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"clew" for murder, and so after that detective had got through and gone
home, Tom felt just as insecure as he was before.
The slow days drifted on, and each left behind it a slightly lightened
weight of apprehension.
There comes a time in every rightlyconstructed boy's life when he has a
raging desire to go somewhere and dig for hidden treasure. This desire
suddenly came upon Tom one day. He sallied out to find Joe Harper, but
failed of success. Next he sought Ben Rogers; he had gone fishing.
Presently he stumbled upon Huck Finn the Red-Handed. Huck would answer.
Tom took him to a private place and opened the matter to him
confidentially. Huck was willing. Huck was always willing to take a hand
in any enterprise that offered entertainment and required no capital, for
he had a troublesome superabundance of that sort of time which is not
money. "Where'll we dig?" said Huck.
"Oh, most anywhere."
"Why, is it hid all around?"
"No, indeed it ain't. It's hid in mighty particular places,
Huck-sometimes on islands, sometimes in rotten chests under the end of a
limb of an old dead tree, just where the shadow falls at midnight; but
mostly under the floor in ha'nted houses."
"Who hides it?"
"Why, robbers, of course - who'd you reckon? Sunday-school
sup'rintendents?"
"I don't know. If 'twas mine I wouldn't hide it; I'd spend it and have
a good time."
"So would I. But robbers don't do that way. They always hide it and
leave it there."
"Don't they come after it any more?"
"No, they think they will, but they generally forget the marks, or else
they die. Anyway, it lays there a long time and gets rusty; and by and by
somebody finds an old yellow paper that tells how to find the marks-a
paper that's got to be ciphered over about a week because it's mostly
signs and hy'roglyphics."
"HyroQwhich?"
"Hy'roglyphics-pictures and things, you know, that don't seem to mean
anything."
"Have you got one of them papers, Tom?"
"No."
"Well then, how you going to find the marks?"
"I don't want any marks. They always bury it under a ha'nted house or
on an island, or under a dead tree that's got one limb sticking out. Well,
we've tried Jackson's Island a little, and we can try it again some time;
and there's the old ha'nted house up the Still-House branch, and there's
lots of deadlimb trees-dead loads of 'em."
"Is it under all of them?"
"How you talk! No!"
"Then how you going to know which one to go for?"
"Go for all of 'em!"
"Why, Tom, it'll take all summer."
"Well, what of that? Suppose you find a brass pot with a hundred
dollars in it, all rusty and gray, or rotten chest full of di'monds. How's
that?"
Huck's eyes glowed.
"That's bully. Plenty bully enough for me. Just you gimme the hundred
dollars and I don't want no di'monds."
"All right. But I bet you I ain't going to throw off on di'monds. Some
of 'em's worth twenty dollars apiece-there ain't any, hardly, but's worth
six bits or a dollar."
"No! Is that so?"
"Cert'nly-anybody'll tell you so. Hain't you ever seen one, Huck?"
"Not as I remember."
"Oh, kings have slathers of them."
"Well, I don' know no kings, Tom."
"I reckon you don't. But if you was to go to Europe you'd see a raft of
'em hopping around."
"Do they hop?"
"Hop?-your granny! No!"
"Well, what did you say they did, for?"
"Shucks, I only meant you'd SEE 'em-not hopping, of course-what do they
want to hop for?-but I mean you'd just see 'em-scattered around, you know,
in a kind of a general way. Like that old humpbacked Richard."
"Richard? What's his other name?"
"He didn't have any other name. Kings don't have any but a given name."
"No?"
"But they don't."
"Well, if they like it, Tom, all right; but I don't want to be a king
and have only just a given name, like a nigger. But say-where you going to
dig first?"
"Well, I don't know. S'pose we tackle that old dead-limb tree on the
hill t'other side of Still-House branch?"
"I'm agreed."
So they got a crippled pick and a shovel, and set out on their
three-mile tramp. They arrived hot and panting, and threw themselves down
in the shade of a neighboring elm to rest and have a smoke.
"I like this," said Tom.
"So do I."
"Say, Huck, if we find a treasure here, what you going to do with your
share?"
"Well, I'll have pie and a glass of soda every day, and I'll go to
every circus that comes along. I bet I'll have a gay time."
"Well, ain't you going to save any of it?"
"Save it? What for?"
"Why, so as to have something to live on, by and by."
"Oh, that ain't any use. Pap would come back to thish-yer town some day
and get his claws on it if I didn't hurry up, and I tell you he'd clean it
out pretty quick. What you going to do with yourn, Tom?"
"I'm going to buy a new drum, and a sure-'nough sword, and a red
necktie and a bull pup, and get married."
"Married!"
"That's it."
"Tom, you-why, you ain't in your right mind."
"Wait-you'll see."
"Well, that's the foolishest thing you could do. Look at pap and my
mother. Fight! Why, they used to fight all the time. I remember, mighty
well."
"That ain't anything. The girl I'm going to marry won't fight."
"Tom, I reckon they're all alike. They'll all comb a body. Now you
better think 'bout this awhile. I tell you you better. What's the name of
the gal?"
"It ain't a gal at all-it's a girl."
"It's all the same, I reckon; some says gal, some says girl-both's
right, like enough. Anyway, what's her name, Tom?"
"I'll tell you some time-not now."
"All right-that'll do. Only if you get married I'll be more lonesomer
than ever."
"No you won't. You'll come and live with me. Now stir out of this and
we'll go to digging."
They worked and sweated for half an hour. No result. They toiled
another half-hour. Still no result. Huck said:
"Do they always bury it as deep as this?"
"Sometimes-not always. Not generally. I reckon we haven't got the right
place."
So they chose a new spot and began again. The labor dragged a little,
but still they made progress. They pegged away in silence for some time.
Finally Huck leaned on his shovel, swabbed the beaded drops from his brow
with his sleeve, and said:
"Where you going to dig next, after we get this one?"
"I reckon maybe we'll tackle the old tree that's over yonder on Cardiff
Hill back of the widow's."
"I reckon that'll be a good one. But won't the widow take it away from
us, Tom? It's on her land."
"SHE take it away! Maybe she'd like to try it once. Whoever finds one
of these hid treasures, it belongs to him. It don't make any difference
whose land it's on."
That was satisfactory. The work went on. By and by Huck said:
"Blame it, we must be in the wrong place again. What do you think?"
"It is mighty curious, Huck. I don't understand it. Sometimes witches
interfere. I reckon maybe that's what's the trouble now."
"Shucks! Witches ain't got no power in the daytime."
"Well, that's so. I didn't think of that. Oh, I know what the matter
is! What a blamed lot of fools we are! You got to find out where the
shadow of the limb falls at midnight, and that's where you dig!"
"Then consound it, we've fooled away all this work for nothing. Now
hang it all, we got to come back in the night. It's an awful long way. Can
you get out?"
"I bet I will. We've got to do it to-night, too, because if somebody
sees these holes they'll know in a minute what's here and they'll go for
it."
"Well, I'll come around and maow to-night."
"All right. Let's hide the tools in the bushes."
The boys were there that night, about the appointed time. They sat in
the shadow waiting. It was a lonely place, and an hour made solemn by old
traditions. Spirits whispered in the rustling leaves, ghosts lurked in the
murky nooks, the deep baying of a hound floated up out of the distance, an
owl answered with his sepulchral note. The boys were subdued by these
solemnities, and talked little. By and by they judged that twelve had
come; they marked where the shadow fell, and began to dig. Their hopes
commenced to rise. Their interest grew stronger, and their industry kept
pace with it. The hole deepened and still deepened, but every time their
hearts jumped to hear the pick strike upon something, they only suffered a
new disappointment. It was only a stone or a chunk. At last Tom said:
"It ain't any use, Huck, we're wrong again."
"Well, but we CAN'T be wrong. We spotted the shadder to a dot."
"I know it, but then there's another thing."
"What's that?".
"Why, we only guessed at the time. Like enough it was too late or too
early."
Huck dropped his shovel.
"That's it," said he. "That's the very trouble. We got to give this one
up. We can't ever tell the right time, and besides this kind of thing's
too awful, here this time of night with witches and ghosts a-fluttering
around so. I feel as if something's behind me all the time; and I'm afeard
to turn around, becuz maybe there's others in front a-waiting for a
chance. I been creeping all over, ever since I got here."
"Well, I've been pretty much so, too, Huck. They most always put in a
dead man when they bury a treasure under a tree, to look out for it."
"Lordy!"
"Yes, they do. I've always heard that."
"Tom, I don't like to fool around much where there's dead people. A
body's bound to get into trouble with 'em, sure."
"I don't like to stir 'em up, either. S'pose this one here was to stick
his skull out and say something!"
"Don't Tom! It's awful."
"Well, it just is. Huck, I don't feel comfortable a bit."
"Say, Tom, let's give this place up, and try somewheres else."
"All right, I reckon we better."
"What'll it be?"
Tom considered awhile; and then said:
"The ha'nted house. That's it!"
"Blame it, I don't like ha'nted houses, Tom. Why, they're a dern sight
worse'n dead people. Dead people might talk, maybe, but they don't come
sliding around in a shroud, when you ain't noticing, and peep over your
shoulder all of a sudden and grit their teeth, the way a ghost does. I
couldn't stand such a thing as that, Tom-nobody could."
"Yes, but, Huck, ghosts don't travel around only at night. They won't
hender us from digging there in the daytime."
"Well, that's so. But you know mighty well people don't go about that
ha'nted house in the day nor the night."
"Well, that's mostly because they don't like to go where a man's been
murdered, anyway-but nothing's ever been seen around that house except in
the night-just some blue lights slipping by the windows-no regular
ghosts."
"Well, where you see one of them blue lights flickering around, Tom,
you can bet there's a ghost mighty close behind it. It stands to reason.
Becuz you know that they don't anybody but ghosts use 'em."
"Yes, that's so. But anyway they don't come around in the daytime, so
what's the use of our being afeard?"
"Well, all right. We'll tackle the ha'nted house if you say so-but I
reckon it's taking chances."
They had started down the hill by this time. There in the middle of the
moonlit valley below them stood the "ha'nted" house, utterly isolated, its
fences gone long ago, rank weeds smothering the very doorsteps, the
chimney crumbled to ruin, the window-sashes vacant, a corner of the roof
caved in. The boys gazed awhile, half expecting to see a blue light flit
past a window; then talking in a low tone, as befitted the time and the
circumstances, they struck far off to the right, to give the haunted house
a wide berth, and took their way homeward through the woods that adorned
the rearward side of Cardiff Hill.
About noon the next day the boys arrived at the dead tree; they had
come for their tools. Tom was impatient to go to the haunted house; Huck
was measurably so, also-but suddenly said:
"Lookyhere, Tom, do you know what day it is?"
Tom mentally ran over the days of the week, and then quickly lifted his
eyes with a startled look in them-
"My! I never once thought of it, Huck!"
"Well, I didn't neither, but all at once it popped onto me that it was
Friday."
"Blame it, a body can't be too careful, Huck. We might 'a' got into an
awful scrape, tackling such a thing on a Friday."
"MIGHT! Better say we WOULD! There's some lucky days, maybe, but Friday
ain't."
"Any fool knows that. I don't reckon YOU was the first that found it
out, Huck."
"Well, I never said I was, did I? And Friday ain't all, neither. I had
a rotten bad dream last night-dreampt about rats."
"No! Sure sign of trouble. Did they fight?"
"No."
"Well, that's good, Huck. When they don't fight it's only a sign that
there's trouble around, you know. All we got to do is to look mighty sharp
and keep out of it. We'll drop this thing for to-day, and play. Do you
know Robin Hood, Huck?"
"No. Who's Robin Hood?"
"Why, he was one of the greatest men that was ever in England-and the
best. He was a robber."
"Cracky, I wisht I was. Who did he rob?"
"Only sheriffs and bishops and rich people and kings, and such like.
But he never bothered the poor. He loved 'em. He always divided up with
'em perfectly square."
"Well, he must 'a' been a brick."
"I bet you he was, Huck. Oh, he was the noblest man that ever was. They
ain't any such men now, I can tell you. He could lick any man in England,
with one hand tied behind him; and he could take his yew bow and plug a
ten-cent piece every time, a mile and a half."
"What's a YEW bow?"
"I don't know. It's some kind of a bow, of course. And if he hit that
dime only on the edge he would set down and cry-and curse. But we'll play
Robin Hood-it's nobby fun. I'll learn you."
"I'm agreed."
So they played Robin Hood all the afternoon, now and then casting a
yearning eye down upon the haunted house and passing a remark about the
morrow's prospects and possibilities there. As the sun began to sink into
the west they took their way homeward athwart the long shadows of the
trees and soon were buried from sight in the forests of Cardiff Hill.
On Saturday, shortly after noon, the boys were at the dead tree again.
They had a smoke and a chat in the shade, and then dug a little in their
last hole, not with great hope, but merely because Tom said there were so
many cases where people had given up a treasure after getting down within
six inches of it, and then somebody else had come along and turned it up
with a single thrust of a shovel. The thing failed this time, however, so
the boys shouldered their tools and went away feeling that they had not
trifled with fortune, but had fulfilled all the requirements that belong
to the business of treasure-hunting.
When they reached the haunted house there was something so weird and
grisly about the dead silence that reigned there under the baking sun, and
something so depressing about the loneliness and desolation of the place,
that they were afraid, for a moment, to venture in. Then they crept to the
door and took a trembling peep. They saw a weed-grown, floorless room,
unplastered, an ancient fireplace, vacant windows, a ruinous staircase;
and here, there, and everywhere hung ragged and abandoned cobwebs. They
presently entered, softly, with quickened pulses, talking in whispers,
ears alert to catch the slightest sound, and muscles tense and ready for
instant retreat.
In a little while familiarity modified their fears and they gave the
place a critical and interested examination, rather admiring their own
boldness, and wondering at it, too. Next they wanted to look up-stairs.
This was something like cutting off retreat, but they got to daring each
other, and of course there could be but one result-they threw their tools
into a corner and made the ascent. Up there were the same signs of decay.
In one corner they found a closet that promised mystery, but the promise
was a fraud-there was nothing in it. Their courage was up now and well in
hand. They were about to go down and begin work when-
"Sh!" said Tom.
"What is it?" whispered Huck, blanching with fright.
"Sh! ... There! ... Hear it?"
"Yes! ... Oh, my! Let's run!"
"Keep still! Don't you budge! They're coming right toward the door."
The boys stretched themselves upon the floor with their eyes to
knot-holes in the planking, and lay waiting, in a misery of fear.
"They've stopped.... No-coming.... Here they are. Don't whisper another
word, Huck. My goodness, I wish I was out of this!"
Two men entered. Each boy said to himself: "There's the old deaf and
dumb Spaniard that's been about town once or twice lately-never saw
t'other man before."
"T'other" was a ragged, unkempt creature, with nothing very pleasant in
his face. The Spaniard was wrapped in a serape; he had bushy white
whiskers; long white hair flowed from under his sombrero, and he wore
green goggles. When they came in, "t'other" was talking in a low voice;
they sat down on the ground, facing the door, with their backs to the
wall, and the speaker continued his remarks. His manner became less
guarded and his words more distinct as he proceeded:
"No," said he, "I've thought it all over, and I don't like it. It's
dangerous."
"Dangerous!" grunted the "deaf and dumb" Spaniard-to the vast surprise
of the boys. "Milksop!"
This voice made the boys gasp and quake. It was Injun Joe's! There was
silence for some time. Then Joe said:
"What's any more dangerous than that job up yonder-but nothing's come
of it."
"That's different. Away up the river so, and not another house about.
'Twon't ever be known that we tried, anyway, long as we didn't succeed."
"Well, what's more dangerous than coming here in the daytime!-anybody
would suspicion us that saw us."
"I know that. But there warn't any other place as handy after that fool
of a job. I want to quit this shanty. I wanted to yesterday, only it
warn't any use trying to stir out of here, with those infernal boys
playing over there on the hill right in full view."
"Those infernal boys" quaked again under the inspiration of this
remark, and thought how lucky it was that they had remembered it was
Friday and concluded to wait a day. They wished in their hearts they had
waited a year.
The two men got out some food and made a luncheon. After a long and
thoughtful silence, Injun Joe said:
"Look here, lad-you go back up the river where you belong. Wait there
till you hear from me. I'll take the chances on dropping into this town
just once more, for a look. We'll do that 'dangerous' job after I've spied
around a little and think things look well for it. Then for Texas! We'll
leg it together!"
This was satisfactory. Both men presently fell to yawning, and Injun
Joe said:
"I'm dead for sleep! It's your turn to watch."
He curled down in the weeds and soon began to snore. His comrade
stirred him once or twice and he became quiet. Presently the watcher began
to nod; his head drooped lower and lower, both men began to snore now.
The boys drew a long, grateful breath. Tom whispered:
"Now's our chance-come!"
Huck said:
"I can't-I'd die if they was to wake."
Tom urged-Huck held back. At last Tom rose slowly and softly, and
started alone. But the first step he made wrung such a hideous creak from
the crazy floor that he sank down almost dead with fright. He never made a
second attempt. The boys lay there counting the dragging moments till it
seemed to them that time must be done and eternity growing gray; and then
they were grateful to note that at last the sun was setting.
Now one snore ceased. Injun Joe sat up, stared around-smiled grimly
upon his comrade, whose head was drooping upon his knees-stirred him up
with his foot and said:
"Here! YOU'RE a watchman, ain't you! All right, though-nothing's
happened."
"My! have I been asleep?"
"Oh, partly, partly. Nearly time for us to be moving, pard. What'll we
do with what little swag we've got left?"
"I don't know-leave it here as we've always done, I reckon. No use to
take it away till we start south. Six hundred and fifty in silver's
something to carry."
"Well-all right-it won't matter to come here once more."
"No-but I'd say come in the night as we used to do-it's better."
"Yes: but look here; it may be a good while before I get the right
chance at that job; accidents might happen; 'tain't in such a very good
place; we'll just regularly bury it-and bury it deep."
"Good idea," said the comrade, who walked across the room, knelt down,
raised one of the rearward hearthstones and took out a bag that jingled
pleasantly. He subtracted from it twenty or thirty dollars for himself and
as much for Injun Joe, and passed the bag to the latter, who was on his
knees in the corner, now, digging with his bowie-knife.
The boys forgot all their fears, all their miseries in an instant. With
gloating eyes they watched every movement. Luck!-the splendor of it was
beyond all imagination! Six hundred dollars was money enough to make half
a dozen boys rich! Here was treasurehunting under the happiest
auspices-there would not be any bothersome uncertainty as to where to dig.
They nudged each other every moment-eloquent nudges and easily understood,
for they simply meant-"Oh, but ain't you glad NOW we're here!"
Joe's knife struck upon something.
"Hello!" said he.
"What is it?" said his comrade.
"Half-rotten plank-no, it's a box, I believe. Here-bear a hand and
we'll see what it's here for. Never mind, I've broke a hole."
He reached his hand in and drew it out-
"Man, it's money!"
The two men examined the handful of coins. They were gold. The boys
above were as excited as themselves, and as delighted.
Joe's comrade said:
"We'll make quick work of this. There's an old rusty pick over amongst
the weeds in the corner the other side of the fireplace-I saw it a minute
ago."
He ran and brought the boys' pick and shovel. Injun Joe took the pick,
looked it over critically, shook his head, muttered something to himself,
and then began to use it. The box was soon unearthed. It was not very
large; it was iron bound and had been very strong before the slow years
had injured it. The men contemplated the treasure awhile in blissful
silence.
"Pard, there's thousands of dollars here," said Injun Joe.
"'Twas always said that Murrel's gang used to be around here one
summer," the stranger observed.
"I know it," said Injun Joe; "and this looks like it, I should say."
"Now you won't need to do that job."
The half-breed frowned. Said he:
"You don't know me. Least you don't know all about that thing. 'Tain't
robbery altogether-it's REVENGE!" and a wicked light flamed in his eyes.
"I'll need your help in it. When it's finished-then Texas. Go home to your
Nance and your kids, and stand by till you hear from me."
"Well-if you say so; what'll we do with this-bury it again?"
"Yes. [Ravishing delight overhead.] NO! by the great Sachem, no!
[Profound distress overhead.] I'd nearly forgot. That pick had fresh earth
on it! [The boys were sick with terror in a moment.] What business has a
pick and a shovel here? What business with fresh earth on them? Who
brought them here-and where are they gone? Have you heard anybody?-seen
anybody? What! bury it again and leave them to come and see the ground
disturbed? Not exactly-not exactly. We'll take it to my den."
"Why, of course! Might have thought of that before. You mean Number
One?"
"No-Number Two-under the cross. The other place is bad-too common."
"All right. It's nearly dark enough to start."
Injun Joe got up and went about from window to window cautiously
peeping out. Presently he said:
"Who could have brought those tools here? Do you reckon they can be
up-stairs?"
The boys' breath forsook them. Injun Joe put his hand on his knife,
halted a moment, undecided, and then turned toward the stairway. The boys
thought of the closet, but their strength was gone. The steps came
creaking up the stairs-the intolerable distress of the situation woke the
stricken resolution of the lads-they were about to spring for the closet,
when there was a crash of rotten timbers and Injun Joe landed on the
ground amid the debris of the ruined stairway. He gathered himself up
cursing, and his comrade said:
"Now what's the use of all that? If it's anybody, and they're up there,
let them STAY there-who cares? If they want to jump down, now, and get
into trouble, who objects? It will be dark in fifteen minutes-and then let
them follow us if they want to. I'm willing. In my opinion, whoever hove
those things in here caught a sight of us and took us for ghosts or devils
or something. I'll bet they're running yet."
Joe grumbled awhile; then he agreed with his friend that what daylight
was left ought to be economized in getting things ready for leaving.
Shortly afterward they slipped out of the house in the deepening twilight,
and moved toward the river with their precious box.
Tom and Huck rose up, weak but vastly relieved, and stared after them
through the chinks between the logs of the house. Follow? Not they. They
were content to reach ground again without broken necks, and take the
townward track over the hill. They did not talk much. They were too much
absorbed in hating themselves-hating the ill luck that made them take the
spade and the pick there. But for that, Injun Joe never would have
suspected. He would have hidden the silver with the gold to wait there
till his "revenge" was satisfied, and then he would have had the
misfortune to find that money turn up missing. Bitter, bitter luck that
the tools were ever brought there!
They resolved to keep a lookout for that Spaniard when he should come
to town spying out for chances to do his revengeful job, and follow him to
"Number Two," wherever that might be. Then a ghastly thought occurred to
Tom.
"Revenge? What if he means US, Huck!"
"Oh, don't!" said Huck, nearly fainting.
They talked it all over, and as they entered town they agreed to
believe that he might possibly mean somebody else-at least that he might
at least mean nobody but Tom, since only Tom had testified.
Very, very small comfort it was to Tom to be alone in danger! Company
would be a palpable improvement, he thought.
The adventure of the day mightily tormented Tom's dreams that night.
Four times he had his hands on that rich treasure and four times it wasted
to nothingness in his fingers as sleep forsook him and wakefulness brought
back the hard reality of his misfortune. As he lay in the early morning
recalling the incidents of his great adventure, he noticed that they
seemed curiously subdued and far away-somewhat as if they had happened in
another world, or in a time long gone by. Then it occurred to him that the
great adventure itself must be a dream! There was one very strong argument
in favor of this idea-namely, that the quantity of coin he had seen was
too vast to be real. He had never seen as much as fifty dollars in one
mass before, and he was like all boys of his age and station in life, in
that he imagined that all references to "hundreds" and "thousands" were
mere fanciful forms of speech, and that no such sums really existed in the
world. He never had supposed for a moment that so large a sum as a hundred
dollars was to be found in actual money in any one's possession. If his
notions of hidden treasure had been analyzed, they would have been found
to consist of a handful of real dimes and a bushel of vague, splendid,
ungraspable dollars.
But the incidents of his adventure grew sensibly sharper and clearer
under the attrition of thinking them over, and so he presently found
himself leaning to the impression that the thing might not have been a
dream, after all. This uncertainty must be swept away. He would snatch a
hurried breakfast and go and find Huck. Huck was sitting on the gunwale of
a flatboat, listlessly dangling his feet in the water and looking very
melancholy. Tom concluded to let Huck lead up to the subject. If he did
not do it, then the adventure would be proved to have been only a dream.
"Hello, Huck!"
"Hello, yourself."
Silence, for a minute.
"Tom, if we'd 'a' left the blame tools at the dead tree, we'd 'a' got
the money. Oh, ain't it awful!"
"'Tain't a dream, then, 'tain't a dream! Somehow I most wish it was.
Dog'd if I don't, Huck."
"What ain't a dream?"
"Oh, that thing yesterday. I been half thinking it was."
"Dream! If them stairs hadn't broke down you'd 'a' seen how much dream
it was! I've had dreams enough all night-with that patch-eyed Spanish
devil going for me all through 'em-rot him!"
"No, not rot him. FIND him! Track the money!"
"Tom, we'll never find him. A feller don't have only one chance for
such a pile-and that one's lost. I'd feel mighty shaky if I was to see
him, anyway."
"Well, so'd I; but I'd like to see him, anyway-and track him out-to his
Number Two."
"Number Two-yes, that's it. I been thinking 'bout that. But I can't
make nothing out of it. What do you reckon it is?"
"I dono. It's too deep. Say, Huck-maybe it's the number of a house!"
"Goody! ... No, Tom, that ain't it. If it is, it ain't in this
one-horse town. They ain't no numbers here."
"Well, that's so. Lemme think a minute. Here-it's the number of a
room-in a tavern, you know!"
"Oh, that's the trick! They ain't only two taverns. We can find out
quick."
"You stay here, Huck, till I come."
Tom was off at once. He did not care to have Huck's company in public
places. He was gone half an hour. He found that in the best tavern, No. 2
had long been occupied by a young lawyer, and was still so occupied. In
the less ostentatious house, No. 2 was a mystery. The tavern-keeper's
young son said it was kept locked all the time, and he never saw anybody
go into it or come out of it except at night; he did not know any
particular reason for this state of things; had had some little curiosity,
but it was rather feeble; had made the most of the mystery by entertaining
himself with the idea that that room was "ha'nted"; had noticed that there
was a light in there the night before.
"That's what I've found out, Huck. I reckon that's the very No. 2 we're
after."
"I reckon it is, Tom. Now what you going to do?"
"Lemme think."
Tom thought a long time. Then he said:
"I'll tell you. The back door of that No. 2 is the door that comes out
into that little close alley between the tavern and the old rattle trap of
a brick store. Now you get hold of all the door-keys you can find, and
I'll nip all of auntie's, and the first dark night we'll go there and try
'em. And mind you, keep a lookout for Injun Joe, because he said he was
going to drop into town and spy around once more for a chance to get his
revenge. If you see him, you just follow him; and if he don't go to that
No. 2, that ain't the place."
"Lordy, I don't want to foller him by myself!"
"Why, it'll be night, sure. He mightn't ever see you-and if he did,
maybe he'd never think anything."
"Well, if it's pretty dark I reckon I'll track him. I dono-I dono. I'll
try."
"You bet I'll follow him, if it's dark, Huck. Why, he might 'a' found
out he couldn't get his revenge, and be going right after that money."
"It's so, Tom, it's so. I'll foller him; I will, by jingoes!"
"Now you're TALKING! Don't you ever weaken, Huck, and I won't."
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 slaughterhouse 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."
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 "hispy" and "gully-keeper" with a
crowd of their schoolmates. 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 longdelayed 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 provisionbaskets. 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, boylike, 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. Byand-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-andby 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
home, Tom felt just as insecure as he was before.
The slow days drifted on, and each left behind it a slightly lightened
weight of apprehension.
There comes a time in every rightlyconstructed boy's life when he has a
raging desire to go somewhere and dig for hidden treasure. This desire
suddenly came upon Tom one day. He sallied out to find Joe Harper, but
failed of success. Next he sought Ben Rogers; he had gone fishing.
Presently he stumbled upon Huck Finn the Red-Handed. Huck would answer.
Tom took him to a private place and opened the matter to him
confidentially. Huck was willing. Huck was always willing to take a hand
in any enterprise that offered entertainment and required no capital, for
he had a troublesome superabundance of that sort of time which is not
money. "Where'll we dig?" said Huck.
"Oh, most anywhere."
"Why, is it hid all around?"
"No, indeed it ain't. It's hid in mighty particular places,
Huck-sometimes on islands, sometimes in rotten chests under the end of a
limb of an old dead tree, just where the shadow falls at midnight; but
mostly under the floor in ha'nted houses."
"Who hides it?"
"Why, robbers, of course - who'd you reckon? Sunday-school
sup'rintendents?"
"I don't know. If 'twas mine I wouldn't hide it; I'd spend it and have
a good time."
"So would I. But robbers don't do that way. They always hide it and
leave it there."
"Don't they come after it any more?"
"No, they think they will, but they generally forget the marks, or else
they die. Anyway, it lays there a long time and gets rusty; and by and by
somebody finds an old yellow paper that tells how to find the marks-a
paper that's got to be ciphered over about a week because it's mostly
signs and hy'roglyphics."
"HyroQwhich?"
"Hy'roglyphics-pictures and things, you know, that don't seem to mean
anything."
"Have you got one of them papers, Tom?"
"No."
"Well then, how you going to find the marks?"
"I don't want any marks. They always bury it under a ha'nted house or
on an island, or under a dead tree that's got one limb sticking out. Well,
we've tried Jackson's Island a little, and we can try it again some time;
and there's the old ha'nted house up the Still-House branch, and there's
lots of deadlimb trees-dead loads of 'em."
"Is it under all of them?"
"How you talk! No!"
"Then how you going to know which one to go for?"
"Go for all of 'em!"
"Why, Tom, it'll take all summer."
"Well, what of that? Suppose you find a brass pot with a hundred
dollars in it, all rusty and gray, or rotten chest full of di'monds. How's
that?"
Huck's eyes glowed.
"That's bully. Plenty bully enough for me. Just you gimme the hundred
dollars and I don't want no di'monds."
"All right. But I bet you I ain't going to throw off on di'monds. Some
of 'em's worth twenty dollars apiece-there ain't any, hardly, but's worth
six bits or a dollar."
"No! Is that so?"
"Cert'nly-anybody'll tell you so. Hain't you ever seen one, Huck?"
"Not as I remember."
"Oh, kings have slathers of them."
"Well, I don' know no kings, Tom."
"I reckon you don't. But if you was to go to Europe you'd see a raft of
'em hopping around."
"Do they hop?"
"Hop?-your granny! No!"
"Well, what did you say they did, for?"
"Shucks, I only meant you'd SEE 'em-not hopping, of course-what do they
want to hop for?-but I mean you'd just see 'em-scattered around, you know,
in a kind of a general way. Like that old humpbacked Richard."
"Richard? What's his other name?"
"He didn't have any other name. Kings don't have any but a given name."
"No?"
"But they don't."
"Well, if they like it, Tom, all right; but I don't want to be a king
and have only just a given name, like a nigger. But say-where you going to
dig first?"
"Well, I don't know. S'pose we tackle that old dead-limb tree on the
hill t'other side of Still-House branch?"
"I'm agreed."
So they got a crippled pick and a shovel, and set out on their
three-mile tramp. They arrived hot and panting, and threw themselves down
in the shade of a neighboring elm to rest and have a smoke.
"I like this," said Tom.
"So do I."
"Say, Huck, if we find a treasure here, what you going to do with your
share?"
"Well, I'll have pie and a glass of soda every day, and I'll go to
every circus that comes along. I bet I'll have a gay time."
"Well, ain't you going to save any of it?"
"Save it? What for?"
"Why, so as to have something to live on, by and by."
"Oh, that ain't any use. Pap would come back to thish-yer town some day
and get his claws on it if I didn't hurry up, and I tell you he'd clean it
out pretty quick. What you going to do with yourn, Tom?"
"I'm going to buy a new drum, and a sure-'nough sword, and a red
necktie and a bull pup, and get married."
"Married!"
"That's it."
"Tom, you-why, you ain't in your right mind."
"Wait-you'll see."
"Well, that's the foolishest thing you could do. Look at pap and my
mother. Fight! Why, they used to fight all the time. I remember, mighty
well."
"That ain't anything. The girl I'm going to marry won't fight."
"Tom, I reckon they're all alike. They'll all comb a body. Now you
better think 'bout this awhile. I tell you you better. What's the name of
the gal?"
"It ain't a gal at all-it's a girl."
"It's all the same, I reckon; some says gal, some says girl-both's
right, like enough. Anyway, what's her name, Tom?"
"I'll tell you some time-not now."
"All right-that'll do. Only if you get married I'll be more lonesomer
than ever."
"No you won't. You'll come and live with me. Now stir out of this and
we'll go to digging."
They worked and sweated for half an hour. No result. They toiled
another half-hour. Still no result. Huck said:
"Do they always bury it as deep as this?"
"Sometimes-not always. Not generally. I reckon we haven't got the right
place."
So they chose a new spot and began again. The labor dragged a little,
but still they made progress. They pegged away in silence for some time.
Finally Huck leaned on his shovel, swabbed the beaded drops from his brow
with his sleeve, and said:
"Where you going to dig next, after we get this one?"
"I reckon maybe we'll tackle the old tree that's over yonder on Cardiff
Hill back of the widow's."
"I reckon that'll be a good one. But won't the widow take it away from
us, Tom? It's on her land."
"SHE take it away! Maybe she'd like to try it once. Whoever finds one
of these hid treasures, it belongs to him. It don't make any difference
whose land it's on."
That was satisfactory. The work went on. By and by Huck said:
"Blame it, we must be in the wrong place again. What do you think?"
"It is mighty curious, Huck. I don't understand it. Sometimes witches
interfere. I reckon maybe that's what's the trouble now."
"Shucks! Witches ain't got no power in the daytime."
"Well, that's so. I didn't think of that. Oh, I know what the matter
is! What a blamed lot of fools we are! You got to find out where the
shadow of the limb falls at midnight, and that's where you dig!"
"Then consound it, we've fooled away all this work for nothing. Now
hang it all, we got to come back in the night. It's an awful long way. Can
you get out?"
"I bet I will. We've got to do it to-night, too, because if somebody
sees these holes they'll know in a minute what's here and they'll go for
it."
"Well, I'll come around and maow to-night."
"All right. Let's hide the tools in the bushes."
The boys were there that night, about the appointed time. They sat in
the shadow waiting. It was a lonely place, and an hour made solemn by old
traditions. Spirits whispered in the rustling leaves, ghosts lurked in the
murky nooks, the deep baying of a hound floated up out of the distance, an
owl answered with his sepulchral note. The boys were subdued by these
solemnities, and talked little. By and by they judged that twelve had
come; they marked where the shadow fell, and began to dig. Their hopes
commenced to rise. Their interest grew stronger, and their industry kept
pace with it. The hole deepened and still deepened, but every time their
hearts jumped to hear the pick strike upon something, they only suffered a
new disappointment. It was only a stone or a chunk. At last Tom said:
"It ain't any use, Huck, we're wrong again."
"Well, but we CAN'T be wrong. We spotted the shadder to a dot."
"I know it, but then there's another thing."
"What's that?".
"Why, we only guessed at the time. Like enough it was too late or too
early."
Huck dropped his shovel.
"That's it," said he. "That's the very trouble. We got to give this one
up. We can't ever tell the right time, and besides this kind of thing's
too awful, here this time of night with witches and ghosts a-fluttering
around so. I feel as if something's behind me all the time; and I'm afeard
to turn around, becuz maybe there's others in front a-waiting for a
chance. I been creeping all over, ever since I got here."
"Well, I've been pretty much so, too, Huck. They most always put in a
dead man when they bury a treasure under a tree, to look out for it."
"Lordy!"
"Yes, they do. I've always heard that."
"Tom, I don't like to fool around much where there's dead people. A
body's bound to get into trouble with 'em, sure."
"I don't like to stir 'em up, either. S'pose this one here was to stick
his skull out and say something!"
"Don't Tom! It's awful."
"Well, it just is. Huck, I don't feel comfortable a bit."
"Say, Tom, let's give this place up, and try somewheres else."
"All right, I reckon we better."
"What'll it be?"
Tom considered awhile; and then said:
"The ha'nted house. That's it!"
"Blame it, I don't like ha'nted houses, Tom. Why, they're a dern sight
worse'n dead people. Dead people might talk, maybe, but they don't come
sliding around in a shroud, when you ain't noticing, and peep over your
shoulder all of a sudden and grit their teeth, the way a ghost does. I
couldn't stand such a thing as that, Tom-nobody could."
"Yes, but, Huck, ghosts don't travel around only at night. They won't
hender us from digging there in the daytime."
"Well, that's so. But you know mighty well people don't go about that
ha'nted house in the day nor the night."
"Well, that's mostly because they don't like to go where a man's been
murdered, anyway-but nothing's ever been seen around that house except in
the night-just some blue lights slipping by the windows-no regular
ghosts."
"Well, where you see one of them blue lights flickering around, Tom,
you can bet there's a ghost mighty close behind it. It stands to reason.
Becuz you know that they don't anybody but ghosts use 'em."
"Yes, that's so. But anyway they don't come around in the daytime, so
what's the use of our being afeard?"
"Well, all right. We'll tackle the ha'nted house if you say so-but I
reckon it's taking chances."
They had started down the hill by this time. There in the middle of the
moonlit valley below them stood the "ha'nted" house, utterly isolated, its
fences gone long ago, rank weeds smothering the very doorsteps, the
chimney crumbled to ruin, the window-sashes vacant, a corner of the roof
caved in. The boys gazed awhile, half expecting to see a blue light flit
past a window; then talking in a low tone, as befitted the time and the
circumstances, they struck far off to the right, to give the haunted house
a wide berth, and took their way homeward through the woods that adorned
the rearward side of Cardiff Hill.
About noon the next day the boys arrived at the dead tree; they had
come for their tools. Tom was impatient to go to the haunted house; Huck
was measurably so, also-but suddenly said:
"Lookyhere, Tom, do you know what day it is?"
Tom mentally ran over the days of the week, and then quickly lifted his
eyes with a startled look in them-
"My! I never once thought of it, Huck!"
"Well, I didn't neither, but all at once it popped onto me that it was
Friday."
"Blame it, a body can't be too careful, Huck. We might 'a' got into an
awful scrape, tackling such a thing on a Friday."
"MIGHT! Better say we WOULD! There's some lucky days, maybe, but Friday
ain't."
"Any fool knows that. I don't reckon YOU was the first that found it
out, Huck."
"Well, I never said I was, did I? And Friday ain't all, neither. I had
a rotten bad dream last night-dreampt about rats."
"No! Sure sign of trouble. Did they fight?"
"No."
"Well, that's good, Huck. When they don't fight it's only a sign that
there's trouble around, you know. All we got to do is to look mighty sharp
and keep out of it. We'll drop this thing for to-day, and play. Do you
know Robin Hood, Huck?"
"No. Who's Robin Hood?"
"Why, he was one of the greatest men that was ever in England-and the
best. He was a robber."
"Cracky, I wisht I was. Who did he rob?"
"Only sheriffs and bishops and rich people and kings, and such like.
But he never bothered the poor. He loved 'em. He always divided up with
'em perfectly square."
"Well, he must 'a' been a brick."
"I bet you he was, Huck. Oh, he was the noblest man that ever was. They
ain't any such men now, I can tell you. He could lick any man in England,
with one hand tied behind him; and he could take his yew bow and plug a
ten-cent piece every time, a mile and a half."
"What's a YEW bow?"
"I don't know. It's some kind of a bow, of course. And if he hit that
dime only on the edge he would set down and cry-and curse. But we'll play
Robin Hood-it's nobby fun. I'll learn you."
"I'm agreed."
So they played Robin Hood all the afternoon, now and then casting a
yearning eye down upon the haunted house and passing a remark about the
morrow's prospects and possibilities there. As the sun began to sink into
the west they took their way homeward athwart the long shadows of the
trees and soon were buried from sight in the forests of Cardiff Hill.
On Saturday, shortly after noon, the boys were at the dead tree again.
They had a smoke and a chat in the shade, and then dug a little in their
last hole, not with great hope, but merely because Tom said there were so
many cases where people had given up a treasure after getting down within
six inches of it, and then somebody else had come along and turned it up
with a single thrust of a shovel. The thing failed this time, however, so
the boys shouldered their tools and went away feeling that they had not
trifled with fortune, but had fulfilled all the requirements that belong
to the business of treasure-hunting.
When they reached the haunted house there was something so weird and
grisly about the dead silence that reigned there under the baking sun, and
something so depressing about the loneliness and desolation of the place,
that they were afraid, for a moment, to venture in. Then they crept to the
door and took a trembling peep. They saw a weed-grown, floorless room,
unplastered, an ancient fireplace, vacant windows, a ruinous staircase;
and here, there, and everywhere hung ragged and abandoned cobwebs. They
presently entered, softly, with quickened pulses, talking in whispers,
ears alert to catch the slightest sound, and muscles tense and ready for
instant retreat.
In a little while familiarity modified their fears and they gave the
place a critical and interested examination, rather admiring their own
boldness, and wondering at it, too. Next they wanted to look up-stairs.
This was something like cutting off retreat, but they got to daring each
other, and of course there could be but one result-they threw their tools
into a corner and made the ascent. Up there were the same signs of decay.
In one corner they found a closet that promised mystery, but the promise
was a fraud-there was nothing in it. Their courage was up now and well in
hand. They were about to go down and begin work when-
"Sh!" said Tom.
"What is it?" whispered Huck, blanching with fright.
"Sh! ... There! ... Hear it?"
"Yes! ... Oh, my! Let's run!"
"Keep still! Don't you budge! They're coming right toward the door."
The boys stretched themselves upon the floor with their eyes to
knot-holes in the planking, and lay waiting, in a misery of fear.
"They've stopped.... No-coming.... Here they are. Don't whisper another
word, Huck. My goodness, I wish I was out of this!"
Two men entered. Each boy said to himself: "There's the old deaf and
dumb Spaniard that's been about town once or twice lately-never saw
t'other man before."
"T'other" was a ragged, unkempt creature, with nothing very pleasant in
his face. The Spaniard was wrapped in a serape; he had bushy white
whiskers; long white hair flowed from under his sombrero, and he wore
green goggles. When they came in, "t'other" was talking in a low voice;
they sat down on the ground, facing the door, with their backs to the
wall, and the speaker continued his remarks. His manner became less
guarded and his words more distinct as he proceeded:
"No," said he, "I've thought it all over, and I don't like it. It's
dangerous."
"Dangerous!" grunted the "deaf and dumb" Spaniard-to the vast surprise
of the boys. "Milksop!"
This voice made the boys gasp and quake. It was Injun Joe's! There was
silence for some time. Then Joe said:
"What's any more dangerous than that job up yonder-but nothing's come
of it."
"That's different. Away up the river so, and not another house about.
'Twon't ever be known that we tried, anyway, long as we didn't succeed."
"Well, what's more dangerous than coming here in the daytime!-anybody
would suspicion us that saw us."
"I know that. But there warn't any other place as handy after that fool
of a job. I want to quit this shanty. I wanted to yesterday, only it
warn't any use trying to stir out of here, with those infernal boys
playing over there on the hill right in full view."
"Those infernal boys" quaked again under the inspiration of this
remark, and thought how lucky it was that they had remembered it was
Friday and concluded to wait a day. They wished in their hearts they had
waited a year.
The two men got out some food and made a luncheon. After a long and
thoughtful silence, Injun Joe said:
"Look here, lad-you go back up the river where you belong. Wait there
till you hear from me. I'll take the chances on dropping into this town
just once more, for a look. We'll do that 'dangerous' job after I've spied
around a little and think things look well for it. Then for Texas! We'll
leg it together!"
This was satisfactory. Both men presently fell to yawning, and Injun
Joe said:
"I'm dead for sleep! It's your turn to watch."
He curled down in the weeds and soon began to snore. His comrade
stirred him once or twice and he became quiet. Presently the watcher began
to nod; his head drooped lower and lower, both men began to snore now.
The boys drew a long, grateful breath. Tom whispered:
"Now's our chance-come!"
Huck said:
"I can't-I'd die if they was to wake."
Tom urged-Huck held back. At last Tom rose slowly and softly, and
started alone. But the first step he made wrung such a hideous creak from
the crazy floor that he sank down almost dead with fright. He never made a
second attempt. The boys lay there counting the dragging moments till it
seemed to them that time must be done and eternity growing gray; and then
they were grateful to note that at last the sun was setting.
Now one snore ceased. Injun Joe sat up, stared around-smiled grimly
upon his comrade, whose head was drooping upon his knees-stirred him up
with his foot and said:
"Here! YOU'RE a watchman, ain't you! All right, though-nothing's
happened."
"My! have I been asleep?"
"Oh, partly, partly. Nearly time for us to be moving, pard. What'll we
do with what little swag we've got left?"
"I don't know-leave it here as we've always done, I reckon. No use to
take it away till we start south. Six hundred and fifty in silver's
something to carry."
"Well-all right-it won't matter to come here once more."
"No-but I'd say come in the night as we used to do-it's better."
"Yes: but look here; it may be a good while before I get the right
chance at that job; accidents might happen; 'tain't in such a very good
place; we'll just regularly bury it-and bury it deep."
"Good idea," said the comrade, who walked across the room, knelt down,
raised one of the rearward hearthstones and took out a bag that jingled
pleasantly. He subtracted from it twenty or thirty dollars for himself and
as much for Injun Joe, and passed the bag to the latter, who was on his
knees in the corner, now, digging with his bowie-knife.
The boys forgot all their fears, all their miseries in an instant. With
gloating eyes they watched every movement. Luck!-the splendor of it was
beyond all imagination! Six hundred dollars was money enough to make half
a dozen boys rich! Here was treasurehunting under the happiest
auspices-there would not be any bothersome uncertainty as to where to dig.
They nudged each other every moment-eloquent nudges and easily understood,
for they simply meant-"Oh, but ain't you glad NOW we're here!"
Joe's knife struck upon something.
"Hello!" said he.
"What is it?" said his comrade.
"Half-rotten plank-no, it's a box, I believe. Here-bear a hand and
we'll see what it's here for. Never mind, I've broke a hole."
He reached his hand in and drew it out-
"Man, it's money!"
The two men examined the handful of coins. They were gold. The boys
above were as excited as themselves, and as delighted.
Joe's comrade said:
"We'll make quick work of this. There's an old rusty pick over amongst
the weeds in the corner the other side of the fireplace-I saw it a minute
ago."
He ran and brought the boys' pick and shovel. Injun Joe took the pick,
looked it over critically, shook his head, muttered something to himself,
and then began to use it. The box was soon unearthed. It was not very
large; it was iron bound and had been very strong before the slow years
had injured it. The men contemplated the treasure awhile in blissful
silence.
"Pard, there's thousands of dollars here," said Injun Joe.
"'Twas always said that Murrel's gang used to be around here one
summer," the stranger observed.
"I know it," said Injun Joe; "and this looks like it, I should say."
"Now you won't need to do that job."
The half-breed frowned. Said he:
"You don't know me. Least you don't know all about that thing. 'Tain't
robbery altogether-it's REVENGE!" and a wicked light flamed in his eyes.
"I'll need your help in it. When it's finished-then Texas. Go home to your
Nance and your kids, and stand by till you hear from me."
"Well-if you say so; what'll we do with this-bury it again?"
"Yes. [Ravishing delight overhead.] NO! by the great Sachem, no!
[Profound distress overhead.] I'd nearly forgot. That pick had fresh earth
on it! [The boys were sick with terror in a moment.] What business has a
pick and a shovel here? What business with fresh earth on them? Who
brought them here-and where are they gone? Have you heard anybody?-seen
anybody? What! bury it again and leave them to come and see the ground
disturbed? Not exactly-not exactly. We'll take it to my den."
"Why, of course! Might have thought of that before. You mean Number
One?"
"No-Number Two-under the cross. The other place is bad-too common."
"All right. It's nearly dark enough to start."
Injun Joe got up and went about from window to window cautiously
peeping out. Presently he said:
"Who could have brought those tools here? Do you reckon they can be
up-stairs?"
The boys' breath forsook them. Injun Joe put his hand on his knife,
halted a moment, undecided, and then turned toward the stairway. The boys
thought of the closet, but their strength was gone. The steps came
creaking up the stairs-the intolerable distress of the situation woke the
stricken resolution of the lads-they were about to spring for the closet,
when there was a crash of rotten timbers and Injun Joe landed on the
ground amid the debris of the ruined stairway. He gathered himself up
cursing, and his comrade said:
"Now what's the use of all that? If it's anybody, and they're up there,
let them STAY there-who cares? If they want to jump down, now, and get
into trouble, who objects? It will be dark in fifteen minutes-and then let
them follow us if they want to. I'm willing. In my opinion, whoever hove
those things in here caught a sight of us and took us for ghosts or devils
or something. I'll bet they're running yet."
Joe grumbled awhile; then he agreed with his friend that what daylight
was left ought to be economized in getting things ready for leaving.
Shortly afterward they slipped out of the house in the deepening twilight,
and moved toward the river with their precious box.
Tom and Huck rose up, weak but vastly relieved, and stared after them
through the chinks between the logs of the house. Follow? Not they. They
were content to reach ground again without broken necks, and take the
townward track over the hill. They did not talk much. They were too much
absorbed in hating themselves-hating the ill luck that made them take the
spade and the pick there. But for that, Injun Joe never would have
suspected. He would have hidden the silver with the gold to wait there
till his "revenge" was satisfied, and then he would have had the
misfortune to find that money turn up missing. Bitter, bitter luck that
the tools were ever brought there!
They resolved to keep a lookout for that Spaniard when he should come
to town spying out for chances to do his revengeful job, and follow him to
"Number Two," wherever that might be. Then a ghastly thought occurred to
Tom.
"Revenge? What if he means US, Huck!"
"Oh, don't!" said Huck, nearly fainting.
They talked it all over, and as they entered town they agreed to
believe that he might possibly mean somebody else-at least that he might
at least mean nobody but Tom, since only Tom had testified.
Very, very small comfort it was to Tom to be alone in danger! Company
would be a palpable improvement, he thought.
The adventure of the day mightily tormented Tom's dreams that night.
Four times he had his hands on that rich treasure and four times it wasted
to nothingness in his fingers as sleep forsook him and wakefulness brought
back the hard reality of his misfortune. As he lay in the early morning
recalling the incidents of his great adventure, he noticed that they
seemed curiously subdued and far away-somewhat as if they had happened in
another world, or in a time long gone by. Then it occurred to him that the
great adventure itself must be a dream! There was one very strong argument
in favor of this idea-namely, that the quantity of coin he had seen was
too vast to be real. He had never seen as much as fifty dollars in one
mass before, and he was like all boys of his age and station in life, in
that he imagined that all references to "hundreds" and "thousands" were
mere fanciful forms of speech, and that no such sums really existed in the
world. He never had supposed for a moment that so large a sum as a hundred
dollars was to be found in actual money in any one's possession. If his
notions of hidden treasure had been analyzed, they would have been found
to consist of a handful of real dimes and a bushel of vague, splendid,
ungraspable dollars.
But the incidents of his adventure grew sensibly sharper and clearer
under the attrition of thinking them over, and so he presently found
himself leaning to the impression that the thing might not have been a
dream, after all. This uncertainty must be swept away. He would snatch a
hurried breakfast and go and find Huck. Huck was sitting on the gunwale of
a flatboat, listlessly dangling his feet in the water and looking very
melancholy. Tom concluded to let Huck lead up to the subject. If he did
not do it, then the adventure would be proved to have been only a dream.
"Hello, Huck!"
"Hello, yourself."
Silence, for a minute.
"Tom, if we'd 'a' left the blame tools at the dead tree, we'd 'a' got
the money. Oh, ain't it awful!"
"'Tain't a dream, then, 'tain't a dream! Somehow I most wish it was.
Dog'd if I don't, Huck."
"What ain't a dream?"
"Oh, that thing yesterday. I been half thinking it was."
"Dream! If them stairs hadn't broke down you'd 'a' seen how much dream
it was! I've had dreams enough all night-with that patch-eyed Spanish
devil going for me all through 'em-rot him!"
"No, not rot him. FIND him! Track the money!"
"Tom, we'll never find him. A feller don't have only one chance for
such a pile-and that one's lost. I'd feel mighty shaky if I was to see
him, anyway."
"Well, so'd I; but I'd like to see him, anyway-and track him out-to his
Number Two."
"Number Two-yes, that's it. I been thinking 'bout that. But I can't
make nothing out of it. What do you reckon it is?"
"I dono. It's too deep. Say, Huck-maybe it's the number of a house!"
"Goody! ... No, Tom, that ain't it. If it is, it ain't in this
one-horse town. They ain't no numbers here."
"Well, that's so. Lemme think a minute. Here-it's the number of a
room-in a tavern, you know!"
"Oh, that's the trick! They ain't only two taverns. We can find out
quick."
"You stay here, Huck, till I come."
Tom was off at once. He did not care to have Huck's company in public
places. He was gone half an hour. He found that in the best tavern, No. 2
had long been occupied by a young lawyer, and was still so occupied. In
the less ostentatious house, No. 2 was a mystery. The tavern-keeper's
young son said it was kept locked all the time, and he never saw anybody
go into it or come out of it except at night; he did not know any
particular reason for this state of things; had had some little curiosity,
but it was rather feeble; had made the most of the mystery by entertaining
himself with the idea that that room was "ha'nted"; had noticed that there
was a light in there the night before.
"That's what I've found out, Huck. I reckon that's the very No. 2 we're
after."
"I reckon it is, Tom. Now what you going to do?"
"Lemme think."
Tom thought a long time. Then he said:
"I'll tell you. The back door of that No. 2 is the door that comes out
into that little close alley between the tavern and the old rattle trap of
a brick store. Now you get hold of all the door-keys you can find, and
I'll nip all of auntie's, and the first dark night we'll go there and try
'em. And mind you, keep a lookout for Injun Joe, because he said he was
going to drop into town and spy around once more for a chance to get his
revenge. If you see him, you just follow him; and if he don't go to that
No. 2, that ain't the place."
"Lordy, I don't want to foller him by myself!"
"Why, it'll be night, sure. He mightn't ever see you-and if he did,
maybe he'd never think anything."
"Well, if it's pretty dark I reckon I'll track him. I dono-I dono. I'll
try."
"You bet I'll follow him, if it's dark, Huck. Why, he might 'a' found
out he couldn't get his revenge, and be going right after that money."
"It's so, Tom, it's so. I'll foller him; I will, by jingoes!"
"Now you're TALKING! Don't you ever weaken, Huck, and I won't."
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 slaughterhouse 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."
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 "hispy" and "gully-keeper" with a
crowd of their schoolmates. 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 longdelayed 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 provisionbaskets. 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, boylike, 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. Byand-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-andby 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