FullReads

“Wal, they got it all planned out. They was to wait till the full moon, and then they was to get Primus King to go with ’em and help do the diggin’. Ye see, Hokum and Toddy Whitney and Wiggin are all putty softly fellers, and hate dreffully to work; and I tell you the Kidd money ain’t to be got without a pretty tough piece o’ diggin. Why, it’s jest like diggin’ a well to get at it. Now, Primus King was the master hand for diggin’ wells, and so they said they’d get him by givin’ on him a shere.

“Harry Wiggin he didn’t want no nigger a sherin’ in it, he said; but Toddy and Hokum they said that when there was such stiff diggin’ to be done, they didn’t care if they did go in with a nigger.

“Wal, Wiggin he said he hadn’t no objection to havin’ the nigger do the diggin,’ it was sherin’ the profits he objected to.

“‘Wal,’ says Hokum, ‘you can’t get him without,’ says he. ‘Primus knows too much,’ says he: ‘you can’t fool him.’ Finally they ‘greed that they was to give Primus twenty dollars, and shere the treasure ‘mong themselves.

“Come to talk with Primus, he wouldn’t stick in a spade, unless they’d pay him aforehand. Ye see, Primus was up to ’em; he knowed about Gidger, and there wa’n’t none on ’em that was particular good pay; and so they all jest hed to rake and scrape, and pay him down the twenty dollars among ’em; and they ‘greed for the fust full moon, at twelve’ o’clock at night, the 9th of October.

“Wal, ye see I had to tell Hepsy I was goin’ out to watch. Wal, so I was; but not jest in the way she took it: but, Lordy massy! a feller has to tell his wife suthin’ to keep her quiet, ye know, ‘specially Hepsy.

“Wal, wal, of all the moonlight nights that ever I did see, I never did see one equal to that. Why, you could see the color o’ every thing. I ‘member I could see how the huckleberry-bushes on the rock was red as blood when the moonlight shone through ’em; ’cause the leaves, you see, had begun to turn.

“Goin’ on our way we got to talkin’ about the sperits.

“‘I ain’t afraid on ’em,’ says Hokum. ‘What harm can a sperit do me?’ says he. ‘I don’t care ef there’s a dozen on ’em;’ and he took a swig at his bottle.

“‘Oh! there ain’t no sperits,’ says Harry Wiggin. ‘That ‘are talk’s all nonsense;’ and he took a swig at his bottle.

“‘Wal,’ says Toddy, ‘I don’t know ’bout that ‘are. Me and Ike Sanders has seen the sperits in the Cap’n Brown house. We thought we’d jest have a peek into the window one night; and there was a whole flock o’ black colts without no heads on come rushin’ on us and knocked us flat.’

“‘I expect you’d been at the tahvern,’ said Hokum.

“‘Wal, yes, we had; but them was sperits: we wa’n’t drunk, now; we was jest as sober as ever we was.’

“‘Wal, they won’t get away my money,’ says Primus, for I put it safe away in Dinah’s teapot afore I come out;’ and then he showed all his ivories from ear to ear. ‘I think all this ‘are’s sort o’ foolishness,’ says Primus.

“‘Wal,’ says I, ‘boys, I ain’t a goin’ to have no part or lot in this ‘ere matter, but I’ll jest lay it off to you how it’s to be done. Ef Kidd’s money is under this rock, there’s ‘sperits’ that watch it, and you mustn’t give ’em no advantage. There mustn’t be a word spoke from the time ye get sight o’ the treasure till ye get it safe up on to firm ground,’ says I. ‘Ef ye do, it’ll vanish right out o’ sight. I’ve talked with them that has dug down to it and seen it; but they allers lost it, ’cause they’d call out and say suthin’; and the minute they spoke, away it went.’