Figger Bush lay flat down upon the ground and whooped with laughter until the town reverberated with the echo of his hilarity like a pack of hounds chasing a fox. When he saw Skeeter returning, he decided it would be safer to go down town and see what time it was. So he went. But in less than an hour Figger returned in great excitement, bringing with him a little, timid negro woman with a tiny baby upon her arm. He led her through the saloon to a rear room, motioning mysteriously to Skeeter as he passed. When they were all seated at a table Figger said: “Now, Mrs. Diddle, you tell dat tale whut you jes’ told me--dis man who wants to listen is Skeeter Butts.” The woman hesitated a moment, looked down fondly at the tiny bundle on her breast, and began to speak in a trembling, uneasy voice: “I come up here huntin’ fer a nigger named Deo Diddle. He’s my cote-house husbund. Dis is his little pickaninny chile I’s nursin’. Deo, he gibs shows, but he’s got kinder keerless an’ done fergot all about me, I reckin. So I come to rattle up his remembrunce.” “Yes’m,” Skeeter exclaimed with unction. “Dat wus de most properest thing you could do. I’s shore glad you foun’ me so prompt, fer I’s jes’ de man to lead you straight on to Deo Diddle.” “Dat’s fine,” the woman exclaimed, rising eagerly to her feet. “I hopes you’ll take me dar right now.” “No’m,” Skeeter declared. “It cain’t be did suddent like dat. I don’t know whar dat nigger is now, but he’s gwine gib a show in dis town to-night, an’ I’ll take good keer of you an’ dat baby an’ den lead you to de show. Dat is, ef you’ll do jes’ whut I tells you.” [Illustration: Drawn by E. W. Kemble. Skeeter went down the street at full speed.] “I shore will,” the woman said fervently. “Figger,” Skeeter commanded, “you take sister Diddle over to de Halfacre an’ tell ole sister Ginny Chew to keep her till I come atter her to-night. Den you come right back to dis saloom, an’ you an’ me will fix up our plans fer de evenin’ pufformance.” The day passed slowly for Skeeter Butts, and when the night came he occupied a seat in the front row in the hall directly in the center of the stage, with Figger Bush sitting beside him. None of the performance interested Skeeter until Deo Diddle announced that he was now ready to accomplish the “box escape.” He challenged the negroes to provide a pine box in which he would be securely nailed and roped up, first being handcuffed and shackled in any way the negroes chose. Then he proposed to escape, leaving the box and the ropes intact. When the committee climbed upon the stage, Skeeter did not join them. He handed a tiny vial of liquid to Figger Bush and said: “Now, Figger, you go up dar an’ do exackly whut I told you!” Deo Diddle was carefully handcuffed, manacled, chained, and bound by the grinning, laughing negroes; then he was lifted up and lowered carefully into the box.