Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer among the Indians

by Twain, Mark

  Why that was me and Tom—I never see such an idiot. But the company was charmed to death with that stuff, and said it was the most astonishing thing the way a detective could read every little sign he come across same as if it was a book, and you couldn’t hide nothing from him. And they said this town would a lived and died and never knowed what started the row and who done it if it hadn’t been for Flacker, and they was all under obligations to him; but he said it warn’t nothing, it was his perfeshon, and anybody could do it that had practice and the gifts.

  “And the gifts! you may well say that,” says Tom’s aunt Polly; and then they all said it.

  She was soft on detectives, becuz Tom had an ambitiousness thataway, and she was proud about what he done that time down at his uncle Silas’s.

  Chapter 9

  WE WAS over the river before daylight next morning, and as soon as the dawn come we begun to search for them foot-tracks. Tom had the measures of the two men’s tracks—length and width; and he had the heels exact, just as they was printed in the ground in the lean-to, becuz he had run tallow into them from the candle and made thin moulds, and then traced them around on a leaf which he tore out of Bat’s grocery-store book and done it with Bat’s pen. The prints was like anybody else’s to me, except the pal’s left heel, which had a little of the north-east corner gone, and it oughter been the other one, to do us any good, I reckoned, becuz it was the left one he dragged after he hurt it falling down the jumping-off place, and the corner wouldn’t show, now, if he was still a-dragging it; but Tom said I was a sap-head, and said if it dragged couldn’t we see the drag-mark. Well, that was so; so then I didn’t say no more.

  We started work about a mile above the ferry on the Illinois shore. There was a low place where you could land a lame man there, and it was the only one above the ferry—the rest was all bluff bank ten foot high, like a wall, at this stage of the river. There was considerable many tracks, some fresh and some old, but if the ones we wanted was there they was too old to show up, now. We went out in the woods a piece and struck down-stream and went as far as the ferry, and found tracks in places, but they warn’t the right ones. There wasn’t a place for miles below the ferry where they could land; so we struck out on the ferry road and hunted the ground on both sides of it away out double as far as a lame man could get to in the time they had, since they started, but we hadn’t any luck.

  We stuck to it all day, and went back next day and ransacked again—rummaged the whole country betwixt the landings, plum till dark. It warn’t any good. Next day we went down and rummaged Jackson’s island—no tracks there but Flacker’s; and he had lugged off our print-works, and some of our feed, too. So then we crossed to our shore and went to the cave, but that warn’t any use, becuz the soldiers was there that Colonel Elder sent on accounts of the pow-wow the conspiracy made, and if any strangers had tried to get in there it would a been hark from the tomb for them.

  We had to give it up, then, and paddled along home. Tom was down in the mouth again, becuz Jim would have to go down South with the King and the Duke, now, and could have a terrible rough time before we could run him out of slavery and break for England. But pretty soon he jumps up, all excited and glad, and says—

  “We’re fools, Huck, just fools!”

  “Tain’t no news,” I says, “but what’s the matter now?”

  “Why, we’re in luck—that’s what’s the matter.”

  “Skin it to me,” I says, “I’m a listening.”

  “Well, you see, we didn’t find the men, and ain’t ever going to; so Jim hangs, for dead sure, now, if he stays here—ain’t it so? And so it’s splendid that he’s going to be sold South, and I’m glad you run across the Duke and the King. It’s the best thing that ever happened, becuz—”

  “Shucks,” I says, “is it any more splendider now than it was two minutes ago? You was ’most sick about it, then. How is it such good luck?”

  “Becuz he ain’t agoing to be sold South.”

  It sounded so good I come near jumping up and cracking my heels; but I held in, becuz I don’t like disapp’intments, and says—

  “How you going to prevent it?”

  “Easy. We’re just fools for not thinking of it sooner. We’ll go down the river with them on the same boat, and when we get to Cairo we’re in a free State, and we’ll say, now then, the most you can get for Jim down South is a thousand dollars—you can get that right here for him!”

  So then I did jump up and crack my heels, and says—

  “It’s splendid, Tom. I’m in for half of the money.”

  “No you ain’t.”

  “Yes I am.”

  “No you ain’t. If it hadn’t been for the conspiracy Jim wouldn’t been at that place, and wouldn’t be in no trouble now. It’s my fault, and I foot the bill.”

  “It ain’t fair,” I says. “How did I come to hog half of the robber’s money and get so rotten flush? Was it my smartness? No, it was yourn. By rights you ought to took it all, and you wouldn’t.”

  And I stuck to him till he give in.

  “Now then,” I says, “we ain’t such fools as you think, for not thinking about this sooner. We couldn’t buy Jim here, becuz he’s free and there ain’t anybody to buy him of. We couldn’t buy him of anybody but the King and the Duke, and can’t buy him of them till he’s on free ground where we can run him up the Ohio and into Canada and over to England—so we’ve thought of it plenty soon enough, and ain’t fools, nuther.”

  “All right, then, we ain’t fools, but ain’t it lucky that we went down the river when there warn’t the least sense in it, and yet it was the very thing that met us up with the King and the Duke, and we can see, now, Jim would be hung, sure, if it hadn’t happened. Huck—something else in it, ain’t there?”

  He said it pretty solemn. So I knowed he had treed the hand of Providence again, and said so.

  “I reckon you’ll learn to trust, before long,” he says.

  I started to say “I wisht I could get the credit for everything another person does,” but pulled it in and crowded it down and didn’t say nothing. It’s the best way. After he had studied a while he says—

  “We got to neglect the conspiracy, Huck, our hands is too full to run it right.”

  I was graveled, and was agoing to say “Long’s we ain’t running it anyway—’least don’t get none of the credit of it—it ain’t worth the trouble it is to us,” but pulled it in and crowded it down like I done before. Best way, I reckon.

  After supper we went to the jail and took Jim a pie and one thing and another and told him how we was going to buy him at Cairo and run him to England, and by Jackson he busted out and cried; and the pie went down the wrong way and we had to beat him and bang him or he would a choked to death and might as well a been hung.

  Jim was all right, now, and joyful, and his mournfulness all went away, and took his banjo, and ’stead of singing “Ain’t got long to stay here,” the way he done since he got into jail, he sung “Jinny git de hoecake done,” and the gayest songs he knowed; and laughed and laughed about the King and the Duke and the Burning Shame till he ’most died; it was good to see him; and then danced a nigger breakdown, and said he hadn’t been so young in his heart since he was a boy.

  And he was willing for his wife and children to come and see him now, if their marsters would let them—and the sheriff; he couldn’t bear the idea of it before. So we said we would try for it, and hoped we’d have them there in the morning so he could see them and say good-bye before the King and the Duke come up on the boat.

  That night we packed our things, and in the morning I went to Judge Thatcher and drawed eight hundred dollars, and he was surprised, but he didn’t get no information out of me; and Tom drawed the same, and then we went to ’range about Jim’s wife and children, and their marsters was very good and kind, but couldn’t spare them now, but would let them come before long—maybe next week—was there any hurry? Of course we had to say no, that would answer very well
.

  Then we went to the jail and Jim was dreadful sorry, but knowed it couldn’t be helped and he had to get along the way things was; but he didn’t take on, becuz niggers is used to that.

  We chattered along pretty comfortable till we heard the boat coming, but after that we was too excited to talk, but only fidgeted up and down; and every time the bolts and chains on the jail door rattled I catched my breath and says to myself, that’s them a-coming! But it wasn’t.

  They didn’t come at all. We was disappointed, and so was Jim, but it warn’t any matter, they was prob’ly in the calaboose for getting drunk and raising a row, and would turn up to-morrow. So then we hid the money and went a-fishing.

  Next day Jim’s trial was set for three weeks ahead.

  No Duke and no King, yet.

  So we allowed we would wait one more day, and then if they didn’t come we would go down to Sent Louis and go to the calaboose and find out how long they was in for.

  Well, they didn’t come; so we went down. And by George they warn’t in the calaboose, and hadn’t been!

  It was perfectly awful. Tom was that sick he had to set down on something—he couldn’t stand.

  What to do we didn’t know; becuz the calaboose was the only address them bilks ever had.

  Then we went and tried the jail. No use—they hadn’t been there, either.

  It was getting to look right down scary; I knowed it, and Tom knowed it. But we’d got to keep moving, we couldn’t rest. It was a powerful big town—some said it had sixty thousand people in it, prob’ly a lie; but we searched it high and low for four days just the same, particularly the worst parts, like what they call Hell’s Half-Acre. But we couldn’t run across them; they was gone—clean gone, just the same as if they had been blowed out, like a candle.

  We got downer and downer in the mouth, we couldn’t make it out nohow. Something had gone and happened to them, of course, but there warn’t no guessing what, only we knowed it was serious. And could be mighty serious for Jim, too, if it went on so. I reckoned they was dead, but I didn’t say so, it wouldn’t help Tom feel any better.

  We had to give it up, and we went back home. And not talking much; there warn’t anything to talk about, but plenty to think. And mainly what to say to Jim, and how to let on to be hopeful.

  Well, we went to the jail every day, and pretended we warn’t uneasy, and let on to be pretty gay, and done it the best we could, but it was pretty poor and wouldn’t fooled anybody but old Jim, which believed in us. We kept it up more than two weeks, and it was the hardest work we ever had and the sorrowfulest. And always we said it was going to come out all right, but towards the last we couldn’t say it hearty and strong, and that made Jim suspicion something, and he turned in and went to bracing us up and trying to make us cheerful, and it ’most broke us down, and was the hardest of all for us to bear, becuz it showed he had as good as found out we hadn’t any real hope, and so he was forgetting to be troubled about himself he was so sorry for us.

  But there was one part of the day that we warn’t ever in the jail. It was when the boat come. We was always there, and seen everybody that come ashore. And every now and then, along at first, as the boat sidled in I would think I saw them bilks in the jam on the foc’sle and nudge Tom and say “There they are!” but it was a mistake; and so towards the last we only went becuz we couldn’t help it, and looked at the passengers without any intrust, and turned around and went away without saying anything when they had all come ashore. It seemed kind of strange: last month I would a broke my neck getting away from the King and the Duke, but now I would druther see them than the angels.

  Tom was pale, and hadn’t any appetite for his vittles, and didn’t sleep good, and hadn’t any spirits and wouldn’t talk, and his aunt Polly was worried out of her life about him, and believed the Sons of Freedom and their bills and their horn had scared Tom into a sickness; and every day she loaded him up with any kind of medicine she could get aholt of; and she watched him through the keyhole, and ’stead of giving it to the cat he took it himself, and that just scared her crazy; and she said if she could get her hands on the Son of Freedom that scattered them bills around she believed to gracious she would break his leg if it was the last act.

  Me and Tom had to be witnesses, and Jim’s lawyer was a young man and new to the village, and hadn’t any business, becuz of course the others didn’t want the job for a free nigger, though we offered to pay them high. They hated to go back on Tom, but they was plenty right enough, they had to get their living and the prejudices was pretty strong, which was natural. Tom reconnized that; he wouldn’t be lawyer for a free nigger himself, unless it was Jim.

  Chapter 10

  THE MORNING of the trial Tom’s aunt Polly stopped him and warn’t going to let him go; she said it warn’t any place for boys, and besides, they wouldn’t be allowed—everybody was going and there wouldn’t be room; but Tom says—

  “There’ll be room for me and Huck. We’re going to be witnesses.”

  She was that astonished you could a knocked her down with a brickbat; and shoved her spectacles up on her forehead and says—

  “You two! What do you know about it, I’d like to know!”

  But we didn’t stop to talk, but cleared out and left her finishing fixing up; becuz she was coming, of course—everybody was.

  The court-house was jammed. Plenty of ladies, too—seven or eight benches of them; and aunt Polly and the Widow Douglas and Miss Watson and Mrs. Lawson, they all set together, and the Thatchers and a lot more back of them—all of the quality. And Jim was there, and the sheriff.

  Then the judge come in and set down very solemn, and opened court; and Mr. Lawson made a speech and said he was going to prove Jim done it by two witnesses, and he had a motive, and would prove that, too. I knowed it didn’t make Tom feel good to hear him say that.

  Jim’s young lawyer made a speech and said he was going to prove an allyby—prove it by two witnesses; and that it warn’t done by Jim but by a stranger unknown. It made everybody smile; and I was sorry for that young man, becuz he was nervous and scared, and knowed he hadn’t any case, and so couldn’t talk out bold and strong like Mr. Lawson done. And he knowed everybody was making fun of him, too, and didn’t think much of him for being a free nigger’s lawyer and a nobody to boot.

  Flacker he went on the stand and give his idea of how it all happened; and mapped it out and worked his clews, and everybody held their breath and was full of wonderment to hear him make it so plain and clear, and nothing in the world to do it with but just his intellects.

  Then Cap. Haines and Buck Fisher told how they catched Jim as good as in the very act; and how poor old Bat was laying there dead, and Jim just getting up, having caved his head in with the musket and slipped and fell on him.

  And then the musket was showed, with rust and hair on the barrel, and the people shuddered; and when they held up the bloody clothes they shuddered some more.

  Then I told all I knowed and got back out of the way; and hadn’t done no good, becuz there wasn’t anybody there believed any of it, and the most of them looked it.

  Then they called Tom Sawyer, and people around me mumbled and said, “ ’Course—couldn’t happen ’thout him being in it; couldn’t do an eclipse successful if Tom Sawyer was took sick and couldn’t superintend.” And his aunt Polly and the women perked up and got ready to wonder what kind of ’sistance he was going to contribbit and who was going to get the benefit of it.

  “Thomas Sawyer, where was you on the Saturday night before the Sunday that this deed was done?”

  “Running a conspiracy.”

  “Doing what?” says the judge, looking down at him over his pulpit.

  “Running a conspiracy, your honor.”

  “This sounds like a dangerous candor. Tell your story; and be careful and not reveal things that can hurt you.”

  So Tom went on and told the whole thing, how we got up the conspiracy and run it for all it was worth; and Colonel El
der and Captain Sam set there looking ashamed and pretty mad, for ’most everybody was laughing; and when he showed that it was us that was the Sons of Freedom and got up the scare-bills and stuck them on the doors, and not Burrell, which Flacker said it was, they laughed again, and it was Flacker’s turn to look sick, and he done it.

  So he went on telling it, straight out and square, and no lies, all the way down to where Jim come down out of the tree after he blowed the signal-horn and we all went into the town and sampled the excitement—and you could see the people was believing it all, becuz it sounded honest and didn’t have a made-up look; and so the alliby was getting to look right down favorable, and people was nodding their heads at one another as much as to say so, and looking more friendlier at Jim, too, and Mr. Lawson warn’t looking so comfortable as he was before; but at last come the question—