The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Chapter 37 (1)
Chapter 29 (1)
They brought an old gentleman of very fine-looking appearance, and another man, younger than him, who was also very good-looking, and whose right arm was in a bandage.My goodness, look at the fuss of the people!People shouted and laughed and there was no end to it.But I don't think it's funny at all, and neither do the king and duke, I suppose.I reckoned their faces would turn pale, but they weren't white at all.The duke never gave anyone any suspicion that he saw anything, and kept gurgling, looking as happy and contented as a jug gurgling milk.How about the king, he just lowered his head and stared at the two people who had just arrived, as if seeing such shameless rogues and liars in the world, he felt disgusted.Ah, he really looks like one.A lot of respectable people clung to the King so that he felt they were on his side.The old gentleman who just arrived seemed particularly inexplicable.Presently he began to speak, and I recognized at once that he had a very English accent, not the King's at all, but the King was very much like it.I couldn't remember what the old gentleman said, and I couldn't pick up the accent, but he turned to the group and said something like this:
"I didn't expect this to happen. It was a surprise. To be honest, I admit that I couldn't handle the situation and I couldn't answer the questions because my brother and I had some mishaps and he broke his arm. Folded, our luggage was misplaced last night, and it was unloaded in a town upstream. This is Peter Wilkes' brother Harvey, this is his brother William, he can't hear, he can't speak Said, now only one arm is left to move, and even speaking in dumb words is a problem. Our identity is what I said, and I will prove it when we get our luggage back in a day or two. But before that, I have nothing I don’t want to say more, I’m going to wait at the hotel.”

When he had finished speaking, he and the new mute went away, and the King laughed loudly, and cried out:
"Broken arm, that's a real feat, isn't it? It's easy, a liar who has to sign and hasn't even learned how to sign. Lost luggage! That's a pretty good statement in the circumstances." Lah! Thankfully he figured it out!" He laughed again as he spoke, and everyone laughed loudly too, only three or four of them didn't laugh, maybe five or six of them didn't.One of them is the doctor.There was also a gentleman who had just disembarked from the ship and carried an old-fashioned coarse cloth bag. He looked very alert, and was standing in front of the doctor and whispering to him.From time to time they glanced in the king's direction and nodded.Is he the lawyer Levi who went up to Louisville?Bell.There was also a stout man who had just leaned over to listen to the old gentleman, and now he was listening to the king again.When the king had finished speaking, the man asked:
"Hey, let me say, if you're Harvey Wilkes, what day did you come to this town?"

"On the day before the funeral, my friend," said the king.

"When did it arrive that day?"

"In the evening, about an hour or two before sunset."

"How did you get here?"

"Cincinnati on the Susan Powell."

"Well, how did you manage to row a small boat up to that pier that morning?"

"I didn't go to any pier upstream that morning."

"lie."

Several people rushed at him, begging him not to speak like that to an old preacher.

"Damn him, what kind of priest he is, he's a liar. He did go up that wharf that morning. I lived there, didn't I? I was there, and he was there. I saw He was there. He rowed there with Tim Collins and a boy."

Then the doctor came forward and said, "If you saw the boy, would you recognize him, Hynes?"

"I think I can, but I can't bet on it. Why, that's him! I knew him right away."

He was referring to me.The doctor said:

"Neighbors, I dare not say whether the two men who just came here are liars, but if they are not liars, I am a complete fool. I think it is our duty to keep them from coming out of the house until the matter is cleared up." Slip off here. Come on, Hynes, come on folks, let's take these fellows to the inn and confront them with the other two. I don't think it'll take too much trouble to see something. "

They were all glad to hear this, but not so pleasant to those who were to the king.We set off together.By this time the sun was almost setting.The doctor held my hand all the way, he was very kind, but he just didn't let go of my hand.

We all went to a big room in the inn, and some candles were lighted, and the two newcomers were brought along.The doctor said first: "I don't want to make things difficult for these two people, but I think they are two liars, and they may have accomplices here, we don't know at all. If so, their Will the accomplice get away with the money left by Peter Wilkes? It's not out of the question. If these two aren't crooks, they won't object to having the money taken and put in our custody, etc. Let's talk about it after we figure it out. Do you guys think this is a good way?"

Everyone is in favor of this.They made our group hard to think about from the beginning.The king looked distressed and said:
"Gentlemen, I should like to get the money out, and I have no objection to having the whole misfortune cleared up, but the money is gone, and if you want to go, go and see."

"Where did the money go?"

"Well, my niece handed me the money to keep it for her, and I hid it in the straw mattress on the bed, because we didn't want to keep it in the bank because we couldn't stay here for a few days. We thought the straw mattress was a safe place. place, we don't know how the blacks are, we thought they were honest, like English servants. Didn't expect the blacks to steal the money when we went downstairs the next morning. I sold them They didn't know they had lost the money when they were there, so they took it and went away. My servants can tell you about it, gentlemen."

Doctors and people said, "Nonsense!" I saw that no one really believed him.One guy asked me if I saw black people stealing money.I said I didn't, I just saw them come out of his room and hurry away, and I didn't pay any attention at the time, thinking they were afraid to wake my master, and wanted to leave quickly, lest he be angry with them.That's what they asked me.Then the doctor turned to me and asked:
"Are you British too?"

I said yes, and he and everyone else laughed and said, "Bullshit!"

Then they began to question non-stop.We kept asking them over and over for hours and hours, but no one mentioned supper, as if people didn't even think about it.They just kept asking and asking. You will never encounter such troublesome troubles in your life.They made the king tell his story, and they made the old gentleman tell his story, and anyone but a prejudiced fool could hear that the old gentleman told the truth and the king lied.Then they asked me to go there again and tell what they knew.The king gave me a sly look out of the corner of his eye, and I knew what to say.I started talking about Sheffield, about our life there, and about the Wilkes family in England. I didn't say much, and the doctor laughed out loud. That's called Levi?Bell's lawyer said:
"Sit down, silly boy. If I were you, I wouldn't waste so much effort. I don't think you're good at lying, and you don't know what to say when you speak. You need to practice. You speak too clumsily." La."

I wasn't very pleased with his compliments, but I liked it when he spared me.

The doctor was about to say something, so he turned around and said:
"Levi Bell, if you were in town at first..."

The king immediately interrupted him, stretched out his hand, and said:

"Why, is this the old friend my dead brother often mentioned in his letters?"

The lawyer shook hands with him, and the lawyer smiled and looked very happy, and they talked together for a while, then they stepped aside and began talking in low voices, and finally the lawyer said aloud:
"Then let's do it. I'll pass you and your brother's certificate together, and then they'll know it's all right."

So they got paper and a pen, and the King sat down, tilting his head, biting his tongue, and scratching at something, and then they handed the pen to the Duke, who for the first time looked uncomfortable.But he still took the pen in his hand and began to write.Afterwards the lawyer turned to the new old gentleman and said:
"Please write a sentence or two with your brother and sign your name."

The old man wrote a few words, but no one could read them.The lawyer was taken aback and said:
"It's giving me a headache," he said, taking a number of old letters from his pocket, poring over them, then studying the old man's handwriting, turning them back to theirs, and saying, "These letters are from Harvey from Wilkes, here is their handwriting, and anyone can see that it is not theirs (the king and the duke are helpless when they know they have been tricked by lawyers). This is the Written by Mr., everyone can see clearly, and it's not their handwriting. In fact, these things he's underlining are not words at all. Here are a few more letters from..."

The new old gentleman said:

"Listen, please, and let me explain. No one but my brother can read my handwriting, so he copied it for me. The letters in your hand are in his handwriting, not mine."

"Well!" said the lawyer, "that's a rare thing. I've got a few letters from William, and if you'll get him to write a sentence or two, we'll be able to compare..."

(End of this chapter)