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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Part 7.
+by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Part 7.
+
+Author: Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)
+
+Release Date: June 30, 2004 [EBook #7199]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TOM SAWYER ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+                    THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER
+                                BY
+                            MARK TWAIN
+                     (Samuel Langhorne Clemens)
+
+                              Part 7
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+THAT night Tom and Huck were ready for their adventure. They hung
+about the neighborhood of the tavern until after nine, one watching the
+alley at a distance and the other the tavern door. Nobody entered the
+alley or left it; nobody resembling the Spaniard entered or left the
+tavern door. The night promised to be a fair one; so Tom went home with
+the understanding that if a considerable degree of darkness came on,
+Huck was to come and "maow," whereupon he would slip out and try the
+keys. But the night remained clear, and Huck closed his watch and
+retired to bed in an empty sugar hogshead about twelve.
+
+Tuesday the boys had the same ill luck. Also Wednesday. But Thursday
+night promised better. Tom slipped out in good season with his aunt's
+old tin lantern, and a large towel to blindfold it with. He hid the
+lantern in Huck's sugar hogshead and the watch began. An hour before
+midnight the tavern closed up and its lights (the only ones
+thereabouts) were put out. No Spaniard had been seen. Nobody had
+entered or left the alley. Everything was auspicious. The blackness of
+darkness reigned, the perfect stillness was interrupted only by
+occasional mutterings of distant thunder.
+
+Tom got his lantern, lit it in the hogshead, wrapped it closely in the
+towel, and the two adventurers crept in the gloom toward the tavern.
+Huck stood sentry and Tom felt his way into the alley. Then there was a
+season of waiting anxiety that weighed upon Huck's spirits like a
+mountain. He began to wish he could see a flash from the lantern--it
+would frighten him, but it would at least tell him that Tom was alive
+yet. It seemed hours since Tom had disappeared. Surely he must have
+fainted; maybe he was dead; maybe his heart had burst under terror and
+excitement. In his uneasiness Huck found himself drawing closer and
+closer to the alley; fearing all sorts of dreadful things, and
+momentarily expecting some catastrophe to happen that would take away
+his breath. There was not much to take away, for he seemed only able to
+inhale it by thimblefuls, and his heart would soon wear itself out, the
+way it was beating. Suddenly there was a flash of light and Tom came
+tearing by him: "Run!" said he; "run, for your life!"
+
+He needn't have repeated it; once was enough; Huck was making thirty
+or forty miles an hour before the repetition was uttered. The boys
+never stopped till they reached the shed of a deserted slaughter-house
+at the lower end of the village. Just as they got within its shelter
+the storm burst and the rain poured down. As soon as Tom got his breath
+he said:
+
+"Huck, it was awful! I tried two of the keys, just as soft as I could;
+but they seemed to make such a power of racket that I couldn't hardly
+get my breath I was so scared. They wouldn't turn in the lock, either.
+Well, without noticing what I was doing, I took hold of the knob, and
+open comes the door! It warn't locked! I hopped in, and shook off the
+towel, and, GREAT CAESAR'S GHOST!"
+
+"What!--what'd you see, Tom?"
+
+"Huck, I most stepped onto Injun Joe's hand!"
+
+"No!"
+
+"Yes! He was lying there, sound asleep on the floor, with his old
+patch on his eye and his arms spread out."
+
+"Lordy, what did you do? Did he wake up?"
+
+"No, never budged. Drunk, I reckon. I just grabbed that towel and
+started!"
+
+"I'd never 'a' thought of the towel, I bet!"
+
+"Well, I would. My aunt would make me mighty sick if I lost it."
+
+"Say, Tom, did you see that box?"
+
+"Huck, I didn't wait to look around. I didn't see the box, I didn't
+see the cross. I didn't see anything but a bottle and a tin cup on the
+floor by Injun Joe; yes, I saw two barrels and lots more bottles in the
+room. Don't you see, now, what's the matter with that ha'nted room?"
+
+"How?"
+
+"Why, it's ha'nted with whiskey! Maybe ALL the Temperance Taverns have
+got a ha'nted room, hey, Huck?"
+
+"Well, I reckon maybe that's so. Who'd 'a' thought such a thing? But
+say, Tom, now's a mighty good time to get that box, if Injun Joe's
+drunk."
+
+"It is, that! You try it!"
+
+Huck shuddered.
+
+"Well, no--I reckon not."
+
+"And I reckon not, Huck. Only one bottle alongside of Injun Joe ain't
+enough. If there'd been three, he'd be drunk enough and I'd do it."
+
+There was a long pause for reflection, and then Tom said:
+
+"Lookyhere, Huck, less not try that thing any more till we know Injun
+Joe's not in there. It's too scary. Now, if we watch every night, we'll
+be dead sure to see him go out, some time or other, and then we'll
+snatch that box quicker'n lightning."
+
+"Well, I'm agreed. I'll watch the whole night long, and I'll do it
+every night, too, if you'll do the other part of the job."
+
+"All right, I will. All you got to do is to trot up Hooper Street a
+block and maow--and if I'm asleep, you throw some gravel at the window
+and that'll fetch me."
+
+"Agreed, and good as wheat!"
+
+"Now, Huck, the storm's over, and I'll go home. It'll begin to be
+daylight in a couple of hours. You go back and watch that long, will
+you?"
+
+"I said I would, Tom, and I will. I'll ha'nt that tavern every night
+for a year! I'll sleep all day and I'll stand watch all night."
+
+"That's all right. Now, where you going to sleep?"
+
+"In Ben Rogers' hayloft. He lets me, and so does his pap's nigger man,
+Uncle Jake. I tote water for Uncle Jake whenever he wants me to, and
+any time I ask him he gives me a little something to eat if he can
+spare it. That's a mighty good nigger, Tom. He likes me, becuz I don't
+ever act as if I was above him. Sometime I've set right down and eat
+WITH him. But you needn't tell that. A body's got to do things when
+he's awful hungry he wouldn't want to do as a steady thing."
+
+"Well, if I don't want you in the daytime, I'll let you sleep. I won't
+come bothering around. Any time you see something's up, in the night,
+just skip right around and maow."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+THE first thing Tom heard on Friday morning was a glad piece of news
+--Judge Thatcher's family had come back to town the night before. Both
+Injun Joe and the treasure sunk into secondary importance for a moment,
+and Becky took the chief place in the boy's interest. He saw her and
+they had an exhausting good time playing "hi-spy" and "gully-keeper"
+with a crowd of their school-mates. The day was completed and crowned
+in a peculiarly satisfactory way: Becky teased her mother to appoint
+the next day for the long-promised and long-delayed picnic, and she
+consented. The child's delight was boundless; and Tom's not more
+moderate. The invitations were sent out before sunset, and straightway
+the young folks of the village were thrown into a fever of preparation
+and pleasurable anticipation. Tom's excitement enabled him to keep
+awake until a pretty late hour, and he had good hopes of hearing Huck's
+"maow," and of having his treasure to astonish Becky and the picnickers
+with, next day; but he was disappointed. No signal came that night.
+
+Morning came, eventually, and by ten or eleven o'clock a giddy and
+rollicking company were gathered at Judge Thatcher's, and everything
+was ready for a start. It was not the custom for elderly people to mar
+the picnics with their presence. The children were considered safe
+enough under the wings of a few young ladies of eighteen and a few
+young gentlemen of twenty-three or thereabouts. The old steam ferryboat
+was chartered for the occasion; presently the gay throng filed up the
+main street laden with provision-baskets. Sid was sick and had to miss
+the fun; Mary remained at home to entertain him. The last thing Mrs.
+Thatcher said to Becky, was:
+
+"You'll not get back till late. Perhaps you'd better stay all night
+with some of the girls that live near the ferry-landing, child."
+
+"Then I'll stay with Susy Harper, mamma."
+
+"Very well. And mind and behave yourself and don't be any trouble."
+
+Presently, as they tripped along, Tom said to Becky:
+
+"Say--I'll tell you what we'll do. 'Stead of going to Joe Harper's
+we'll climb right up the hill and stop at the Widow Douglas'. She'll
+have ice-cream! She has it most every day--dead loads of it. And she'll
+be awful glad to have us."
+
+"Oh, that will be fun!"
+
+Then Becky reflected a moment and said:
+
+"But what will mamma say?"
+
+"How'll she ever know?"
+
+The girl turned the idea over in her mind, and said reluctantly:
+
+"I reckon it's wrong--but--"
+
+"But shucks! Your mother won't know, and so what's the harm? All she
+wants is that you'll be safe; and I bet you she'd 'a' said go there if
+she'd 'a' thought of it. I know she would!"
+
+The Widow Douglas' splendid hospitality was a tempting bait. It and
+Tom's persuasions presently carried the day. So it was decided to say
+nothing anybody about the night's programme. Presently it occurred to
+Tom that maybe Huck might come this very night and give the signal. The
+thought took a deal of the spirit out of his anticipations. Still he
+could not bear to give up the fun at Widow Douglas'. And why should he
+give it up, he reasoned--the signal did not come the night before, so
+why should it be any more likely to come to-night? The sure fun of the
+evening outweighed the uncertain treasure; and, boy-like, he determined
+to yield to the stronger inclination and not allow himself to think of
+the box of money another time that day.
+
+Three miles below town the ferryboat stopped at the mouth of a woody
+hollow and tied up. The crowd swarmed ashore and soon the forest
+distances and craggy heights echoed far and near with shoutings and
+laughter. All the different ways of getting hot and tired were gone
+through with, and by-and-by the rovers straggled back to camp fortified
+with responsible appetites, and then the destruction of the good things
+began. After the feast there was a refreshing season of rest and chat
+in the shade of spreading oaks. By-and-by somebody shouted:
+
+"Who's ready for the cave?"
+
+Everybody was. Bundles of candles were procured, and straightway there
+was a general scamper up the hill. The mouth of the cave was up the
+hillside--an opening shaped like a letter A. Its massive oaken door
+stood unbarred. Within was a small chamber, chilly as an ice-house, and
+walled by Nature with solid limestone that was dewy with a cold sweat.
+It was romantic and mysterious to stand here in the deep gloom and look
+out upon the green valley shining in the sun. But the impressiveness of
+the situation quickly wore off, and the romping began again. The moment
+a candle was lighted there was a general rush upon the owner of it; a
+struggle and a gallant defence followed, but the candle was soon
+knocked down or blown out, and then there was a glad clamor of laughter
+and a new chase. But all things have an end. By-and-by the procession
+went filing down the steep descent of the main avenue, the flickering
+rank of lights dimly revealing the lofty walls of rock almost to their
+point of junction sixty feet overhead. This main avenue was not more
+than eight or ten feet wide. Every few steps other lofty and still
+narrower crevices branched from it on either hand--for McDougal's cave
+was but a vast labyrinth of crooked aisles that ran into each other and
+out again and led nowhere. It was said that one might wander days and
+nights together through its intricate tangle of rifts and chasms, and
+never find the end of the cave; and that he might go down, and down,
+and still down, into the earth, and it was just the same--labyrinth
+under labyrinth, and no end to any of them. No man "knew" the cave.
+That was an impossible thing. Most of the young men knew a portion of
+it, and it was not customary to venture much beyond this known portion.
+Tom Sawyer knew as much of the cave as any one.
+
+The procession moved along the main avenue some three-quarters of a
+mile, and then groups and couples began to slip aside into branch
+avenues, fly along the dismal corridors, and take each other by
+surprise at points where the corridors joined again. Parties were able
+to elude each other for the space of half an hour without going beyond
+the "known" ground.
+
+By-and-by, one group after another came straggling back to the mouth
+of the cave, panting, hilarious, smeared from head to foot with tallow
+drippings, daubed with clay, and entirely delighted with the success of
+the day. Then they were astonished to find that they had been taking no
+note of time and that night was about at hand. The clanging bell had
+been calling for half an hour. However, this sort of close to the day's
+adventures was romantic and therefore satisfactory. When the ferryboat
+with her wild freight pushed into the stream, nobody cared sixpence for
+the wasted time but the captain of the craft.
+
+Huck was already upon his watch when the ferryboat's lights went
+glinting past the wharf. He heard no noise on board, for the young
+people were as subdued and still as people usually are who are nearly
+tired to death. He wondered what boat it was, and why she did not stop
+at the wharf--and then he dropped her out of his mind and put his
+attention upon his business. The night was growing cloudy and dark. Ten
+o'clock came, and the noise of vehicles ceased, scattered lights began
+to wink out, all straggling foot-passengers disappeared, the village
+betook itself to its slumbers and left the small watcher alone with the
+silence and the ghosts. Eleven o'clock came, and the tavern lights were
+put out; darkness everywhere, now. Huck waited what seemed a weary long
+time, but nothing happened. His faith was weakening. Was there any use?
+Was there really any use? Why not give it up and turn in?
+
+A noise fell upon his ear. He was all attention in an instant. The
+alley door closed softly. He sprang to the corner of the brick store.
+The next moment two men brushed by him, and one seemed to have
+something under his arm. It must be that box! So they were going to
+remove the treasure. Why call Tom now? It would be absurd--the men
+would get away with the box and never be found again. No, he would
+stick to their wake and follow them; he would trust to the darkness for
+security from discovery. So communing with himself, Huck stepped out
+and glided along behind the men, cat-like, with bare feet, allowing
+them to keep just far enough ahead not to be invisible.
+
+They moved up the river street three blocks, then turned to the left
+up a cross-street. They went straight ahead, then, until they came to
+the path that led up Cardiff Hill; this they took. They passed by the
+old Welshman's house, half-way up the hill, without hesitating, and
+still climbed upward. Good, thought Huck, they will bury it in the old
+quarry. But they never stopped at the quarry. They passed on, up the
+summit. They plunged into the narrow path between the tall sumach
+bushes, and were at once hidden in the gloom. Huck closed up and
+shortened his distance, now, for they would never be able to see him.
+He trotted along awhile; then slackened his pace, fearing he was
+gaining too fast; moved on a piece, then stopped altogether; listened;
+no sound; none, save that he seemed to hear the beating of his own
+heart. The hooting of an owl came over the hill--ominous sound! But no
+footsteps. Heavens, was everything lost! He was about to spring with
+winged feet, when a man cleared his throat not four feet from him!
+Huck's heart shot into his throat, but he swallowed it again; and then
+he stood there shaking as if a dozen agues had taken charge of him at
+once, and so weak that he thought he must surely fall to the ground. He
+knew where he was. He knew he was within five steps of the stile
+leading into Widow Douglas' grounds. Very well, he thought, let them
+bury it there; it won't be hard to find.
+
+Now there was a voice--a very low voice--Injun Joe's:
+
+"Damn her, maybe she's got company--there's lights, late as it is."
+
+"I can't see any."
+
+This was that stranger's voice--the stranger of the haunted house. A
+deadly chill went to Huck's heart--this, then, was the "revenge" job!
+His thought was, to fly. Then he remembered that the Widow Douglas had
+been kind to him more than once, and maybe these men were going to
+murder her. He wished he dared venture to warn her; but he knew he
+didn't dare--they might come and catch him. He thought all this and
+more in the moment that elapsed between the stranger's remark and Injun
+Joe's next--which was--
+
+"Because the bush is in your way. Now--this way--now you see, don't
+you?"
+
+"Yes. Well, there IS company there, I reckon. Better give it up."
+
+"Give it up, and I just leaving this country forever! Give it up and
+maybe never have another chance. I tell you again, as I've told you
+before, I don't care for her swag--you may have it. But her husband was
+rough on me--many times he was rough on me--and mainly he was the
+justice of the peace that jugged me for a vagrant. And that ain't all.
+It ain't a millionth part of it! He had me HORSEWHIPPED!--horsewhipped
+in front of the jail, like a nigger!--with all the town looking on!
+HORSEWHIPPED!--do you understand? He took advantage of me and died. But
+I'll take it out of HER."
+
+"Oh, don't kill her! Don't do that!"
+
+"Kill? Who said anything about killing? I would kill HIM if he was
+here; but not her. When you want to get revenge on a woman you don't
+kill her--bosh! you go for her looks. You slit her nostrils--you notch
+her ears like a sow!"
+
+"By God, that's--"
+
+"Keep your opinion to yourself! It will be safest for you. I'll tie
+her to the bed. If she bleeds to death, is that my fault? I'll not cry,
+if she does. My friend, you'll help me in this thing--for MY sake
+--that's why you're here--I mightn't be able alone. If you flinch, I'll
+kill you. Do you understand that? And if I have to kill you, I'll kill
+her--and then I reckon nobody'll ever know much about who done this
+business."
+
+"Well, if it's got to be done, let's get at it. The quicker the
+better--I'm all in a shiver."
+
+"Do it NOW? And company there? Look here--I'll get suspicious of you,
+first thing you know. No--we'll wait till the lights are out--there's
+no hurry."
+
+Huck felt that a silence was going to ensue--a thing still more awful
+than any amount of murderous talk; so he held his breath and stepped
+gingerly back; planted his foot carefully and firmly, after balancing,
+one-legged, in a precarious way and almost toppling over, first on one
+side and then on the other. He took another step back, with the same
+elaboration and the same risks; then another and another, and--a twig
+snapped under his foot! His breath stopped and he listened. There was
+no sound--the stillness was perfect. His gratitude was measureless. Now
+he turned in his tracks, between the walls of sumach bushes--turned
+himself as carefully as if he were a ship--and then stepped quickly but
+cautiously along. When he emerged at the quarry he felt secure, and so
+he picked up his nimble heels and flew. Down, down he sped, till he
+reached the Welshman's. He banged at the door, and presently the heads
+of the old man and his two stalwart sons were thrust from windows.
+
+"What's the row there? Who's banging? What do you want?"
+
+"Let me in--quick! I'll tell everything."
+
+"Why, who are you?"
+
+"Huckleberry Finn--quick, let me in!"
+
+"Huckleberry Finn, indeed! It ain't a name to open many doors, I
+judge! But let him in, lads, and let's see what's the trouble."
+
+"Please don't ever tell I told you," were Huck's first words when he
+got in. "Please don't--I'd be killed, sure--but the widow's been good
+friends to me sometimes, and I want to tell--I WILL tell if you'll
+promise you won't ever say it was me."
+
+"By George, he HAS got something to tell, or he wouldn't act so!"
+exclaimed the old man; "out with it and nobody here'll ever tell, lad."
+
+Three minutes later the old man and his sons, well armed, were up the
+hill, and just entering the sumach path on tiptoe, their weapons in
+their hands. Huck accompanied them no further. He hid behind a great
+bowlder and fell to listening. There was a lagging, anxious silence,
+and then all of a sudden there was an explosion of firearms and a cry.
+
+Huck waited for no particulars. He sprang away and sped down the hill
+as fast as his legs could carry him.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+AS the earliest suspicion of dawn appeared on Sunday morning, Huck
+came groping up the hill and rapped gently at the old Welshman's door.
+The inmates were asleep, but it was a sleep that was set on a
+hair-trigger, on account of the exciting episode of the night. A call
+came from a window:
+
+"Who's there!"
+
+Huck's scared voice answered in a low tone:
+
+"Please let me in! It's only Huck Finn!"
+
+"It's a name that can open this door night or day, lad!--and welcome!"
+
+These were strange words to the vagabond boy's ears, and the
+pleasantest he had ever heard. He could not recollect that the closing
+word had ever been applied in his case before. The door was quickly
+unlocked, and he entered. Huck was given a seat and the old man and his
+brace of tall sons speedily dressed themselves.
+
+"Now, my boy, I hope you're good and hungry, because breakfast will be
+ready as soon as the sun's up, and we'll have a piping hot one, too
+--make yourself easy about that! I and the boys hoped you'd turn up and
+stop here last night."
+
+"I was awful scared," said Huck, "and I run. I took out when the
+pistols went off, and I didn't stop for three mile. I've come now becuz
+I wanted to know about it, you know; and I come before daylight becuz I
+didn't want to run across them devils, even if they was dead."
+
+"Well, poor chap, you do look as if you'd had a hard night of it--but
+there's a bed here for you when you've had your breakfast. No, they
+ain't dead, lad--we are sorry enough for that. You see we knew right
+where to put our hands on them, by your description; so we crept along
+on tiptoe till we got within fifteen feet of them--dark as a cellar
+that sumach path was--and just then I found I was going to sneeze. It
+was the meanest kind of luck! I tried to keep it back, but no use
+--'twas bound to come, and it did come! I was in the lead with my pistol
+raised, and when the sneeze started those scoundrels a-rustling to get
+out of the path, I sung out, 'Fire boys!' and blazed away at the place
+where the rustling was. So did the boys. But they were off in a jiffy,
+those villains, and we after them, down through the woods. I judge we
+never touched them. They fired a shot apiece as they started, but their
+bullets whizzed by and didn't do us any harm. As soon as we lost the
+sound of their feet we quit chasing, and went down and stirred up the
+constables. They got a posse together, and went off to guard the river
+bank, and as soon as it is light the sheriff and a gang are going to
+beat up the woods. My boys will be with them presently. I wish we had
+some sort of description of those rascals--'twould help a good deal.
+But you couldn't see what they were like, in the dark, lad, I suppose?"
+
+"Oh yes; I saw them down-town and follered them."
+
+"Splendid! Describe them--describe them, my boy!"
+
+"One's the old deaf and dumb Spaniard that's ben around here once or
+twice, and t'other's a mean-looking, ragged--"
+
+"That's enough, lad, we know the men! Happened on them in the woods
+back of the widow's one day, and they slunk away. Off with you, boys,
+and tell the sheriff--get your breakfast to-morrow morning!"
+
+The Welshman's sons departed at once. As they were leaving the room
+Huck sprang up and exclaimed:
+
+"Oh, please don't tell ANYbody it was me that blowed on them! Oh,
+please!"
+
+"All right if you say it, Huck, but you ought to have the credit of
+what you did."
+
+"Oh no, no! Please don't tell!"
+
+When the young men were gone, the old Welshman said:
+
+"They won't tell--and I won't. But why don't you want it known?"
+
+Huck would not explain, further than to say that he already knew too
+much about one of those men and would not have the man know that he
+knew anything against him for the whole world--he would be killed for
+knowing it, sure.
+
+The old man promised secrecy once more, and said:
+
+"How did you come to follow these fellows, lad? Were they looking
+suspicious?"
+
+Huck was silent while he framed a duly cautious reply. Then he said:
+
+"Well, you see, I'm a kind of a hard lot,--least everybody says so,
+and I don't see nothing agin it--and sometimes I can't sleep much, on
+account of thinking about it and sort of trying to strike out a new way
+of doing. That was the way of it last night. I couldn't sleep, and so I
+come along up-street 'bout midnight, a-turning it all over, and when I
+got to that old shackly brick store by the Temperance Tavern, I backed
+up agin the wall to have another think. Well, just then along comes
+these two chaps slipping along close by me, with something under their
+arm, and I reckoned they'd stole it. One was a-smoking, and t'other one
+wanted a light; so they stopped right before me and the cigars lit up
+their faces and I see that the big one was the deaf and dumb Spaniard,
+by his white whiskers and the patch on his eye, and t'other one was a
+rusty, ragged-looking devil."
+
+"Could you see the rags by the light of the cigars?"
+
+This staggered Huck for a moment. Then he said:
+
+"Well, I don't know--but somehow it seems as if I did."
+
+"Then they went on, and you--"
+
+"Follered 'em--yes. That was it. I wanted to see what was up--they
+sneaked along so. I dogged 'em to the widder's stile, and stood in the
+dark and heard the ragged one beg for the widder, and the Spaniard
+swear he'd spile her looks just as I told you and your two--"
+
+"What! The DEAF AND DUMB man said all that!"
+
+Huck had made another terrible mistake! He was trying his best to keep
+the old man from getting the faintest hint of who the Spaniard might
+be, and yet his tongue seemed determined to get him into trouble in
+spite of all he could do. He made several efforts to creep out of his
+scrape, but the old man's eye was upon him and he made blunder after
+blunder. Presently the Welshman said:
+
+"My boy, don't be afraid of me. I wouldn't hurt a hair of your head
+for all the world. No--I'd protect you--I'd protect you. This Spaniard
+is not deaf and dumb; you've let that slip without intending it; you
+can't cover that up now. You know something about that Spaniard that
+you want to keep dark. Now trust me--tell me what it is, and trust me
+--I won't betray you."
+
+Huck looked into the old man's honest eyes a moment, then bent over
+and whispered in his ear:
+
+"'Tain't a Spaniard--it's Injun Joe!"
+
+The Welshman almost jumped out of his chair. In a moment he said:
+
+"It's all plain enough, now. When you talked about notching ears and
+slitting noses I judged that that was your own embellishment, because
+white men don't take that sort of revenge. But an Injun! That's a
+different matter altogether."
+
+During breakfast the talk went on, and in the course of it the old man
+said that the last thing which he and his sons had done, before going
+to bed, was to get a lantern and examine the stile and its vicinity for
+marks of blood. They found none, but captured a bulky bundle of--
+
+"Of WHAT?"
+
+If the words had been lightning they could not have leaped with a more
+stunning suddenness from Huck's blanched lips. His eyes were staring
+wide, now, and his breath suspended--waiting for the answer. The
+Welshman started--stared in return--three seconds--five seconds--ten
+--then replied:
+
+"Of burglar's tools. Why, what's the MATTER with you?"
+
+Huck sank back, panting gently, but deeply, unutterably grateful. The
+Welshman eyed him gravely, curiously--and presently said:
+
+"Yes, burglar's tools. That appears to relieve you a good deal. But
+what did give you that turn? What were YOU expecting we'd found?"
+
+Huck was in a close place--the inquiring eye was upon him--he would
+have given anything for material for a plausible answer--nothing
+suggested itself--the inquiring eye was boring deeper and deeper--a
+senseless reply offered--there was no time to weigh it, so at a venture
+he uttered it--feebly:
+
+"Sunday-school books, maybe."
+
+Poor Huck was too distressed to smile, but the old man laughed loud
+and joyously, shook up the details of his anatomy from head to foot,
+and ended by saying that such a laugh was money in a-man's pocket,
+because it cut down the doctor's bill like everything. Then he added:
+
+"Poor old chap, you're white and jaded--you ain't well a bit--no
+wonder you're a little flighty and off your balance. But you'll come
+out of it. Rest and sleep will fetch you out all right, I hope."
+
+Huck was irritated to think he had been such a goose and betrayed such
+a suspicious excitement, for he had dropped the idea that the parcel
+brought from the tavern was the treasure, as soon as he had heard the
+talk at the widow's stile. He had only thought it was not the treasure,
+however--he had not known that it wasn't--and so the suggestion of a
+captured bundle was too much for his self-possession. But on the whole
+he felt glad the little episode had happened, for now he knew beyond
+all question that that bundle was not THE bundle, and so his mind was
+at rest and exceedingly comfortable. In fact, everything seemed to be
+drifting just in the right direction, now; the treasure must be still
+in No. 2, the men would be captured and jailed that day, and he and Tom
+could seize the gold that night without any trouble or any fear of
+interruption.
+
+Just as breakfast was completed there was a knock at the door. Huck
+jumped for a hiding-place, for he had no mind to be connected even
+remotely with the late event. The Welshman admitted several ladies and
+gentlemen, among them the Widow Douglas, and noticed that groups of
+citizens were climbing up the hill--to stare at the stile. So the news
+had spread. The Welshman had to tell the story of the night to the
+visitors. The widow's gratitude for her preservation was outspoken.
+
+"Don't say a word about it, madam. There's another that you're more
+beholden to than you are to me and my boys, maybe, but he don't allow
+me to tell his name. We wouldn't have been there but for him."
+
+Of course this excited a curiosity so vast that it almost belittled
+the main matter--but the Welshman allowed it to eat into the vitals of
+his visitors, and through them be transmitted to the whole town, for he
+refused to part with his secret. When all else had been learned, the
+widow said:
+
+"I went to sleep reading in bed and slept straight through all that
+noise. Why didn't you come and wake me?"
+
+"We judged it warn't worth while. Those fellows warn't likely to come
+again--they hadn't any tools left to work with, and what was the use of
+waking you up and scaring you to death? My three negro men stood guard
+at your house all the rest of the night. They've just come back."
+
+More visitors came, and the story had to be told and retold for a
+couple of hours more.
+
+There was no Sabbath-school during day-school vacation, but everybody
+was early at church. The stirring event was well canvassed. News came
+that not a sign of the two villains had been yet discovered. When the
+sermon was finished, Judge Thatcher's wife dropped alongside of Mrs.
+Harper as she moved down the aisle with the crowd and said:
+
+"Is my Becky going to sleep all day? I just expected she would be
+tired to death."
+
+"Your Becky?"
+
+"Yes," with a startled look--"didn't she stay with you last night?"
+
+"Why, no."
+
+Mrs. Thatcher turned pale, and sank into a pew, just as Aunt Polly,
+talking briskly with a friend, passed by. Aunt Polly said:
+
+"Good-morning, Mrs. Thatcher. Good-morning, Mrs. Harper. I've got a
+boy that's turned up missing. I reckon my Tom stayed at your house last
+night--one of you. And now he's afraid to come to church. I've got to
+settle with him."
+
+Mrs. Thatcher shook her head feebly and turned paler than ever.
+
+"He didn't stay with us," said Mrs. Harper, beginning to look uneasy.
+A marked anxiety came into Aunt Polly's face.
+
+"Joe Harper, have you seen my Tom this morning?"
+
+"No'm."
+
+"When did you see him last?"
+
+Joe tried to remember, but was not sure he could say. The people had
+stopped moving out of church. Whispers passed along, and a boding
+uneasiness took possession of every countenance. Children were
+anxiously questioned, and young teachers. They all said they had not
+noticed whether Tom and Becky were on board the ferryboat on the
+homeward trip; it was dark; no one thought of inquiring if any one was
+missing. One young man finally blurted out his fear that they were
+still in the cave! Mrs. Thatcher swooned away. Aunt Polly fell to
+crying and wringing her hands.
+
+The alarm swept from lip to lip, from group to group, from street to
+street, and within five minutes the bells were wildly clanging and the
+whole town was up! The Cardiff Hill episode sank into instant
+insignificance, the burglars were forgotten, horses were saddled,
+skiffs were manned, the ferryboat ordered out, and before the horror
+was half an hour old, two hundred men were pouring down highroad and
+river toward the cave.
+
+All the long afternoon the village seemed empty and dead. Many women
+visited Aunt Polly and Mrs. Thatcher and tried to comfort them. They
+cried with them, too, and that was still better than words. All the
+tedious night the town waited for news; but when the morning dawned at
+last, all the word that came was, "Send more candles--and send food."
+Mrs. Thatcher was almost crazed; and Aunt Polly, also. Judge Thatcher
+sent messages of hope and encouragement from the cave, but they
+conveyed no real cheer.
+
+The old Welshman came home toward daylight, spattered with
+candle-grease, smeared with clay, and almost worn out. He found Huck
+still in the bed that had been provided for him, and delirious with
+fever. The physicians were all at the cave, so the Widow Douglas came
+and took charge of the patient. She said she would do her best by him,
+because, whether he was good, bad, or indifferent, he was the Lord's,
+and nothing that was the Lord's was a thing to be neglected. The
+Welshman said Huck had good spots in him, and the widow said:
+
+"You can depend on it. That's the Lord's mark. He don't leave it off.
+He never does. Puts it somewhere on every creature that comes from his
+hands."
+
+Early in the forenoon parties of jaded men began to straggle into the
+village, but the strongest of the citizens continued searching. All the
+news that could be gained was that remotenesses of the cavern were
+being ransacked that had never been visited before; that every corner
+and crevice was going to be thoroughly searched; that wherever one
+wandered through the maze of passages, lights were to be seen flitting
+hither and thither in the distance, and shoutings and pistol-shots sent
+their hollow reverberations to the ear down the sombre aisles. In one
+place, far from the section usually traversed by tourists, the names
+"BECKY & TOM" had been found traced upon the rocky wall with
+candle-smoke, and near at hand a grease-soiled bit of ribbon. Mrs.
+Thatcher recognized the ribbon and cried over it. She said it was the
+last relic she should ever have of her child; and that no other memorial
+of her could ever be so precious, because this one parted latest from
+the living body before the awful death came. Some said that now and
+then, in the cave, a far-away speck of light would glimmer, and then a
+glorious shout would burst forth and a score of men go trooping down the
+echoing aisle--and then a sickening disappointment always followed; the
+children were not there; it was only a searcher's light.
+
+Three dreadful days and nights dragged their tedious hours along, and
+the village sank into a hopeless stupor. No one had heart for anything.
+The accidental discovery, just made, that the proprietor of the
+Temperance Tavern kept liquor on his premises, scarcely fluttered the
+public pulse, tremendous as the fact was. In a lucid interval, Huck
+feebly led up to the subject of taverns, and finally asked--dimly
+dreading the worst--if anything had been discovered at the Temperance
+Tavern since he had been ill.
+
+"Yes," said the widow.
+
+Huck started up in bed, wild-eyed:
+
+"What? What was it?"
+
+"Liquor!--and the place has been shut up. Lie down, child--what a turn
+you did give me!"
+
+"Only tell me just one thing--only just one--please! Was it Tom Sawyer
+that found it?"
+
+The widow burst into tears. "Hush, hush, child, hush! I've told you
+before, you must NOT talk. You are very, very sick!"
+
+Then nothing but liquor had been found; there would have been a great
+powwow if it had been the gold. So the treasure was gone forever--gone
+forever! But what could she be crying about? Curious that she should
+cry.
+
+These thoughts worked their dim way through Huck's mind, and under the
+weariness they gave him he fell asleep. The widow said to herself:
+
+"There--he's asleep, poor wreck. Tom Sawyer find it! Pity but somebody
+could find Tom Sawyer! Ah, there ain't many left, now, that's got hope
+enough, or strength enough, either, to go on searching."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+NOW to return to Tom and Becky's share in the picnic. They tripped
+along the murky aisles with the rest of the company, visiting the
+familiar wonders of the cave--wonders dubbed with rather
+over-descriptive names, such as "The Drawing-Room," "The Cathedral,"
+"Aladdin's Palace," and so on. Presently the hide-and-seek frolicking
+began, and Tom and Becky engaged in it with zeal until the exertion
+began to grow a trifle wearisome; then they wandered down a sinuous
+avenue holding their candles aloft and reading the tangled web-work of
+names, dates, post-office addresses, and mottoes with which the rocky
+walls had been frescoed (in candle-smoke). Still drifting along and
+talking, they scarcely noticed that they were now in a part of the cave
+whose walls were not frescoed. They smoked their own names under an
+overhanging shelf and moved on. Presently they came to a place where a
+little stream of water, trickling over a ledge and carrying a limestone
+sediment with it, had, in the slow-dragging ages, formed a laced and
+ruffled Niagara in gleaming and imperishable stone. Tom squeezed his
+small body behind it in order to illuminate it for Becky's
+gratification. He found that it curtained a sort of steep natural
+stairway which was enclosed between narrow walls, and at once the
+ambition to be a discoverer seized him. Becky responded to his call,
+and they made a smoke-mark for future guidance, and started upon their
+quest. They wound this way and that, far down into the secret depths of
+the cave, made another mark, and branched off in search of novelties to
+tell the upper world about. In one place they found a spacious cavern,
+from whose ceiling depended a multitude of shining stalactites of the
+length and circumference of a man's leg; they walked all about it,
+wondering and admiring, and presently left it by one of the numerous
+passages that opened into it. This shortly brought them to a bewitching
+spring, whose basin was incrusted with a frostwork of glittering
+crystals; it was in the midst of a cavern whose walls were supported by
+many fantastic pillars which had been formed by the joining of great
+stalactites and stalagmites together, the result of the ceaseless
+water-drip of centuries. Under the roof vast knots of bats had packed
+themselves together, thousands in a bunch; the lights disturbed the
+creatures and they came flocking down by hundreds, squeaking and
+darting furiously at the candles. Tom knew their ways and the danger of
+this sort of conduct. He seized Becky's hand and hurried her into the
+first corridor that offered; and none too soon, for a bat struck
+Becky's light out with its wing while she was passing out of the
+cavern. The bats chased the children a good distance; but the fugitives
+plunged into every new passage that offered, and at last got rid of the
+perilous things. Tom found a subterranean lake, shortly, which
+stretched its dim length away until its shape was lost in the shadows.
+He wanted to explore its borders, but concluded that it would be best
+to sit down and rest awhile, first. Now, for the first time, the deep
+stillness of the place laid a clammy hand upon the spirits of the
+children. Becky said:
+
+"Why, I didn't notice, but it seems ever so long since I heard any of
+the others."
+
+"Come to think, Becky, we are away down below them--and I don't know
+how far away north, or south, or east, or whichever it is. We couldn't
+hear them here."
+
+Becky grew apprehensive.
+
+"I wonder how long we've been down here, Tom? We better start back."
+
+"Yes, I reckon we better. P'raps we better."
+
+"Can you find the way, Tom? It's all a mixed-up crookedness to me."
+
+"I reckon I could find it--but then the bats. If they put our candles
+out it will be an awful fix. Let's try some other way, so as not to go
+through there."
+
+"Well. But I hope we won't get lost. It would be so awful!" and the
+girl shuddered at the thought of the dreadful possibilities.
+
+They started through a corridor, and traversed it in silence a long
+way, glancing at each new opening, to see if there was anything
+familiar about the look of it; but they were all strange. Every time
+Tom made an examination, Becky would watch his face for an encouraging
+sign, and he would say cheerily:
+
+"Oh, it's all right. This ain't the one, but we'll come to it right
+away!"
+
+But he felt less and less hopeful with each failure, and presently
+began to turn off into diverging avenues at sheer random, in desperate
+hope of finding the one that was wanted. He still said it was "all
+right," but there was such a leaden dread at his heart that the words
+had lost their ring and sounded just as if he had said, "All is lost!"
+Becky clung to his side in an anguish of fear, and tried hard to keep
+back the tears, but they would come. At last she said:
+
+"Oh, Tom, never mind the bats, let's go back that way! We seem to get
+worse and worse off all the time."
+
+"Listen!" said he.
+
+Profound silence; silence so deep that even their breathings were
+conspicuous in the hush. Tom shouted. The call went echoing down the
+empty aisles and died out in the distance in a faint sound that
+resembled a ripple of mocking laughter.
+
+"Oh, don't do it again, Tom, it is too horrid," said Becky.
+
+"It is horrid, but I better, Becky; they might hear us, you know," and
+he shouted again.
+
+The "might" was even a chillier horror than the ghostly laughter, it
+so confessed a perishing hope. The children stood still and listened;
+but there was no result. Tom turned upon the back track at once, and
+hurried his steps. It was but a little while before a certain
+indecision in his manner revealed another fearful fact to Becky--he
+could not find his way back!
+
+"Oh, Tom, you didn't make any marks!"
+
+"Becky, I was such a fool! Such a fool! I never thought we might want
+to come back! No--I can't find the way. It's all mixed up."
+
+"Tom, Tom, we're lost! we're lost! We never can get out of this awful
+place! Oh, why DID we ever leave the others!"
+
+She sank to the ground and burst into such a frenzy of crying that Tom
+was appalled with the idea that she might die, or lose her reason. He
+sat down by her and put his arms around her; she buried her face in his
+bosom, she clung to him, she poured out her terrors, her unavailing
+regrets, and the far echoes turned them all to jeering laughter. Tom
+begged her to pluck up hope again, and she said she could not. He fell
+to blaming and abusing himself for getting her into this miserable
+situation; this had a better effect. She said she would try to hope
+again, she would get up and follow wherever he might lead if only he
+would not talk like that any more. For he was no more to blame than
+she, she said.
+
+So they moved on again--aimlessly--simply at random--all they could do
+was to move, keep moving. For a little while, hope made a show of
+reviving--not with any reason to back it, but only because it is its
+nature to revive when the spring has not been taken out of it by age
+and familiarity with failure.
+
+By-and-by Tom took Becky's candle and blew it out. This economy meant
+so much! Words were not needed. Becky understood, and her hope died
+again. She knew that Tom had a whole candle and three or four pieces in
+his pockets--yet he must economize.
+
+By-and-by, fatigue began to assert its claims; the children tried to
+pay attention, for it was dreadful to think of sitting down when time
+was grown to be so precious, moving, in some direction, in any
+direction, was at least progress and might bear fruit; but to sit down
+was to invite death and shorten its pursuit.
+
+At last Becky's frail limbs refused to carry her farther. She sat
+down. Tom rested with her, and they talked of home, and the friends
+there, and the comfortable beds and, above all, the light! Becky cried,
+and Tom tried to think of some way of comforting her, but all his
+encouragements were grown threadbare with use, and sounded like
+sarcasms. Fatigue bore so heavily upon Becky that she drowsed off to
+sleep. Tom was grateful. He sat looking into her drawn face and saw it
+grow smooth and natural under the influence of pleasant dreams; and
+by-and-by a smile dawned and rested there. The peaceful face reflected
+somewhat of peace and healing into his own spirit, and his thoughts
+wandered away to bygone times and dreamy memories. While he was deep in
+his musings, Becky woke up with a breezy little laugh--but it was
+stricken dead upon her lips, and a groan followed it.
+
+"Oh, how COULD I sleep! I wish I never, never had waked! No! No, I
+don't, Tom! Don't look so! I won't say it again."
+
+"I'm glad you've slept, Becky; you'll feel rested, now, and we'll find
+the way out."
+
+"We can try, Tom; but I've seen such a beautiful country in my dream.
+I reckon we are going there."
+
+"Maybe not, maybe not. Cheer up, Becky, and let's go on trying."
+
+They rose up and wandered along, hand in hand and hopeless. They tried
+to estimate how long they had been in the cave, but all they knew was
+that it seemed days and weeks, and yet it was plain that this could not
+be, for their candles were not gone yet. A long time after this--they
+could not tell how long--Tom said they must go softly and listen for
+dripping water--they must find a spring. They found one presently, and
+Tom said it was time to rest again. Both were cruelly tired, yet Becky
+said she thought she could go a little farther. She was surprised to
+hear Tom dissent. She could not understand it. They sat down, and Tom
+fastened his candle to the wall in front of them with some clay.
+Thought was soon busy; nothing was said for some time. Then Becky broke
+the silence:
+
+"Tom, I am so hungry!"
+
+Tom took something out of his pocket.
+
+"Do you remember this?" said he.
+
+Becky almost smiled.
+
+"It's our wedding-cake, Tom."
+
+"Yes--I wish it was as big as a barrel, for it's all we've got."
+
+"I saved it from the picnic for us to dream on, Tom, the way grown-up
+people do with wedding-cake--but it'll be our--"
+
+She dropped the sentence where it was. Tom divided the cake and Becky
+ate with good appetite, while Tom nibbled at his moiety. There was
+abundance of cold water to finish the feast with. By-and-by Becky
+suggested that they move on again. Tom was silent a moment. Then he
+said:
+
+"Becky, can you bear it if I tell you something?"
+
+Becky's face paled, but she thought she could.
+
+"Well, then, Becky, we must stay here, where there's water to drink.
+That little piece is our last candle!"
+
+Becky gave loose to tears and wailings. Tom did what he could to
+comfort her, but with little effect. At length Becky said:
+
+"Tom!"
+
+"Well, Becky?"
+
+"They'll miss us and hunt for us!"
+
+"Yes, they will! Certainly they will!"
+
+"Maybe they're hunting for us now, Tom."
+
+"Why, I reckon maybe they are. I hope they are."
+
+"When would they miss us, Tom?"
+
+"When they get back to the boat, I reckon."
+
+"Tom, it might be dark then--would they notice we hadn't come?"
+
+"I don't know. But anyway, your mother would miss you as soon as they
+got home."
+
+A frightened look in Becky's face brought Tom to his senses and he saw
+that he had made a blunder. Becky was not to have gone home that night!
+The children became silent and thoughtful. In a moment a new burst of
+grief from Becky showed Tom that the thing in his mind had struck hers
+also--that the Sabbath morning might be half spent before Mrs. Thatcher
+discovered that Becky was not at Mrs. Harper's.
+
+The children fastened their eyes upon their bit of candle and watched
+it melt slowly and pitilessly away; saw the half inch of wick stand
+alone at last; saw the feeble flame rise and fall, climb the thin
+column of smoke, linger at its top a moment, and then--the horror of
+utter darkness reigned!
+
+How long afterward it was that Becky came to a slow consciousness that
+she was crying in Tom's arms, neither could tell. All that they knew
+was, that after what seemed a mighty stretch of time, both awoke out of
+a dead stupor of sleep and resumed their miseries once more. Tom said
+it might be Sunday, now--maybe Monday. He tried to get Becky to talk,
+but her sorrows were too oppressive, all her hopes were gone. Tom said
+that they must have been missed long ago, and no doubt the search was
+going on. He would shout and maybe some one would come. He tried it;
+but in the darkness the distant echoes sounded so hideously that he
+tried it no more.
+
+The hours wasted away, and hunger came to torment the captives again.
+A portion of Tom's half of the cake was left; they divided and ate it.
+But they seemed hungrier than before. The poor morsel of food only
+whetted desire.
+
+By-and-by Tom said:
+
+"SH! Did you hear that?"
+
+Both held their breath and listened. There was a sound like the
+faintest, far-off shout. Instantly Tom answered it, and leading Becky
+by the hand, started groping down the corridor in its direction.
+Presently he listened again; again the sound was heard, and apparently
+a little nearer.
+
+"It's them!" said Tom; "they're coming! Come along, Becky--we're all
+right now!"
+
+The joy of the prisoners was almost overwhelming. Their speed was
+slow, however, because pitfalls were somewhat common, and had to be
+guarded against. They shortly came to one and had to stop. It might be
+three feet deep, it might be a hundred--there was no passing it at any
+rate. Tom got down on his breast and reached as far down as he could.
+No bottom. They must stay there and wait until the searchers came. They
+listened; evidently the distant shoutings were growing more distant! a
+moment or two more and they had gone altogether. The heart-sinking
+misery of it! Tom whooped until he was hoarse, but it was of no use. He
+talked hopefully to Becky; but an age of anxious waiting passed and no
+sounds came again.
+
+The children groped their way back to the spring. The weary time
+dragged on; they slept again, and awoke famished and woe-stricken. Tom
+believed it must be Tuesday by this time.
+
+Now an idea struck him. There were some side passages near at hand. It
+would be better to explore some of these than bear the weight of the
+heavy time in idleness. He took a kite-line from his pocket, tied it to
+a projection, and he and Becky started, Tom in the lead, unwinding the
+line as he groped along. At the end of twenty steps the corridor ended
+in a "jumping-off place." Tom got down on his knees and felt below, and
+then as far around the corner as he could reach with his hands
+conveniently; he made an effort to stretch yet a little farther to the
+right, and at that moment, not twenty yards away, a human hand, holding
+a candle, appeared from behind a rock! Tom lifted up a glorious shout,
+and instantly that hand was followed by the body it belonged to--Injun
+Joe's! Tom was paralyzed; he could not move. He was vastly gratified
+the next moment, to see the "Spaniard" take to his heels and get
+himself out of sight. Tom wondered that Joe had not recognized his
+voice and come over and killed him for testifying in court. But the
+echoes must have disguised the voice. Without doubt, that was it, he
+reasoned. Tom's fright weakened every muscle in his body. He said to
+himself that if he had strength enough to get back to the spring he
+would stay there, and nothing should tempt him to run the risk of
+meeting Injun Joe again. He was careful to keep from Becky what it was
+he had seen. He told her he had only shouted "for luck."
+
+But hunger and wretchedness rise superior to fears in the long run.
+Another tedious wait at the spring and another long sleep brought
+changes. The children awoke tortured with a raging hunger. Tom believed
+that it must be Wednesday or Thursday or even Friday or Saturday, now,
+and that the search had been given over. He proposed to explore another
+passage. He felt willing to risk Injun Joe and all other terrors. But
+Becky was very weak. She had sunk into a dreary apathy and would not be
+roused. She said she would wait, now, where she was, and die--it would
+not be long. She told Tom to go with the kite-line and explore if he
+chose; but she implored him to come back every little while and speak
+to her; and she made him promise that when the awful time came, he
+would stay by her and hold her hand until all was over.
+
+Tom kissed her, with a choking sensation in his throat, and made a
+show of being confident of finding the searchers or an escape from the
+cave; then he took the kite-line in his hand and went groping down one
+of the passages on his hands and knees, distressed with hunger and sick
+with bodings of coming doom.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Part 7.
+by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TOM SAWYER ***
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