n _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!

"Yes," says the duke, kinder slow and deliberate and sarcastic, "_we_
did."

After about a half a minute the king drawls out:

"Leastways, I did."

The duke says, the same way:

"On the contrary, _I_ did."

The king kind of ruffles up, and says:

"Looky here, Bilgewater, what'r you referrin' to?" The duke says,
pretty brisk:

"When it comes to that, maybe you'll let me ask what was _you_
referring to?"

"Shucks!" says the king, very sarcastic; "but _I_ don't know--maybe
you was asleep, and didn't know what you was about."

The duke bristles up now, and says:

"Oh, let _up_ on this cussed nonsense; do you take me for a blame'
fool? Don't you reckon I know who hid that money in that coffin?"

"_Yes_, sir! I know you _do_ know, because you done it yourself!"

"It's a lie!"--and the duke went for him. The king sings out:

"Take y'r hands off!--leggo my throat!--I take it all back!"

The duke says:

"Well, you just own up, first, that you _did_ hide that money there,
intending to give me the slip one of these days, and come back and dig
it up, and have it all to yourself."

"Wait jest a minute, duke--answer me this one question, honest and
fair; if you didn't put the money there, say it, and I'll b'lieve you,
and take back everything I said."

"You old scoundrel, I didn't, and you know I didn't. There, now!"

"Well, then, I b'lieve you. But answer me only jest this one more--now
_don't_ git mad; didn't you have it in your mind to hook the money and
hide it?"

The duke never said nothing for a little bit; then he says:

"Well, I don't care if I _did_, I didn't _do_ it, anyway. But you not
only had it in mind to do it, but you _done_ it."

"I wisht I never die if I done it, duke, and that's honest. I won't
say I warn't goin' to do it, because I _was_; but you--I mean
somebody--got in ahead o' me."

"It's a lie! You done it, and you got to _say_ you done it, or--"

The king began to gurgle, and then he gasps out:

"'Nough!--I _own up!_"

I was very glad to hear him say that; it made me feel much more easier
than what I was feeling before. So the duke took his hands off and
says:

"If you ever deny it again I'll drown you. It's _well_ for you to set
there and blubber like a baby--it's fitten for you, after the way
yo