't he run off?"

"No! That old fool sold him, and never divided with me, and the
money's gone."

"_Sold_ him?" I says, and begun to cry; "why, he was _my_ nigger, and
that was my money. Where is he?--I want my nigger."

"Well, you can't _get_ your nigger, that's all--so dry up your
blubbering. Looky here--do you think _you'd_ venture to blow on us?
Blamed if I think I'd trust you. Why, if you _was_ to blow on us--"

He stopped, but I never see the duke look so ugly out of his eyes
before. I went on a-whimpering, and says:

"I don't want to blow on nobody; and I ain't got no time to blow,
nohow; I got to turn out and find my nigger."

He looked kinder bothered, and stood there with his bills fluttering
on his arm, thinking, and wrinkling up his forehead. At last he says:

"I'll tell you something. We got to be here three days. If you'll
promise you won't blow, and won't let the nigger blow, I'll tell you
where to find him."

So I promised, and he says:

"A farmer by the name of Silas Ph--" and then he stopped. You see, he
started to tell me the truth; but when he stopped that way, and begun
to study and think again, I reckoned he was changing his mind. And so
he was. He wouldn't trust me; he wanted to make sure of having me out
of the way the whole three days. So pretty soon he says:

"The man that bought him is named Abram Foster--Abram G. Foster--and
he lives forty mile back here in the country, on the road to
Lafayette."

"All right," I says, "I can walk it in three days. And I'll start this
very afternoon."

"No you won't, you'll start _now_; and don't you lose any time about
it, neither, nor do any gabbling by the way. Just keep a tight tongue
in your head and move right along, and then you won't get into trouble
with _us_, d'ye hear?"

That was the order I wanted, and that was the one I played for. I
wanted to be left free to work my plans.

"So clear out," he says; "and you can tell Mr. Foster whatever you
want to. Maybe you can get him to believe that Jim _is_ your
nigger--some idiots don't require documents--leastways I've heard
there's such down South here. And when you tell him the handbill and
the reward's bogus, maybe he'll believe you when you explain to him
what the idea was for getting 'em out. Go 'long now, and tell him
anything you want to; but mind you don't work your jaw any _between_
here and there."

So I left, and struck for the back country. I didn't look around, but
I kinde