cross one's fingers vs plead

cross one's fingers

verb
  • when wishing for luck, or 

  • when telling a lie (and attempting to escape the moral and other consequence of that lie). 

  • To put the middle finger across the index finger, especially 

plead

verb
  • To beg, beseech, or implore. 

  • To present (an argument or a plea), especially in a legal case. 

  • To offer by way of excuse. 

  • To discuss by arguments. 

How often have the words cross one's fingers and plead occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )