The adventures of tom sawyer

two, and two or three kite-strings, and some of these new-fangled things they call lucifer matches. I tell you, many`s the time I wished I had some when I was in there before.”
A trifle after noon the boys borrowed a small skiff from a citizen who was absent, and got under way at once. When they were several miles below “Cave Hollow,” Tom said:
“Now you see this bluff here looks all alike all the way down from the cave hollowno houses, no wood-yards, bushes all alike. But do you see that white place up yonder where there`s been a landslide? Well, that`s one of my marks. We`ll get ashore, now.”
They landed.
“Now, Huck, where we`re a-standing you could touch that hole I got out of with a fishing-pole. See if you can find it.”
Huck searched all the place about, and found nothing. Tom proudly marched 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 have a thing like this, and where to run across it was the bother. We`ve got it now, and we`ll keep it quiet, only we`ll let Joe Harper and Ben Rogers inbecause of course there`s got to be a Gang, or else there wouldn`t be any style about it. Tom Sawyer`s Gangit sounds splendid, don`t it, Huck?”
“Well, it just does, Tom. And who`ll we rob?”
“Oh, most anybody. Waylay peoplethat`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 after you`ve kept them a year, if it ain`t raised then you kill them. That`s the 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 awfully scared. You take their watches and things, but you always take your hat off and talk polite. They ain`t anybody as polite as robbers you`ll see that in any book. Well, the women get to loving you, and after they`ve been in the cave a week or two weeks they stop crying and after that you couldn`t get them to leave. If you drove them out they`d turn right around 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 circuses and all that.”
By this time everything was ready and the boys entered the hole, Tom in the lead. They toiled their way to the farther end of the tunnel, then made their spliced kite-strings fast and moved on. A few steps brought them 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 clay against the wall, and described how he and Becky had watched the flame struggle and expire.
The boys began to quiet down to whispers, now, for the stillness and gloom of the place oppressed their spirits. They went on, and presently entered and followed Tom`s other corridor until they reached the “jumping-off place.” The candles revealed the fact that it was not really a precipice, but only a steep clay hill twenty or thirty feet high. 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? Thereon the big rock over yonderdone with candle-smoke.”
“Tom, it`s a CROSS!”
“NOW where`s your Number Two? `UNDER THE CROSS,` hey? Right yonder`s where 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?”
“Yesleave 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 he diedaway out at the mouth of the cavefive mile from here.”
“No, Tom, it wouldn`t. It would hang round the money. I know the ways of ghosts, and so do you.”
Tom began to fear that Huck was right. Misgivings gathered in his mind. But presently an idea occurred to him
“Lookyhere, Huck, what fools we`re making of ourselves! Injun Joe`s ghost 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, that cross 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 the great 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, with a pallet of blankets spread down in it; also an old suspender, some bacon rind, and the well-gnawed bones of two or three fowls. But there was no money-box. The lads searched and researched this place, but in vain. Tom said:
“He said UNDER the cross. Well, this comes nearest to being under the cross. It can`t be under the rock itself, because that sets solid on the ground.”
They searched everywhere once more, and then sat down discouraged. Huck could suggest nothing. By-and-by Tom said:
“Lookyhere, Huck, there`s footprints and some candle-grease on the clay about one side of this rock, but not on the other sides. Now, what`s that for? I bet you the money IS under the rock. I`m going to dig in the 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 inches before he struck wood.
“Hey, Huck!you hear that?”
Huck began to dig and scratch now. Some boards were soon uncovered and removed. 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 he could, but said he could not see to the end of the rift. He proposed to explore. He stooped and passed under; the narrow way descended gradually. He followed its winding course, first to the right, then to the left, Huck at his heels. Tom turned a short curve, by-and-by, and exclaimed:
“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, two or three pairs of old moccasins, a leather belt, and some other rubbish well soaked with the water-drip.
“Got it at last!” said Huck, ploughing among the tarnished coins with his hand. “My, but we`re rich, Tom!”
“Huck, I always reckoned we`d get it. It`s just too good to believe, but we HAVE got it, sure! Saylet`s not fool around here. Let`s snake it out. Lemme see if I can lift the box.”
It weighed about fifty pounds. Tom could lift it, after an awkward fashion, but could not carry it conveniently.
“I thought so,” he said; “THEY carried it like it was heavy, that day at the ha`nted house. I noticed that. I reckon I was right to think of fetching the little bags along.”
The money was soon in the bags and the boys took it up to the cross rock.
“Now less fetch the guns and things,” said Huck.
“No, Huckleave them there. They`re just the tricks to have when we go to robbing. We`ll keep them there all the time, and we`ll hold our orgies 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 to have them, too. Come along, Huck, we`ve been in here a long time. It`s getting late, I reckon. I`m hungry, too. We`ll eat and smoke when we get to the skiff.”
They presently emerged into the clump of sumach bushes, looked warily out, found the coast clear, and were soon lunching and smoking in the skiff. As the sun dipped toward the horizon they pushed out and got under way. Tom skimmed up the shore through the long twilight, chatting cheerily with Huck, and landed shortly after dark.
“Now, Huck,” said Tom, “we`ll hide the money in the loft of the widow`s woodshed, 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 be safe. Just you lay quiet here and watch the stuff till I run and hook Benny Taylor`s little wagon; I won`t be gone a minute.”
He disappeared, and presently returned with the wagon, put the two small sacks into it, threw some old rags on top of them, and started off, dragging his cargo behind him. When the boys reached the Welshman`s house, they stopped to rest. Just as they were about to move on, the Welshman stepped out and said:
“Hallo, who`s that?”
“Huck and Tom Sawyer.”
“Good! Come along with me, boys, you are keeping everybody waiting. Herehurry up, trot aheadI`ll haul the wagon for you. Why, it`s not as light 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 away more time hunting up six bits` worth of old iron to sell to the foundry than they would to make twice the money at regular work. But that`s human naturehurry 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 apprehensionfor he was long used to being falsely accused:
“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 you and 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 he found 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 consequence in the village was there. The Thatchers were there, the Harpers, the Rogerses, Aunt Polly, Sid, Mary, the minister, the editor, and a great many more, and all dressed in their best. The widow received the boys as heartily as any one could well receive two such looking beings. They were co…