THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER 16 страница

a robber, but I knew I'd got to have a thing like this, and where to

run across it was the bother. We've got it now, and we'll keep it

quiet, only we'll let Joe Harper and Ben Rogers in--because of course

there's got to be a Gang, or else there wouldn't be any style about it.

Tom Sawyer's Gang--it sounds splendid, don't it, Huck? "

" Well, it just does, Tom. And who'll we rob? "

" Oh, most anybody. Waylay people--that's mostly the way. "

" And kill them? "

" No, not always. Hive them in the cave till they raise a ransom. "

" What's a ransom? "

" Money. You make them raise all they can, off'n their friends; and

after you've kept them a year, if it ain't raised then you kill them.

That's the general way. Only you don't kill the women. You shut up the

women, but you don't kill them. They're always beautiful and rich, and

awfully scared. You take their watches and things, but you always take

your hat off and talk polite. They ain't anybody as polite as robbers

--you'll see that in any book. Well, the women get to loving you, and

after they've been in the cave a week or two weeks they stop crying and

after that you couldn't get them to leave. If you drove them out they'd

turn right around and come back. It's so in all the books. "

" Why, it's real bully, Tom. I believe it's better'n to be a pirate. "

" Yes, it's better in some ways, because it's close to home and

circuses and all that. "

By this time everything was ready and the boys entered the hole, Tom

in the lead. They toiled their way to the farther end of the tunnel,

then made their spliced kite-strings fast and moved on. A few steps

brought them to the spring, and Tom felt a shudder quiver all through

him. He showed Huck the fragment of candle-wick perched on a lump of

clay against the wall, and described how he and Becky had watched the

flame struggle and expire.

The boys began to quiet down to whispers, now, for the stillness and

gloom of the place oppressed their spirits. They went on, and presently

entered and followed Tom's other corridor until they reached the

" jumping-off place. " The candles revealed the fact that it was not

really a precipice, but only a steep clay hill twenty or thirty feet

high. Tom whispered:

" Now I'll show you something, Huck. "

He held his candle aloft and said:

" Look as far around the corner as you can. Do you see that? There--on

the big rock over yonder--done with candle-smoke. "

" Tom, it's a CROSS! "

" NOW where's your Number Two? 'UNDER THE CROSS, ' hey? Right yonder's

where I saw Injun Joe poke up his candle, Huck! "

Huck stared at the mystic sign awhile, and then said with a shaky voice:

" Tom, less git out of here! "

" What! and leave the treasure? "

" Yes--leave it. Injun Joe's ghost is round about there, certain. "

" No it ain't, Huck, no it ain't. It would ha'nt the place where he

died--away out at the mouth of the cave--five mile from here. "

" No, Tom, it wouldn't. It would hang round the money. I know the ways

of ghosts, and so do you. "

Tom began to fear that Huck was right. Misgivings gathered in his

mind. But presently an idea occurred to him--

" Lookyhere, Huck, what fools we're making of ourselves! Injun Joe's

ghost ain't a going to come around where there's a cross! "

The point was well taken. It had its effect.

" Tom, I didn't think of that. But that's so. It's luck for us, that

cross is. I reckon we'll climb down there and have a hunt for that box. "

Tom went first, cutting rude steps in the clay hill as he descended.

Huck followed. Four avenues opened out of the small cavern which the

great rock stood in. The boys examined three of them with no result.

They found a small recess in the one nearest the base of the rock, with

a pallet of blankets spread down in it; also an old suspender, some

bacon rind, and the well-gnawed bones of two or three fowls. But there

was no money-box. The lads searched and researched this place, but in

vain. Tom said:

" He said UNDER the cross. Well, this comes nearest to being under the

cross. It can't be under the rock itself, because that sets solid on

the ground. "

They searched everywhere once more, and then sat down discouraged.

Huck could suggest nothing. By-and-by Tom said:

" Lookyhere, Huck, there's footprints and some candle-grease on the

clay about one side of this rock, but not on the other sides. Now,

what's that for? I bet you the money IS under the rock. I'm going to

dig in the clay. "

" That ain't no bad notion, Tom! " said Huck with animation.

Tom's " real Barlow" was out at once, and he had not dug four inches

before he struck wood.

" Hey, Huck! --you hear that? "

Huck began to dig and scratch now. Some boards were soon uncovered and

removed. They had concealed a natural chasm which led under the rock.

Tom got into this and held his candle as far under the rock as he

could, but said he could not see to the end of the rift. He proposed to

explore. He stooped and passed under; the narrow way descended

gradually. He followed its winding course, first to the right, then to

the left, Huck at his heels. Tom turned a short curve, by-and-by, and

exclaimed:

" My goodness, Huck, lookyhere! "

It was the treasure-box, sure enough, occupying a snug little cavern,

along with an empty powder-keg, a couple of guns in leather cases, two

or three pairs of old moccasins, a leather belt, and some other rubbish

well soaked with the water-drip.

" Got it at last! " said Huck, ploughing among the tarnished coins with

his hand. " My, but we're rich, Tom! "

" Huck, I always reckoned we'd get it. It's just too good to believe,

but we HAVE got it, sure! Say--let's not fool around here. Let's snake

it out. Lemme see if I can lift the box. "

It weighed about fifty pounds. Tom could lift it, after an awkward

fashion, but could not carry it conveniently.

" I thought so, " he said; " THEY carried it like it was heavy, that day

at the ha'nted house. I noticed that. I reckon I was right to think of

fetching the little bags along. "

The money was soon in the bags and the boys took it up to the cross

rock.

" Now less fetch the guns and things, " said Huck.

" No, Huck--leave them there. They're just the tricks to have when we

go to robbing. We'll keep them there all the time, and we'll hold our

orgies there, too. It's an awful snug place for orgies. "

" What orgies? "

" I dono. But robbers always have orgies, and of course we've got to

have them, too. Come along, Huck, we've been in here a long time. It's

getting late, I reckon. I'm hungry, too. We'll eat and smoke when we

get to the skiff. "

They presently emerged into the clump of sumach bushes, looked warily

out, found the coast clear, and were soon lunching and smoking in the

skiff. As the sun dipped toward the horizon they pushed out and got

under way. Tom skimmed up the shore through the long twilight, chatting

cheerily with Huck, and landed shortly after dark.

" Now, Huck, " said Tom, " we'll hide the money in the loft of the

widow's woodshed, and I'll come up in the morning and we'll count it

and divide, and then we'll hunt up a place out in the woods for it

where it will be safe. Just you lay quiet here and watch the stuff till

I run and hook Benny Taylor's little wagon; I won't be gone a minute. "

He disappeared, and presently returned with the wagon, put the two

small sacks into it, threw some old rags on top of them, and started

off, dragging his cargo behind him. When the boys reached the

Welshman's house, they stopped to rest. Just as they were about to move

on, the Welshman stepped out and said:

" Hallo, who's that? "

" Huck and Tom Sawyer. "

" Good! Come along with me, boys, you are keeping everybody waiting.

Here--hurry up, trot ahead--I'll haul the wagon for you. Why, it's not

as light as it might be. Got bricks in it? --or old metal? "

" Old metal, " said Tom.

" I judged so; the boys in this town will take more trouble and fool

away more time hunting up six bits' worth of old iron to sell to the

foundry than they would to make twice the money at regular work. But

that's human nature--hurry along, hurry along! "

The boys wanted to know what the hurry was about.

" Never mind; you'll see, when we get to the Widow Douglas'. "

Huck said with some apprehension--for he was long used to being

falsely accused:

" Mr. Jones, we haven't been doing nothing. "

The Welshman laughed.

" Well, I don't know, Huck, my boy. I don't know about that. Ain't you

and the widow good friends? "

" Yes. Well, she's ben good friends to me, anyway. "

" All right, then. What do you want to be afraid for? "

This question was not entirely answered in Huck's slow mind before he

found himself pushed, along with Tom, into Mrs. Douglas' drawing-room.

Mr. Jones left the wagon near the door and followed.

The place was grandly lighted, and everybody that was of any

consequence in the village was there. The Thatchers were there, the

Harpers, the Rogerses, Aunt Polly, Sid, Mary, the minister, the editor,

and a great many more, and all dressed in their best. The widow

received the boys as heartily as any one could well receive two such

looking beings. They were covered with clay and candle-grease. Aunt

Polly blushed crimson with humiliation, and frowned and shook her head

at Tom. Nobody suffered half as much as the two boys did, however. Mr.

Jones said:

" Tom wasn't at home, yet, so I gave him up; but I stumbled on him and

Huck right at my door, and so I just brought them along in a hurry. "

" And you did just right, " said the widow. " Come with me, boys. "

She took them to a bedchamber and said:

" Now wash and dress yourselves. Here are two new suits of clothes

--shirts, socks, everything complete. They're Huck's--no, no thanks,

Huck--Mr. Jones bought one and I the other. But they'll fit both of you.

Get into them. We'll wait--come down when you are slicked up enough. "

Then she left.

CHAPTER XXXIV

HUCK said: " Tom, we can slope, if we can find a rope. The window ain't

high from the ground. "

" Shucks! what do you want to slope for? "

" Well, I ain't used to that kind of a crowd. I can't stand it. I ain't

going down there, Tom. "

" Oh, bother! It ain't anything. I don't mind it a bit. I'll take care

of you. "

Sid appeared.

" Tom, " said he, " auntie has been waiting for you all the afternoon.

Mary got your Sunday clothes ready, and everybody's been fretting about

you. Say--ain't this grease and clay, on your clothes? "

" Now, Mr. Siddy, you jist 'tend to your own business. What's all this

blow-out about, anyway? "

" It's one of the widow's parties that she's always having. This time

it's for the Welshman and his sons, on account of that scrape they

helped her out of the other night. And say--I can tell you something,

if you want to know. "

" Well, what? "

" Why, old Mr. Jones is going to try to spring something on the people

here to-night, but I overheard him tell auntie to-day about it, as a

secret, but I reckon it's not much of a secret now. Everybody knows

--the widow, too, for all she tries to let on she don't. Mr. Jones was

bound Huck should be here--couldn't get along with his grand secret

without Huck, you know! "

" Secret about what, Sid? "

" About Huck tracking the robbers to the widow's. I reckon Mr. Jones

was going to make a grand time over his surprise, but I bet you it will

drop pretty flat. "

Sid chuckled in a very contented and satisfied way.

" Sid, was it you that told? "

" Oh, never mind who it was. SOMEBODY told--that's enough. "

" Sid, there's only one person in this town mean enough to do that, and

that's you. If you had been in Huck's place you'd 'a' sneaked down the

hill and never told anybody on the robbers. You can't do any but mean

things, and you can't bear to see anybody praised for doing good ones.

There--no thanks, as the widow says" --and Tom cuffed Sid's ears and

helped him to the door with several kicks. " Now go and tell auntie if

you dare--and to-morrow you'll catch it! "

Some minutes later the widow's guests were at the supper-table, and a

dozen children were propped up at little side-tables in the same room,

after the fashion of that country and that day. At the proper time Mr.

Jones made his little speech, in which he thanked the widow for the

honor she was doing himself and his sons, but said that there was

another person whose modesty--

And so forth and so on. He sprung his secret about Huck's share in the

adventure in the finest dramatic manner he was master of, but the

surprise it occasioned was largely counterfeit and not as clamorous and

effusive as it might have been under happier circumstances. However,

the widow made a pretty fair show of astonishment, and heaped so many

compliments and so much gratitude upon Huck that he almost forgot the

nearly intolerable discomfort of his new clothes in the entirely

intolerable discomfort of being set up as a target for everybody's gaze

and everybody's laudations.

The widow said she meant to give Huck a home under her roof and have

him educated; and that when she could spare the money she would start

him in business in a modest way. Tom's chance was come. He said:

" Huck don't need it. Huck's rich. "

Nothing but a heavy strain upon the good manners of the company kept

back the due and proper complimentary laugh at this pleasant joke. But

the silence was a little awkward. Tom broke it:

" Huck's got money. Maybe you don't believe it, but he's got lots of

it. Oh, you needn't smile--I reckon I can show you. You just wait a

minute. "

Tom ran out of doors. The company looked at each other with a

perplexed interest--and inquiringly at Huck, who was tongue-tied.

" Sid, what ails Tom? " said Aunt Polly. " He--well, there ain't ever any

making of that boy out. I never--"

Tom entered, struggling with the weight of his sacks, and Aunt Polly

did not finish her sentence. Tom poured the mass of yellow coin upon

the table and said:

" There--what did I tell you? Half of it's Huck's and half of it's mine! "

The spectacle took the general breath away. All gazed, nobody spoke

for a moment. Then there was a unanimous call for an explanation. Tom

said he could furnish it, and he did. The tale was long, but brimful of

interest. There was scarcely an interruption from any one to break the

charm of its flow. When he had finished, Mr. Jones said:

" I thought I had fixed up a little surprise for this occasion, but it

don't amount to anything now. This one makes it sing mighty small, I'm

willing to allow. "

The money was counted. The sum amounted to a little over twelve

thousand dollars. It was more than any one present had ever seen at one

time before, though several persons were there who were worth

considerably more than that in property.

CHAPTER XXXV

THE reader may rest satisfied that Tom's and Huck's windfall made a

mighty stir in the poor little village of St. Petersburg. So vast a

sum, all in actual cash, seemed next to incredible. It was talked

about, gloated over, glorified, until the reason of many of the

citizens tottered under the strain of the unhealthy excitement. Every

" haunted" house in St. Petersburg and the neighboring villages was

dissected, plank by plank, and its foundations dug up and ransacked for

hidden treasure--and not by boys, but men--pretty grave, unromantic

men, too, some of them. Wherever Tom and Huck appeared they were

courted, admired, stared at. The boys were not able to remember that

their remarks had possessed weight before; but now their sayings were

treasured and repeated; everything they did seemed somehow to be

regarded as remarkable; they had evidently lost the power of doing and

saying commonplace things; moreover, their past history was raked up

and discovered to bear marks of conspicuous originality. The village

paper published biographical sketches of the boys.

The Widow Douglas put Huck's money out at six per cent., and Judge

Thatcher did the same with Tom's at Aunt Polly's request. Each lad had

an income, now, that was simply prodigious--a dollar for every week-day

in the year and half of the Sundays. It was just what the minister got

--no, it was what he was promised--he generally couldn't collect it. A

dollar and a quarter a week would board, lodge, and school a boy in

those old simple days--and clothe him and wash him, too, for that

matter.

Judge Thatcher had conceived a great opinion of Tom. He said that no

commonplace boy would ever have got his daughter out of the cave. When

Becky told her father, in strict confidence, how Tom had taken her

whipping at school, the Judge was visibly moved; and when she pleaded

grace for the mighty lie which Tom had told in order to shift that

whipping from her shoulders to his own, the Judge said with a fine

outburst that it was a noble, a generous, a magnanimous lie--a lie that

was worthy to hold up its head and march down through history breast to

breast with George Washington's lauded Truth about the hatchet! Becky

thought her father had never looked so tall and so superb as when he

walked the floor and stamped his foot and said that. She went straight

off and told Tom about it.

Judge Thatcher hoped to see Tom a great lawyer or a great soldier some

day. He said he meant to look to it that Tom should be admitted to the

National Military Academy and afterward trained in the best law school

in the country, in order that he might be ready for either career or

both.

Huck Finn's wealth and the fact that he was now under the Widow

Douglas' protection introduced him into society--no, dragged him into

it, hurled him into it--and his sufferings were almost more than he

could bear. The widow's servants kept him clean and neat, combed and

brushed, and they bedded him nightly in unsympathetic sheets that had

not one little spot or stain which he could press to his heart and know

for a friend. He had to eat with a knife and fork; he had to use

napkin, cup, and plate; he had to learn his book, he had to go to

church; he had to talk so properly that speech was become insipid in

his mouth; whithersoever he turned, the bars and shackles of

civilization shut him in and bound him hand and foot.

He bravely bore his miseries three weeks, and then one day turned up

missing. For forty-eight hours the widow hunted for him everywhere in

great distress. The public were profoundly concerned; they searched

high and low, they dragged the river for his body. Early the third

morning Tom Sawyer wisely went poking among some old empty hogsheads

down behind the abandoned slaughter-house, and in one of them he found

the refugee. Huck had slept there; he had just breakfasted upon some

stolen odds and ends of food, and was lying off, now, in comfort, with

his pipe. He was unkempt, uncombed, and clad in the same old ruin of

rags that had made him picturesque in the days when he was free and

happy. Tom routed him out, told him the trouble he had been causing,

and urged him to go home. Huck's face lost its tranquil content, and

took a melancholy cast. He said:

" Don't talk about it, Tom. I've tried it, and it don't work; it don't

work, Tom. It ain't for me; I ain't used to it. The widder's good to

me, and friendly; but I can't stand them ways. She makes me get up just

at the same time every morning; she makes me wash, they comb me all to

thunder; she won't let me sleep in the woodshed; I got to wear them

blamed clothes that just smothers me, Tom; they don't seem to any air

git through 'em, somehow; and they're so rotten nice that I can't set

down, nor lay down, nor roll around anywher's; I hain't slid on a

cellar-door for--well, it 'pears to be years; I got to go to church and

sweat and sweat--I hate them ornery sermons! I can't ketch a fly in

there, I can't chaw. I got to wear shoes all Sunday. The widder eats by

a bell; she goes to bed by a bell; she gits up by a bell--everything's

so awful reg'lar a body can't stand it. "

" Well, everybody does that way, Huck. "

" Tom, it don't make no difference. I ain't everybody, and I can't

STAND it. It's awful to be tied up so. And grub comes too easy--I don't

take no interest in vittles, that way. I got to ask to go a-fishing; I

got to ask to go in a-swimming--dern'd if I hain't got to ask to do

everything. Well, I'd got to talk so nice it wasn't no comfort--I'd got

to go up in the attic and rip out awhile, every day, to git a taste in

my mouth, or I'd a died, Tom. The widder wouldn't let me smoke; she

wouldn't let me yell, she wouldn't let me gape, nor stretch, nor

scratch, before folks--" [Then with a spasm of special irritation and

injury]--" And dad fetch it, she prayed all the time! I never see such a

woman! I HAD to shove, Tom--I just had to. And besides, that school's

going to open, and I'd a had to go to it--well, I wouldn't stand THAT,

Tom. Looky here, Tom, being rich ain't what it's cracked up to be. It's

just worry and worry, and sweat and sweat, and a-wishing you was dead

all the time. Now these clothes suits me, and this bar'l suits me, and

I ain't ever going to shake 'em any more. Tom, I wouldn't ever got into

all this trouble if it hadn't 'a' ben for that money; now you just take

my sheer of it along with your'n, and gimme a ten-center sometimes--not

many times, becuz I don't give a dern for a thing 'thout it's tollable

hard to git--and you go and beg off for me with the widder. "

" Oh, Huck, you know I can't do that. 'Tain't fair; and besides if

you'll try this thing just a while longer you'll come to like it. "

" Like it! Yes--the way I'd like a hot stove if I was to set on it long

enough. No, Tom, I won't be rich, and I won't live in them cussed

smothery houses. I like the woods, and the river, and hogsheads, and

I'll stick to 'em, too. Blame it all! just as we'd got guns, and a

cave, and all just fixed to rob, here this dern foolishness has got to

come up and spile it all! "

Tom saw his opportunity--

" Lookyhere, Huck, being rich ain't going to keep me back from turning

robber. "

" No! Oh, good-licks; are you in real dead-wood earnest, Tom? "

" Just as dead earnest as I'm sitting here. But Huck, we can't let you

into the gang if you ain't respectable, you know. "

Huck's joy was quenched.

" Can't let me in, Tom? Didn't you let me go for a pirate? "

" Yes, but that's different. A robber is more high-toned than what a

pirate is--as a general thing. In most countries they're awful high up

in the nobility--dukes and such. "

" Now, Tom, hain't you always ben friendly to me? You wouldn't shet me

out, would you, Tom? You wouldn't do that, now, WOULD you, Tom? "

" Huck, I wouldn't want to, and I DON'T want to--but what would people

say? Why, they'd say, 'Mph! Tom Sawyer's Gang! pretty low characters in

it! ' They'd mean you, Huck. You wouldn't like that, and I wouldn't. "

Huck was silent for some time, engaged in a mental struggle. Finally

he said:

" Well, I'll go back to the widder for a month and tackle it and see if

I can come to stand it, if you'll let me b'long to the gang, Tom. "

" All right, Huck, it's a whiz! Come along, old chap, and I'll ask the

widow to let up on you a little, Huck. "

" Will you, Tom--now will you? That's good. If she'll let up on some of

the roughest things, I'll smoke private and cuss private, and crowd

through or bust. When you going to start the gang and turn robbers? "

" Oh, right off. We'll get the boys together and have the initiation

to-night, maybe. "

" Have the which? "

" Have the initiation. "

" What's that? "

" It's to swear to stand by one another, and never tell the gang's

secrets, even if you're chopped all to flinders, and kill anybody and

all his family that hurts one of the gang. "

" That's gay--that's mighty gay, Tom, I tell you. "

" Well, I bet it is. And all that swearing's got to be done at

midnight, in the lonesomest, awfulest place you can find--a ha'nted

house is the best, but they're all ripped up now. "

" Well, midnight's good, anyway, Tom. "

" Yes, so it is. And you've got to swear on a coffin, and sign it with

blood. "

" Now, that's something LIKE! Why, it's a million times bullier than

pirating. I'll stick to the widder till I rot, Tom; and if I git to be

a reg'lar ripper of a robber, and everybody talking 'bout it, I reckon