Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Page 43

  CHAPTER XL.

  WE was feeling pretty good after breakfast, and took my canoe and wentover the river a-fishing, with a lunch, and had a good time, and took alook at the raft and found her all right, and got home late to supper,and found them in such a sweat and worry they didn't know which end theywas standing on, and made us go right off to bed the minute we was donesupper, and wouldn't tell us what the trouble was, and never let on aword about the new letter, but didn't need to, because we knowed as muchabout it as anybody did, and as soon as we was half up stairs and herback was turned we slid for the cellar cupboard and loaded up a goodlunch and took it up to our room and went to bed, and got up abouthalf-past eleven, and Tom put on Aunt Sally's dress that he stole andwas going to start with the lunch, but says:

  "Where's the butter?"

  "I laid out a hunk of it," I says, "on a piece of a corn-pone."

  "Well, you _left_ it laid out, then--it ain't here."

  "We can get along without it," I says.

  "We can get along _with_ it, too," he says; "just you slide down cellarand fetch it. ?And then mosey right down the lightning-rod and comealong. I'll go and stuff the straw into Jim's clothes to represent hismother in disguise, and be ready to _baa_ like a sheep and shove soon asyou get there."

  So out he went, and down cellar went I. The hunk of butter, big asa person's fist, was where I had left it, so I took up the slab ofcorn-pone with it on, and blowed out my light, and started up stairsvery stealthy, and got up to the main floor all right, but here comesAunt Sally with a candle, and I clapped the truck in my hat, and clappedmy hat on my head, and the next second she see me; and she says:

  "You been down cellar?"

  "Yes'm."

  "What you been doing down there?"

  "Noth'n."

  "_Noth'n!_"

  "No'm."

  "Well, then, what possessed you to go down there this time of night?"

  "I don't know 'm."

  "You don't _know_? ?Don't answer me that way. Tom, I want to know whatyou been _doing_ down there."

  "I hain't been doing a single thing, Aunt Sally, I hope to gracious if Ihave."

  I reckoned she'd let me go now, and as a generl thing she would; but Is'pose there was so many strange things going on she was just in a sweatabout every little thing that warn't yard-stick straight; so she says,very decided:

  "You just march into that setting-room and stay there till I come. ?Youbeen up to something you no business to, and I lay I'll find out what itis before I'M done with you."

  So she went away as I opened the door and walked into the setting-room.My, but there was a crowd there! ?Fifteen farmers, and every one of themhad a gun. ?I was most powerful sick, and slunk to a chair and set down.They was setting around, some of them talking a little, in a low voice,and all of them fidgety and uneasy, but trying to look like they warn't;but I knowed they was, because they was always taking off their hats,and putting them on, and scratching their heads, and changing theirseats, and fumbling with their buttons. ?I warn't easy myself, but Ididn't take my hat off, all the same.

  I did wish Aunt Sally would come, and get done with me, and lick me, ifshe wanted to, and let me get away and tell Tom how we'd overdone thisthing, and what a thundering hornet's-nest we'd got ourselves into, sowe could stop fooling around straight off, and clear out with Jim beforethese rips got out of patience and come for us.

  At last she come and begun to ask me questions, but I _couldn't_ answerthem straight, I didn't know which end of me was up; because these menwas in such a fidget now that some was wanting to start right NOW andlay for them desperadoes, and saying it warn't but a few minutes tomidnight; and others was trying to get them to hold on and wait for thesheep-signal; and here was Aunty pegging away at the questions, andme a-shaking all over and ready to sink down in my tracks I wasthat scared; and the place getting hotter and hotter, and the butterbeginning to melt and run down my neck and behind my ears; and prettysoon, when one of them says, "I'M for going and getting in the cabin_first_ and right _now_, and catching them when they come," I mostdropped; and a streak of butter come a-trickling down my forehead, andAunt Sally she see it, and turns white as a sheet, and says:

  "For the land's sake, what _is_ the matter with the child? ?He's got thebrain-fever as shore as you're born, and they're oozing out!"

  And everybody runs to see, and she snatches off my hat, and out comesthe bread and what was left of the butter, and she grabbed me, andhugged me, and says:

  "Oh, what a turn you did give me! and how glad and grateful I am itain't no worse; for luck's against us, and it never rains but it pours,and when I see that truck I thought we'd lost you, for I knowed bythe color and all it was just like your brains would be if--Dear,dear, whyd'nt you _tell_ me that was what you'd been down there for, Iwouldn't a cared. ?Now cler out to bed, and don't lemme see no more ofyou till morning!"

  I was up stairs in a second, and down the lightning-rod in another one,and shinning through the dark for the lean-to. ?I couldn't hardly get mywords out, I was so anxious; but I told Tom as quick as I could we mustjump for it now, and not a minute to lose--the house full of men, yonder,with guns!

  His eyes just blazed; and he says:

  "No!--is that so? ?_ain't_ it bully! ?Why, Huck, if it was to do overagain, I bet I could fetch two hundred! ?If we could put it off till--"

  "Hurry! ?_Hurry_!" ?I says. ?"Where's Jim?"

  "Right at your elbow; if you reach out your arm you can touch him.?He's dressed, and everything's ready. ?Now we'll slide out and give thesheep-signal."

  But then we heard the tramp of men coming to the door, and heard thembegin to fumble with the pad-lock, and heard a man say:

  "I _told_ you we'd be too soon; they haven't come--the door is locked.Here, I'll lock some of you into the cabin, and you lay for 'em in thedark and kill 'em when they come; and the rest scatter around a piece,and listen if you can hear 'em coming."

  So in they come, but couldn't see us in the dark, and most trod onus whilst we was hustling to get under the bed. ?But we got under allright, and out through the hole, swift but soft--Jim first, me next,and Tom last, which was according to Tom's orders. ?Now we was in thelean-to, and heard trampings close by outside. ?So we crept to the door,and Tom stopped us there and put his eye to the crack, but couldn't makeout nothing, it was so dark; and whispered and said he would listenfor the steps to get further, and when he nudged us Jim must glide outfirst, and him last. ?So he set his ear to the crack and listened, andlistened, and listened, and the steps a-scraping around out there allthe time; and at last he nudged us, and we slid out, and stooped down,not breathing, and not making the least noise, and slipped stealthytowards the fence in Injun file, and got to it all right, and me and Jimover it; but Tom's britches catched fast on a splinter on the toprail, and then he hear the steps coming, so he had to pull loose, whichsnapped the splinter and made a noise; and as he dropped in our tracksand started somebody sings out:

  "Who's that? ?Answer, or I'll shoot!"

  But we didn't answer; we just unfurled our heels and shoved. ?Then therewas a rush, and a _Bang, Bang, Bang!_ and the bullets fairly whizzedaround us! We heard them sing out:

  "Here they are! ?They've broke for the river! ?After 'em, boys, and turnloose the dogs!"

  So here they come, full tilt. ?We could hear them because they woreboots and yelled, but we didn't wear no boots and didn't yell. ?We wasin the path to the mill; and when they got pretty close on to us wedodged into the bush and let them go by, and then dropped in behindthem. ?They'd had all the dogs shut up, so they wouldn't scare off therobbers; but by this time somebody had let them loose, and here theycome, making powwow enough for a million; but they was our dogs; so westopped in our tracks till they catched up; and when they see it warn'tnobody but us, and no excitement to offer them, they only just saidhowdy, and tore right ahead towards the shouting and clattering; andthen we up-steam again, and whizzed along after them till we was nearlyto the mill, and then struck up throu
gh the bush to where my canoe wastied, and hopped in and pulled for dear life towards the middle of theriver, but didn't make no more noise than we was obleeged to. Then westruck out, easy and comfortable, for the island where my raft was; andwe could hear them yelling and barking at each other all up and down thebank, till we was so far away the sounds got dim and died out. ?And whenwe stepped on to the raft I says:

  "_Now_, old Jim, you're a free man again, and I bet you won't ever be aslave no more."

  "En a mighty good job it wuz, too, Huck. ?It 'uz planned beautiful, enit 'uz done beautiful; en dey ain't _nobody_ kin git up a plan dat's mo'mixed-up en splendid den what dat one wuz."

  We was all glad as we could be, but Tom was the gladdest of all becausehe had a bullet in the calf of his leg.

  When me and Jim heard that we didn't feel so brash as what we didbefore. It was hurting him considerable, and bleeding; so we laid him inthe wigwam and tore up one of the duke's shirts for to bandage him, buthe says:

  "Gimme the rags; I can do it myself. ?Don't stop now; don't fool aroundhere, and the evasion booming along so handsome; man the sweeps, and sether loose! ?Boys, we done it elegant!--'deed we did. ?I wish _we'd_ ahad the handling of Louis XVI., there wouldn't a been no 'Son of SaintLouis, ascend to heaven!' wrote down in _his_ biography; no, sir, we'da whooped him over the _border_--that's what we'd a done with _him_--anddone it just as slick as nothing at all, too. ?Man the sweeps--man thesweeps!"

  But me and Jim was consulting--and thinking. ?And after we'd thought aminute, I says:

  "Say it, Jim."

  So he says:

  "Well, den, dis is de way it look to me, Huck. ?Ef it wuz _him_ dat 'uzbein' sot free, en one er de boys wuz to git shot, would he say, 'Go onen save me, nemmine 'bout a doctor f'r to save dis one?' ?Is dat likeMars Tom Sawyer? ?Would he say dat? ?You _bet_ he wouldn't! ?_well_,den, is _Jim_ gywne to say it? ?No, sah--I doan' budge a step out'n displace 'dout a _doctor_, not if it's forty year!"

  I knowed he was white inside, and I reckoned he'd say what he did say--soit was all right now, and I told Tom I was a-going for a doctor.?He raised considerable row about it, but me and Jim stuck to it andwouldn't budge; so he was for crawling out and setting the raft loosehimself; but we wouldn't let him. ?Then he give us a piece of his mind,but it didn't do no good.

  So when he sees me getting the canoe ready, he says:

  "Well, then, if you're bound to go, I'll tell you the way to do when youget to the village. ?Shut the door and blindfold the doctor tight andfast, and make him swear to be silent as the grave, and put a pursefull of gold in his hand, and then take and lead him all around theback alleys and everywheres in the dark, and then fetch him here in thecanoe, in a roundabout way amongst the islands, and search him and takehis chalk away from him, and don't give it back to him till you get himback to the village, or else he will chalk this raft so he can find itagain. It's the way they all do."

  So I said I would, and left, and Jim was to hide in the woods when hesee the doctor coming till he was gone again.