.»
«What other things?»
«Well, measles, and whooping-cough, and erysiplas, and consumption, and yaller janders, and brain-fever, and I don't know what all.»
«My land! And they call it the MUMPS?»
«That's what Miss Mary Jane said.»
«Well, what in the nation do they call it the MUMPS for?»
«Why, because it IS the mumps. That's what it starts with.»
«Well, ther' ain't no sense in it. A body might stump his toe, and take pison, and fall down the well, and break his neck, and bust his brains out, and somebody come along and ask what killed him, and some numskull up and say, 'Why, he stumped his TOE.' Would ther' be any sense in that? NO. And ther' ain't no sense in THIS, nuther. Is it ketching?»
«Is it KETCHING? Why, how you talk. Is a HARROW catching-in the dark? If you don't hitch on to one tooth, you're bound to on another, ain't you? And you can't get away with that tooth without fetching the whole harrow along, can you? Well, these kind of mumps is a kind of a harrow, as you may say-and it ain't no slouch of a harrow, nuther, you come to get it hitched on good.»
«Well, it's awful, I think,» says the hare-lip. «I'll go to Uncle Harvey and-«
«Oh, yes,» I says, «I WOULD. Of COURSE I would. I wouldn't lose no time.»
«Well, why wouldn't you?»
«Just look at it a minute, and maybe you can see. Hain't your uncles obleegd to get along home to England as fast as they can? And do you reckon they'd be mean enough to go off and leave you to go all that journey by yourselves? YOU know they'll wait for you. So fur, so good. Your uncle Harvey's a preacher, ain't he? Very well, then; is a PREACHER going to deceive a steamboat clerk? is he going to deceive a SHIP CLERK?
—so as to get them to let Miss Mary Jane go aboard? Now YOU know he ain't. What WILL he do, then? Why, he'll say, 'It's a great pity, but my church matters has got to get along the best way they can; for my niece has been exposed to the dreadful pluribus-unum mumps, and so it's my bounden duty to set down here and wait the three months it takes to show on her if she's got it.' But never mind, if you think it's best to tell your uncle Harvey-«
«Shucks, and stay fooling around here when we could all be having good times in England whilst we was waiting to find out whether Mary Jane's got it or not? Why, you talk like a muggins.»
«Well, anyway, maybe you'd better tell some of the neighbors.»
«Listen at that, now. You do beat all for natural stupidness. Can't you SEE that THEY'D go and tell? Ther' ain't no way but just to not tell anybody at ALL.»
«Well, maybe you're right-yes, I judge you ARE right.»
«But I reckon we ought to tell Uncle Harvey she's gone out a while, anyway, so he won't be uneasy about her?»
«Yes, Miss Mary Jane she wanted you to do that. She says, 'Tell them to give Uncle Harvey and William my love and a kiss, and say I've run over the river to see Mr.'-Mr.-what IS the name of that rich family your uncle Peter used to think so much of?-I mean the one that-«
«Why, you must mean the Apthorps, ain't it?»
«Of course; bother them kind of names, a body can't ever seem to remember them, half the time, somehow. Yes, she said, say she has run over for to ask the Apthorps to be sure and come to the auction and buy this house, because she allowed her uncle Peter would ruther they had it than anybody else; and she's going to stick to them till they say they'll come, and then, if she ain't too tired, she's coming home; and if she is, she'll be home in the morning anyway. She said, don't say nothing about the Proctors, but only about the Apthorps-which 'll be perfectly true, because she is going there to speak about their buying the house; I know it, because she told me so herself.»
«All right,» they said, and cleared out to lay for their uncles, and give them the love and the kisses, and tell them the message.
Everything was all right now. The girls wouldn't say nothing because they wanted to go to England; and the king and the duke would ruther Mary Jane was off working for the auction than around in reach of Doctor Robinson. I felt very good; I judged I had done it pretty neat-I reckoned Tom Sawyer couldn't a done it no neater himself. Of course he would a throwed more style into it, but I can't do that very handy, not being brung up to it.
Well, they held the auction in the public square, along towards the end of the afternoon, and it strung along, and strung along, and the old man he was on hand and looking his level pisonest, up there longside of the auctioneer, and chipping in a little Scripture now and then, or a little goody-goody saying of some kind, and the duke he was around goo-gooing for sympathy all he knowed how, and just spreading himself generly.
But by and by the thing dragged through, and everything was sold
—everything but a little old trifling lot in the graveyard. So they'd got to work that off-I never see such a girafft as the king was for wanting to swallow EVERYTHING. Well, whilst they was at it a steamboat landed, and in about two minutes up comes a crowd a-whooping and yelling and laughing and carrying on, and singing out:
«HERE'S your opposition line! here's your two sets o' heirs to old Peter Wilks-and you pays your money and you takes your choice!»
CHAPTER XXIX.
THEY was fetching a very nice-looking old gentleman along, and a nice-looking younger one, with his right arm in a sling. And, my souls, how the people yelled and laughed, and kept it up. But I didn't see no joke about it, and I judged it would strain the duke and the king some to see any. I reckoned they'd turn pale. But no, nary a pale did THEY turn. The duke he never let on he suspicioned what was up, but just went a goo-gooing around, happy and satisfied, like a jug that's googling out buttermilk; and as for the king, he just gazed and gazed down sorrowful on them new-comers like it give him the stomach-ache in his very heart to think there could be such frauds and rascals in the world. Oh, he done it admirable. Lots of the principal people gethered around the king, to let him see they was on his side. That old gentleman that had just come looked all puzzled to death. Pretty soon he begun to speak, and I see straight off he pronounced LIKE an Englishman-not the king's way, though the king's WAS pretty good for an imitation. I can't give the old gent's words, nor I can't imitate him; but he turned around to the crowd, and says, about like this:
«This is a surprise to me which I wasn't looking for; and I'll acknowledge, candid and frank, I ain't very well fixed to meet it and answer it; for my brother and me has had misfortunes; he's broke his arm, and our baggage got put off at a town above here last night in the night by a mistake. I am Peter Wilks' brother Harvey, and this is his brother William, which can't hear nor speak-and can't even make signs to amount to much, now't he's only got one hand to work them with. We are who we say we are; and in a day or two, when I get the baggage, I can prove it. But up till then I won't say nothing more, but go to the hotel and wait.»
So him and the new dummy started off; and the king he laughs, and blethers out:
«Broke his arm-VERY likely, AIN'T it?-and very convenient, too, for a fraud that's got to make signs, and ain't learnt how. Lost their baggage! That's MIGHTY good!-and mighty ingenious-under the CIRCUMSTANCES!»
So he laughed again; and so did everybody else, except three or four, or maybe half a dozen. One of these was that doctor; another one was a sharp-looking gentleman, with a carpet-bag of the old-fashioned kind made out of carpet-stuff, that had just come off of the steamboat and was talking to him in a low voice, and glancing towards the king now and then and nodding their heads-it was Levi Bell, the lawyer that was gone up to Louisville; and another one was a big rough husky that come along and listened to all the old gentleman said, and was listening to the king now. And when the king got done this husky up and says:
«Say, looky here; if you are Harvey Wilks, when'd you come to this town?»
«The day before the funeral, friend,» says the king.
«But what time o' day?»
«In the evenin'-'bout an hour er two before sundown.»
«HOW'D you come?»
«I come down on the Susan Powell from Cincinnati.»
«Well, then, how'd you come to be up at the Pint in the MORNIN'-in a canoe?»
«I warn't up at the Pint in the mornin'.»
«It's a lie.»
Several of them jumped for him and begged him not to talk that way to an old man and a preacher.
«Preacher be hanged, he's a fraud and a liar. He was up at the Pint that mornin'. I live up there, don't I? Well, I was up there, and he was up there. I see him there. He come in a canoe, along with Tim Collins and a boy.»
The doctor he up and says:
«Would you know the boy again if you was to see him, Hines?»
«I reckon I would, but I don't know. Why, yonder he is, now. I know him perfectly easy.»
It was me he pointed at. The doctor says:
«Neighbors, I don't know whether the new couple is frauds or not; but if THESE two ain't frauds, I am an idiot, that's all. I think it's our duty to see that they don't get away from here till we've looked into this thing. Come along, Hines; come along, the rest of you. We'll take these fellows to the tavern and affront them with t'other couple, and I reckon we'll find out SOMETHING before we get through.»
It was nuts for the crowd, though maybe not for the king's friends; so we all started. It was about sundown. The doctor he led me along by the hand, and was plenty kind enough, but he never let go my hand.
We all got in a big room in the hotel, and lit up some candles, and fetched in the new couple. First, the doctor says:
«I don't wish to be too hard on these two men, but I think they're frauds, and they may have complices that we don't know nothing about. If they have, won't the complices get away with that bag of gold Peter Wilks left? It ain't unlikely. If these men ain't frauds, they won't object to sending for that money and letting us keep it till they prove they're all right-ain't that so?»
Everybody agreed to that. So I judged they had our gang in a pretty tight place right at the outstart. But the king he only looked sorrowful, and says:
«Gentlemen, I wish the money was there, for I ain't got no disposition to throw anything in the way of a fair, open, out-and-out investigation o' this misable business; but, alas, the money ain't there; you k'n send and see, if you want to.»
«Where is it, then?»
«Well, when my niece give it to me to keep for her I took and hid it inside o' the straw tick o' my bed, not wishin' to bank it for the few days we'd be here, and considerin' the bed a safe place, we not bein' used to niggers, and suppos'n' 'em honest, like servants in England. The niggers stole it the very next mornin' after I had went down stairs; and when I sold 'em I hadn't missed the money yit, so they got clean away with it. My servant here k'n tell you 'bout it, gentlemen.»
The doctor and several said «Shucks!» and I see nobody didn't altogether believe him. One man asked me if I see the niggers steal it. I said no, but I see them sneaking out of the room and hustling away, and I never thought nothing, only I reckoned they was afraid they had waked up my master and was trying to get away before he made trouble with them. That was all they asked me. Then the doctor whirls on me and says:
«Are YOU English, too?»
I says yes; and him and some others laughed, and said, «Stuff!»
Well, then they sailed in on the general investigation, and there we had it, up and down, hour in, hour out, and nobody never said a word about supper, nor ever seemed to think about it-and so they kept it up, and kept it up; and it WAS the worst mixed-up thing you ever see. They made the king tell his yarn, and they made the old gentleman tell his'n; and anybody but a lot of prejudiced chuckleheads would a SEEN that the old gentleman was spinning truth and t'other one lies. And by and by they had me up to tell what I knowed. The king he give me a left-handed look out of the corner of his eye, and so I knowed enough to talk on the right side. I begun to tell about Sheffield, and how we lived there, and all about the English Wilkses, and so on; but I didn't get pretty fur till the doctor begun to laugh; and Levi Bell, the lawyer, says:
«Set down, my boy; I wouldn't strain myself if I was you. I reckon you ain't used to lying, it don't seem to come handy; what you want is practice. You do it pretty awkward.»
I didn't care nothing for the compliment, but I was glad to be let off, anyway.
The doctor he started to say something, and turns and says:
«If you'd been in town at first, Levi Bell-« The king broke in and reached out his hand, and says:
«Why, is this my poor dead brother's old friend that he's wrote so often about?»
The lawyer and him shook hands, and the lawyer smiled and looked pleased, and they talked right along awhile, and then got to one side and talked low; and at last the lawyer speaks up and says:
«That 'll fix it. I'll take the order and send it, along with your brother's, and then they'll know it's all right.»
So they got some paper and a pen, and the king he set down and twisted his head to one side, and chawed his tongue, and scrawled off something; and then they give the pen to the duke-and then for the first time the duke looked sick. But he took the pen and wrote. So then the lawyer turns to the new old gentleman and says:
«You and your brother please write a line or two and sign your names.»
The old gentleman wrote, but nobody couldn't read it. The lawyer looked powerful astonished, and says:
«Well, it beats ME»-and snaked a lot of old letters out of his pocket, and examined them, and then examined the old man's writing, and then THEM again; and then says: «These old letters is from Harvey Wilks; and here's THESE two handwritings, and anybody can see they didn't write them» (the king and the duke looked sold and foolish, I tell you, to see how the lawyer had took them in), «and here's THIS old gentleman's hand writing, and anybody can tell, easy enough, HE didn't write them-fact is, the scratches he makes ain't properly WRITING at all. Now, here's some letters from-«
The new old gentleman says:
«If you please, let me explain. Nobody can read my hand but my brother there-so he copies for me. It's HIS hand you've got there, not mine.»
«WELL!» says the lawyer, «this IS a state of things. I've got some of William's letters, too; so if you'll get him to write a line or so we can com-«
«He CAN'T write with his left hand,» says the old gentleman. «If he could use his right hand, you would see that he wrote his own letters and mine too. Look at both, please-they're by the same hand.»
The lawyer done it, and says:
«I believe it's so-and if it ain't so, there's a heap stronger resemblance than I'd noticed before, anyway. Well, well, well! I thought we was right on the track of a solution, but it's gone to grass, partly. But anyway, one thing is proved-THESE two ain't either of 'em Wilkses»-and he wagged his head towards the king and the duke.
Well, what do you think? That muleheaded old fool wouldn't give in THEN! Indeed he wouldn't. Said it warn't no fair test. Said his brother William was the cussedest joker in the world, and hadn't tried to write
—HE see William was going to play one of his jokes the minute he put the pen to paper. And so he warmed up and went warbling right along till he was actuly beginning to believe what he was saying HIMSELF; but pretty soon the new gentleman broke in, and says:
«I've thought of something. Is there anybody here that helped to lay out my br-helped to lay out the late Peter Wilks for burying?»
«Yes,» says somebody, «me and Ab Turner done it. We're both here.»
Then the old man turns towards the king, and says:
«Perhaps this gentleman can tell me what was tattooed on his breast?»
Blamed if the king didn't have to brace up mighty quick, or he'd a squshed down like a bluff bank that the river has cut under, it took him so sudden; and, mind you, it was a thing that was calculated to make most ANYBODY sqush to get fetched such a solid one as that without any notice, because how was HE going to know what was tattooed on the man? He whitened a little; he couldn't help it; and it was mighty still in there, and everybody bending a little forwards and gazing at him. Says I to myself, NOW he'll throw up the sponge-there ain't no more use. Well, did he? A body can't hardly believe it, but he didn't. I reckon he thought he'd keep the thing up till he tired them people out, so they'd thin out, and him and the duke could break loose and get away. Anyway, he set there, and pretty soon he begun to smile, and says:
«Mf! It's a VERY tough question, AIN'T it! YES, sir, I k'n tell you what's tattooed on his breast. It's jest a small, thin, blue arrow
—that's what it is; and if you don't look clost, you can't see it. NOW what do you say-hey?»
Well, I never see anything like that old blister for clean out-and-out cheek.
The new old gentleman turns brisk towards Ab Turner and his pard, and his eye lights up like he judged he'd got the king THIS time, and says:
«There-you've heard what he said! Was there any such mark on Peter Wilks' breast?»
Both of them spoke up and says:
«We didn't see no such mark.»
«Good!» says the old gentleman. «Now, what you DID see on his breast was a small dim P, and a B (which is an initial he dropped when he was young), and a W, with dashes between them, so: P-B-W»-and he marked them that way on a piece of paper. «Come, ain't that what you saw?»
Both of them spoke up again, and says:
«No, we DIDN'T. We never seen any marks at all.»
Well, everybody WAS in a state of mind now, and they sings out:
«The whole BILIN' of 'm 's frauds! Le's duck 'em! le's drown 'em! le's ride 'em on a rail!» and everybody was whooping at once, and there was a rattling powwow. But the lawyer he jumps on the table and yells, and says:
«Gentlemen-gentleMEN! Hear me just a word-just a SINGLE word-if you PLEASE! There's one way yet-let's go and dig up the corpse and look.»
That took them.
«Hooray!» they all shouted, and was starting right off; but the lawyer and the doctor sung out:
«Hold on, hold on! Collar all these four men and the boy, and fetch THEM along, too!»
«We'll do it!» they all shouted; «and if we don't find them marks we'll lynch the whole gang!»
I WAS scared, now, I tell you. But there warn't no getting away, you know. They gripped us all, and marched us right along, straight for the graveyard, which was a mile and a half down the river, and the whole town at our heels, for we made noise enough, and it was only nine in the evening.
As we went by our house I wished I hadn't sent Mary Jane out of town; because now if I could tip her the wink she'd light out and save me, and blow on our dead-beats.
Well, we swarmed along down the river road, just carrying on like wildcats; and to make it more scary the sky was darking up, and the lightning beginning to wink and flitter, and the wind to shiver amongst the leaves. This was the most awful trouble and most dangersome I ever was in; and I was kinder stunned; everything was going so different from what I had allowed for; stead of being fixed so I could take my own time if I wanted to, and see all the fun, and have Mary Jane at my back to save me and set me free when the close-fit come, here was nothing in the world betwixt me and sudden death but just them tattoo-marks. If they didn't find them-
I couldn't bear to think about it; and yet, somehow, I couldn't think about nothing else. It got darker and darker, and it was a beautiful time to give the crowd the slip; but that big husky had me by the wrist
—Hines-and a body might as well try to give Goliar the slip. He dragged me right along, he was so excited, and I had to run to keep up.
When they got there they swarmed into the graveyard and washed over it like an overflow. And when they got to the grave they found they had about a hundred times as many shovels as they wanted, but nobody hadn't thought to fetch a lantern. But they sailed into digging anyway by the flicker of the lightning, and sent a man to the nearest house, a half a mile off, to borrow one.
So they dug and dug like everything; and it got awful dark, and the rain started, and the wind swished and swushed along, and the lightning come brisker and brisker, and the thunder boomed; but them people never took no notice of it, they was so full of this business; and one minute you could see everything and every face in that big crowd, and the shovelfuls of dirt sailing up out of the grave, and the next second the dark wiped it all out, and you couldn't see nothing at all.
At last they got out the coffin and begun to unscrew the lid, and then such another crowding and shouldering and shoving as there was, to scrouge in and get a sight, you never see; and in the dark, that way, it was awful. Hines he hurt my wrist dreadful pulling and tugging so, and I reckon he clean forgot I was in the world, he was so excited and panting.
All of a sudden the lightning let go a perfect sluice of white glare, and somebody sings out:
«By the living jingo, here's the bag of gold on his breast!»
Hines let out a whoop, like everybody else, and dropped my wrist and give a big surge to bust his way in and get a look, and the way I lit out and shinned for the road in the dark there ain't nobody can tell.
I had the road all to myself, and I fairly flew-leastways, I had it all to myself except the solid dark, and the now-and-then glares, and the buzzing of the rain, and the thrashing of the wind, and the splitting of the thunder; and sure as you are born I did clip it along!
When I struck the town I see there warn't nobody out in the storm, so I never hunted for no back streets, but humped it straight through the main one; and when I begun to get towards our house I aimed my eye and set it. No light there; the house all dark-which made me feel sorry and disappointed, I didn't know why. But at last, just as I was sailing by, FLASH comes the light in Mary Jane's window! and my heart swelled up sudden, like to bust; and the same second the house and all was behind me in the dark, and wasn't ever going to be before me no more in this world. She WAS the best girl I ever see, and had the most sand.
The minute I was far enough above the town to see I could make the towhead, I begun to look sharp for a boat to borrow, and the first time the lightning showed me one that wasn't chained I snatched it and shoved. It was a canoe, and warn't fastened with nothing but a rope. The towhead was a rattling big distance off, away out there in the middle of the river, but I didn't lose no time; and when I struck the raft at last I was so fagged I would a just laid down to blow and gasp if I could afforded it. But I didn't. As I sprung aboard I sung out:
«Out with you, Jim, and set her loose! Glory be to goodness, we're shut of them!»
Jim lit out, and was a-coming for me with both arms spread, he was so full of joy; but when I glimpsed him in the lightning my heart shot up in my mouth and I went overboard backwards; for I forgot he was old King Lear and a drownded A-rab all in one, and it most scared the livers and lights out of me. But Jim fished me out, and was going to hug me and bless me, and so on, he was so glad I was back and we was shut of the king and the duke, but I says:
«Not now; have it for breakfast, have it for breakfast! Cut loose and let her slide!»
So in two seconds away we went a-sliding down the river, and it DID seem so good to be free again and all by ourselves on the big river, and nobody to bother us. I had to skip around a bit, and jump up and crack my heels a few times-I couldn't help it; but about the third crack I noticed a sound that I knowed mighty well, and held my breath and listened and waited; and sure enough, when the next flash busted out over the water, here they come!-and just a-laying to their oars and making their skiff hum! It was the king and the duke.
So I wilted right down on to the planks then, and give up; and it was all I could do to keep from crying.
«This is a surprise to me which I wasn't looking for; and I'll acknowledge, candid and frank, I ain't very well fixed to meet it and answer it; for my brother and me has had misfortunes; he's broke his arm, and our baggage got put off at a town above here last night in the night by a mistake. I am Peter Wilks' brother Harvey, and this is his brother William, which can't hear nor speak-and can't even make signs to amount to much, now't he's only got one hand to work them with. We are who we say we are; and in a day or two, when I get the baggage, I can prove it. But up till then I won't say nothing more, but go to the hotel and wait.»
So him and the new dummy started off; and the king he laughs, and blethers out:
«Broke his arm-VERY likely, AIN'T it?-and very convenient, too, for a fraud that's got to make signs, and ain't learnt how. Lost their baggage! That's MIGHTY good!-and mighty ingenious-under the CIRCUMSTANCES!»
So he laughed again; and so did everybody else, except three or four, or maybe half a dozen. One of these was that doctor; another one was a sharp-looking gentleman, with a carpet-bag of the old-fashioned kind made out of carpet-stuff, that had just come off of the steamboat and was talking to him in a low voice, and glancing towards the king now and then and nodding their heads-it was Levi Bell, the lawyer that was gone up to Louisville; and another one was a big rough husky that come along and listened to all the old gentleman said, and was listening to the king now. And when the king got done this husky up and says:
«Say, looky here; if you are Harvey Wilks, when'd you come to this town?»
«The day before the funeral, friend,» says the king.
«But what time o' day?»
«In the evenin'-'bout an hour er two before sundown.»
«HOW'D you come?»
«I come down on the Susan Powell from Cincinnati.»
«Well, then, how'd you come to be up at the Pint in the MORNIN'-in a canoe?»
«I warn't up at the Pint in the mornin'.»
«It's a lie.»
Several of them jumped for him and begged him not to talk that way to an old man and a preacher.
«Preacher be hanged, he's a fraud and a liar. He was up at the Pint that mornin'. I live up there, don't I? Well, I was up there, and he was up there. I see him there. He come in a canoe, along with Tim Collins and a boy.»
The doctor he up and says:
«Would you know the boy again if you was to see him, Hines?»
«I reckon I would, but I don't know. Why, yonder he is, now. I know him perfectly easy.»
It was me he pointed at. The doctor says:
«Neighbors, I don't know whether the new couple is frauds or not; but if THESE two ain't frauds, I am an idiot, that's all. I think it's our duty to see that they don't get away from here till we've looked into this thing. Come along, Hines; come along, the rest of you. We'll take these fellows to the tavern and affront them with t'other couple, and I reckon we'll find out SOMETHING before we get through.»
It was nuts for the crowd, though maybe not for the king's friends; so we all started. It was about sundown. The doctor he led me along by the hand, and was plenty kind enough, but he never let go my hand.
We all got in a big room in the hotel, and lit up some candles, and fetched in the new couple. First, the doctor says:
«I don't wish to be too hard on these two men, but I think they're frauds, and they may have complices that we don't know nothing about. If they have, won't the complices get away with that bag of gold Peter Wilks left? It ain't unlikely. If these men ain't frauds, they won't object to sending for that money and letting us keep it till they prove they're all right-ain't that so?»
Everybody agreed to that. So I judged they had our gang in a pretty tight place right at the outstart. But the king he only looked sorrowful, and says:
«Gentlemen, I wish the money was there, for I ain't got no disposition to throw anything in the way of a fair, open, out-and-out investigation o' this misable business; but, alas, the money ain't there; you k'n send and see, if you want to.»
«Where is it, then?»
«Well, when my niece give it to me to keep for her I took and hid it inside o' the straw tick o' my bed, not wishin' to bank it for the few days we'd be here, and considerin' the bed a safe place, we not bein' used to niggers, and suppos'n' 'em honest, like servants in England. The niggers stole it the very next mornin' after I had went down stairs; and when I sold 'em I hadn't missed the money yit, so they got clean away with it. My servant here k'n tell you 'bout it, gentlemen.»
The doctor and several said «Shucks!» and I see nobody didn't altogether believe him. One man asked me if I see the niggers steal it. I said no, but I see them sneaking out of the room and hustling away, and I never thought nothing, only I reckoned they was afraid they had waked up my master and was trying to get away before he made trouble with them. That was all they asked me. Then the doctor whirls on me and says:
«Are YOU English, too?»
I says yes; and him and some others laughed, and said, «Stuff!»
Well, then they sailed in on the general investigation, and there we had it, up and down, hour in, hour out, and nobody never said a word about supper, nor ever seemed to think about it-and so they kept it up, and kept it up; and it WAS the worst mixed-up thing you ever see. They made the king tell his yarn, and they made the old gentleman tell his'n; and anybody but a lot of prejudiced chuckleheads would a SEEN that the old gentleman was spinning truth and t'other one lies. And by and by they had me up to tell what I knowed. The king he give me a left-handed look out of the corner of his eye, and so I knowed enough to talk on the right side. I begun to tell about Sheffield, and how we lived there, and all about the English Wilkses, and so on; but I didn't get pretty fur till the doctor begun to laugh; and Levi Bell, the lawyer, says:
«Set down, my boy; I wouldn't strain myself if I was you. I reckon you ain't used to lying, it don't seem to come handy; what you want is practice. You do it pretty awkward.»
I didn't care nothing for the compliment, but I was glad to be let off, anyway.
The doctor he started to say something, and turns and says:
«If you'd been in town at first, Levi Bell-« The king broke in and reached out his hand, and says:
«Why, is this my poor dead brother's old friend that he's wrote so often about?»
The lawyer and him shook hands, and the lawyer smiled and looked pleased, and they talked right along awhile, and then got to one side and talked low; and at last the lawyer speaks up and says:
«That 'll fix it. I'll take the order and send it, along with your brother's, and then they'll know it's all right.»
So they got some paper and a pen, and the king he set down and twisted his head to one side, and chawed his tongue, and scrawled off something; and then they give the pen to the duke-and then for the first time the duke looked sick. But he took the pen and wrote. So then the lawyer turns to the new old gentleman and says:
«You and your brother please write a line or two and sign your names.»
The old gentleman wrote, but nobody couldn't read it. The lawyer looked powerful astonished, and says:
«Well, it beats ME»-and snaked a lot of old letters out of his pocket, and examined them, and then examined the old man's writing, and then THEM again; and then says: «These old letters is from Harvey Wilks; and here's THESE two handwritings, and anybody can see they didn't write them» (the king and the duke looked sold and foolish, I tell you, to see how the lawyer had took them in), «and here's THIS old gentleman's hand writing, and anybody can tell, easy enough, HE didn't write them-fact is, the scratches he makes ain't properly WRITING at all. Now, here's some letters from-«
The new old gentleman says:
«If you please, let me explain. Nobody can read my hand but my brother there-so he copies for me. It's HIS hand you've got there, not mine.»
«WELL!» says the lawyer, «this IS a state of things. I've got some of William's letters, too; so if you'll get him to write a line or so we can com-«
«He CAN'T write with his left hand,» says the old gentleman. «If he could use his right hand, you would see that he wrote his own letters and mine too. Look at both, please-they're by the same hand.»
The lawyer done it, and says:
«I believe it's so-and if it ain't so, there's a heap stronger resemblance than I'd noticed before, anyway. Well, well, well! I thought we was right on the track of a solution, but it's gone to grass, partly. But anyway, one thing is proved-THESE two ain't either of 'em Wilkses»-and he wagged his head towards the king and the duke.
Well, what do you think? That muleheaded old fool wouldn't give in THEN! Indeed he wouldn't. Said it warn't no fair test. Said his brother William was the cussedest joker in the world, and hadn't tried to write
—HE see William was going to play one of his jokes the minute he put the pen to paper. And so he warmed up and went warbling right along till he was actuly beginning to believe what he was saying HIMSELF; but pretty soon the new gentleman broke in, and says:
«I've thought of something. Is there anybody here that helped to lay out my br-helped to lay out the late Peter Wilks for burying?»
«Yes,» says somebody, «me and Ab Turner done it. We're both here.»
Then the old man turns towards the king, and says:
«Perhaps this gentleman can tell me what was tattooed on his breast?»
Blamed if the king didn't have to brace up mighty quick, or he'd a squshed down like a bluff bank that the river has cut under, it took him so sudden; and, mind you, it was a thing that was calculated to make most ANYBODY sqush to get fetched such a solid one as that without any notice, because how was HE going to know what was tattooed on the man? He whitened a little; he couldn't help it; and it was mighty still in there, and everybody bending a little forwards and gazing at him. Says I to myself, NOW he'll throw up the sponge-there ain't no more use. Well, did he? A body can't hardly believe it, but he didn't. I reckon he thought he'd keep the thing up till he tired them people out, so they'd thin out, and him and the duke could break loose and get away. Anyway, he set there, and pretty soon he begun to smile, and says:
«Mf! It's a VERY tough question, AIN'T it! YES, sir, I k'n tell you what's tattooed on his breast. It's jest a small, thin, blue arrow
—that's what it is; and if you don't look clost, you can't see it. NOW what do you say-hey?»
Well, I never see anything like that old blister for clean out-and-out cheek.
The new old gentleman turns brisk towards Ab Turner and his pard, and his eye lights up like he judged he'd got the king THIS time, and says:
«There-you've heard what he said! Was there any such mark on Peter Wilks' breast?»
Both of them spoke up and says:
«We didn't see no such mark.»
«Good!» says the old gentleman. «Now, what you DID see on his breast was a small dim P, and a B (which is an initial he dropped when he was young), and a W, with dashes between them, so: P-B-W»-and he marked them that way on a piece of paper. «Come, ain't that what you saw?»
Both of them spoke up again, and says:
«No, we DIDN'T. We never seen any marks at all.»
Well, everybody WAS in a state of mind now, and they sings out:
«The whole BILIN' of 'm 's frauds! Le's duck 'em! le's drown 'em! le's ride 'em on a rail!» and everybody was whooping at once, and there was a rattling powwow. But the lawyer he jumps on the table and yells, and says:
«Gentlemen-gentleMEN! Hear me just a word-just a SINGLE word-if you PLEASE! There's one way yet-let's go and dig up the corpse and look.»
That took them.
«Hooray!» they all shouted, and was starting right off; but the lawyer and the doctor sung out:
«Hold on, hold on! Collar all these four men and the boy, and fetch THEM along, too!»
«We'll do it!» they all shouted; «and if we don't find them marks we'll lynch the whole gang!»
I WAS scared, now, I tell you. But there warn't no getting away, you know. They gripped us all, and marched us right along, straight for the graveyard, which was a mile and a half down the river, and the whole town at our heels, for we made noise enough, and it was only nine in the evening.
As we went by our house I wished I hadn't sent Mary Jane out of town; because now if I could tip her the wink she'd light out and save me, and blow on our dead-beats.
Well, we swarmed along down the river road, just carrying on like wildcats; and to make it more scary the sky was darking up, and the lightning beginning to wink and flitter, and the wind to shiver amongst the leaves. This was the most awful trouble and most dangersome I ever was in; and I was kinder stunned; everything was going so different from what I had allowed for; stead of being fixed so I could take my own time if I wanted to, and see all the fun, and have Mary Jane at my back to save me and set me free when the close-fit come, here was nothing in the world betwixt me and sudden death but just them tattoo-marks. If they didn't find them-
I couldn't bear to think about it; and yet, somehow, I couldn't think about nothing else. It got darker and darker, and it was a beautiful time to give the crowd the slip; but that big husky had me by the wrist
—Hines-and a body might as well try to give Goliar the slip. He dragged me right along, he was so excited, and I had to run to keep up.
When they got there they swarmed into the graveyard and washed over it like an overflow. And when they got to the grave they found they had about a hundred times as many shovels as they wanted, but nobody hadn't thought to fetch a lantern. But they sailed into digging anyway by the flicker of the lightning, and sent a man to the nearest house, a half a mile off, to borrow one.
So they dug and dug like everything; and it got awful dark, and the rain started, and the wind swished and swushed along, and the lightning come brisker and brisker, and the thunder boomed; but them people never took no notice of it, they was so full of this business; and one minute you could see everything and every face in that big crowd, and the shovelfuls of dirt sailing up out of the grave, and the next second the dark wiped it all out, and you couldn't see nothing at all.
At last they got out the coffin and begun to unscrew the lid, and then such another crowding and shouldering and shoving as there was, to scrouge in and get a sight, you never see; and in the dark, that way, it was awful. Hines he hurt my wrist dreadful pulling and tugging so, and I reckon he clean forgot I was in the world, he was so excited and panting.
All of a sudden the lightning let go a perfect sluice of white glare, and somebody sings out:
«By the living jingo, here's the bag of gold on his breast!»
Hines let out a whoop, like everybody else, and dropped my wrist and give a big surge to bust his way in and get a look, and the way I lit out and shinned for the road in the dark there ain't nobody can tell.
I had the road all to myself, and I fairly flew-leastways, I had it all to myself except the solid dark, and the now-and-then glares, and the buzzing of the rain, and the thrashing of the wind, and the splitting of the thunder; and sure as you are born I did clip it along!
When I struck the town I see there warn't nobody out in the storm, so I never hunted for no back streets, but humped it straight through the main one; and when I begun to get towards our house I aimed my eye and set it. No light there; the house all dark-which made me feel sorry and disappointed, I didn't know why. But at last, just as I was sailing by, FLASH comes the light in Mary Jane's window! and my heart swelled up sudden, like to bust; and the same second the house and all was behind me in the dark, and wasn't ever going to be before me no more in this world. She WAS the best girl I ever see, and had the most sand.
The minute I was far enough above the town to see I could make the towhead, I begun to look sharp for a boat to borrow, and the first time the lightning showed me one that wasn't chained I snatched it and shoved. It was a canoe, and warn't fastened with nothing but a rope. The towhead was a rattling big distance off, away out there in the middle of the river, but I didn't lose no time; and when I struck the raft at last I was so fagged I would a just laid down to blow and gasp if I could afforded it. But I didn't. As I sprung aboard I sung out:
«Out with you, Jim, and set her loose! Glory be to goodness, we're shut of them!»
Jim lit out, and was a-coming for me with both arms spread, he was so full of joy; but when I glimpsed him in the lightning my heart shot up in my mouth and I went overboard backwards; for I forgot he was old King Lear and a drownded A-rab all in one, and it most scared the livers and lights out of me. But Jim fished me out, and was going to hug me and bless me, and so on, he was so glad I was back and we was shut of the king and the duke, but I says:
«Not now; have it for breakfast, have it for breakfast! Cut loose and let her slide!»
So in two seconds away we went a-sliding down the river, and it DID seem so good to be free again and all by ourselves on the big river, and nobody to bother us. I had to skip around a bit, and jump up and crack my heels a few times-I couldn't help it; but about the third crack I noticed a sound that I knowed mighty well, and held my breath and listened and waited; and sure enough, when the next flash busted out over the water, here they come!-and just a-laying to their oars and making their skiff hum! It was the king and the duke.
So I wilted right down on to the planks then, and give up; and it was all I could do to keep from crying.
CHAPTER XXX.
WHEN they got aboard the king went for me, and shook me by the collar, and says:
«Tryin' to give us the slip, was ye, you pup! Tired of our company, hey?»
I says:
«No, your majesty, we warn't-PLEASE don't, your majesty!»
«Quick, then, and tell us what WAS your idea, or I'll shake the insides out o' you!»
«Honest, I'll tell you everything just as it happened, your majesty. The man that had a-holt of me was very good to me, and kept saying he had a boy about as big as me that died last year, and he was sorry to see a boy in such a dangerous fix; and when they was all took by surprise by finding the gold, and made a rush for the coffin, he lets go of me and whispers, 'Heel it now, or they'll hang ye, sure!' and I lit out. It didn't seem no good for ME to stay-I couldn't do nothing, and I didn't want to be hung if I could get away. So I never stopped running till I found the canoe; and when I got here I told Jim to hurry, or they'd catch me and hang me yet, and said I was afeard you and the duke wasn't alive now, and I was awful sorry, and so was Jim, and was awful glad when we see you coming; you may ask Jim if I didn't.»
Jim said it was so; and the king told him to shut up, and said, «Oh, yes, it's MIGHTY likely!» and shook me up again, and said he reckoned he'd drownd me. But the duke says:
«Leggo the boy, you old idiot! Would YOU a done any different? Did you inquire around for HIM when you got loose? I don't remember it.»
So the king let go of me, and begun to cuss that town and everybody in it. But the duke says:
«You better a blame' sight give YOURSELF a good cussing, for you're the one that's entitled to it most. You hain't done a thing from the start that had any sense in it, except coming out so cool and cheeky with that imaginary blue-arrow mark. That WAS bright-it was right down bully; and it was the thing that saved us. For if it hadn't been for that they'd a jailed us till them Englishmen's baggage come-and then-the penitentiary, you bet! But that trick took 'em to the graveyard, and the gold done us a still bigger kindness; for if the excited fools hadn't let go all holts and made that rush to get a look we'd a slept in our cravats to-night-cravats warranted to WEAR, too-longer than WE'D need 'em.»
They was still a minute-thinking; then the king says, kind of absent-minded like:
«Mf! And we reckoned the NIGGERS stole it!»
That made me squirm!
«Tryin' to give us the slip, was ye, you pup! Tired of our company, hey?»
I says:
«No, your majesty, we warn't-PLEASE don't, your majesty!»
«Quick, then, and tell us what WAS your idea, or I'll shake the insides out o' you!»
«Honest, I'll tell you everything just as it happened, your majesty. The man that had a-holt of me was very good to me, and kept saying he had a boy about as big as me that died last year, and he was sorry to see a boy in such a dangerous fix; and when they was all took by surprise by finding the gold, and made a rush for the coffin, he lets go of me and whispers, 'Heel it now, or they'll hang ye, sure!' and I lit out. It didn't seem no good for ME to stay-I couldn't do nothing, and I didn't want to be hung if I could get away. So I never stopped running till I found the canoe; and when I got here I told Jim to hurry, or they'd catch me and hang me yet, and said I was afeard you and the duke wasn't alive now, and I was awful sorry, and so was Jim, and was awful glad when we see you coming; you may ask Jim if I didn't.»
Jim said it was so; and the king told him to shut up, and said, «Oh, yes, it's MIGHTY likely!» and shook me up again, and said he reckoned he'd drownd me. But the duke says:
«Leggo the boy, you old idiot! Would YOU a done any different? Did you inquire around for HIM when you got loose? I don't remember it.»
So the king let go of me, and begun to cuss that town and everybody in it. But the duke says:
«You better a blame' sight give YOURSELF a good cussing, for you're the one that's entitled to it most. You hain't done a thing from the start that had any sense in it, except coming out so cool and cheeky with that imaginary blue-arrow mark. That WAS bright-it was right down bully; and it was the thing that saved us. For if it hadn't been for that they'd a jailed us till them Englishmen's baggage come-and then-the penitentiary, you bet! But that trick took 'em to the graveyard, and the gold done us a still bigger kindness; for if the excited fools hadn't let go all holts and made that rush to get a look we'd a slept in our cravats to-night-cravats warranted to WEAR, too-longer than WE'D need 'em.»
They was still a minute-thinking; then the king says, kind of absent-minded like:
«Mf! And we reckoned the NIGGERS stole it!»
That made me squirm!