"I dono--peep through the crack. Quick!"
"No, _you_, Tom!"
"I can"t--I can"t _do_ it, Huck!"
"Please, Tom. There "tis again!"
"Oh, lordy, I"m thankful!" whispered Tom. "I know his voice. It"s Bull Harbison." *
[* If Mr. Harbison owned a slave named Bull, Tom would have spoken of him as "Harbison"s Bull," but a son or a dog of that name was "Bull Harbison."]
"Oh, that"s good--I tell you, Tom, I was most scared to death; I"d a bet anything it was a _stray_ dog."
The dog howled again. The boys" hearts sank once more.
"Oh, my! that ain"t no Bull Harbison!" whispered Huckleberry. "_Do_, Tom!"
Tom, quaking with fear, yielded, and put his eye to the crack. His whisper was hardly audible when he said:
"Oh, Huck, _its a stray dog_!"
"Quick, Tom, quick! Who does he mean?"
"Huck, he must mean us both--we"re right together."
"Oh, Tom, I reckon we"re goners. I reckon there ain"t no mistake "bout where _I"ll_ go to. I been so wicked."
"Dad fetch it! This comes of playing hookey and doing everything a feller"s told _not_ to do. I might a been good, like Sid, if I"d a tried--but no, I wouldn"t, of course. But if ever I get off this time, I lay I"ll just _waller_ in Sunday-schools!" And Tom began to snuffle a little.
"_You_ bad!" and Huckleberry began to snuffle too. "Consound it, Tom Sawyer, you"re just old pie, "long-side o" what I am. Oh, _lordy_, lordy, lordy, I wisht I only had half your chance."
Tom choked off and whispered:
"Look, Hucky, look! He"s got his _back_ to us!"
Hucky looked, with joy in his heart.
"Well, he has, by jingoes! Did he before?"
"Yes, he did. But I, like a fool, never thought. Oh, this is bully, you know. _Now_ who can he mean?"
The howling stopped. Tom p.r.i.c.ked up his ears.
"Sh! What"s that?" he whispered.
"Sounds like--like hogs grunting. No--it"s somebody snoring, Tom."
"That _is_ it! Where "bouts is it, Huck?"
"I bleeve it"s down at "tother end. Sounds so, anyway. Pap used to sleep there, sometimes, "long with the hogs, but laws bless you, he just lifts things when _he_ snores. Besides, I reckon he ain"t ever coming back to this town any more."
The spirit of adventure rose in the boys" souls once more.
"Hucky, do you das"t to go if I lead?"
"I don"t like to, much. Tom, s"pose it"s Injun Joe!"
Tom quailed. But presently the temptation rose up strong again and the boys agreed to try, with the understanding that they would take to their heels if the snoring stopped. So they went tiptoeing stealthily down, the one behind the other. When they had got to within five steps of the snorer, Tom stepped on a stick, and it broke with a sharp snap. The man moaned, writhed a little, and his face came into the moonlight. It was m.u.f.f Potter. The boys" hearts had stood still, and their hopes too, when the man moved, but their fears pa.s.sed away now. They tip-toed out, through the broken weather-boarding, and stopped at a little distance to exchange a parting word. That long, lugubrious howl rose on the night air again! They turned and saw the strange dog standing within a few feet of where Potter was lying, and _facing_ Potter, with his nose pointing heavenward.
"Oh, geeminy, it"s _him_!" exclaimed both boys, in a breath.
"Say, Tom--they say a stray dog come howling around Johnny Miller"s house, "bout midnight, as much as two weeks ago; and a whippoorwill come in and lit on the banisters and sung, the very same evening; and there ain"t anybody dead there yet."
"Well, I know that. And suppose there ain"t. Didn"t Gracie Miller fall in the kitchen fire and burn herself terrible the very next Sat.u.r.day?"
"Yes, but she ain"t _dead_. And what"s more, she"s getting better, too."
"All right, you wait and see. She"s a goner, just as dead sure as m.u.f.f Potter"s a goner. That"s what the n.i.g.g.e.rs say, and they know all about these kind of things, Huck."
Then they separated, cogitating. When Tom crept in at his bedroom window the night was almost spent. He undressed with excessive caution, and fell asleep congratulating himself that n.o.body knew of his escapade. He was not aware that the gently-snoring Sid was awake, and had been so for an hour.
When Tom awoke, Sid was dressed and gone. There was a late look in the light, a late sense in the atmosphere. He was startled. Why had he not been called--persecuted till he was up, as usual? The thought filled him with bodings. Within five minutes he was dressed and down-stairs, feeling sore and drowsy. The family were still at table, but they had finished breakfast. There was no voice of rebuke; but there were averted eyes; there was a silence and an air of solemnity that struck a chill to the culprit"s heart. He sat down and tried to seem gay, but it was up-hill work; it roused no smile, no response, and he lapsed into silence and let his heart sink down to the depths.
After breakfast his aunt took him aside, and Tom almost brightened in the hope that he was going to be flogged; but it was not so. His aunt wept over him and asked him how he could go and break her old heart so; and finally told him to go on, and ruin himself and bring her gray hairs with sorrow to the grave, for it was no use for her to try any more.
This was worse than a thousand whippings, and Tom"s heart was sorer now than his body. He cried, he pleaded for forgiveness, promised to reform over and over again, and then received his dismissal, feeling that he had won but an imperfect forgiveness and established but a feeble confidence.
He left the presence too miserable to even feel revengeful toward Sid; and so the latter"s prompt retreat through the back gate was unnecessary. He moped to school gloomy and sad, and took his flogging, along with Joe Harper, for playing hookey the day before, with the air of one whose heart was busy with heavier woes and wholly dead to trifles. Then he betook himself to his seat, rested his elbows on his desk and his jaws in his hands, and stared at the wall with the stony stare of suffering that has reached the limit and can no further go.
His elbow was pressing against some hard substance. After a long time he slowly and sadly changed his position, and took up this object with a sigh. It was in a paper. He unrolled it. A long, lingering, colossal sigh followed, and his heart broke. It was his bra.s.s andiron k.n.o.b!
This final feather broke the camel"s back.
CHAPTER XI
CLOSE upon the hour of noon the whole village was suddenly electrified with the ghastly news. No need of the as yet un-dreamed-of telegraph; the tale flew from man to man, from group to group, from house to house, with little less than telegraphic speed. Of course the schoolmaster gave holi-day for that afternoon; the town would have thought strangely of him if he had not.
A gory knife had been found close to the murdered man, and it had been recognized by somebody as belonging to m.u.f.f Potter--so the story ran. And it was said that a belated citizen had come upon Potter washing himself in the "branch" about one or two o"clock in the morning, and that Potter had at once sneaked off--suspicious circ.u.mstances, especially the washing which was not a habit with Potter. It was also said that the town had been ransacked for this "murderer" (the public are not slow in the matter of sifting evidence and arriving at a verdict), but that he could not be found. Hors.e.m.e.n had departed down all the roads in every direction, and the Sheriff "was confident" that he would be captured before night.
All the town was drifting toward the graveyard. Tom"s heartbreak vanished and he joined the procession, not because he would not a thousand times rather go anywhere else, but because an awful, unaccountable fascination drew him on. Arrived at the dreadful place, he wormed his small body through the crowd and saw the dismal spectacle.
It seemed to him an age since he was there before. Somebody pinched his arm. He turned, and his eyes met Huckleberry"s. Then both looked elsewhere at once, and wondered if anybody had noticed anything in their mutual glance. But everybody was talking, and intent upon the grisly spectacle before them.
"Poor fellow!" "Poor young fellow!" "This ought to be a lesson to grave robbers!" "m.u.f.f Potter"ll hang for this if they catch him!" This was the drift of remark; and the minister said, "It was a judgment; His hand is here."
Now Tom shivered from head to heel; for his eye fell upon the stolid face of Injun Joe. At this moment the crowd began to sway and struggle, and voices shouted, "It"s him! it"s him! he"s coming himself!"
"Who? Who?" from twenty voices.