CH_29
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
-
They was fetching a very nice looking old gentleman along, and a
nice looking younger one, with his right arm in a sling. And my souls,
how the people yelled, and laughed, and kept it up. But I didn't see
no joke about it, and I judged it would strain the duke and the king
some to see any. I reckoned they'd turn pale. But no, nary a pale
did they turn. The duke he never let on he suspicioned what was up,
but just went a goo-gooing around, happy and satisfied, like a jug
that's googling out buttermilk; and as for the king, he just gazed and
gazed down sorrowful on them newcomers like it give him the
stomach-ache in his very heart to think there could be such frauds and
rascals in the world. Oh, he done it admirable. Lots of the
principal people gethered around the king, to let him see they was
on his side. That old gentleman that had just come looked all
puzzled to death. Pretty soon he begun to speak, and I see, straight
off, he pronounced like an Englishman, not the king's way, though
the king's was pretty good, for an imitation. I can't give the old
gent's words, nor I can't imitate him; but he turned around to the
crowd, and says, about like this:
"This is a surprise to me which I wasn't looking for; and I'll
acknowledge, candid and frank, I ain't very well fixed to meet it
and answer it; for my brother and me has had misfortunes, he's broke
his arm, and our baggage got put off at a town above here, last
night in the night by a mistake. I am Peter Wilks's brother Harvey,
and this is his brother William, which can't hear nor speak- and can't
even make signs to amount to much, now't he's only got one hand to
work them with. We are who we say we are; and in a day or two, when
I get the baggage, I can prove it. But, up till then, I won't say
nothing more, but go to the hotel and wait."
So him and the new dummy started off; and the king he laughs, and
blethers out:
"Broke his arm- very likely ain't it?- and very convenient, too, for
a fraud that's got to make signs, and hain't learnt how. Lost their
baggage! That's mighty good!- and mighty ingenious- under the
circumstances!"
So he laughed again; and so did everybody else, except three or
four, or maybe half a dozen. One of these was that doctor; another one
was a sharp looking gentleman, with a carpet-bag of the
old-fashioned kind made out of carpet-stuff, that had just come off of
the steamboat and was talking to him in a low voice, and glancing
towards the king now and then and nodding their heads- it was Levi
Bell, the lawyer that was gone up to Louisville; and another one was a
big rough husky that come along and listened to all the old
gentleman said, and was listening to the king now. And when the king
got done, this husky up and says:
"Say, looky here; if you are Harvey Wilks, when'd you come to this
town?"
"The day before the funeral, friend," says the king.
"But what time o' day?"
"In the evenin'- 'bout an hour er two before sundown."
"How'd you come?"
"I come down on the Susan Powell, from Cincinnati."
"Well, then, how'd you come to be up at the Pint in the mornin'-
in a canoe?"
"I warn't up at the Pint
"It's a lie."
Several of them jumped for him and begged him not to talk that way
to an old man and a preacher.
"Preacher be hanged, he's a fraud and a liar. He was up at the
Pint that mornin'. I live up there, don't I? Well, I was up there, and
he was up there. I see him there. He come in a canoe, along with Tim
Collins and a boy."
The doctor he up and says:
"Would you know the boy again if you was to see him, Hines?"
"I reckon I would, but I don't know. Why, yonder he is, now. I
know him perfectly easy."
It was me he pointed at. The doctor says:
"Neighbors, I don't know whether the new couple is frauds or not;
but if these two ain't frauds, I am an idiot, that's all. I think it's
our duty to see that they don't get away from here till we've looked
into this thing. Come along, Hines; come along, the rest of you. We'll
take these fellows to the tavern and affront them with t'other couple,
and I reckon we'll find out something before we get through."
It was nuts for the crowd, though maybe not for the king's
friends; so we all started. It was about sundown. The doctor he led me
along by the hand, and was plenty kind enough, but he never let go
my hand.
We all got in a big room in the hotel, and lit up some candles,
and fetched in the new couple. First, the doctor says:
"I don't wish to be too hard on these two men, but I think they're
frauds, and they may have complices that we don't know nothing
about. If they have, won't the complices get away with that bag of
gold Peter Wilks left? It ain't unlikely. If these men ain't frauds,
they won't object to sending for that money and letting us keep it
till they prove they're all right- ain't that so?"
Everybody agreed to that. So I judged they had our gang in a
pretty tight place, right at the outstart. But the king he only looked
sorrowful, and says:
"Gentlemen, I wish the money was there, for I ain't got no
disposition to throw anything in the way of a fair, open,
out-and-out investigation o' this misable business; but alas, the
money ain't there; you k'n send and see, if you want to."
"Where is it, then?"
"Well, when my niece give it to me to keep for her, I took and hid
it inside o' the straw tick o' my bed, not wishin' to bank it for
the few days we'd be here, and considerin' the bed a safe place, we
not bein' used to niggers, and suppos'n' em honest, like servants in
England. The niggers stole it the very next mornin' after I had went
down stairs; and when I sold 'em, I hadn't missed the money yit, so
they got clean away with it. My servant here k'n tell you 'bout it,
gentlemen."
The doctor and several said "Shucks!" and I see nobody didn't
altogether believe him. One man asked me if I see the niggers steal
it. I said no, but I see them sneaking out of the room and hustling
away, and I never thought nothing, only I reckoned they was afraid
they had waked up my master and was trying to get away before he
made trouble with them. That was all they asked me. Then the doctor
whirls on me and says:
"Are you English too?"
I says yes; and him and some others laughed, and said, "Stuff!"
Well, then they sailed in on the general investigation, and there we
had it, up and down, hour in, hour out, and nobody never said a word
about supper, nor ever seemed to think about it- and so they kept it
up, and kept it up; and it was the worst mixed-up thing you ever
see. They made the king tell his yarn, and they made the old gentleman
tell his'n; and anybody but a lot of prejudiced chuckleheads would a
seen that the old gentleman was spinning truth and t'other one lies.
And by-and-by they had me up to tell what I knowed. The king he give
me a left-handed look out of the corner of his eye, and so I knowed
enough to talk on the right side. I begun to tell about Sheffield, and
how we lived there, and all about the English Wilkses, and so on;
but I didn't get pretty fur till the doctor begun to laugh; and Levi
Bell, the lawyer, says:
"Set down, my boy, I wouldn't strain myself, if I was you. I
reckon you ain't used to lying, it don't seem to come handy; what
you want is practice. You do it pretty awkward."
I didn't care nothing for the compliment, but I was glad to be let
off, anyway.
The doctor he started to say something, and turns and says:
"If you'd been in town at first, Levi Bell-"
The king broke in and reached out his hand, and says:
"Why, is this my poor dead brother's old friend that he's wrote so
often about?"
The lawyer and him shook hands, and the lawyer smiled and looked
pleased, and they talked right along a while, and then got to one side
and talked low; and at last the lawyer speaks up and says:
"That'll fix it. I'll take the order and send it, along with your
brother's, and then they'll know it's all right."
So they got some paper and a pen, and the king he set down and
twisted his head to one side, and chawed his tongue, and scrawled
off something; and then they give the pen to the duke- and then for
the first time, the duke looked sick. But he took the pen and wrote.
So then the lawyer turns to the new old gentleman and says:
"You and your brother please write a line or two and sign your
names."
The old gentleman wrote, but nobody couldn't read it. The lawyer
looked powerful astonished, and says:
"Well, it beats me"- and snaked a lot of old letters out of his
pocket, and examined them, and then examined the old man's writing,
and then them again; and then says: "These old letters is from
Harvey Wilks; and here's these two's handwritings, and anybody can see
they didn't write them" (the king and the duke looked sold and
foolish, I tell you, to see how the lawyer had took them in), "and
here's this old gentleman's handwriting, and anybody can tell, easy
enough, he didn't write them- fact is, the scratches he makes ain't
properly writing, at all. Now here's some letters from-"
The new old gentleman says:
"If you please, let me explain. Nobody can read my hand but my
brother there- so he copies for me. It's his hand you've got there,
not mine."
"Well!" says the lawyer, "this is a state of things. I've got some
of William's letters too; so if you'll get him to write a line or so
we can com-"
"He can't write with his left hand," says the old gentleman. "If
he could use his right hand, you would see that he wrote his own
letters and mine too. Look at both, please- they're by the same hand."
The lawyer done it, and says:
"I believe it's so- and if it ain't so, there's a heap stronger
resemblance than I'd noticed before, anyway. Well, well, well! I
thought we was right on the track of a slution, but it's gone to
grass, partly. But anyway, one thing is proved- these two ain't either
of 'em Wilkses"- and he wagged his head towards the king and the duke.
Well, what do you think?- that muleheaded old fool wouldn't give
in then! Indeed he wouldn't. Said it warn't no fair test. Said his
brother William was the cussedest joker in the world, and hadn't tried
to write- he see William was going to play one of his jokes the minute
he put the pen to paper. And so he warmed up and went warbling and
warbling right along, till he was actuly beginning to believe what
he was saying, himself- but pretty soon the new old gentleman broke
in, and says:
"I've thought of something. Is there anybody here that helped to lay
out my br- helped to lay out the late Peter Wilks for burying?"
"Yes," says somebody, "me and Ab Turner done it. We're both here."
Then the old man turns towards the king, and says:
"Perhaps this gentleman can tell me what was tatooed on his breast?"
Blamed if the king didn't have to brace up mighty quick, or he'd a
squshed down like a bluff bank that the river has cut under, it took
him so sudden- and mind you, it was a thing that was calculated to
make most anybody sqush to get fetched such a solid one as that
without any notice- because how was he going to know what was
tatooed on the man? He whitened a little; he couldn't help it; and
it was mighty still in there, and everybody bending a little
forwards and gazing at him. Says I to myself, Now he'll throw up the
sponge- there ain't no more use. Well, did he? A body can't hardly
believe it, but he didn't. I reckon he thought he'd keep the thing
up till he tired them people out, so they'd thin out, and him and
the duke could break loose and get away. Anyway, he set there, and
pretty soon he begun to smile, and says:
"Mf! It's a very tough question, ain't it! Yes, sir, I k'n tell
you what's tatooed on his breast. It's jest a small, thin, blue arrow-
that's what it is; and if you don't look clost, you can't see it.
Now what do you say- hey?"
Well, I never see anything like that old blister for clean
out-and-out cheek.
The new old gentleman turns brisk towards Ab Turner and his pard,
and his eye lights up like he judged he'd got the king this time,
and says:
"There- you've heard what he said! Was there any such mark on
Peter Wilks's breast?"
Both of them spoke up and says:
"We didn't see no such mark."
"Good!" says the old gentleman. "Now, what you did see on his breast
was a small dim P, and a B (which is an initial he dropped when he was
young), and a W, with dashes between them, so: P-B-W"-and he marked
them that way on a piece of paper. "Come- ain't that what you saw?"
Both of them spoke up again, and says:
"No, we didn't. We never seen any marks at all."
Well, everybody was in a state of mind, now; and they sings out:
"The whole bilin' of' m's frauds! Le's duck 'em! le's drown 'em!
le's ride'em on a rail!" and everybody was whooping at once, and there
was a rattling pow-wow. But the lawyer he jumps on the table and
yells, and says:
"Gentlemen- gentlemen! Hear me just a word- just a single word- if
you PLEASE! There's one way yet- let's go and dig up the corpse and
look."
That took them.
"Hooray!" they all shouted, and was starting right off; but the
lawyer and the doctor sung out:
"Hold on, hold on! Collar all these four men and the boy, and
fetch them along, too!"
"We'll do it!" they all shouted: "and if we don't find them marks
we'll lynch the whole gang!"
I was scared, now, I tell you. But there warn't no getting away, you
know. They gripped us all, and marched us right along, straight for
the graveyard, which was a mile and a half down the river, and the
whole town at our heels, for we made noise enough, and it was only
nine in the evening.
As we went by our house I wished I hadn't sent Mary Jane out of
town; because now if I could tip her the wink, she'd light out and
save me, and blow on our dead-beats.
Well, we swarmed along down the river road, just carrying on like
wild-cats; and to make it more scary, the sky was darking up, and
the lightning beginning to wink and flitter, and the wind to shiver
amongst the leaves. This was the most awful trouble and most
dangersome I ever was in; and I was kinder stunned; everything was
going so different from what I had allowed for; stead of being fixed
so I could take my own time, if I wanted to, and see all the fun,
and have Mary Jane at my back to save me and set me free when the
close-fit come, here was nothing in the world betwixt me and sudden
death but just them tatoo-marks. If they didn't find them-
I couldn't bear to think about it; and yet, somehow, I couldn't
think about nothing else. It got darker and darker, and it was a
beautiful time to give the crowd the slip; but that big husky had me
by the wrist- Hines- and a body might as well try to give Goliar the
slip. He dragged me right along, he was so excited; and I had to run
to keep up.
When they got there they swarmed into the graveyard and washed
over it like an overflow. And when they got to the grave, they found
they had about a hundred times as many shovels as they wanted, but
nobody hadn't thought to fetch a lantern. But they sailed into
digging, anyway, by the flicker of the lightning, and sent a man to
the nearest house a half a mile off, to borrow one.
So they dug and dug, like everything; and it got awful dark, and the
rain started, and the wind swished and swushed along, and the
lightning come brisker and brisker, and the thunder boomed; but them
people never took no notice of it, they was so full of this
business; and one minute you could see everything and every face in
that big crowd, and the shovelfuls of dirt sailing up out of the
grave, and the next second the dark wiped it all out, and you couldn't
see nothing at all.
At last they got out the coffin, and begun to unscrew the lid, and
then such another crowding, and shouldering, and shoving as there was,
to scrouge in and get a sight, you never see; and in the dark, that
way, it was awful. Hines he hurt my wrist dreadful, pulling and
tugging so, and I reckon he clean forgot I was in the world, he was so
excited and panting.
All of a sudden the lightning let go a perfect sluice of white
glare, and somebody sings out:
"By the living jingo, here's the bag of gold on his breast!"
Hines let out a whoop, like everybody else, and dropped my wrist and
give a big surge to bust his way in and get a look, and the way I
lit out and shinned for the road in the dark, there ain't nobody can
tell.
I had the road all to myself, and I fairly flew- leastways I had
it all to myself, except the solid dark, and the now-and-then
glares, and the buzzing of the rain, and the thrashing of the wind,
and the splitting of the thunder; and sure as you are born I did
clip it along!
When I struck the town, I see there warn't nobody out in the
storm, so I never hunted for no back streets, but humped it straight
through the main one; and when I begun to get towards our house I
aimed my eye and set it. No light there; the house all dark- which
made me feel sorry and disappointed, I didn't know why. But at last,
just as I was sailing by, flash comes the light in Mary Jane's window!
and my heart swelled up sudden, like to bust; and the same second
the house and all was behind me in the dark, and wasn't ever going
to be before me no more in this world. She was the best girl I ever
see, and had the most sand.
The minute I was far enough above the town to see I could make the
tow-head, I begun to look sharp for a boat to borrow; and the first
time the lightning showed me one that wasn't chained, I snatched it
and shoved. It was a canoe, and warn't fastened with nothing but a
rope. The tow-head was a rattling big distance off, away out there
in the middle of the river, but I didn't lose no time; and when I
struck the raft at last, I was so fagged I would a just laid down to
blow and gasp if I could afforded it. But I didn't. As I sprung aboard
I sung out:
"Out with you Jim, and set her loose! Glory be to goodness, we're
shut of them!"
Jim lit out, and was a coming for me with both arms spread, he was
so full of joy; but when I glimpsed him in the lightning, my heart
shot up in my mouth, and I went overboard backwards; for I forgot he
was old King Lear and a drowned A-rab all in one, and it most scared
the livers and lights out of me. But Jim fished me out, and was
going to hug me and bless me, and so on, he was so glad I was back and
we was shut of the king and the duke, but I says:
"Not now- have it for breakfast, have it for breakfast! Cut loose
and let her slide!"
So, in two seconds, away we went, a sliding down the river, and it
did seem so good to be free again and all by ourselves on the big
river and nobody to bother us. I had to skip around a bit, and jump up
and crack my heels a few times, I couldn't help it; but about the
third crack, I noticed a sound that I knowed mighty well- and held
my breath and listened and waited- and sure enough, when the next
flash busted out over the water, here they come!- and just a laying to
their oars and making their skiff hum! It was the king and the duke.
So I wilted right down onto the planks, then, and give up; and it
was all I could do to keep from crying.
CH_30
CHAPTER THIRTY
-
When they got aboard, the king went for me, and shook me by the
collar, and says:
"Tryin' to give us the slip, was ye, you pup! Tired of our
company- hey?"
I says:
"No, your majesty, we warn't- please don't, your majesty!"
"Quick, then, and tell us what was your idea, or I'll shake the
insides out o' you!"
"Honest, I'll tell you everything, just as it happened, your
majesty. The man that had aholt of me was very good to me, and kept
saying he had a boy about as big as me that died last year, and he was
sorry to see a boy in such a dangerous fix; and when they was all took
by surprise by finding the gold, and made a rush for the coffin, he
lets go of me and whispers, 'Heel it, now, or they'll hang ye,
sure!' and I lit out. It didn't seem no good for me to stay- I
couldn't do nothing, and I didn't want to be hung if I could get away.
So I never stopped running till I found the canoe; and when I got
there I told Jim to hurry, or they'd catch me and hang me yet, and
said I was afeard you and the duke wasn't alive, now, and I was
awful sorry, and so was Jim, and was awful glad when we see you
coming, you may ask Jim if I didn't."
Jim said it was so; and the king told him to shut up, and said, "Oh,
yes, it's mighty likely!" and shook me up again, and said he
reckoned he'd drowned me. But the duke says:
"Leggo the boy, you old idiot! Would you a done any different? Did
you inquire around for him, when you got loose? I don't remember it."
So the king let go of me, and begun to cuss that town and
everybody in it. But the duke says:
"You better a blame sight give yourself a good cussing, for you're
the one that's entitled to it most. You hain't done a thing, from
the start, that had any sense in it, except coming out so cool and
cheeky with that imaginary blue-arrow mark. That was bright- it was
right down bully; and it was the thing that saved us. For if it hadn't
been for that, they'd a jailed us till them Englishmen's baggage come-
and then- the penitentiary, you bet! But that trick took 'em to the
graveyard, and the gold done us a still bigger kindness; for if the
excited fools hadn't let go all holts and made that rush to get a
look, we'd a slept in our cravats to-night- cravats warranted to wear,
too- longer than we'd need 'em."
They was still a minute- thinking- then the king says, kind of
absent-minded like:
"Mf! And we reckoned the niggers stole it!"
That made me squirm!
"Yes," says the duke, kinder slow, and deliberate, and sarcastic,
"we did."
After about a half a minute, the king drawls out:
"Leastways- I did."
The duke says, the same way:
"On the contrary- I did."
The king kind of ruffles up, and says:
"Looky here, Bilgewater, what'r you referrin' to?"
The duke says, pretty brisk:
"When it comes to that, maybe you'll let me ask, what was you
referring to?"
"Shucks!" says the king, very sarcastic; "but I don't know- maybe
you was asleep, and didn't know what you was about."
The duke bristles right up, now, and says:
"Oh, let up on this cussed nonsense- do you take me for a blame'
fool? Don't you reckon I know who hid that money in that coffin?"
"Yes, sir! I know you do know- because you done it yourself!"
"It's a lie!"- and the duke went for him. The king sings out:
"Take y'r hands off!- leggo my throat!- I take it all back!" The
duke says:
"Well, you just own up, first, that you did hide that money there,
intending to give me the slip one of these days, and come back and dig
it up, and have it all to yourself."
"Wait jest a minute, duke- answer me this one question, honest and
fair; if you didn't put that money there, say it, and I'll b'lieve
you, and take back everything I said."
"You old scoundrel, I didn't, and you know I didn't. There, now!"
"Well, then, I b'lieve you. But answer me only jest this one more-
now don't git mad; didn't you have it in your mind to hook the money
and hide it?"
The duke never said nothing for a little bit; then he says:
"Well- I don't care if I did, I didn't do it, anyway. But you not
only had it in mind to do it, but you done it."
"I wisht I may never die if I done it, duke, and that's honest. I
won't say I warn't goin' to do it, because I was; but you- I mean
somebody- got in ahead o' me."
"It's a lie! You done it, and you got to say you done it, or-"
The king begun to gurgle, and then he gasps out:
"'Nough!- I own up!"
I was very glad to hear him say that, it made me feel much more
easier than what I was feeling before. So the duke took his hands off,
and says:
"If you ever deny it again, I'll drown you. It's well for you to set
there and blubber like a baby- it's fitten for you, after the way
you've acted. I never see such an old ostrich for wanting to gobble
everything- and I a trusting you all the time, like you was my own
father. You ought to been ashamed of yourself to stand by and hear
it saddled onto a lot of poor niggers and you never say a word for
'em. It makes me feel ridiculous to think I was soft enough to believe
that rubbage. Cuss you, I can see, now, why you was so anxious to make
up the deffesit- you wanted to get what money I'd got out of the
Nonesuch and one thing or another, and scoop it all!"
The king says, timid, and still a snuffling:
"Why, duke, it was you that said make up the deffersit, it warn't
me."
"Dry up! I don't want to hear no more out of you!" says the duke.
"And now you see what you got by it. They've got all their own money
back, and all of ourn but a shekel or two, besides. G'long to bed- and
don't you deffersit me no more deffersits, long's you live!"
So the king sneaked into the wigwam, and took to his bottle for
comfort; and before long the duke tackled his bottle; and so in
about a half an hour they was as thick as thieves again, and the
tighter they got, the lovinger they got; and went off a snoring in
each other's arms. They both got powerful mellow, but I noticed the
king didn't get mellow enough to forget to remember to not deny
about hiding the money-bag again. That made me feel easy and
satisfied. Of course when they got to snoring, we had a long gabble,
and I told Jim everything.
CH_31
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
-
We dasn't stop again at any town, for days and days; kept right
along down the river. We was down south in the warm weather, now,
and a mighty long ways from home. We begun to come to trees with
Spanish moss on them, hanging down from the limbs like long gray
beards. It was the first I ever see it growing, and it made the
woods look solemn and dismal. So now the frauds reckoned they was
out of danger, and they begun to work the villages again.
First they done a lecture on temperance; but they didn't make enough
for them both to get drunk on. Then in another village they started
a dancing school; but they didn't know no more how to dance than a
kangaroo does; so the first prance they made, the general public
jumped in and pranced them out of town. Another time they tried a go
at yellocution; but they didn't yellocute long till the audience got
up and give them a solid good cussing and made them skip out. They
tackled missionarying, and mesmerizering, and doctoring, and telling
fortunes, and a little of everything; but they couldn't seem to have
no luck. So at last they got just about dead broke, and laid around
the raft, as she floated along, thinking, and thinking, and never
saying nothing, by the half a day at a time, and dreadful blue and
desperate.
And at last they took a change, and begun to lay their heads
together in the wigwam and talk low and confidential two or three
hours at a time. Jim and me got uneasy. We didn't like the look of it.
We judged they was studying up some kind of worse deviltry than
ever. We turned it over and over, and at last we made up our minds
they was going to break into somebody's house or store, or was going
into the counterfeit-money business, or something. So then we was
pretty scared, and made up an agreement that we wouldn't have
nothing in the world to do with such actions, and if we ever got the
least show we would give them the cold shake, and clear out and
leave them behind. Well, early one morning we hid the raft in a good
safe place about two mile below a little bit of a shabby village,
named Pikesville, and the king he went ashore, and told us all to stay
hid whilst he went up to town and smelt around to see if anybody had
got any wind of the Royal Nonesuch there yet. ("House to rob, you
mean," says I to myself; "and when you get through robbing it you'll
come back here and wonder what's become of me and Jim and the raft-
and you'll have to take it out in wondering.") And he said if he
warn't back by midday, the duke and me would know it was all right,
and we was to come along.
So we staid where we was. The duke he fretted and sweated around,
and was in a mighty sour way. He scolded us for everything, and we
couldn't seem to do nothing right; he found fault with every little
thing. Something was abrewing, sure. I was good and glad when midday
come and no king; we could have a change, anyway- and maybe a chance
for the change, on top of it. So me and the duke went up to the
village, and hunted around there for the king, and by-and-by we
found him in the back room of a little low doggery, very tight, and
a lot of loafers bullyragging him for sport, and he a cussing and
threatening with all his might, and so tight he couldn't walk, and
couldn't do nothing to them. The duke he begun to abuse him for an old
fool, and the king begun to sass back; and the minute they was
fairly at it, I lit out, and shook the reefs out of my hind legs,
and spun down the river road like a deer- for I see our chance; and
I made up my mind that it would be a long day before they ever see
me and Jim again. I got down there all out of breath but loaded up
with joy, and sung out-
"Set her loose, Jim, we're all right, now!"
But there warn't no answer, and nobody come out of the wigwam. Jim
was gone! I set up a shout- and then another one; and run this way and
that in the woods, whooping and screeching; but it warn't no use-
old Jim was gone. Then I set down and cried; I couldn't help it. But I
couldn't set still long. Pretty soon I went out on the road, trying to
think what I better do, and I run across a boy walking, and asked
him if he'd seen a strange nigger dressed so and so, and he says:
"Yes."
"Whereabouts?" says I.
"Down to Silas Phelps's place, two miles below here. He's a
runaway nigger, and they've got him. Was you looking for him?"
"You bet I ain't! I run across him in the woods about an hour or two
ago, and he said if I hollered he'd cut my livers out- and told me
to lay down and stay where I was; and I done it. Been there ever
since; afeard to come out."
"Well," he says, "you needn't be afeard no more, becuz they've got
him. He run f'm down South, som'ers."
"It's a good job they got him."
"Well, I reckon! There two hundred dollars reward on him. It's
like picking up money out'n the road."
"Yes, it is- and I could a had it if I'd been big enough; I see
him first. Who nailed him?"
"It was an old fellow- a stranger- and he sold out his chance in him
for forty dollars, becuz he's got to go up the river and can't wait.
Think o' that, now! You bet I'd wait, if it was seven year."
"That's me, every time," says I. "But maybe his chance ain't worth
no more than that, if he'll sell it so cheap. Maybe there's
something ain't straight about it."
"But it is, though- straight as a string. I see the handbill myself.
It tells all about him, to a dot- paints him like a picture, and tells
the plantation he's frum, below Newrleans. No-siree-bob, they ain't no
trouble 'bout that speculation, you bet you. Say, gimme a chaw
tobacker, won't ye?"
I didn't have none, so he left. I went to the raft, and set down
in the wigwam to think. But I couldn't come to nothing. I thought till
I wore my head sore, but I couldn't see no way out of the trouble.
After all this long journey, and after all we'd done for them
scoundrels, here was it all come to nothing, everything all busted
up and ruined, because they could have the heart to serve Jim such a
trick as that, and make him a slave again all his life, and amongst
strangers, too, for forty dirty dollars.
Once I said to myself it would be a thousand times better for Jim to
be a slave at home where his family was, as long as he's got to be a
slave, and so I'd better write a letter to Tom Sawyer and tell him
to tell Miss Watson where he was. But I soon give up that notion,
for two things: she'd be mad and disgusted at his rascality and
ungratefulness for leaving her, and so she'd sell him straight down
the river again; and if she didn't, everybody naturally despises an
ungrateful nigger, and they'd make Jim feel it all the time, and so
he'd feel ornery and disgraced. And then think of me! It would get all
around, that Huck Finn helped a nigger to get his freedom; and if I
was to ever see anybody from that town again, I'd be ready to get down
and lick his boots for shame. That's just the way: a person does a
low-down thing, and then he don't want to take no consequences of
it. Thinks as long as he can hide it, it ain't no disgrace. That was
my fix exactly. The more I studied about this, the more my
conscience went to grinding me, and the more wicked and low-down and
ornery I got to feeling. And at last, when it hit me all of a sudden
that here was the plain hand of Providence slapping me in the face and
letting me know my wickedness was being watched all the time from up
there in heaven, whilst I was stealing a poor old woman's nigger
that hadn't ever done me no harm, and now was showing me there's One
that's always on the lookout, and ain't agoing to allow no such
miserable doings to go only just so fur and no further, I most dropped
in my tracks I was so scared. Well, I tried the best I could to kinder
soften it up somehow for myself, by saying I was brung up wicked,
and so I warn't so much to blame; but something inside of me kept
saying, "There was the Sunday school, you could a gone to it; and if
you'd a done it they'd a learnt you, there, that people that acts as
I'd been acting about that nigger goes to everlasting fire."
It made me shiver. And I about made up my mind to pray; and see if I
couldn't try to quit being the kind of a boy I was, and be better.
So I kneeled down. But the words wouldn't come. Why wouldn't they?
It warn't no use to try and hide it from Him. Nor from me, neither.
I knowed very well why they wouldn't come. It was because my heart
warn't right; it was because I warn't square; it was because I was
playing double. I was letting on to give up sin, but away inside of me
I was holding on to the biggest one of all. I was trying to make my
mouth say I would do the right thing and the clean thing, and go and
write to that nigger's owner and tell where he was; but deep down in
me I knowed it was a lie-and He knowed it. You can't pray a lie- I
found that out.
So I was full of trouble, full as I could be; and didn't know what
to do. At last I had an idea; and I says, I'll go and write the
letter- and then see if I can pray. Why, it was astonishing, the way I
felt as light as a feather, right straight off, and my troubles all
gone. So I got a piece of paper and a pencil, all glad and excited,
and set down and wrote:
-
Miss Watson your runaway nigger Jim is down here two mile below
Pikesville and Mr. Phelps has got him and he will give him up for
the reward if you send. HUCK FINN
-
-
I felt good and all washed clean of sin for the first time I had
ever felt so in my life, and I knowed I could pray now. But I didn't
do it straight off, but laid the paper down and set there thinking-
thinking how good it was all this happened so, and how near I come
to being lost and going to hell. And went on thinking. And got to
thinking over our trip down the river; and I see Jim before me, all
the time; in the day, and in the night-time, sometimes moonlight,
sometimes storms, and we a floating along, talking, and singing, and
laughing. But somehow I couldn't seem to strike no places to harden me
against him, but only the other kind. I'd see him standing my watch on
top of his'n, stead of calling me, so I could go on sleeping; and
see him how glad he was when I come back out of the fog; and when I
come to him agin in the swamp, up there where the feud was; and
such-like times; and would always call me honey, and pet me, and do
everything he could think of for me, and how good he always was; and
at last I struck the time I saved him by telling the men we had
smallpox aboard, and he was so grateful, and said I was the best
friend old Jim ever had in the world, and the only one he's got now;
and then I happened to look around, and see that paper.
It was a close place. I took it up, and held it in my hand. I was
a trembling, because I'd got to decide, forever, betwixt two things,
and I knowed it. I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and
then says to myself:
"All right, then, I'll go to hell"- and tore it up.
It was awful thoughts, and awful words, but they was said. And I let
them stay said; and never thought no more about reforming. I shoved
the whole thing out of my head; and said I would take up wickedness
again, which was in my line, being brung up to it, and the other
warn't. And for a starter, I would go to work and steal Jim out of
slavery again; and if I could think up anything worse, I would do
that, too; because as long as I was in, and in for good, I might as
well go the whole hog.
Then I set to thinking over how to get at it, and turned over
considerable many ways in my mind; and at last fixed up a plan that
suited me. So then I took the bearings of a woody island that was down
the river a piece, and as soon as it was fairly dark I crept out
with my raft and went for it, and hid it there, and then turned in.
I slept the night through, and got up before it was light, and had
my breakfast, and put on my store clothes, and tied up some others and
one thing or another in a bundle, and took the canoe and cleared for
shore. I landed below where I judged was Phelps's place, and hid my
bundle in the woods, and then filled up the canoe with water, loaded
rocks into her and sunk her where I could find her again when I wanted
her, about a quarter of a mile below a little steam sawmill that was
on the bank.
Then I struck up the road, and when I passed the mill I see a sign
on it, "Phelps's Sawmill," and when I come to the farm-houses, two
or three hundred yards further along, I kept my eyes peeled, but
didn't see nobody around, though it was good daylight, now. But I
didn't mind, because I didn't want to see nobody just yet- I only
wanted to get the lay of the land. According to my plan, I was going
to turn up there from the village, not from below. So I just took a
look, and shoved along, straight for town. Well, the very first man
I see, when I got there, was the duke. He was sticking up a bill for
the Royal Nonesuch- three-night performance- like the other time. They
had the cheek, them frauds! I was right on him, before I could
shirk. He looked astonished and says:
"Hel-lo! Where'd you come from?" Then he says, kind of glad and
eager, "Where's the raft?- got her in a good place?"
I says:
"Why, that's just what I was agoing to ask your grace."
Then he didn't look so joyful- and says:
"What was your idea for asking me?" he says.
"Well," I says, "when I see the king in that doggery yesterday, I
says to myself, we can't get him home for hours, till he's soberer; so
I went a loafing around town to put in the time, and wait. A man up
and offered me ten cents to help him pull a skiff over the river and
back to fetch a sheep, and so I went along; but when we was dragging
him to the boat, the man left me aholt of the rope and went behind him
to shove him along, he was too strong for me, and jerked loose and
run, and we after him. We didn't have no dog, and so we had to chase
him all over the country till we tired him out. We never got him
till dark, then we fetched him over, and I started down for the
raft. When I got there and see it was gone, I says to myself, 'they've
got into trouble and had to leave; and they've took my nigger, which
is the only nigger I've got in the world, and now I'm in a strange
country, and ain't got no property no more, nor nothing, and no way to
make my living'; so I set down and cried. I slept in the woods all
night. But what did become of the raft then?- and Jim, poor Jim!"
"Blamed if I know- that is, what's become of the raft. That old fool
had made a trade and got forty dollars, and when we found him in the
doggery the loafers had matched half dollars with him and got every
cent but what he'd spent for whisky; and when I got him home late last
night and found the raft gone, we said, 'That little rascal has
stole our raft and shook us, and run off down the river.'"
"I wouldn't shake my nigger, would I?- the only nigger I had in
the world, and the only property."
"We never thought of that. Fact is, I reckon we'd come to consider
him our nigger; yes, we did consider him so- goodness knows we had
trouble enough for him. So when we see the raft was gone, and we
flat broke, there warn't anything for it but to try the Royal Nonesuch
another shake. And I've pegged along ever since, dry as a
powderhorn. Where's that ten cents? Give it here."
I had considerable money, so I give him ten cents, but begged him to
spend it for something to eat, and give me some, because it was all
the money I had, and I hadn't had nothing to eat since yesterday.
The next minute he whirls on me and says:
"Do you reckon that nigger would blow on us? We'd skin him if he
done that!"
"How can he blow? Hain't he run off.?"
"No! That old fool sold him, and never divided with me, and the
money's gone."
"Sold him?" I says, and begun to cry; "why, he was my nigger, and
that was my money. Where is he?- I want my nigger."
"Well, you can't get your nigger, that's all- so dry up your
blubbering. Looky here- do you think you'd venture to blow on us?
Blamed if I think I'd trust you. Why, if you was to blow on us-"
He stopped, but I never see the duke look so ugly out of his eyes
before. I went on a-whimpering, and says:
"I don't want to blow on nobody; and I ain't got no time to blow,
nohow. I got to turn out and find my nigger."
He looked kinder bothered, and stood there with his bills fluttering
on his arm, thinking, and wrinkling up his forehead. At last he says:
"I'll tell you something. We got to be here three days. If you'll
promise you won't blow, and won't let the nigger blow, I'll tell you
where to find him."
So I promised, and he says:
"A farmer by the name of Silas Ph-" and then he stopped. You see
he started to tell me the truth; but when he stopped, that way, and
begun to study and think agin, I reckoned he was changing his mind.
And so he was. He wouldn't trust me; he wanted to make sure of
having me out of the way the whole three days. So pretty soon he says:
"The man that bought him is named Abram Foster- Abram G. Foster- and
he lives forty mile back here in the country, on the road to
Lafayette."
"All right," I says, "I can walk it in three days. And I'll start
this very afternoon."
"No, you won't, you'll start now; and don't lose any time about
it, neither, nor do any gabbling by the way. Just keep a tight
tongue in your head and move right along, and then you won't get
into trouble with us, d'ye hear?"
That was the order I wanted, and that was the one I played for. I
wanted to be left free to work my plans.
"So clear out," he says; "and can tell Mr. Foster whatever you
want to. Maybe you can get him to believe that Jim is your nigger-
some idiots don't require documents- leastways I've heard there's such
down South here. And when you tell him the handbill and the reward's
bogus, maybe he'll believe you when you explain to him what the idea
was for getting 'em out. Go 'long, now, and tell him anything you want
to; but mind you don't work your jaw any between here and there."
So I left, and struck for the back country. I didn't look around,
but I kinder felt like he was watching me. But I knowed I could tire
him out at that. I went straight out in the country as much as a mile,
before I stopped; then I doubled back through the woods towards
Phelps's. I reckoned I better start in on my plan straight off,
without fooling around, because I wanted to stop Jim's mouth till
these fellows could get away. I didn't want no trouble with their
kind. I'd seen all I wanted to of them, and wanted to get entirely
shut of them.
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