WHEN they got aboard the king went for me, and shook me by the collar, and says:

"Tryin' to give us the slip, was ye, you pup!  Tired of our company, hey?"

I says:

"No, your majesty, we warn't—_please_ don't, your majesty!"

"Quick, then, and tell us what _was_ your idea, or I'll shake the insides out o' you!"

"Honest, I'll tell you everything just as it happened, your majesty.  The man that had a-holt of me was very good to me, and kept saying he had a boy about as big as me that died last year, and he was sorry to see a boy in such a dangerous fix; and when they was all took by surprise by finding the gold, and made a rush for the coffin, he lets go of me and whispers, 'Heel it now, or they'll hang ye, sure!' and I lit out.  It didn't seem no good for _me_ to stay—I couldn't do nothing, and I didn't want to be hung if I could get away.  So I never stopped running till I found the canoe; and when I got here I told Jim to hurry, or they'd catch me and hang me yet, and said I was afeard you and the duke wasn't alive now, and I was awful sorry, and so was Jim, and was awful glad when we see you coming; you may ask Jim if I didn't."

Jim said it was so; and the king told him to shut up, and said, "Oh, yes, it's _mighty_ likely!" and shook me up again, and said he reckoned he'd drownd me.  But the duke says:

"Leggo the boy, you old idiot!  Would _you_ a done any different?  Did you inquire around for _him_ when you got loose?  I don't remember it."

So the king let go of me, and begun to cuss that town and everybody in it. But the duke says:

"You better a blame' sight give _yourself_ a good cussing, for you're the one that's entitled to it most.  You hain't done a thing from the start that had any sense in it, except coming out so cool and cheeky with that imaginary blue-arrow mark.  That _was_ bright—it was right down bully; and it was the thing that saved us.  For if it hadn't been for that they'd a jailed us till them Englishmen's baggage come—and then—the penitentiary, you bet! But that trick took 'em to the graveyard, and the gold done us a still bigger kindness; for if the excited fools hadn't let go all holts and made that rush to get a look we'd a slept in our cravats to-night—cravats warranted to _wear_, too—longer than _we'd_ need 'em."