“Ah don’ lak dis business ob interfussin’ wid a dead man’s belongin’s. No good ain’t gwine ter come uv it.”
“What are you mumbling about, Jumbo?” asked the major, overhearing some of this last.
“Why, majah, I was jes’ a communicatin’ to myself mah pussonal convictions on de subjec’ ob dead men’s gold.”
“Why, Jumbo, are you superstitious?” inquired the professor.
“No, sah. Ah’s bin vaccinated an’ am glad to say it took. We ain’t neber had no supposishishness in our fam’bly. But dis yar meddlin’ an monkeyin’ wid what belongs to dem as is daid and buried is bad bis’nis, sah—bad bis’nis.”
“I thought that you had more courage than that,” said the professor seriously.
“Ah got lots ob dat commodity, too, sah. Ah dassay dat ah is de bravest man in de—Oh! fo’ de law’s sake, wha’ dat? Oh, golly umptions! Majah! You Boy Scrouts, help!”
Jumbo suddenly cast himself down on the ground and began rolling over and over, trying to seize the major’s feet in his paroxysm of real alarm.
“Get up!” ordered the major curtly, “get up at once, you cowardly creature. What’s the matter?”
“Oh, mah goodness, majah, you didn’t see it. You had yo’ back to der bushes. So did de odders. But ah seed it.”