Upon resuming their travels down the Mississippi Huck and Jim encounter two strangers whom they pick up and save from a group of chasing gunmen. The pair pretend to be royalty so that they get treated well with one calling himself a Duke and the other calling himself The Dauphin (the King of France). Jim is taken in by all this but, while Huck does not believe a word of it, he doesn't wish to get on the wrong side of them in case they report Jim as a runaway slave and so plays along. On the raft it becomes apparent that the two are actors as they act out scenes from ""Romeo and Juliet"". The pair plan on running a play in the next town they come across.