CHAPTER XXVII
THE adventure of the day mightily tormented Tom's dreams that night.Four times he had his hands on that rich treasure and four times itwasted to nothingness in his fingers as sleep forsook him andwakefulness brought back the hard reality of his misfortune. As he layin the early morning recalling the incidents of his great adventure, henoticed that they seemed curiously subdued and far away--somewhat as ifthey had happened in another world, or in a time long gone by. Then itoccurred to him that the great adventure itself must be a dream! Therewas one very strong argument in favor of this idea--namely, that thequantity of coin he had seen was too vast to be real. He had never seenas much as fifty dollars in one mass before, and he was like all boysof his age and station in life, in that he imagined that all referencesto "hundreds" and "thousands" were mere fanciful forms of speech, andthat no such sums really existed in the world. He never had supposedfor a moment that so large a sum as a hundred dollars was to be foundin actual money in any one's possession. If his notions of hiddentreasure had been analyzed, they would have been found to consist of ahandful of real dimes and a bushel of vague, splendid, ungraspabledollars.
But the incidents of his adventure grew sensibly sharper and clearerunder the attrition of thinking them over, and so he presently foundhimself leaning to the impression that the thing might not have been adream, after all. This uncertainty must be swept away. He would snatcha hurried breakfast and go and find Huck. Huck was sitting on thegunwale of a flatboat, listlessly dangling his feet in the water andlooking very melancholy. Tom concluded to let Huck lead up to thesubject. If he did not do it, then the adventure would be proved tohave been only a dream.
"Hello, Huck!"
"Hello, yourself."
Silence, for a minute.
"Tom, if we'd 'a' left the blame tools at the dead tree, we'd 'a' gotthe money. Oh, ain't it awful!"
"'Tain't a dream, then, 'tain't a dream! Somehow I most wish it was.Dog'd if I don't, Huck."
"What ain't a dream?"
"Oh, that thing yesterday. I been half thinking it was."
"Dream! If them stairs hadn't broke down you'd 'a' seen how much dreamit was! I've had dreams enough all night--with that patch-eyed Spanishdevil going for me all through 'em--rot him!"
"No, not rot him. FIND him! Track the money!"
"Tom, we'll never find him. A feller don't have only one chance forsuch a pile--and that one's lost. I'd feel mighty shaky if I was to seehim, anyway."
"Well, so'd I; but I'd like to see him, anyway--and track him out--tohis Number Two."
"Number Two--yes, that's it. I been thinking 'bout that. But I can'tmake nothing out of it. What do you reckon it is?"
"I dono. It's too deep. Say, Huck--maybe it's the number of a house!"
"Goody! ... No, Tom, that ain't it. If it is, it ain't in thisone-horse town. They ain't no numbers here."
"Well, that's so. Lemme think a minute. Here--it's the number of aroom--in a tavern, you know!"
"Oh, that's the trick! They ain't only two taverns. We can find outquick."
"You stay here, Huck, till I come."
Tom was off at once. He did not care to have Huck's company in publicplaces. He was gone half an hour. He found that in the best tavern, No.2 had long been occupied by a young lawyer, and was still so occupied.In the less ostentatious house, No. 2 was a mystery. Thetavern-keeper's young son said it was kept locked all the time, and henever saw anybody go into it or come out of it except at night; he didnot know any particular reason for this state of things; had had somelittle curiosity, but it was rather feeble; had made the most of themystery by entertaining himself with the idea that that room was"ha'nted"; had noticed that there was a light in there the night before.
"That's what I've found out, Huck. I reckon that's the very No. 2we're after."
"I reckon it is, Tom. Now what you going to do?"
"Lemme think."
Tom thought a long time. Then he said:
"I'll tell you. The back door of that No. 2 is the door that comes outinto that little close alley between the tavern and the old rattle trapof a brick store. Now you get hold of all the door-keys you can find,and I'll nip all of auntie's, and the first dark night we'll go thereand try 'em. And mind you, keep a lookout for Injun Joe, because hesaid he was going to drop into town and spy around once more for achance to get his revenge. If you see him, you just follow him; and ifhe don't go to that No. 2, that ain't the place."
"Lordy, I don't want to foller him by myself!"
"Why, it'll be night, sure. He mightn't ever see you--and if he did,maybe he'd never think anything."
"Well, if it's pretty dark I reckon I'll track him. I dono--I dono.I'll try."
"You bet I'll follow him, if it's dark, Huck. Why, he might 'a' foundout he couldn't get his revenge, and be going right after that money."
"It's so, Tom, it's so. I'll foller him; I will, by jingoes!"
"Now you're TALKING! Don't you ever weaken, Huck, and I won't."
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