- Huck makes up a story to explain his running away so the duke and king won't think he was trying to betray them.
- But how did the gold get into the coffin?
- Naturally, the duke and the king turn on each other, each thinking that his partner was trying to make off with the cash.
- The duke starts strangling the king, so the king "confesses" to stealing and hiding the cash.
- Then they get drunk together and pass out in the raft's wigwam, with all forgotten and forgiven in a haze of booze.
- Huck tells Jim the whole story.