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about her?ā€

ā€œYes, Miss Mary Jane she wanted you to do that.  She says, ā€˜Tell them to give Uncle Harvey and William my love and a kiss, and say Iā€™ve run over the river to see Mr.ā€™ā€”Mr.ā€”what is the name of that rich family your uncle Peter used to think so much of?ā€”I mean the one thatā€”ā€

ā€œWhy, you must mean the Apthorps, ainā€™t it?ā€

ā€œOf course; bother them kind of names, a body canā€™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 sheā€™s going to stick to them till they say theyā€™ll come, and then, if she ainā€™t too tired, sheā€™s coming home; and if she is, sheā€™ll be home in the morning anyway.  She said, donā€™t say nothing about the Proctors, but only about the Apthorpsā€”which ā€™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.ā€

ā€œAll right,ā€ 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 wouldnā€™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 neatā€”I reckoned Tom Sawyer couldnā€™t a done it no neater himself.  Of course he would a throwed more style into it, but I canā€™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.







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But by and by the thing dragged through, and everything was soldā€”everything but a little old trifling lot in the graveyard.  So theyā€™d got to work that offā€”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:

ā€œHereā€™s your opposition line! hereā€™s your two sets oā€™ heirs to old Peter Wilksā€”and you pays your money and you takes your choice!ā€









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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 didnā€™t see no joke about it, and I judged it would strain the duke and the king some to see any.  I reckoned theyā€™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 thatā€™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 Englishmanā€”not the kingā€™s way, though the kingā€™s was pretty good for an imitation.  I canā€™t give the old gentā€™s words, nor I canā€™t imitate him; but he turned around to the crowd, and says, about like this:

ā€œThis is a surprise to me which I wasnā€™t looking for; and Iā€™ll acknowledge, candid and frank, I ainā€™t very well fixed to meet it and answer it; for my brother and me has had misfortunes; heā€™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 Wilksā€™ brother Harvey, and this is his brother William, which canā€™t hear nor speakā€”and canā€™t even make signs to amount to much, nowā€™t heā€™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 wonā€™t say nothing more, but go to the hotel and wait.ā€

So him and the new dummy started off; and the king he laughs, and blethers out:

ā€œBroke his armā€”very likely, ainā€™t it?ā€”and very convenient, too, for a fraud thatā€™s got to make signs, and ainā€™t learnt how.  Lost their baggage! Thatā€™s mighty good!ā€”and mighty ingeniousā€”under the circumstances!ā€

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 headsā€”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:

ā€œSay, looky here; if you are Harvey Wilks, whenā€™d you come to this town?ā€

ā€œThe day before the funeral, friend,ā€ says the king.

ā€œBut what time oā€™ day?ā€

ā€œIn the eveninā€™ā€”ā€™bout an hour er two before sundown.ā€

ā€œHowā€™d you come?ā€

ā€œI come down on the Susan Powell from Cincinnati.ā€

ā€œWell, then, howā€™d you come to be up at the Pint in the morninā€™ā€”in a canoe?ā€

ā€œI warnā€™t up at the Pint in the morninā€™.ā€

ā€œItā€™s a lie.ā€

Several of them jumped for him and begged him not to talk that way to an old man and a preacher.

ā€œPreacher be hanged, heā€™s a fraud and a liar.  He was up at the Pint that morninā€™.  I live up there, donā€™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.ā€

The doctor he up and says:

ā€œWould you know the boy again if you was to see him, Hines?ā€

ā€œI reckon I would, but I donā€™t know.  Why, yonder he is, now.  I know him perfectly easy.ā€

It was me he pointed at.  The doctor says:

ā€œNeighbors, I donā€™t know whether the new couple is frauds or not; but if these two ainā€™t frauds, I am an idiot, thatā€™s all.  I think itā€™s our duty to see that they donā€™t get away from here till weā€™ve looked into this thing. Come along, Hines; come along, the rest of you.  Weā€™ll take these fellows to the tavern and affront them with tā€™other couple, and I reckon weā€™ll find out something before we get through.ā€

It was nuts for the crowd, though maybe not for the kingā€™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.







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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:

ā€œI donā€™t wish to be too hard on these two men, but I think theyā€™re frauds, and they may have complices that we donā€™t know nothing about.  If they have, wonā€™t the complices get away with that bag of gold Peter Wilks left?  It ainā€™t unlikely.  If these men ainā€™t frauds, they wonā€™t object to sending for that money and letting us keep it till they prove theyā€™re all rightā€”ainā€™t that so?ā€

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:

ā€œGentlemen, I wish the money was there, for I ainā€™t got no disposition to throw anything in the way of a fair, open, out-and-out investigation oā€™ this misable business; but, alas, the money ainā€™t there; you kā€™n send and see, if you want to.ā€

ā€œWhere is it, then?ā€

ā€œWell, when my niece give it to me to keep for her I took and hid it inside oā€™ the straw tick oā€™ my bed, not wishinā€™ to bank it for the few days weā€™d be here, and considerinā€™ the bed a safe place, we not beinā€™ used to niggers, and supposā€™nā€™ ā€™em honest, like servants in England.  The niggers stole it the very next morninā€™ after I had went down stairs; and when I sold ā€™em I hadnā€™t missed the money yit, so they got clean away with it.  My servant here kā€™n tell you ā€™bout it, gentlemen.ā€

The doctor and several said ā€œShucks!ā€ and I see nobody didnā€™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:

ā€œAre you English, too?ā€

I says yes; and him and some others laughed, and said, ā€œStuff!ā€

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 itā€”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 hisā€™n; and anybody but a lot of prejudiced chuckleheads would a seen that the old gentleman was spinning truth and tā€™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 didnā€™t get pretty fur till the doctor begun to laugh; and Levi Bell, the lawyer, says:

ā€œSet down, my boy; I wouldnā€™t strain myself if I was you.  I reckon you ainā€™t used to lying, it donā€™t seem to come handy; what you want is practice.  You do it pretty awkward.ā€

I didnā€™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:

ā€œIf youā€™d been in town at first, Levi Bellā€”ā€ The king broke in and reached out his hand, and says:

ā€œWhy, is this my poor dead brotherā€™s old friend that heā€™s wrote so often about?ā€

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:

ā€œThat ā€™ll fix it.  Iā€™ll take the order and send it, along with your brotherā€™s, and then theyā€™ll know itā€™s all right.ā€

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

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