CHAPTER XXX
AS the earliest suspicion of dawn appeared on Sunday morning, Huck camegroping up the hill and rapped gently at the old Welshman's door. Theinmates were asleep, but it was a sleep that was set on a hair-trigger,on account of the exciting episode of the night. A call came from awindow:
"Who's there!"
Huck's scared voice answered in a low tone:
"Please let me in! It's only Huck Finn!"
"It's a name that can open this door night or day, lad!--and welcome!"
These were strange words to the vagabond boy's ears, and the pleasantesthe had ever heard. He could not recollect that the closing word had everbeen applied in his case before. The door was quickly unlocked, and heentered. Huck was given a seat and the old man and his brace of tallsons speedily dressed themselves.
"Now, my boy, I hope you're good and hungry, because breakfast will beready as soon as the sun's up, and we'll have a piping hot one, too--makeyourself easy about that! I and the boys hoped you'd turn up and stophere last night."
"I was awful scared," said Huck, "and I run. I took out when the pistolswent off, and I didn't stop for three mile. I've come now becuz I wantedto know about it, you know; and I come before daylight becuz I didn'twant to run across them devils, even if they was dead."
"Well, poor chap, you do look as if you'd had a hard night of it--butthere's a bed here for you when you've had your breakfast. No, theyain't dead, lad--we are sorry enough for that. You see we knew rightwhere to put our hands on them, by your description; so we crept alongon tiptoe till we got within fifteen feet of them--dark as a cellar thatsumach path was--and just then I found I was going to sneeze. It was themeanest kind of luck! I tried to keep it back, but no use--'twas bound tocome, and it did come! I was in the lead with my pistol raised, and whenthe sneeze started those scoundrels a-rustling to get out of the path,I sung out, 'Fire boys!' and blazed away at the place where the rustlingwas. So did the boys. But they were off in a jiffy, those villains, andwe after them, down through the woods. I judge we never touched them.They fired a shot apiece as they started, but their bullets whizzed byand didn't do us any harm. As soon as we lost the sound of their feetwe quit chasing, and went down and stirred up the constables. They got aposse together, and went off to guard the river bank, and as soon as itis light the sheriff and a gang are going to beat up the woods. My boyswill be with them presently. I wish we had some sort of description ofthose rascals--'twould help a good deal. But you couldn't see what theywere like, in the dark, lad, I suppose?"
"Oh yes; I saw them downtown and follered them."
"Splendid! Describe them--describe them, my boy!"
"One's the old deaf and dumb Spaniard that's ben around here once ortwice, and t'other's a mean-looking, ragged--"
"That's enough, lad, we know the men! Happened on them in the woods backof the widow's one day, and they slunk away. Off with you, boys, andtell the sheriff--get your breakfast tomorrow morning!"
The Welshman's sons departed at once. As they were leaving the room Hucksprang up and exclaimed:
"Oh, please don't tell _any_body it was me that blowed on them! Oh,please!"
"All right if you say it, Huck, but you ought to have the credit of whatyou did."
"Oh no, no! Please don't tell!"
When the young men were gone, the old Welshman said:
"They won't tell--and I won't. But why don't you want it known?"
Huck would not explain, further than to say that he already knew toomuch about one of those men and would not have the man know that he knewanything against him for the whole world--he would be killed for knowingit, sure.
The old man promised secrecy once more, and said:
"How did you come to follow these fellows, lad? Were they lookingsuspicious?"
Huck was silent while he framed a duly cautious reply. Then he said:
"Well, you see, I'm a kind of a hard lot,--least everybody says so, andI don't see nothing agin it--and sometimes I can't sleep much, on accountof thinking about it and sort of trying to strike out a new way ofdoing. That was the way of it last night. I couldn't sleep, and so Icome along upstreet 'bout midnight, a-turning it all over, and when Igot to that old shackly brick store by the Temperance Tavern, I backedup agin the wall to have another think. Well, just then along comesthese two chaps slipping along close by me, with something under theirarm, and I reckoned they'd stole it. One was a-smoking, and t'other onewanted a light; so they stopped right before me and the cigars lit uptheir faces and I see that the big one was the deaf and dumb Spaniard,by his white whiskers and the patch on his eye, and t'other one was arusty, ragged-looking devil."
"Could you see the rags by the light of the cigars?"
This staggered Huck for a moment. Then he said:
"Well, I don't know--but somehow it seems as if I did."
"Then they went on, and you--"
"Follered 'em--yes. That was it. I wanted to see what was up--they sneakedalong so. I dogged 'em to the widder's stile, and stood in the dark andheard the ragged one beg for the widder, and the Spaniard swear he'dspile her looks just as I told you and your two--"
"What! The _deaf and dumb_ man said all that!"
Huck had made another terrible mistake! He was trying his best to keepthe old man from getting the faintest hint of who the Spaniard might be,and yet his tongue seemed determined to get him into trouble in spite ofall he could do. He made several efforts to creep out of his scrape,but the old man's eye was upon him and he made blunder after blunder.Presently the Welshman said:
"My boy, don't be afraid of me. I wouldn't hurt a hair of your head forall the world. No--I'd protect you--I'd protect you. This Spaniard isnot deaf and dumb; you've let that slip without intending it; you can'tcover that up now. You know something about that Spaniard that you wantto keep dark. Now trust me--tell me what it is, and trust me--I won'tbetray you."
Huck looked into the old man's honest eyes a moment, then bent over andwhispered in his ear:
"'Tain't a Spaniard--it's Injun Joe!"
The Welshman almost jumped out of his chair. In a moment he said:
"It's all plain enough, now. When you talked about notching ears andslitting noses I judged that that was your own embellishment, becausewhite men don't take that sort of revenge. But an Injun! That's adifferent matter altogether."
During breakfast the talk went on, and in the course of it the old mansaid that the last thing which he and his sons had done, before goingto bed, was to get a lantern and examine the stile and its vicinity formarks of blood. They found none, but captured a bulky bundle of--
"Of _what_?"
If the words had been lightning they could not have leaped with a morestunning suddenness from Huck's blanched lips. His eyes were staringwide, now, and his breath suspended--waiting for the answer. The Welshmanstarted--stared in return--three seconds--five seconds--ten--then replied:
"Of burglar's tools. Why, what's the _matter_ with you?"
Huck sank back, panting gently, but deeply, unutterably grateful. TheWelshman eyed him gravely, curiously--and presently said:
"Yes, burglar's tools. That appears to relieve you a good deal. But whatdid give you that turn? What were _you_ expecting we'd found?"
Huck was in a close place--the inquiring eye was upon him--he would havegiven anything for material for a plausible answer--nothing suggesteditself--the inquiring eye was boring deeper and deeper--a senselessreply offered--there was no time to weigh it, so at a venture he utteredit--feebly:
"Sunday-school books, maybe."
Poor Huck was too distressed to smile, but the old man laughed loud andjoyously, shook up the details of his anatomy from head to foot, andended by saying that such a laugh was money in a-man's pocket, becauseit cut down the doctor's bill like everything. Then he added:
"Poor old chap, you're white and jaded--you ain't well a bit--no wonderyou're a little flighty and off your balance. But you'll come out of it.Rest and sleep will fetch you out all right
, I hope."
Huck was irritated to think he had been such a goose and betrayed sucha suspicious excitement, for he had dropped the idea that the parcelbrought from the tavern was the treasure, as soon as he had heard thetalk at the widow's stile. He had only thought it was not the treasure,however--he had not known that it wasn't--and so the suggestion of acaptured bundle was too much for his self-possession. But on the wholehe felt glad the little episode had happened, for now he knew beyond allquestion that that bundle was not _the_ bundle, and so his mind wasat rest and exceedingly comfortable. In fact, everything seemed to bedrifting just in the right direction, now; the treasure must be stillin No. 2, the men would be captured and jailed that day, and he andTom could seize the gold that night without any trouble or any fear ofinterruption.
Just as breakfast was completed there was a knock at the door. Huckjumped for a hiding-place, for he had no mind to be connected evenremotely with the late event. The Welshman admitted several ladies andgentlemen, among them the Widow Douglas, and noticed that groups ofcitizens were climbing up the hill--to stare at the stile. So the newshad spread. The Welshman had to tell the story of the night to thevisitors. The widow's gratitude for her preservation was outspoken.
"Don't say a word about it, madam. There's another that you're morebeholden to than you are to me and my boys, maybe, but he don't allow meto tell his name. We wouldn't have been there but for him."
Of course this excited a curiosity so vast that it almost belittled themain matter--but the Welshman allowed it to eat into the vitals of hisvisitors, and through them be transmitted to the whole town, for herefused to part with his secret. When all else had been learned, thewidow said:
"I went to sleep reading in bed and slept straight through all thatnoise. Why didn't you come and wake me?"
"We judged it warn't worth while. Those fellows warn't likely to comeagain--they hadn't any tools left to work with, and what was the use ofwaking you up and scaring you to death? My three negro men stood guardat your house all the rest of the night. They've just come back."
More visitors came, and the story had to be told and retold for a coupleof hours more.
There was no Sabbath-school during day-school vacation, but everybodywas early at church. The stirring event was well canvassed. News camethat not a sign of the two villains had been yet discovered. When thesermon was finished, Judge Thatcher's wife dropped alongside of Mrs.Harper as she moved down the aisle with the crowd and said:
"Is my Becky going to sleep all day? I just expected she would be tiredto death."
"Your Becky?"
"Yes," with a startled look--"didn't she stay with you last night?"
"Why, no."
Mrs. Thatcher turned pale, and sank into a pew, just as Aunt Polly,talking briskly with a friend, passed by. Aunt Polly said:
"Goodmorning, Mrs. Thatcher. Goodmorning, Mrs. Harper. I've got a boythat's turned up missing. I reckon my Tom stayed at your house lastnight--one of you. And now he's afraid to come to church. I've got tosettle with him."
Mrs. Thatcher shook her head feebly and turned paler than ever.
"He didn't stay with us," said Mrs. Harper, beginning to look uneasy. Amarked anxiety came into Aunt Polly's face.
"Joe Harper, have you seen my Tom this morning?"
"No'm."
"When did you see him last?"
Joe tried to remember, but was not sure he could say. The people hadstopped moving out of church. Whispers passed along, and a bodinguneasiness took possession of every countenance. Children were anxiouslyquestioned, and young teachers. They all said they had not noticedwhether Tom and Becky were on board the ferryboat on the homeward trip;it was dark; no one thought of inquiring if any one was missing. Oneyoung man finally blurted out his fear that they were still in the cave!Mrs. Thatcher swooned away. Aunt Polly fell to crying and wringing herhands.
The alarm swept from lip to lip, from group to group, from street tostreet, and within five minutes the bells were wildly clanging andthe whole town was up! The Cardiff Hill episode sank into instantinsignificance, the burglars were forgotten, horses were saddled, skiffswere manned, the ferryboat ordered out, and before the horror was halfan hour old, two hundred men were pouring down highroad and river towardthe cave.
All the long afternoon the village seemed empty and dead. Many womenvisited Aunt Polly and Mrs. Thatcher and tried to comfort them. Theycried with them, too, and that was still better than words. All thetedious night the town waited for news; but when the morning dawned atlast, all the word that came was, "Send more candles--and send food."Mrs. Thatcher was almost crazed; and Aunt Polly, also. Judge Thatchersent messages of hope and encouragement from the cave, but they conveyedno real cheer.
The old Welshman came home toward daylight, spattered withcandle-grease, smeared with clay, and almost worn out. He found Huckstill in the bed that had been provided for him, and delirious withfever. The physicians were all at the cave, so the Widow Douglas cameand took charge of the patient. She said she would do her best by him,because, whether he was good, bad, or indifferent, he was the Lord's,and nothing that was the Lord's was a thing to be neglected. TheWelshman said Huck had good spots in him, and the widow said:
"You can depend on it. That's the Lord's mark. He don't leave it off.He never does. Puts it somewhere on every creature that comes from hishands."
Early in the forenoon parties of jaded men began to straggle into thevillage, but the strongest of the citizens continued searching. All thenews that could be gained was that remotenesses of the cavern were beingransacked that had never been visited before; that every corner andcrevice was going to be thoroughly searched; that wherever one wanderedthrough the maze of passages, lights were to be seen flitting hitherand thither in the distance, and shoutings and pistol-shots sent theirhollow reverberations to the ear down the sombre aisles. In one place,far from the section usually traversed by tourists, the names "BECKY &TOM" had been found traced upon the rocky wall with candle-smoke, andnear at hand a grease-soiled bit of ribbon. Mrs. Thatcher recognized theribbon and cried over it. She said it was the last relic she should everhave of her child; and that no other memorial of her could ever be soprecious, because this one parted latest from the living body before theawful death came. Some said that now and then, in the cave, a far-awayspeck of light would glimmer, and then a glorious shout would burstforth and a score of men go trooping down the echoing aisle--and then asickening disappointment always followed; the children were not there;it was only a searcher's light.
Three dreadful days and nights dragged their tedious hours along, andthe village sank into a hopeless stupor. No one had heart for anything.The accidental discovery, just made, that the proprietor of theTemperance Tavern kept liquor on his premises, scarcely fluttered thepublic pulse, tremendous as the fact was. In a lucid interval, Huckfeebly led up to the subject of taverns, and finally asked--dimlydreading the worst--if anything had been discovered at the TemperanceTavern since he had been ill.
"Yes," said the widow.
Huck started up in bed, wildeyed:
"What? What was it?"
"Liquor!--and the place has been shut up. Lie down, child--what a turn youdid give me!"
"Only tell me just one thing--only just one--please! Was it Tom Sawyerthat found it?"
The widow burst into tears. "Hush, hush, child, hush! I've told youbefore, you must _not_ talk. You are very, very sick!"
Then nothing but liquor had been found; there would have been a greatpowwow if it had been the gold. So the treasure was gone forever--goneforever! But what could she be crying about? Curious that she shouldcry.
These thoughts worked their dim way through Huck's mind, and under theweariness they gave him he fell asleep. The widow said to herself:
"There--he's asleep, poor wreck. Tom Sawyer find it! Pity but somebodycould find Tom Sawyer! Ah, there ain't many left, now, that's got hopeenough, or strength enough, either, to go on searching."