Tom Sawyer, Detective by Mark Twain Chapter 9

Tom Sawyer, Detective

by Mark Twain

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Chapter 9

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FINDING OF JUBITER DUNLAP

IN the next two or three days Dummy he got to be powerful popular. Hewent associating around with the neighbors, and they made much of him,and was proud to have such a rattling curiosity among them. They had himto breakfast, they had him to dinner, they had him to supper; they kepthim loaded up with hog and hominy, and warn't ever tired staring at himand wondering over him, and wishing they knowed more about him, he was souncommon and romantic. His signs warn't no good; people couldn'tunderstand them and he prob'ly couldn't himself, but he done a sight ofgoo-gooing, and so everybody was satisfied, and admired to hear him goit. He toted a piece of slate around, and a pencil; and people wrotequestions on it and he wrote answers; but there warn't anybody could readhis writing but Brace Dunlap. Brace said he couldn't read it very good,but he could manage to dig out the meaning most of the time. He saidDummy said he belonged away off somers and used to be well off, but gotbusted by swindlers which he had trusted, and was poor now, and hadn'tany way to make a living.

Everybody praised Brace Dunlap for being so good to that stranger. Helet him have a little log-cabin all to himself, and had his niggers takecare of it, and fetch him all the vittles he wanted.

Dummy was at our house some, because old Uncle Silas was so afflictedhimself, these days, that anybody else that was afflicted was a comfortto him. Me and Tom didn't let on that we had knowed him before, and hedidn't let on that he had knowed us before. The family talked theirtroubles out before him the same as if he wasn't there, but we reckonedit wasn't any harm for him to hear what they said. Generly he didn't seemto notice, but sometimes he did.

Well, two or three days went along, and everybody got to getting uneasyabout Jubiter Dunlap. Everybody was asking everybody if they had anyidea what had become of him. No, they hadn't, they said: and they shooktheir heads and said there was something powerful strange about it.Another and another day went by; then there was a report got around thatpraps he was murdered. You bet it made a big stir! Everybody's tonguewas clacking away after that. Saturday two or three gangs turned out andhunted the woods to see if they could run across his remainders. Me andTom helped, and it was noble good times and exciting. Tom he was sobrimful of it he couldn't eat nor rest. He said if we could find thatcorpse we would be celebrated, and more talked about than if we gotdrownded.

The others got tired and give it up; but not Tom Sawyer--that warn't hisstyle. Saturday night he didn't sleep any, hardly, trying to think up aplan; and towards daylight in the morning he struck it. He snaked me outof bed and was all excited, and says:

"Quick, Huck, snatch on your clothes--I've got it! Bloodhound!"

In two minutes we was tearing up the river road in the dark towards thevillage. Old Jeff Hooker had a bloodhound, and Tom was going to borrowhim. I says:

"The trail's too old, Tom--and besides, it's rained, you know."

"It don't make any difference, Huck. If the body's hid in the woodsanywhere around the hound will find it. If he's been murdered and buried,they wouldn't bury him deep, it ain't likely, and if the dog goes overthe spot he'll scent him, sure. Huck, we're going to be celebrated, sureas you're born!"

He was just a-blazing; and whenever he got afire he was most likely toget afire all over. That was the way this time. In two minutes he hadgot it all ciphered out, and wasn't only just going to find thecorpse--no, he was going to get on the track of that murderer and huntHIM down, too; and not only that, but he was going to stick to him till--"Well," I says, "you better find the corpse first; I reckon that'sa-plenty for to-day. For all we know, there AIN'T any corpse and nobodyhain't been murdered. That cuss could 'a' gone off somers and not beenkilled at all."

That graveled him, and he says:

"Huck Finn, I never see such a person as you to want to spoil everything.As long as YOU can't see anything hopeful in a thing, you won't letanybody else. What good can it do you to throw cold water on that corpseand get up that selfish theory that there ain't been any murder? None inthe world. I don't see how you can act so. I wouldn't treat you likethat, and you know it. Here we've got a noble good opportunity to make aruputation, and--"

"Oh, go ahead," I says. "I'm sorry, and I take it all back. I didn'tmean nothing. Fix it any way you want it. HE ain't any consequence tome. If he's killed, I'm as glad of it as you are; and if he--"

"I never said anything about being glad; I only--"

"Well, then, I'm as SORRY as you are. Any way you druther have it, thatis the way I druther have it. He--"

"There ain't any druthers ABOUT it, Huck Finn; nobody said anything aboutdruthers. And as for--"

He forgot he was talking, and went tramping along, studying. He begun toget excited again, and pretty soon he says:

"Huck, it'll be the bulliest thing that ever happened if we find the bodyafter everybody else has quit looking, and then go ahead and hunt up themurderer. It won't only be an honor to us, but it'll be an honor toUncle Silas because it was us that done it. It'll set him up again, yousee if it don't."

But Old Jeff Hooker he throwed cold water on the whole business when wegot to his blacksmith shop and told him what we come for.

"You can take the dog," he says, "but you ain't a-going to find anycorpse, because there ain't any corpse to find. Everybody's quit looking,and they're right. Soon as they come to think, they knowed there warn'tno corpse. And I'll tell you for why. What does a person kill anotherperson for, Tom Sawyer?--answer me that."

"Why, he--er--"

"Answer up! You ain't no fool. What does he kill him FOR?"

"Well, sometimes it's for revenge, and--"

"Wait. One thing at a time. Revenge, says you; and right you are. Nowwho ever had anything agin that poor trifling no-account? Who do youreckon would want to kill HIM?--that rabbit!"

Tom was stuck. I reckon he hadn't thought of a person having to have aREASON for killing a person before, and now he sees it warn't likelyanybody would have that much of a grudge against a lamb like JubiterDunlap. The blacksmith says, by and by:

"The revenge idea won't work, you see. Well, then, what's next? Robbery?B'gosh, that must 'a' been it, Tom! Yes, sirree, I reckon we've struck itthis time. Some feller wanted his gallus-buckles, and so he--"

But it was so funny he busted out laughing, and just went on laughing andlaughing and laughing till he was 'most dead, and Tom looked so put outand cheap that I knowed he was ashamed he had come, and he wished hehadn't. But old Hooker never let up on him. He raked up everything aperson ever could want to kill another person about, and any fool couldsee they didn't any of them fit this case, and he just made no end of funof the whole business and of the people that had been hunting the body;and he said:

"If they'd had any sense they'd 'a' knowed the lazy cuss slid out becausehe wanted a loafing spell after all this work. He'll come pottering backin a couple of weeks, and then how'll you fellers feel? But, laws blessyou, take the dog, and go and hunt his remainders. Do, Tom."

Then he busted out, and had another of them forty-rod laughs of hisn.Tom couldn't back down after all this, so he said, "All right, unchainhim;" and the blacksmith done it, and we started home and left that oldman laughing yet.

It was a lovely dog. There ain't any dog that's got a lovelierdisposition than a bloodhound, and this one knowed us and liked us. Hecapered and raced around ever so friendly, and powerful glad to be freeand have a holiday; but Tom was so cut up he couldn't take any intrust inhim, and said he wished he'd stopped and thought a minute before he everstarted on such a fool errand. He said old Jeff Hooker would telleverybody, and we'd never hear the last of it.

So we loafed along home down the back lanes, feeling pretty glum and nottalking. When we was passing the far corner of our tobacker field weheard the dog set up a long howl in there, and we went to the place andhe was scratching the ground with all his might, and every now and thencanting up his head sideways and fetching another howl.

It was a long square, the shape of a grave; the rain had made it sinkdown and show the shape. The minute we come and stood there we looked atone another and never said a word. When the dog had dug down only a fewinches he grabbed something and pulled it up, and it was an arm and asleeve. Tom kind of gasped out, and says:

"Come away, Huck--it's found."

I just felt awful. We struck for the road and fetched the first men thatcome along. They got a spade at the crib and dug out the body, and younever see such an excitement. You couldn't make anything out of theface, but you didn't need to. Everybody said:

"Poor Jubiter; it's his clothes, to the last rag!"

Some rushed off to spread the news and tell the justice of the peace andhave an inquest, and me and Tom lit out for the house. Tom was all afireand 'most out of breath when we come tearing in where Uncle Silas andAunt Sally and Benny was. Tom sung out:

"Me and Huck's found Jubiter Dunlap's corpse all by ourselves with abloodhound, after everybody else had quit hunting and given it up; and ifit hadn't a been for us it never WOULD 'a' been found; and he WASmurdered too--they done it with a club or something like that; and I'mgoing to start in and find the murderer, next, and I bet I'll do it!"

Aunt Sally and Benny sprung up pale and astonished, but Uncle Silas fellright forward out of his chair on to the floor and groans out:

"Oh, my God, you've found him NOW!"

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Tom Sawyer, Detective by Mark Twain Chapter 8

Tom Sawyer, Detective

by Mark Twain

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Chapter 8

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TALKING WITH THE GHOST

IT warn't very cheerful at breakfast. Aunt Sally she looked old andtired and let the children snarl and fuss at one another and didn't seemto notice it was going on, which wasn't her usual style; me and Tom had aplenty to think about without talking; Benny she looked like she hadn'thad much sleep, and whenever she'd lift her head a little and steal alook towards her father you could see there was tears in her eyes; and asfor the old man, his things stayed on his plate and got cold without himknowing they was there, I reckon, for he was thinking and thinking allthe time, and never said a word and never et a bite.

By and by when it was stillest, that nigger's head was poked in at thedoor again, and he said his Marse Brace was getting powerful uneasy aboutMarse Jubiter, which hadn't come home yet, and would Marse Silas please--He was looking at Uncle Silas, and he stopped there, like the rest ofhis words was froze; for Uncle Silas he rose up shaky and steadiedhimself leaning his fingers on the table, and he was panting, and hiseyes was set on the nigger, and he kept swallowing, and put his otherhand up to his throat a couple of times, and at last he got his wordsstarted, and says:

"Does he--does he--think--WHAT does he think! Tell him--tell him--" Thenhe sunk down in his chair limp and weak, and says, so as you could hardlyhear him: "Go away--go away!"

The nigger looked scared and cleared out, and we all felt--well, I don'tknow how we felt, but it was awful, with the old man panting there, andhis eyes set and looking like a person that was dying. None of us couldbudge; but Benny she slid around soft, with her tears running down, andstood by his side, and nestled his old gray head up against her and begunto stroke it and pet it with her hands, and nodded to us to go away, andwe done it, going out very quiet, like the dead was there.

Me and Tom struck out for the woods mighty solemn, and saying howdifferent it was now to what it was last summer when we was here andeverything was so peaceful and happy and everybody thought so much ofUncle Silas, and he was so cheerful and simple-hearted and pudd'n-headedand good--and now look at him. If he hadn't lost his mind he wasn't muckshort of it. That was what we allowed.

It was a most lovely day now, and bright and sunshiny; and the furtherand further we went over the hills towards the prairie the lovelier andlovelier the trees and flowers got to be and the more it seemed strangeand somehow wrong that there had to be trouble in such a world as this.And then all of a sudden I catched my breath and grabbed Tom's arm, andall my livers and lungs and things fell down into my legs.

"There it is!" I says. We jumped back behind a bush shivering, and Tomsays:

"'Sh!--don't make a noise."

It was setting on a log right in the edge of a little prairie, thinking.I tried to get Tom to come away, but he wouldn't, and I dasn't budge bymyself. He said we mightn't ever get another chance to see one, and hewas going to look his fill at this one if he died for it. So I lookedtoo, though it give me the fan-tods to do it. Tom he HAD to talk, but hetalked low. He says:

"Poor Jakey, it's got all its things on, just as he said he would. NOWyou see what we wasn't certain about--its hair. It's not long now the wayit was: it's got it cropped close to its head, the way he said he would.Huck, I never see anything look any more naturaler than what It does."

"Nor I neither," I says; "I'd recognize it anywheres."

"So would I. It looks perfectly solid and genuwyne, just the way it donebefore it died."

So we kept a-gazing. Pretty soon Tom says:

"Huck, there's something mighty curious about this one, don't you know?IT oughtn't to be going around in the daytime."

"That's so, Tom--I never heard the like of it before."

"No, sir, they don't ever come out only at night--and then not tillafter twelve. There's something wrong about this one, now you mark mywords. I don't believe it's got any right to be around in the daytime.But don't it look natural! Jake was going to play deef and dumb here, sothe neighbors wouldn't know his voice. Do you reckon it would do that ifwe was to holler at it?"

"Lordy, Tom, don't talk so! If you was to holler at it I'd die in mytracks."

"Don't you worry, I ain't going to holler at it. Look, Huck, it'sa-scratching its head--don't you see?"

"Well, what of it?"

"Why, this. What's the sense of it scratching its head? There ain'tanything there to itch; its head is made out of fog or something likethat, and can't itch. A fog can't itch; any fool knows that."

"Well, then, if it don't itch and can't itch, what in the nation is itscratching it for? Ain't it just habit, don't you reckon?"

"No, sir, I don't. I ain't a bit satisfied about the way this one acts.I've a blame good notion it's a bogus one--I have, as sure as I'ma-sitting here. Because, if it--Huck!"

"Well, what's the matter now?"

"YOU CAN'T SEE THE BUSHES THROUGH IT!"

"Why, Tom, it's so, sure! It's as solid as a cow. I sort of begin tothink--"

"Huck, it's biting off a chaw of tobacker! By George, THEY don'tchaw--they hain't got anything to chaw WITH. Huck!"

"I'm a-listening."

"It ain't a ghost at all. It's Jake Dunlap his own self!"

"Oh your granny!" I says.

"Huck Finn, did we find any corpse in the sycamores?"

"No."

"Or any sign of one?"

"No."

"Mighty good reason. Hadn't ever been any corpse there."

"Why, Tom, you know we heard--"

"Yes, we did--heard a howl or two. Does that prove anybody was killed?Course it don't. And we seen four men run, then this one come walking outand we took it for a ghost. No more ghost than you are. It was JakeDunlap his own self, and it's Jake Dunlap now. He's been and got hishair cropped, the way he said he would, and he's playing himself for astranger, just the same as he said he would. Ghost? Hum!--he's as soundas a nut."

Then I see it all, and how we had took too much for granted. I waspowerful glad he didn't get killed, and so was Tom, and we wondered whichhe would like the best--for us to never let on to know him, or how? Tomreckoned the best way would be to go and ask him. So he started; but Ikept a little behind, because I didn't know but it might be a ghost,after all. When Tom got to where he was, he says:

"Me and Huck's mighty glad to see you again, and you needn't be afearedwe'll tell. And if you think it'll be safer for you if we don't let onto know you when we run across you, say the word and you'll see you candepend on us, and would ruther cut our hands off than get you into theleast little bit of danger."

First off he looked surprised to see us, and not very glad, either; butas Tom went on he looked pleasanter, and when he was done he smiled, andnodded his head several times, and made signs with his hands, and says:

"Goo-goo--goo-goo," the way deef and dummies does.

Just then we see some of Steve Nickerson's people coming that livedt'other side of the prairie, so Tom says:

"You do it elegant; I never see anybody do it better. You're right; playit on us, too; play it on us same as the others; it'll keep you inpractice and prevent you making blunders. We'll keep away from you andlet on we don't know you, but any time we can be any help, you just letus know."

Then we loafed along past the Nickersons, and of course they asked ifthat was the new stranger yonder, and where'd he come from, and what washis name, and which communion was he, Babtis' or Methodis', and whichpolitics, Whig or Democrat, and how long is he staying, and all themother questions that humans always asks when a stranger comes, andanimals does, too. But Tom said he warn't able to make anything out ofdeef and dumb signs, and the same with goo-gooing. Then we watched themgo and bullyrag Jake; because we was pretty uneasy for him. Tom said itwould take him days to get so he wouldn't forget he was a deef and dummysometimes, and speak out before he thought. When we had watched longenough to see that Jake was getting along all right and working his signsvery good, we loafed along again, allowing to strike the schoolhouseabout recess time, which was a three-mile tramp.

I was so disappointed not to hear Jake tell about the row in thesycamores, and how near he come to getting killed, that I couldn't seemto get over it, and Tom he felt the same, but said if we was in Jake'sfix we would want to go careful and keep still and not take any chances.

The boys and girls was all glad to see us again, and we had a real goodtime all through recess. Coming to school the Henderson boys had comeacross the new deef and dummy and told the rest; so all the scholars waschuck full of him and couldn't talk about anything else, and was in asweat to get a sight of him because they hadn't ever seen a deef and dummy in their lives, and it made a powerful excitement.

Tom said it was tough to have to keep mum now; said we would be heroes ifwe could come out and tell all we knowed; but after all, it was still more heroic to keep mum, there warn't two boys in a million could do it.That was Tom Sawyer's idea about it, and reckoned there warn't anybody could better it.

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Tom Sawyer, Detective, by Mark Twain Chapter 7

Tom Sawyer, Detective

by Mark Twain

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Chapter 7

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A NIGHT'S VIGIL

BENNY she was looking pretty sober, and she sighed some, now and then;but pretty soon she got to asking about Mary, and Sid, and Tom's auntPolly, and then Aunt Sally's clouds cleared off and she got in a goodhumor and joined in on the questions and was her lovingest best self, andso the rest of the supper went along gay and pleasant. But the old man hedidn't take any hand hardly, and was absent-minded and restless, and donea considerable amount of sighing; and it was kind of heart-breaking tosee him so sad and troubled and worried.

By and by, a spell after supper, come a nigger and knocked on the doorand put his head in with his old straw hat in his hand bowing andscraping, and said his Marse Brace was out at the stile and wanted hisbrother, and was getting tired waiting supper for him, and would MarseSilas please tell him where he was? I never see Uncle Silas speak up sosharp and fractious before. He says:

"Am I his brother's keeper?" And then he kind of wilted together, andlooked like he wished he hadn't spoken so, and then he says, very gentle:"But you needn't say that, Billy; I was took sudden and irritable, and Iain't very well these days, and not hardly responsible. Tell him he ain'there."

And when the nigger was gone he got up and walked the floor, backwardsand forwards, mumbling and muttering to himself and plowing his handsthrough his hair. It was real pitiful to see him. Aunt Sally shewhispered to us and told us not to take notice of him, it embarrassedhim. She said he was always thinking and thinking, since these troublescome on, and she allowed he didn't more'n about half know what he wasabout when the thinking spells was on him; and she said he walked in hissleep considerable more now than he used to, and sometimes wanderedaround over the house and even outdoors in his sleep, and if we catchedhim at it we must let him alone and not disturb him. She said shereckoned it didn't do him no harm, and may be it done him good. She saidBenny was the only one that was much help to him these days. Said Bennyappeared to know just when to try to soothe him and when to leave himalone.

So he kept on tramping up and down the floor and muttering, till by andby he begun to look pretty tired; then Benny she went and snuggled up tohis side and put one hand in his and one arm around his waist and walkedwith him; and he smiled down on her, and reached down and kissed her; andso, little by little the trouble went out of his face and she persuadedhim off to his room. They had very petting ways together, and it wasuncommon pretty to see.

Aunt Sally she was busy getting the children ready for bed; so by and byit got dull and tedious, and me and Tom took a turn in the moonlight, andfetched up in the watermelon-patch and et one, and had a good deal oftalk. And Tom said he'd bet the quarreling was all Jubiter's fault, andhe was going to be on hand the first time he got a chance, and see; andif it was so, he was going to do his level best to get Uncle Silas toturn him off.

And so we talked and smoked and stuffed watermelons much as two hours,and then it was pretty late, and when we got back the house was quiet anddark, and everybody gone to bed.

Tom he always seen everything, and now he see that the old green baizework-gown was gone, and said it wasn't gone when he went out; so heallowed it was curious, and then we went up to bed.

We could hear Benny stirring around in her room, which was next to ourn,and judged she was worried a good deal about her father and couldn'tsleep. We found we couldn't, neither. So we set up a long time, andsmoked and talked in a low voice, and felt pretty dull and down-hearted.We talked the murder and the ghost over and over again, and got so creepyand crawly we couldn't get sleepy nohow and noway.

By and by, when it was away late in the night and all the sounds was latesounds and solemn, Tom nudged me and whispers to me to look, and I doneit, and there we see a man poking around in the yard like he didn't knowjust what he wanted to do, but it was pretty dim and we couldn't see himgood. Then he started for the stile, and as he went over it the mooncame out strong, and he had a long-handled shovel over his shoulder, andwe see the white patch on the old work-gown. So Tom says:

"He's a-walking in his sleep. I wish we was allowed to follow him andsee where he's going to. There, he's turned down by the tobacker-field.Out of sight now. It's a dreadful pity he can't rest no better."

We waited a long time, but he didn't come back any more, or if he did hecome around the other way; so at last we was tuckered out and went tosleep and had nightmares, a million of them. But before dawn we wasawake again, because meantime a storm had come up and been raging, andthe thunder and lightning was awful, and the wind was a-thrashing thetrees around, and the rain was driving down in slanting sheets, and thegullies was running rivers. Tom says:

"Looky here, Huck, I'll tell you one thing that's mighty curious. Up tothe time we went out last night the family hadn't heard about Jake Dunlapbeing murdered. Now the men that chased Hal Clayton and Bud Dixon awaywould spread the thing around in a half an hour, and every neighbor thatheard it would shin out and fly around from one farm to t'other and tryto be the first to tell the news. Land, they don't have such a big thingas that to tell twice in thirty year! Huck, it's mighty strange; I don'tunderstand it."

So then he was in a fidget for the rain to let up, so we could turn outand run across some of the people and see if they would say anythingabout it to us. And he said if they did we must be horribly surprised andshocked.

We was out and gone the minute the rain stopped. It was just broad daythen. We loafed along up the road, and now and then met a person andstopped and said howdy, and told them when we come, and how we left thefolks at home, and how long we was going to stay, and all that, but noneof them said a word about that thing; which was just astonishing, and nomistake. Tom said he believed if we went to the sycamores we would findthat body laying there solitary and alone, and not a soul around. Saidhe believed the men chased the thieves so far into the woods that thethieves prob'ly seen a good chance and turned on them at last, and maybethey all killed each other, and so there wasn't anybody left to tell.

First we knowed, gabbling along that away, we was right at the sycamores.The cold chills trickled down my back and I wouldn't budge another step,for all Tom's persuading. But he couldn't hold in; he'd GOT to see if theboots was safe on that body yet. So he crope in--and the next minute outhe come again with his eyes bulging he was so excited, and says:

"Huck, it's gone!"

I WAS astonished! I says:

"Tom, you don't mean it."

"It's gone, sure. There ain't a sign of it. The ground is trampledsome, but if there was any blood it's all washed away by the storm, forit's all puddles and slush in there."

At last I give in, and went and took a look myself; and it was just asTom said--there wasn't a sign of a corpse.

"Dern it," I says, "the di'monds is gone. Don't you reckon the thievesslunk back and lugged him off, Tom?"

"Looks like it. It just does. Now where'd they hide him, do youreckon?"

"I don't know," I says, disgusted, "and what's more I don't care.They've got the boots, and that's all I cared about. He'll lay aroundthese woods a long time before I hunt him up."

Tom didn't feel no more intrust in him neither, only curiosity to knowwhat come of him; but he said we'd lay low and keep dark and it wouldn'tbe long till the dogs or somebody rousted him out.

We went back home to breakfast ever so bothered and put out anddisappointed and swindled. I warn't ever so down on a corpse before.

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Tom Sawyer, Detective Chapter 6 by Mark Twain....

Tom Sawyer, Detective

by Mark Twain

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Chapter 6

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PLANS TO SECURE THE DIAMONDS

WE tramped along behind Jim and Lem till we come to the back stile whereold Jim's cabin was that he was captivated in, the time we set him free,and here come the dogs piling around us to say howdy, and there was thelights of the house, too; so we warn't afeard any more, and was going toclimb over, but Tom says:

"Hold on; set down here a minute. By George!"

"What's the matter?" says I.

"Matter enough!" he says. "Wasn't you expecting we would be the first totell the family who it is that's been killed yonder in the sycamores, andall about them rapscallions that done it, and about the di'monds they'vesmouched off of the corpse, and paint it up fine, and have the glory ofbeing the ones that knows a lot more about it than anybody else?"

"Why, of course. It wouldn't be you, Tom Sawyer, if you was to let sucha chance go by. I reckon it ain't going to suffer none for lack ofpaint," I says, "when you start in to scollop the facts."

"Well, now," he says, perfectly ca'm, "what would you say if I was totell you I ain't going to start in at all?"

I was astonished to hear him talk so. I says:

"I'd say it's a lie. You ain't in earnest, Tom Sawyer?"

"You'll soon see. Was the ghost barefooted?"

"No, it wasn't. What of it?"

"You wait--I'll show you what. Did it have its boots on?"

"Yes. I seen them plain."

"Swear it?"

"Yes, I swear it."

"So do I. Now do you know what that means?"

"No. What does it mean?"

"Means that them thieves DIDN'T GET THE DI'MONDS."

"Jimminy! What makes you think that?"

"I don't only think it, I know it. Didn't the breeches and goggles andwhiskers and hand-bag and every blessed thing turn to ghost-stuff?Everything it had on turned, didn't it? It shows that the reason itsboots turned too was because it still had them on after it started to goha'nting around, and if that ain't proof that them blatherskites didn'tget the boots, I'd like to know what you'd CALL proof."

Think of that now. I never see such a head as that boy had. Why, I hadeyes and I could see things, but they never meant nothing to me. But TomSawyer was different. When Tom Sawyer seen a thing it just got up on itshind legs and TALKED to him--told him everything it knowed. I never seesuch a head.

"Tom Sawyer," I says, "I'll say it again as I've said it a many a timebefore: I ain't fitten to black your boots. But that's all right--that'sneither here nor there. God Almighty made us all, and some He gives eyesthat's blind, and some He gives eyes that can see, and I reckon it ain'tnone of our lookout what He done it for; it's all right, or He'd 'a'fixed it some other way. Go on--I see plenty plain enough, now, that themthieves didn't get way with the di'monds. Why didn't they, do youreckon?"

"Because they got chased away by them other two men before they couldpull the boots off of the corpse."

"That's so! I see it now. But looky here, Tom, why ain't we to go andtell about it?"

"Oh, shucks, Huck Finn, can't you see? Look at it. What's a-going tohappen? There's going to be an inquest in the morning. Them two men willtell how they heard the yells and rushed there just in time to not savethe stranger. Then the jury'll twaddle and twaddle and twaddle, andfinally they'll fetch in a verdict that he got shot or stuck or bustedover the head with something, and come to his death by the inspiration ofGod. And after they've buried him they'll auction off his things for topay the expenses, and then's OUR chance." "How, Tom?"

"Buy the boots for two dollars!"

Well, it 'most took my breath.

"My land! Why, Tom, WE'LL get the di'monds!"

"You bet. Some day there'll be a big reward offered for them--a thousanddollars, sure. That's our money! Now we'll trot in and see the folks.And mind you we don't know anything about any murder, or any di'monds, orany thieves--don't you forget that."

I had to sigh a little over the way he had got it fixed. I'd 'a' SOLDthem di'monds--yes, sir--for twelve thousand dollars; but I didn't sayanything. It wouldn't done any good. I says:

"But what are we going to tell your aunt Sally has made us so longgetting down here from the village, Tom?"

"Oh, I'll leave that to you," he says. "I reckon you can explain itsomehow."

He was always just that strict and delicate. He never would tell a liehimself.

We struck across the big yard, noticing this, that, and t'other thingthat was so familiar, and we so glad to see it again, and when we got tothe roofed big passageway betwixt the double log house and the kitchenpart, there was everything hanging on the wall just as it used to was,even to Uncle Silas's old faded green baize working-gown with the hood toit, and raggedy white patch between the shoulders that always looked likesomebody had hit him with a snowball; and then we lifted the latch andwalked in. Aunt Sally she was just a-ripping and a-tearing around, andthe children was huddled in one corner, and the old man he was huddled inthe other and praying for help in time of need. She jumped for us withjoy and tears running down her face and give us a whacking box on theear, and then hugged us and kissed us and boxed us again, and justcouldn't seem to get enough of it, she was so glad to see us; and shesays:

"Where HAVE you been a-loafing to, you good-for-nothing trash! I've beenthat worried about you I didn't know what to do. Your traps has beenhere ever so long, and I've had supper cooked fresh about four times soas to have it hot and good when you come, till at last my patience isjust plumb wore out, and I declare I--I--why I could skin you alive! Youmust be starving, poor things!--set down, set down, everybody; don't loseno more time."

It was good to be there again behind all that noble corn-pone andspareribs, and everything that you could ever want in this world. OldUncle Silas he peeled off one of his bulliest old-time blessings, with asmany layers to it as an onion, and whilst the angels was hauling in theslack of it I was trying to study up what to say about what kept us solong. When our plates was all loadened and we'd got a-going, she askedme, and I says:

"Well, you see,--er--Mizzes--"

"Huck Finn! Since when am I Mizzes to you? Have I ever been stingy ofcuffs or kisses for you since the day you stood in this room and I tookyou for Tom Sawyer and blessed God for sending you to me, though you toldme four thousand lies and I believed every one of them like a simpleton?Call me Aunt Sally--like you always done."

So I done it. And I says:

"Well, me and Tom allowed we would come along afoot and take a smell ofthe woods, and we run across Lem Beebe and Jim Lane, and they asked us togo with them blackberrying to-night, and said they could borrow JubiterDunlap's dog, because he had told them just that minute--"

"Where did they see him?" says the old man; and when I looked up to seehow HE come to take an intrust in a little thing like that, his eyes wasjust burning into me, he was that eager. It surprised me so it kind ofthrowed me off, but I pulled myself together again and says:

"It was when he was spading up some ground along with you, towardssundown or along there."

He only said, "Um," in a kind of a disappointed way, and didn't take nomore intrust. So I went on. I says:

"Well, then, as I was a-saying--"

"That'll do, you needn't go no furder." It was Aunt Sally. She was boringright into me with her eyes, and very indignant. "Huck Finn," she says,"how'd them men come to talk about going a-black-berrying inSeptember--in THIS region?"

I see I had slipped up, and I couldn't say a word. She waited, stilla-gazing at me, then she says:

"And how'd they come to strike that idiot idea of going a-blackberryingin the night?"

"Well, m'm, they--er--they told us they had a lantern, and--"

"Oh, SHET up--do! Looky here; what was they going to do with a dog?--huntblackberries with it?"

"I think, m'm, they--"

"Now, Tom Sawyer, what kind of a lie are you fixing YOUR mouth tocontribit to this mess of rubbage? Speak out--and I warn you before youbegin, that I don't believe a word of it. You and Huck's been up tosomething you no business to--I know it perfectly well; I know you, BOTHof you. Now you explain that dog, and them blackberries, and the lantern,and the rest of that rot--and mind you talk as straight as a string--doyou hear?"

Tom he looked considerable hurt, and says, very dignified:

"It is a pity if Huck is to be talked to that way, just for making alittle bit of a mistake that anybody could make."

"What mistake has he made?"

"Why, only the mistake of saying blackberries when of course he meantstrawberries."

"Tom Sawyer, I lay if you aggravate me a little more, I'll--"

"Aunt Sally, without knowing it--and of course without intending it--youare in the wrong. If you'd 'a' studied natural history the way youought, you would know that all over the world except just here inArkansaw they ALWAYS hunt strawberries with a dog--and a lantern--"

But she busted in on him there and just piled into him and snowed himunder. She was so mad she couldn't get the words out fast enough, andshe gushed them out in one everlasting freshet. That was what Tom Sawyerwas after. He allowed to work her up and get her started and then leaveher alone and let her burn herself out. Then she would be so aggravatedwith that subject that she wouldn't say another word about it, nor letanybody else. Well, it happened just so. When she was tuckered out andhad to hold up, he says, quite ca'm:

"And yet, all the same, Aunt Sally--"

"Shet up!" she says, "I don't want to hear another word out of you."

So we was perfectly safe, then, and didn't have no more trouble aboutthat delay. Tom done it elegant.

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Tom Sawyer, Detective by Mark Twain Chapter 5

Tom Sawyer, Detective

by Mark Twain

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Chapter 5

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A TRAGEDY IN THE WOODS

WE didn't get done tinkering the machinery till away late in theafternoon, and so it was so close to sundown when we got home that wenever stopped on our road, but made a break for the sycamores as tight aswe could go, to tell Jake what the delay was, and have him wait till wecould go to Brace's and find out how things was there. It was gettingpretty dim by the time we turned the corner of the woods, sweating andpanting with that long run, and see the sycamores thirty yards ahead ofus; and just then we see a couple of men run into the bunch and heard twoor three terrible screams for help. "Poor Jake is killed, sure," we says.We was scared through and through, and broke for the tobacker field andhid there, trembling so our clothes would hardly stay on; and just as weskipped in there, a couple of men went tearing by, and into the bunchthey went, and in a second out jumps four men and took out up the road astight as they could go, two chasing two.

We laid down, kind of weak and sick, and listened for more sounds, butdidn't hear none for a good while but just our hearts. We was thinkingof that awful thing laying yonder in the sycamores, and it seemed likebeing that close to a ghost, and it give me the cold shudders. The mooncome a-swelling up out of the ground, now, powerful big and round andbright, behind a comb of trees, like a face looking through prison bars,and the black shadders and white places begun to creep around, and it wasmiserable quiet and still and night-breezy and graveyardy and scary. Allof a sudden Tom whispers:

"Look!--what's that?"

"Don't!" I says. "Don't take a person by surprise that way. I'm 'mostready to die, anyway, without you doing that."

"Look, I tell you. It's something coming out of the sycamores."

"Don't, Tom!"

"It's terrible tall!"

"Oh, lordy-lordy! let's--"

"Keep still--it's a-coming this way."

He was so excited he could hardly get breath enough to whisper. I had tolook. I couldn't help it. So now we was both on our knees with our chinson a fence rail and gazing--yes, and gasping too. It was coming down theroad--coming in the shadder of the trees, and you couldn't see it good;not till it was pretty close to us; then it stepped into a bright splotchof moonlight and we sunk right down in our tracks--it was Jake Dunlap'sghost! That was what we said to ourselves.

We couldn't stir for a minute or two; then it was gone We talked about itin low voices. Tom says:

"They're mostly dim and smoky, or like they're made out of fog, but thisone wasn't."

"No," I says; "I seen the goggles and the whiskers perfectly plain."

"Yes, and the very colors in them loud countrified Sunday clothes--plaidbreeches, green and black--"

"Cotton velvet westcot, fire-red and yaller squares--"

"Leather straps to the bottoms of the breeches legs and one of themhanging unbottoned--"

"Yes, and that hat--"

"What a hat for a ghost to wear!"

You see it was the first season anybody wore that kind--a blackstiff-brim stove-pipe, very high, and not smooth, with a round top--justlike a sugar-loaf.

"Did you notice if its hair was the same, Huck?"

"No--seems to me I did, then again it seems to me I didn't."

"I didn't either; but it had its bag along, I noticed that."

"So did I. How can there be a ghost-bag, Tom?"

"Sho! I wouldn't be as ignorant as that if I was you, Huck Finn.Whatever a ghost has, turns to ghost-stuff. They've got to have theirthings, like anybody else. You see, yourself, that its clothes was turnedto ghost-stuff. Well, then, what's to hender its bag from turning, too?Of course it done it."

That was reasonable. I couldn't find no fault with it. Bill Withers andhis brother Jack come along by, talking, and Jack says:

"What do you reckon he was toting?"

"I dunno; but it was pretty heavy."

"Yes, all he could lug. Nigger stealing corn from old Parson Silas, Ijudged."

"So did I. And so I allowed I wouldn't let on to see him."

"That's me, too."

Then they both laughed, and went on out of hearing. It showed howunpopular old Uncle Silas had got to be now. They wouldn't 'a' let anigger steal anybody else's corn and never done anything to him.

We heard some more voices mumbling along towards us and getting louder,and sometimes a cackle of a laugh. It was Lem Beebe and Jim Lane. JimLane says:

"Who?--Jubiter Dunlap?"

"Yes."

"Oh, I don't know. I reckon so. I seen him spading up some ground alongabout an hour ago, just before sundown--him and the parson. Said heguessed he wouldn't go to-night, but we could have his dog if we wantedhim."

"Too tired, I reckon."

"Yes--works so hard!"

"Oh, you bet!"

They cackled at that, and went on by. Tom said we better jump out andtag along after them, because they was going our way and it wouldn't becomfortable to run across the ghost all by ourselves. So we done it, andgot home all right.

That night was the second of September--a Saturday. I sha'n't ever forgetit. You'll see why, pretty soon.

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Tom Sawyer, Detective by Mark Twain Chapter 4

Tom Sawyer, Detective

by Mark Twain

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Chapter 4

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THE THREE SLEEPERS

WELL, all day we went through the humbug of watching one another, and itwas pretty sickly business for two of us and hard to act out, I can tellyou. About night we landed at one of them little Missouri towns high uptoward Iowa, and had supper at the tavern, and got a room upstairs with acot and a double bed in it, but I dumped my bag under a deal table in thedark hall while we was moving along it to bed, single file, me last, andthe landlord in the lead with a tallow candle. We had up a lot of whisky,and went to playing high-low-jack for dimes, and as soon as the whiskybegun to take hold of Bud we stopped drinking, but we didn't let himstop. We loaded him till he fell out of his chair and laid there snoring.

"We was ready for business now. I said we better pull our boots off, andhis'n too, and not make any noise, then we could pull him and haul himaround and ransack him without any trouble. So we done it. I set myboots and Bud's side by side, where they'd be handy. Then we stripped himand searched his seams and his pockets and his socks and the inside ofhis boots, and everything, and searched his bundle. Never found anydi'monds. We found the screwdriver, and Hal says, 'What do you reckon hewanted with that?' I said I didn't know; but when he wasn't looking Ihooked it. At last Hal he looked beat and discouraged, and said we'd gotto give it up. That was what I was waiting for. I says:

"'There's one place we hain't searched.'

"'What place is that?' he says.

"'His stomach.'

"'By gracious, I never thought of that! NOW we're on the homestretch, toa dead moral certainty. How'll we manage?'

"'Well,' I says, 'just stay by him till I turn out and hunt up a drugstore, and I reckon I'll fetch something that'll make them di'monds tiredof the company they're keeping.'

"He said that's the ticket, and with him looking straight at me I slidmyself into Bud's boots instead of my own, and he never noticed. Theywas just a shade large for me, but that was considerable better thanbeing too small. I got my bag as I went a-groping through the hall, andin about a minute I was out the back way and stretching up the river roadat a five-mile gait.

"And not feeling so very bad, neither--walking on di'monds don't have nosuch effect. When I had gone fifteen minutes I says to myself, there'smore'n a mile behind me, and everything quiet. Another five minutes andI says there's considerable more land behind me now, and there's a manback there that's begun to wonder what's the trouble. Another five and Isays to myself he's getting real uneasy--he's walking the floor now.Another five, and I says to myself, there's two mile and a half behindme, and he's AWFUL uneasy--beginning to cuss, I reckon. Pretty soon Isays to myself, forty minutes gone--he KNOWS there's something up! Fiftyminutes--the truth's a-busting on him now! he is reckoning I found thedi'monds whilst we was searching, and shoved them in my pocket and neverlet on--yes, and he's starting out to hunt for me. He'll hunt for newtracks in the dust, and they'll as likely send him down the river as up.

"Just then I see a man coming down on a mule, and before I thought Ijumped into the bush. It was stupid! When he got abreast he stopped andwaited a little for me to come out; then he rode on again. But I didn'tfeel gay any more. I says to myself I've botched my chances by that; Isurely have, if he meets up with Hal Clayton.

"Well, about three in the morning I fetched Elexandria and see thisstern-wheeler laying there, and was very glad, because I felt perfectlysafe, now, you know. It was just daybreak. I went aboard and got thisstateroom and put on these clothes and went up in the pilot-house--towatch, though I didn't reckon there was any need of it. I set there andplayed with my di'monds and waited and waited for the boat to start, butshe didn't. You see, they was mending her machinery, but I didn't knowanything about it, not being very much used to steamboats.

"Well, to cut the tale short, we never left there till plumb noon; andlong before that I was hid in this stateroom; for before breakfast I seea man coming, away off, that had a gait like Hal Clayton's, and it mademe just sick. I says to myself, if he finds out I'm aboard this boat,he's got me like a rat in a trap. All he's got to do is to have mewatched, and wait--wait till I slip ashore, thinking he is a thousandmiles away, then slip after me and dog me to a good place and make megive up the di'monds, and then he'll--oh, I know what he'll do! Ain't itawful--awful! And now to think the OTHER one's aboard, too! Oh, ain't ithard luck, boys--ain't it hard! But you'll help save me, WON'T you?--oh,boys, be good to a poor devil that's being hunted to death, and saveme--I'll worship the very ground you walk on!"

We turned in and soothed him down and told him we would plan for him andhelp him, and he needn't be so afeard; and so by and by he got to feelingkind of comfortable again, and unscrewed his heelplates and held up hisdi'monds this way and that, admiring them and loving them; and when thelight struck into them they WAS beautiful, sure; why, they seemed to kindof bust, and snap fire out all around. But all the same I judged he wasa fool. If I had been him I would a handed the di'monds to them pals andgot them to go ashore and leave me alone. But he was made different. Hesaid it was a whole fortune and he couldn't bear the idea.

Twice we stopped to fix the machinery and laid a good while, once in thenight; but it wasn't dark enough, and he was afeard to skip. But thethird time we had to fix it there was a better chance. We laid up at acountry woodyard about forty mile above Uncle Silas's place a littleafter one at night, and it was thickening up and going to storm. So Jakehe laid for a chance to slide. We begun to take in wood. Pretty soonthe rain come a-drenching down, and the wind blowed hard. Of courseevery boat-hand fixed a gunny sack and put it on like a bonnet, the waythey do when they are toting wood, and we got one for Jake, and heslipped down aft with his hand-bag and come tramping forrard just likethe rest, and walked ashore with them, and when we see him pass out ofthe light of the torch-basket and get swallowed up in the dark, we gotour breath again and just felt grateful and splendid. But it wasn't forlong. Somebody told, I reckon; for in about eight or ten minutes themtwo pals come tearing forrard as tight as they could jump and dartedashore and was gone. We waited plumb till dawn for them to come back,and kept hoping they would, but they never did. We was awful sorry andlow-spirited. All the hope we had was that Jake had got such a start thatthey couldn't get on his track, and he would get to his brother's andhide there and be safe.

He was going to take the river road, and told us to find out if Brace andJubiter was to home and no strangers there, and then slip out aboutsundown and tell him. Said he would wait for us in a little bunch ofsycamores right back of Tom's uncle Silas's tobacker field on the riverroad, a lonesome place.

We set and talked a long time about his chances, and Tom said he was allright if the pals struck up the river instead of down, but it wasn'tlikely, because maybe they knowed where he was from; more likely theywould go right, and dog him all day, him not suspecting, and kill himwhen it come dark, and take the boots. So we was pretty sorrowful.

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Tom Sawyer, Detective by Mark Twain Chapter 3

Tom Sawyer, Detective

by Mark Twain

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Chapter 3

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A DIAMOND ROBBERY

FROM that time out, we was with him 'most all the time, and one ort'other of us slept in his upper berth. He said he had been so lonesome,and it was such a comfort to him to have company, and somebody to talk toin his troubles. We was in a sweat to find out what his secret was, butTom said the best way was not to seem anxious, then likely he would dropinto it himself in one of his talks, but if we got to asking questions hewould get suspicious and shet up his shell. It turned out just so. Itwarn't no trouble to see that he WANTED to talk about it, but alwaysalong at first he would scare away from it when he got on the very edgeof it, and go to talking about something else. The way it come about wasthis: He got to asking us, kind of indifferent like, about the passengersdown on deck. We told him about them. But he warn't satisfied; we warn'tparticular enough. He told us to describe them better. Tom done it. Atlast, when Tom was describing one of the roughest and raggedest ones, hegave a shiver and a gasp and says:

"Oh, lordy, that's one of them! They're aboard sure--I just knowed it.I sort of hoped I had got away, but I never believed it. Go on."

Presently when Tom was describing another mangy, rough deck passenger, hegive that shiver again and says:

"That's him!--that's the other one. If it would only come a good blackstormy night and I could get ashore. You see, they've got spies on me.They've got a right to come up and buy drinks at the bar yonder forrard,and they take that chance to bribe somebody to keep watch on me--porteror boots or somebody. If I was to slip ashore without anybody seeing me,they would know it inside of an hour."

So then he got to wandering along, and pretty soon, sure enough, he wastelling! He was poking along through his ups and downs, and when he cometo that place he went right along. He says:

"It was a confidence game. We played it on a julery-shop in St. Louis.What we was after was a couple of noble big di'monds as big ashazel-nuts, which everybody was running to see. We was dressed up fine,and we played it on them in broad daylight. We ordered the di'monds sentto the hotel for us to see if we wanted to buy, and when we was examiningthem we had paste counterfeits all ready, and THEM was the things thatwent back to the shop when we said the water wasn't quite fine enough fortwelve thousand dollars."

"Twelve-thousand-dollars!" Tom says. "Was they really worth all thatmoney, do you reckon?"

"Every cent of it."

"And you fellows got away with them?"

"As easy as nothing. I don't reckon the julery people know they've beenrobbed yet. But it wouldn't be good sense to stay around St. Louis, ofcourse, so we considered where we'd go. One was for going one way, oneanother, so we throwed up, heads or tails, and the Upper Mississippi won.We done up the di'monds in a paper and put our names on it and put it inthe keep of the hotel clerk, and told him not to ever let either of ushave it again without the others was on hand to see it done; then we wentdown town, each by his own self--because I reckon maybe we all had thesame notion. I don't know for certain, but I reckon maybe we had."

"What notion?" Tom says.

"To rob the others."

"What--one take everything, after all of you had helped to get it?"

"Cert'nly."

It disgusted Tom Sawyer, and he said it was the orneriest, low-downestthing he ever heard of. But Jake Dunlap said it warn't unusual in theprofession. Said when a person was in that line of business he'd got tolook out for his own intrust, there warn't nobody else going to do it forhim. And then he went on. He says:

"You see, the trouble was, you couldn't divide up two di'monds amongstthree. If there'd been three--But never mind about that, there warn'tthree. I loafed along the back streets studying and studying. And Isays to myself, I'll hog them di'monds the first chance I get, and I'llhave a disguise all ready, and I'll give the boys the slip, and when I'msafe away I'll put it on, and then let them find me if they can. So Igot the false whiskers and the goggles and this countrified suit ofclothes, and fetched them along back in a hand-bag; and when I waspassing a shop where they sell all sorts of things, I got a glimpse ofone of my pals through the window. It was Bud Dixon. I was glad, youbet. I says to myself, I'll see what he buys. So I kept shady, andwatched. Now what do you reckon it was he bought?"

"Whiskers?" said I.

"No."

"Goggles?"

"No."

"Oh, keep still, Huck Finn, can't you, you're only just hendering all youcan. What WAS it he bought, Jake?"

"You'd never guess in the world. It was only just a screwdriver--just awee little bit of a screwdriver."

"Well, I declare! What did he want with that?"

"That's what I thought. It was curious. It clean stumped me. I says tomyself, what can he want with that thing? Well, when he come out I stoodback out of sight, and then tracked him to a second-hand slop-shop andsee him buy a red flannel shirt and some old ragged clothes--just theones he's got on now, as you've described. Then I went down to the wharfand hid my things aboard the up-river boat that we had picked out, andthen started back and had another streak of luck. I seen our other pallay in HIS stock of old rusty second-handers. We got the di'monds andwent aboard the boat.

"But now we was up a stump, for we couldn't go to bed. We had to set upand watch one another. Pity, that was; pity to put that kind of a strainon us, because there was bad blood between us from a couple of weeksback, and we was only friends in the way of business. Bad anyway, seeingthere was only two di'monds betwixt three men. First we had supper, andthen tramped up and down the deck together smoking till most midnight;then we went and set down in my stateroom and locked the doors and lookedin the piece of paper to see if the di'monds was all right, then laid iton the lower berth right in full sight; and there we set, and set, andby-and-by it got to be dreadful hard to keep awake. At last Bud Dixon hedropped off. As soon as he was snoring a good regular gait that waslikely to last, and had his chin on his breast and looked permanent, HalClayton nodded towards the di'monds and then towards the outside door,and I understood. I reached and got the paper, and then we stood up andwaited perfectly still; Bud never stirred; I turned the key of theoutside door very soft and slow, then turned the knob the same way, andwe went tiptoeing out onto the guard, and shut the door very soft andgentle.

"There warn't nobody stirring anywhere, and the boat was slipping along,swift and steady, through the big water in the smoky moonlight. We neversaid a word, but went straight up onto the hurricane-deck and plumb backaft, and set down on the end of the sky-light. Both of us knowed whatthat meant, without having to explain to one another. Bud Dixon wouldwake up and miss the swag, and would come straight for us, for he ain'tafeard of anything or anybody, that man ain't. He would come, and wewould heave him overboard, or get killed trying. It made me shiver,because I ain't as brave as some people, but if I showed the whitefeather--well, I knowed better than do that. I kind of hoped the boatwould land somers, and we could skip ashore and not have to run the riskof this row, I was so scared of Bud Dixon, but she was an upper-river tuband there warn't no real chance of that.

"Well, the time strung along and along, and that fellow never come! Why,it strung along till dawn begun to break, and still he never come.'Thunder,' I says, 'what do you make out of this?--ain't it suspicious?''Land!' Hal says, 'do you reckon he's playing us?--open the paper!' Idone it, and by gracious there warn't anything in it but a couple oflittle pieces of loaf-sugar! THAT'S the reason he could set there andsnooze all night so comfortable. Smart? Well, I reckon! He had had themtwo papers all fixed and ready, and he had put one of them in place oft'other right under our noses.

"We felt pretty cheap. But the thing to do, straight off, was to make aplan; and we done it. We would do up the paper again, just as it was,and slip in, very elaborate and soft, and lay it on the bunk again, andlet on WE didn't know about any trick, and hadn't any idea he wasa-laughing at us behind them bogus snores of his'n; and we would stick byhim, and the first night we was ashore we would get him drunk and searchhim, and get the di'monds; and DO for him, too, if it warn't too risky.If we got the swag, we'd GOT to do for him, or he would hunt us down anddo for us, sure. But I didn't have no real hope. I knowed we could gethim drunk--he was always ready for that--but what's the good of it? Youmight search him a year and never find--Well, right there I catched mybreath and broke off my thought! For an idea went ripping through my headthat tore my brains to rags--and land, but I felt gay and good! You see,I had had my boots off, to unswell my feet, and just then I took up oneof them to put it on, and I catched a glimpse of the heel-bottom, and itjust took my breath away. You remember about that puzzlesome littlescrewdriver?"

"You bet I do," says Tom, all excited.

"Well, when I catched that glimpse of that boot heel, the idea that wentsmashing through my head was, I know where he's hid the di'monds! Youlook at this boot heel, now. See, it's bottomed with a steel plate, andthe plate is fastened on with little screws. Now there wasn't a screwabout that feller anywhere but in his boot heels; so, if he needed ascrewdriver, I reckoned I knowed why."

"Huck, ain't it bully!" says Tom.

"Well, I got my boots on, and we went down and slipped in and laid thepaper of sugar on the berth, and sat down soft and sheepish and went tolistening to Bud Dixon snore. Hal Clayton dropped off pretty soon, but Ididn't; I wasn't ever so wide awake in my life. I was spying out fromunder the shade of my hat brim, searching the floor for leather. It tookme a long time, and I begun to think maybe my guess was wrong, but atlast I struck it. It laid over by the bulkhead, and was nearly the colorof the carpet. It was a little round plug about as thick as the end ofyour little finger, and I says to myself there's a di'mond in the nestyou've come from. Before long I spied out the plug's mate.

"Think of the smartness and coolness of that blatherskite! He put up thatscheme on us and reasoned out what we would do, and we went ahead anddone it perfectly exact, like a couple of pudd'nheads. He set there andtook his own time to unscrew his heelplates and cut out his plugs andstick in the di'monds and screw on his plates again. He allowed we wouldsteal the bogus swag and wait all night for him to come up and getdrownded, and by George it's just what we done! I think it was powerfulsmart."

"You bet your life it was!" says Tom, just full of admiration.

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