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.  Cuss you, I can see now why you was so anxious to make up the deffisit--you wanted to get what money I'd got out of the Nonesuch and one thing or another, and scoop it _all_!” The king says, timid, and still a-snuffling: “Why, duke, it was you that said make up the deffisit; it warn't me.” “Dry up!  I don't want to hear no more out of you!” says the duke. “And _now_ you see what you GOT by it.  They've got all their own money back, and all of _ourn_ but a shekel or two _besides_.  G'long to bed, and don't you deffersit _me_ no more deffersits, long 's _you_ live!” So the king sneaked into the wigwam and took to his bottle for comfort, and before long the duke tackled HIS bottle; and so in about a half an hour they was as thick as thieves again, and the tighter they got the lovinger they got, and went off a-snoring in