I studied a while, and see my chance, then I says:
"Well, I see the niggers go in there several times."
Both of them give a little jump; and looked like they hadn't ever expected it, and then like they had. Then the duke says:
"What, all of them?"
"No—leastways not all at once. That is, I don't think I ever see them all come out at once but just one time."
"Hello—when was that?"
"It was the day we had the funeral. In the morning. It warn't early, because I overslept. I was just starting down the ladder, and I see them."
"Well, go on, go on—what did they do? How'd they act?"
"They didn't do nothing. And they didn't act anyway, much, as fur as I see. They tip-toed away; so I seen, easy enough, that they'd shoved in there to do up your majesty's room, or something, sposing you was up; and found you warn't up, and so they was hoping to slide out of the way of trouble without waking you up, if they hadn't already waked you up."
"Great guns, this is a go!" says the king; and both of them looked pretty sick, and tolerable silly. They stood there a thinking and scratching their heads, a minute, and then the duke he bust into a kind of a little raspy chuckle, and says:
"It does beat all, how neat the niggers played their hand. They let on to be sorry they was going out of this region! and I believed they was sorry. And so did you, and so did everybody. Don't ever tell me any more that a nigger ain't got any histrionic talent. Why, the way they played that thing, it would fool anybody. In my opinion there's a fortune in 'em. If I had capital and a theatre, I wouldn't want a better lay out than that—and here we've gone and sold 'em for a song. Yes, and ain't privileged to sing the song, yet. Say, where is that song?—that draft."
"In the bank for to be collected. Where would it be?"
"Well, that's all right then, thank goodness."
Says I, kind of timid-like:
