Well, everybody was in a state of mind, now; and they sings out:
"The whole bilin' of 'm 's frauds! Le's duck 'em! le's drown 'em! le's ride 'em on a rail!" and everybody was whooping at once, and there was a rattling pow-wow. But the lawyer he jumps on the table and yells, and says:
"GENTLEMEN—GENTLEMEN!"
"Gentlemen—gentlemen! Hear me just a word—just a single word—if you please! There's one way yet—let's go and dig up the corpse and look."
That took them.
"Hooray!" they all shouted, and was starting right off; but the lawyer and the doctor sung out:
"Hold on, hold on! Collar all these four men and the boy, and fetch them along, too!"
"We'll do it!" they all shouted: "and if we don't find them marks we'll lynch the whole gang!"
I was scared, now, I tell you. But there warn't no getting away, you know. They gripped us all, and marched us right along, straight for the graveyard, which was a mile and a half down the river, and the whole town at our heels, for we made noise enough, and it was only nine in the evening.
As we went by our house I wished I hadn't sent Mary Jane out of town; because now if I could tip her the wink, she'd light out and save me, and blow on our dead-beats.
Well, we swarmed along down the river road, just carrying on like wild-cats; and to make it more scary, the sky was darking up, and the lightning beginning to wink and flitter, and the wind to shiver amongst the leaves. This was the most awful trouble and most dangersome I ever was in; and I was kinder stunned;
