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 you've acted. I never see such an old ostrich for wanting to gobble everything--and I a-trusting you all the time, like you was my own father.  You ought to been ashamed of yourself to stand by and hear it saddled on to a lot of poor niggers, and you never say a word for 'em.  It makes me feel ridiculous to think I was soft enough to _believe_ that rubbage.  C