CHAPTER XXV
THERE comes a time in every rightly-constructed boy's life when he hasa raging desire to go somewhere and dig for hidden treasure. Thisdesire suddenly came upon Tom one day. He sallied out to find JoeHarper, but failed of success. Next he sought Ben Rogers; he had gonefishing. Presently he stumbled upon Huck Finn the Red-Handed. Huckwould answer. Tom took him to a private place and opened the matter tohim confidentially. Huck was willing. Huck was always willing to take ahand in any enterprise that offered entertainment and required nocapital, for he had a troublesome superabundance of that sort of timewhich is not money. "Where'll we dig?" said Huck.
"Oh, most anywhere."
"Why, is it hid all around?"
"No, indeed it ain't. It's hid in mighty particular places, Huck--sometimes on islands, sometimes in rotten chests under the end of alimb of an old dead tree, just where the shadow falls at midnight; butmostly under the floor in ha'nted houses."
"Who hides it?"
"Why, robbers, of course--who'd you reckon? Sunday-schoolsup'rintendents?"
"I don't know. If 'twas mine I wouldn't hide it; I'd spend it and havea good time."
"So would I. But robbers don't do that way. They always hide it andleave it there."
"Don't they come after it any more?"
"No, they think they will, but they generally forget the marks, orelse they die. Anyway, it lays there a long time and gets rusty; and byand by somebody finds an old yellow paper that tells how to find themarks--a paper that's got to be ciphered over about a week because it'smostly signs and hy'roglyphics."
"HyroQwhich?"
"Hy'roglyphics--pictures and things, you know, that don't seem to meananything."
"Have you got one of them papers, Tom?"
"No."
"Well then, how you going to find the marks?"
"I don't want any marks. They always bury it under a ha'nted house oron an island, or under a dead tree that's got one limb sticking out.Well, we've tried Jackson's Island a little, and we can try it againsome time; and there's the old ha'nted house up the Still-House branch,and there's lots of dead-limb trees--dead loads of 'em."
"Is it under all of them?"
"How you talk! No!"
"Then how you going to know which one to go for?"
"Go for all of 'em!"
"Why, Tom, it'll take all summer."
"Well, what of that? Suppose you find a brass pot with a hundreddollars in it, all rusty and gray, or rotten chest full of di'monds.How's that?"
Huck's eyes glowed.
"That's bully. Plenty bully enough for me. Just you gimme the hundreddollars and I don't want no di'monds."
"All right. But I bet you I ain't going to throw off on di'monds. Someof 'em's worth twenty dollars apiece--there ain't any, hardly, but'sworth six bits or a dollar."
"No! Is that so?"
"Cert'nly--anybody'll tell you so. Hain't you ever seen one, Huck?"
"Not as I remember."
"Oh, kings have slathers of them."
"Well, I don' know no kings, Tom."
"I reckon you don't. But if you was to go to Europe you'd see a raftof 'em hopping around."
"Do they hop?"
"Hop?--your granny! No!"
"Well, what did you say they did, for?"
"Shucks, I only meant you'd SEE 'em--not hopping, of course--what dothey want to hop for?--but I mean you'd just see 'em--scattered around,you know, in a kind of a general way. Like that old humpbacked Richard."
"Richard? What's his other name?"
"He didn't have any other name. Kings don't have any but a given name."
"No?"
"But they don't."
"Well, if they like it, Tom, all right; but I don't want to be a kingand have only just a given name, like a nigger. But say--where yougoing to dig first?"
"Well, I don't know. S'pose we tackle that old dead-limb tree on thehill t'other side of Still-House branch?"
"I'm agreed."
So they got a crippled pick and a shovel, and set out on theirthree-mile tramp. They arrived hot and panting, and threw themselvesdown in the shade of a neighboring elm to rest and have a smoke.
"I like this," said Tom.
"So do I."
"Say, Huck, if we find a treasure here, what you going to do with yourshare?"
"Well, I'll have pie and a glass of soda every day, and I'll go toevery circus that comes along. I bet I'll have a gay time."
"Well, ain't you going to save any of it?"
"Save it? What for?"
"Why, so as to have something to live on, by and by."
"Oh, that ain't any use. Pap would come back to thish-yer town someday and get his claws on it if I didn't hurry up, and I tell you he'dclean it out pretty quick. What you going to do with yourn, Tom?"
"I'm going to buy a new drum, and a sure-'nough sword, and a rednecktie and a bull pup, and get married."
"Married!"
"That's it."
"Tom, you--why, you ain't in your right mind."
"Wait--you'll see."
"Well, that's the foolishest thing you could do. Look at pap and mymother. Fight! Why, they used to fight all the time. I remember, mightywell."
"That ain't anything. The girl I'm going to marry won't fight."
"Tom, I reckon they're all alike. They'll all comb a body. Now youbetter think 'bout this awhile. I tell you you better. What's the nameof the gal?"
"It ain't a gal at all--it's a girl."
"It's all the same, I reckon; some says gal, some says girl--both'sright, like enough. Anyway, what's her name, Tom?"
"I'll tell you some time--not now."
"All right--that'll do. Only if you get married I'll be more lonesomerthan ever."
"No you won't. You'll come and live with me. Now stir out of this andwe'll go to digging."
They worked and sweated for half an hour. No result. They toiledanother half-hour. Still no result. Huck said:
"Do they always bury it as deep as this?"
"Sometimes--not always. Not generally. I reckon we haven't got theright place."
So they chose a new spot and began again. The labor dragged a little,but still they made progress. They pegged away in silence for sometime. Finally Huck leaned on his shovel, swabbed the beaded drops fromhis brow with his sleeve, and said:
"Where you going to dig next, after we get this one?"
"I reckon maybe we'll tackle the old tree that's over yonder onCardiff Hill back of the widow's."
"I reckon that'll be a good one. But won't the widow take it away fromus, Tom? It's on her land."
"SHE take it away! Maybe she'd like to try it once. Whoever finds oneof these hid treasures, it belongs to him. It don't make any differencewhose land it's on."
That was satisfactory. The work went on. By and by Huck said:
"Blame it, we must be in the wrong place again. What do you think?"
"It is mighty curious, Huck. I don't understand it. Sometimes witchesinterfere. I reckon maybe that's what's the trouble now."
"Shucks! Witches ain't got no power in the daytime."
"Well, that's so. I didn't think of that. Oh, I know what the matteris! What a blamed lot of fools we are! You got to find out where theshadow of the limb falls at midnight, and that's where you dig!"
"Then consound it, we've fooled away all this work for nothing. Nowhang it all, we got to come back in the night. It's an awful long way.Can you get out?"
"I bet I will. We've got to do it to-night, too, because if somebodysees these holes they'll know in a minute what's here and they'll gofor it."
"Well, I'll come around and maow to-night."
"All right. Let's hide the tools in the bushes."
The boys were there that night, about the appointed time. They sat inthe shadow waiting. It was a lonely place, and an hour made solemn byold traditions. Spirits whispered in the rustling leaves, ghosts lurkedin the murky nooks, the deep baying of a hound floated up out of thedistance, an owl answere
d with his sepulchral note. The boys weresubdued by these solemnities, and talked little. By and by they judgedthat twelve had come; they marked where the shadow fell, and began todig. Their hopes commenced to rise. Their interest grew stronger, andtheir industry kept pace with it. The hole deepened and still deepened,but every time their hearts jumped to hear the pick strike uponsomething, they only suffered a new disappointment. It was only a stoneor a chunk. At last Tom said:
"It ain't any use, Huck, we're wrong again."
"Well, but we CAN'T be wrong. We spotted the shadder to a dot."
"I know it, but then there's another thing."
"What's that?".
"Why, we only guessed at the time. Like enough it was too late or tooearly."
Huck dropped his shovel.
"That's it," said he. "That's the very trouble. We got to give thisone up. We can't ever tell the right time, and besides this kind ofthing's too awful, here this time of night with witches and ghostsa-fluttering around so. I feel as if something's behind me all the time;and I'm afeard to turn around, becuz maybe there's others in fronta-waiting for a chance. I been creeping all over, ever since I got here."
"Well, I've been pretty much so, too, Huck. They most always put in adead man when they bury a treasure under a tree, to look out for it."
"Lordy!"
"Yes, they do. I've always heard that."
"Tom, I don't like to fool around much where there's dead people. Abody's bound to get into trouble with 'em, sure."
"I don't like to stir 'em up, either. S'pose this one here was tostick his skull out and say something!"
"Don't Tom! It's awful."
"Well, it just is. Huck, I don't feel comfortable a bit."
"Say, Tom, let's give this place up, and try somewheres else."
"All right, I reckon we better."
"What'll it be?"
Tom considered awhile; and then said:
"The ha'nted house. That's it!"
"Blame it, I don't like ha'nted houses, Tom. Why, they're a dern sightworse'n dead people. Dead people might talk, maybe, but they don't comesliding around in a shroud, when you ain't noticing, and peep over yourshoulder all of a sudden and grit their teeth, the way a ghost does. Icouldn't stand such a thing as that, Tom--nobody could."
"Yes, but, Huck, ghosts don't travel around only at night. They won'thender us from digging there in the daytime."
"Well, that's so. But you know mighty well people don't go about thatha'nted house in the day nor the night."
"Well, that's mostly because they don't like to go where a man's beenmurdered, anyway--but nothing's ever been seen around that house exceptin the night--just some blue lights slipping by the windows--no regularghosts."
"Well, where you see one of them blue lights flickering around, Tom,you can bet there's a ghost mighty close behind it. It stands toreason. Becuz you know that they don't anybody but ghosts use 'em."
"Yes, that's so. But anyway they don't come around in the daytime, sowhat's the use of our being afeard?"
"Well, all right. We'll tackle the ha'nted house if you say so--but Ireckon it's taking chances."
They had started down the hill by this time. There in the middle ofthe moonlit valley below them stood the "ha'nted" house, utterlyisolated, its fences gone long ago, rank weeds smothering the verydoorsteps, the chimney crumbled to ruin, the window-sashes vacant, acorner of the roof caved in. The boys gazed awhile, half expecting tosee a blue light flit past a window; then talking in a low tone, asbefitted the time and the circumstances, they struck far off to theright, to give the haunted house a wide berth, and took their wayhomeward through the woods that adorned the rearward side of CardiffHill.