13 The Duke’s Plan

CHAPTER 13 The Duke's Plan The news was all over town in minutes and pretty soon we were in the middle of a crowd. The windows and front yards were full. Every so often somebody would say over a fence: "Is it them?" And somebody walking along with us would answer: "You bet it is." When we got to the house, the street in front was packed with people. There were three girls

standing at the door. Luckily, we knew who everyone was from the story the young man had told us the other day. Mary Jane was the oldest. She had red hair and she was very beautiful. Her face and eyes were all lit up. She was so happy her uncles had come. The king spread his arms and Mary Jane jumped for them. Another daughter, who had a hard time speaking, hugged the duke. The third daughter just stood by and watched. Then the king and the duke saw the coffin, which was propped up on two chairs. They walked over to it very seriously and covered their eyes as if they were upset. Everybody gave them room and all the talk and noise stopped. The two men stood in front of the coffin for a few seconds and then burst out crying. Then they kneeled next to the coffin and pretended to pray over it. That worked on the crowd so well. You've never seen anything like it. Everybody broke down crying.

By and by, the king stood and gave a speech. It was all full of tears and nonsense about how hard it was for him and his poor brother to lose Peter. He talked about how upset he was to miss seeing him alive after the long journey from England. He talked about almost everybody in town, mentioning as many people by name as the young man the other day had told us. The king also mentioned all sorts of little things that had happened at one time or another around town, or to George's or Peter's family. He always made it sound as if Peter had written to him about all of these things, but that was a lie. He had heard every little detail from that young man on the steamboat. Then Mary Jane fetched the letter that her uncle had left behind. The king read it out loud and cried over it. It explained how Peter wanted his fortune divided up among the girls and his brothers. It also described where six thousand dollars was hidden in the cellar. The two frauds

took me downstairs with them. When we found the bag, they spilled the money out on the floor. "I've got an idea," the duke said. "Let's go upstairs, count out the money, and then give it to the girls!" "Why, that's the best idea you've had. They've got to believe we're their uncles if we give them the money," the king said. Back upstairs, the king made another slobbering speech about old Peter Wilks and then gave the bag full of money to Mary Jane. She hugged him and the other two daughters went to hug and kiss the duke. Well pretty soon the king was talking about the dead man again. The duke had to pretend he couldn't hear or speak, but the king didn't have any problems with talking. He went on and on. I thought it was terrible, even though most of the people seemed to believe him. Just then there was a loud noise in the crowd and someone spoke up:

"Why, Doctor Robinson! Haven't you heard? That man is Harvey Wilks," said someone. The king smiled and tried to shake hands with the doctor. "Keep your hands off me!" the doctor said. "You think you talk with an English accent? That's the worst imitation I've ever heard. You aren't Peter Wilks' brother. You're a fraud!" Well the crowd became very upset at that. The king was able to convince almost everybody that he really was Harvey Wilks. When Mary Jane said she believed him, that seemed to settle it for everybody but old Doctor Robinson. That night we had a big dinner with the daughters. Then they set the king, the duke, and me up with a room each. I spent some time talking with each daughter. It wasn't easy, let me tell you. I was trying to imitate the king's English accent. I thought they would see through me right away, but they didn't. I started to see that these girls were kind and didn't deserve to

have their money stolen by those two old frauds. I felt so mean and low down that I made up my mind to get that money away from the king and the duke. I laid in bed that night trying to think up a way to fool those two men. I decided to steal the money from them and hide it somewhere. Then I could leave a note for Mary Jane telling her where I hid it. That way she could get the money after we left. I started to search the king's room, but I had to hide when I heard the two men coming up the stairs. The came in and talked about their plans. It was awful to hear. They wanted to steal the six thousand dollars. I knew that much already. But they also wanted to sell the house and all of the property that Peter Wilks owned. They wanted to leave the girls with nothing! The duke grumbled that he didn't want to rob a lot of orphans of everything they had. "How you talk," said the king. "We'll only be