The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

  CHAPTER XXXIII

  WITHIN a few minutes the news had spread, and a dozen skiff-loads ofmen were on their way to McDougal's cave, and the ferryboat, well filledwith passengers, soon followed. Tom Sawyer was in the skiff that boreJudge Thatcher.

  When the cave door was unlocked, a sorrowful sight presented itself inthe dim twilight of the place. Injun Joe lay stretched upon the ground,dead, with his face close to the crack of the door, as if his longingeyes had been fixed, to the latest moment, upon the light and the cheerof the free world outside. Tom was touched, for he knew by his ownexperience how this wretch had suffered. His pity was moved, butnevertheless he felt an abounding sense of relief and security, now,which revealed to him in a degree which he had not fully appreciatedbefore how vast a weight of dread had been lying upon him since the dayhe lifted his voice against this bloody-minded outcast.

  Injun Joe's bowie-knife lay close by, its blade broken in two. The greatfoundation-beam of the door had been chipped and hacked through, withtedious labor; useless labor, too, it was, for the native rock formed asill outside it, and upon that stubborn material the knife had wroughtno effect; the only damage done was to the knife itself. But if therehad been no stony obstruction there the labor would have been uselessstill, for if the beam had been wholly cut away Injun Joe could not havesqueezed his body under the door, and he knew it. So he had only hackedthat place in order to be doing something--in order to pass the wearytime--in order to employ his tortured faculties. Ordinarily one couldfind half a dozen bits of candle stuck around in the crevices of thisvestibule, left there by tourists; but there were none now. The prisonerhad searched them out and eaten them. He had also contrived to catch afew bats, and these, also, he had eaten, leaving only their claws. Thepoor unfortunate had starved to death. In one place, near at hand, astalagmite had been slowly growing up from the ground for ages, buildedby the water-drip from a stalactite overhead. The captive had broken offthe stalagmite, and upon the stump had placed a stone, wherein he hadscooped a shallow hollow to catch the precious drop that fell oncein every three minutes with the dreary regularity of a clock-tick--adessertspoonful once in four and twenty hours. That drop was fallingwhen the Pyramids were new; when Troy fell; when the foundations of Romewere laid; when Christ was crucified; when the Conqueror created theBritish empire; when Columbus sailed; when the massacre at Lexington was"news."

  It is falling now; it will still be falling when all these things shallhave sunk down the afternoon of history, and the twilight of tradition,and been swallowed up in the thick night of oblivion. Has everything apurpose and a mission? Did this drop fall patiently during five thousandyears to be ready for this flitting human insect's need? and has itanother important object to accomplish ten thousand years to come? Nomatter. It is many and many a year since the hapless half-breed scoopedout the stone to catch the priceless drops, but to this day the touriststares longest at that pathetic stone and that slow-dropping water whenhe comes to see the wonders of McDougal's cave. Injun Joe's cup standsfirst in the list of the cavern's marvels; even "Aladdin's Palace"cannot rival it.

  Injun Joe was buried near the mouth of the cave; and people flockedthere in boats and wagons from the towns and from all the farms andhamlets for seven miles around; they brought their children, andall sorts of provisions, and confessed that they had had almost assatisfactory a time at the funeral as they could have had at thehanging.

  This funeral stopped the further growth of one thing--the petition to thegovernor for Injun Joe's pardon. The petition had been largely signed;many tearful and eloquent meetings had been held, and a committee ofsappy women been appointed to go in deep mourning and wail around thegovernor, and implore him to be a merciful ass and trample his dutyunder foot. Injun Joe was believed to have killed five citizens of thevillage, but what of that? If he had been Satan himself there wouldhave been plenty of weaklings ready to scribble their names to apardon-petition, and drip a tear on it from their permanently impairedand leaky water-works.

  The morning after the funeral Tom took Huck to a private place to havean important talk. Huck had learned all about Tom's adventure from theWelshman and the Widow Douglas, by this time, but Tom said he reckonedthere was one thing they had not told him; that thing was what he wantedto talk about now. Huck's face saddened. He said:

  "I know what it is. You got into No. 2 and never found anything butwhiskey. Nobody told me it was you; but I just knowed it must 'a' benyou, soon as I heard 'bout that whiskey business; and I knowed youhadn't got the money becuz you'd 'a' got at me some way or other andtold me even if you was mum to everybody else. Tom, something's alwaystold me we'd never get holt of that swag."

  "Why, Huck, I never told on that tavern-keeper. _You_ know his tavernwas all right the Saturday I went to the picnic. Don't you remember youwas to watch there that night?"

  "Oh yes! Why, it seems 'bout a year ago. It was that very night that Ifollered Injun Joe to the widder's."

  "_You_ followed him?"

  "Yes--but you keep mum. I reckon Injun Joe's left friends behind him, andI don't want 'em souring on me and doing me mean tricks. If it hadn'tben for me he'd be down in Texas now, all right."

  Then Huck told his entire adventure in confidence to Tom, who had onlyheard of the Welshman's part of it before.

  "Well," said Huck, presently, coming back to the main question, "whoevernipped the whiskey in No. 2, nipped the money, too, I reckon--anywaysit's a goner for us, Tom."

  "Huck, that money wasn't ever in No. 2!"

  "What!" Huck searched his comrade's face keenly. "Tom, have you got onthe track of that money again?"

  "Huck, it's in the cave!"

  Huck's eyes blazed.

  "Say it again, Tom."

  "The money's in the cave!"

  "Tom--honest injun, now--is it fun, or earnest?"

  "Earnest, Huck--just as earnest as ever I was in my life. Will you go inthere with me and help get it out?"

  "I bet I will! I will if it's where we can blaze our way to it and notget lost."

  "Huck, we can do that without the least little bit of trouble in theworld."

  "Good as wheat! What makes you think the money's--"

  "Huck, you just wait till we get in there. If we don't find it I'llagree to give you my drum and every thing I've got in the world. I will,by jings."

  "All right--it's a whiz. When do you say?"

  "Right now, if you say it. Are you strong enough?"

  "Is it far in the cave? I ben on my pins a little, three or four days,now, but I can't walk more'n a mile, Tom--least I don't think I could."

  "It's about five mile into there the way anybody but me would go, Huck,but there's a mighty short cut that they don't anybody but me knowabout. Huck, I'll take you right to it in a skiff. I'll float the skiffdown there, and I'll pull it back again all by myself. You needn't everturn your hand over."

  "Less start right off, Tom."

  "All right. We want some bread and meat, and our pipes, and a littlebag or two, and two or three kite-strings, and some of these new-fangledthings they call lucifer matches. I tell you, many's the time I wished Ihad some when I was in there before."

  A trifle after noon the boys borrowed a small skiff from a citizen whowas absent, and got under way at once. When they were several milesbelow "Cave Hollow," Tom said:

  "Now you see this bluff here looks all alike all the way down from thecave hollow--no houses, no wood-yards, bushes all alike. But do you seethat white place up yonder where there's been a landslide? Well, that'sone of my marks. We'll get ashore, now."

  They landed.

  "Now, Huck, where we're a-standing you could touch that hole I got outof with a fishing-pole. See if you can find it."

  Huck searched all the place about, and found nothing. Tom proudlymarched into a thick clump of sumach bushes and said:

  "Here you are! Look at it, Huck; it's the snuggest hole in this country.You just keep mum about it. All along I've been wanting to be a robber,but I knew I'd got to h
ave a thing like this, and where to run acrossit was the bother. We've got it now, and we'll keep it quiet, only we'lllet Joe Harper and Ben Rogers in--because of course there's got to be aGang, or else there wouldn't be any style about it. Tom Sawyer's Gang--itsounds splendid, don't it, Huck?"

  "Well, it just does, Tom. And who'll we rob?"

  "Oh, most anybody. Waylay people--that's mostly the way."

  "And kill them?"

  "No, not always. Hive them in the cave till they raise a ransom."

  "What's a ransom?"

  "Money. You make them raise all they can, off'n their friends; and afteryou've kept them a year, if it ain't raised then you kill them. That'sthe general way. Only you don't kill the women. You shut up the women,but you don't kill them. They're always beautiful and rich, and awfullyscared. You take their watches and things, but you always take your hatoff and talk polite. They ain't anybody as polite as robbers--you'll seethat in any book. Well, the women get to loving you, and after they'vebeen in the cave a week or two weeks they stop crying and after thatyou couldn't get them to leave. If you drove them out they'd turn rightaround and come back. It's so in all the books."

  "Why, it's real bully, Tom. I believe it's better'n to be a pirate."

  "Yes, it's better in some ways, because it's close to home and circusesand all that."

  By this time everything was ready and the boys entered the hole, Tom inthe lead. They toiled their way to the farther end of the tunnel, thenmade their spliced kite-strings fast and moved on. A few steps broughtthem to the spring, and Tom felt a shudder quiver all through him.He showed Huck the fragment of candle-wick perched on a lump of clayagainst the wall, and described how he and Becky had watched the flamestruggle and expire.

  The boys began to quiet down to whispers, now, for the stillness andgloom of the place oppressed their spirits. They went on, and presentlyentered and followed Tom's other corridor until they reached the"jumping-off place." The candles revealed the fact that it was notreally a precipice, but only a steep clay hill twenty or thirty feethigh. Tom whispered:

  "Now I'll show you something, Huck."

  He held his candle aloft and said:

  "Look as far around the corner as you can. Do you see that? There--on thebig rock over yonder--done with candle-smoke."

  "Tom, it's a _cross_!"

  "_Now_ where's your Number Two? '_under the cross_,' hey? Right yonder'swhere I saw Injun Joe poke up his candle, Huck!"

  Huck stared at the mystic sign awhile, and then said with a shaky voice:

  "Tom, less git out of here!"

  "What! and leave the treasure?"

  "Yes--leave it. Injun Joe's ghost is round about there, certain."

  "No it ain't, Huck, no it ain't. It would ha'nt the place where hedied--away out at the mouth of the cave--five mile from here."

  "No, Tom, it wouldn't. It would hang round the money. I know the ways ofghosts, and so do you."

  Tom began to fear that Huck was right. Mis-givings gathered in his mind.But presently an idea occurred to him--

  "Lookyhere, Huck, what fools we're making of ourselves! Injun Joe'sghost ain't a going to come around where there's a cross!"

  The point was well taken. It had its effect.

  "Tom, I didn't think of that. But that's so. It's luck for us, thatcross is. I reckon we'll climb down there and have a hunt for that box."

  Tom went first, cutting rude steps in the clay hill as he descended.Huck followed. Four avenues opened out of the small cavern which thegreat rock stood in. The boys examined three of them with no result.They found a small recess in the one nearest the base of the rock, witha pallet of blankets spread down in it; also an old suspender, somebacon rind, and the well-gnawed bones of two or three fowls. But therewas no moneybox. The lads searched and researched this place, but invain. Tom said:

  "He said _under_ the cross. Well, this comes nearest to being under thecross. It can't be under the rock itself, because that sets solid on theground."

  They searched everywhere once more, and then sat down discouraged. Huckcould suggest nothing. By-and-by Tom said:

  "Lookyhere, Huck, there's footprints and some candle-grease on the clayabout one side of this rock, but not on the other sides. Now, what'sthat for? I bet you the money _is_ under the rock. I'm going to dig inthe clay."

  "That ain't no bad notion, Tom!" said Huck with animation.

  Tom's "real Barlow" was out at once, and he had not dug four inchesbefore he struck wood.

  "Hey, Huck!--you hear that?"

  Huck began to dig and scratch now. Some boards were soon uncovered andremoved. They had concealed a natural chasm which led under the rock.Tom got into this and held his candle as far under the rock as hecould, but said he could not see to the end of the rift. He proposedto explore. He stooped and passed under; the narrow way descendedgradually. He followed its winding course, first to the right, then tothe left, Huck at his heels. Tom turned a short curve, by-and-by, andexclaimed:

  "My goodness, Huck, lookyhere!"

  It was the treasure-box, sure enough, occupying a snug little cavern,along with an empty powder-keg, a couple of guns in leather cases, twoor three pairs of old moccasins, a leather belt, and some other rubbishwell soaked with the water-drip.

  "Got it at last!" said Huck, ploughing among the tarnished coins withhis hand. "My, but we're rich, Tom!"

  "Huck, I always reckoned we'd get it. It's just too good to believe, butwe _have_ got it, sure! Say--let's not fool around here. Let's snake itout. Lemme see if I can lift the box."

  It weighed about fifty pounds. Tom could lift it, after an awkwardfashion, but could not carry it conveniently.

  "I thought so," he said; "_They_ carried it like it was heavy, that dayat the ha'nted house. I noticed that. I reckon I was right to think offetching the little bags along."

  The money was soon in the bags and the boys took it up to the crossrock.

  "Now less fetch the guns and things," said Huck.

  "No, Huck--leave them there. They're just the tricks to have when wego to robbing. We'll keep them there all the time, and we'll hold ourorgies there, too. It's an awful snug place for orgies."

  "What orgies?"

  "I dono. But robbers always have orgies, and of course we've got tohave them, too. Come along, Huck, we've been in here a long time. It'sgetting late, I reckon. I'm hungry, too. We'll eat and smoke when we getto the skiff."

  They presently emerged into the clump of sumach bushes, looked warilyout, found the coast clear, and were soon lunching and smoking in theskiff. As the sun dipped toward the horizon they pushed out and gotunder way. Tom skimmed up the shore through the long twilight, chattingcheerily with Huck, and landed shortly after dark.

  "Now, Huck," said Tom, "we'll hide the money in the loft of the widow'swoodshed, and I'll come up in the morning and we'll count it and divide,and then we'll hunt up a place out in the woods for it where it will besafe. Just you lay quiet here and watch the stuff till I run and hookBenny Taylor's little wagon; I won't be gone a minute."

  He disappeared, and presently returned with the wagon, put the two smallsacks into it, threw some old rags on top of them, and started off,dragging his cargo behind him. When the boys reached the Welshman'shouse, they stopped to rest. Just as they were about to move on, theWelshman stepped out and said:

  "Hallo, who's that?"

  "Huck and Tom Sawyer."

  "Good! Come along with me, boys, you are keeping everybody waiting.Here--hurry up, trot ahead--I'll haul the wagon for you. Why, it's not aslight as it might be. Got bricks in it?--or old metal?"

  "Old metal," said Tom.

  "I judged so; the boys in this town will take more trouble and fool awaymore time hunting up six bits' worth of old iron to sell to the foundrythan they would to make twice the money at regular work. But that'shuman nature--hurry along, hurry along!"

  The boys wanted to know what the hurry was about.

  "Never mind; you'll see, when we get to the Widow Douglas'."

/>   Huck said with some apprehension--for he was long used to being falselyaccused:

  "Mr. Jones, we haven't been doing nothing."

  The Welshman laughed.

  "Well, I don't know, Huck, my boy. I don't know about that. Ain't youand the widow good friends?"

  "Yes. Well, she's ben good friends to me, anyway."

  "All right, then. What do you want to be afraid for?"

  This question was not entirely answered in Huck's slow mind before hefound himself pushed, along with Tom, into Mrs. Douglas' drawing-room.Mr. Jones left the wagon near the door and followed.

  The place was grandly lighted, and everybody that was of any consequencein the village was there. The Thatchers were there, the Harpers, theRogerses, Aunt Polly, Sid, Mary, the minister, the editor, and a greatmany more, and all dressed in their best. The widow received the boysas heartily as any one could well receive two such looking beings. Theywere covered with clay and candle-grease. Aunt Polly blushed crimsonwith humiliation, and frowned and shook her head at Tom. Nobody sufferedhalf as much as the two boys did, however. Mr. Jones said:

  "Tom wasn't at home, yet, so I gave him up; but I stumbled on him andHuck right at my door, and so I just brought them along in a hurry."

  "And you did just right," said the widow. "Come with me, boys."

  She took them to a bedchamber and said:

  "Now wash and dress yourselves. Here are two new suits ofclothes--shirts, socks, everything complete. They're Huck's--no, nothanks, Huck--Mr. Jones bought one and I the other. But they'll fit bothof you. Get into them. We'll wait--come down when you are slicked upenough."

  Then she left.