CHAPTER x.x.xII
TUESDAY afternoon came, and waned to the twilight. The village of St.
Petersburg still mourned. The lost children had not been found. Public prayers had been offered up for them, and many and many a private prayer that had the pet.i.tioner"s whole heart in it; but still no good news came from the cave. The majority of the searchers had given up the quest and gone back to their daily avocations, saying that it was plain the children could never be found. Mrs. Thatcher was very ill, and a great part of the time delirious. People said it was heartbreaking to hear her call her child, and raise her head and listen a whole minute at a time, then lay it wearily down again with a moan. Aunt Polly had drooped into a settled melancholy, and her gray hair had grown almost white. The village went to its rest on Tuesday night, sad and forlorn.
Away in the middle of the night a wild peal burst from the village bells, and in a moment the streets were swarming with frantic half-clad people, who shouted, "Turn out! turn out! they"re found! they"re found!"
Tin pans and horns were added to the din, the population ma.s.sed itself and moved toward the river, met the children coming in an open carriage drawn by shouting citizens, thronged around it, joined its homeward march, and swept magnificently up the main street roaring huzzah after huzzah!
The village was illuminated; n.o.body went to bed again; it was the greatest night the little town had ever seen. During the first half-hour a procession of villagers filed through Judge Thatcher"s house, seized the saved ones and kissed them, squeezed Mrs. Thatcher"s hand, tried to speak but couldn"t--and drifted out raining tears all over the place.
Aunt Polly"s happiness was complete, and Mrs. Thatcher"s nearly so. It would be complete, however, as soon as the messenger dispatched with the great news to the cave should get the word to her husband. Tom lay upon a sofa with an eager auditory about him and told the history of the wonderful adventure, putting in many striking additions to adorn it withal; and closed with a description of how he left Becky and went on an exploring expedition; how he followed two avenues as far as his kite-line would reach; how he followed a third to the fullest stretch of the kite-line, and was about to turn back when he glimpsed a far-off speck that looked like daylight; dropped the line and groped toward it, pushed his head and shoulders through a small hole, and saw the broad Mississippi rolling by!
And if it had only happened to be night he would not have seen that speck of daylight and would not have explored that pa.s.sage any more! He told how he went back for Becky and broke the good news and she told him not to fret her with such stuff, for she was tired, and knew she was going to die, and wanted to. He described how he labored with her and convinced her; and how she almost died for joy when she had groped to where she actually saw the blue speck of daylight; how he pushed his way out at the hole and then helped her out; how they sat there and cried for gladness; how some men came along in a skiff and Tom hailed them and told them their situation and their famished condition; how the men didn"t believe the wild tale at first, "because," said they, "you are five miles down the river below the valley the cave is in"--then took them aboard, rowed to a house, gave them supper, made them rest till two or three hours after dark and then brought them home.
Before day-dawn, Judge Thatcher and the handful of searchers with him were tracked out, in the cave, by the twine clews they had strung behind them, and informed of the great news.
Three days and nights of toil and hunger in the cave were not to be shaken off at once, as Tom and Becky soon discovered. They were bedridden all of Wednesday and Thursday, and seemed to grow more and more tired and worn, all the time. Tom got about, a little, on Thursday, was downtown Friday, and nearly as whole as ever Sat.u.r.day; but Becky did not leave her room until Sunday, and then she looked as if she had pa.s.sed through a wasting illness.
Tom learned of Huck"s sickness and went to see him on Friday, but could not be admitted to the bedroom; neither could he on Sat.u.r.day or Sunday.
He was admitted daily after that, but was warned to keep still about his adventure and introduce no exciting topic. The Widow Douglas stayed by to see that he obeyed. At home Tom learned of the Cardiff Hill event; also that the "ragged man"s" body had eventually been found in the river near the ferry-landing; he had been drowned while trying to escape, perhaps.
About a fortnight after Tom"s rescue from the cave, he started off to visit Huck, who had grown plenty strong enough, now, to hear exciting talk, and Tom had some that would interest him, he thought. Judge Thatcher"s house was on Tom"s way, and he stopped to see Becky. The Judge and some friends set Tom to talking, and some one asked him ironically if he wouldn"t like to go to the cave again. Tom said he thought he wouldn"t mind it. The Judge said:
"Well, there are others just like you, Tom, I"ve not the least doubt.
But we have taken care of that. n.o.body will get lost in that cave any more."
"Why?"
"Because I had its big door sheathed with boiler iron two weeks ago, and triple-locked--and I"ve got the keys."
Tom turned as white as a sheet.
"What"s the matter, boy! Here, run, somebody! Fetch a gla.s.s of water!"
The water was brought and thrown into Tom"s face.
"Ah, now you"re all right. What was the matter with you, Tom?"
"Oh, Judge, Injun Joe"s in the cave!"
CHAPTER x.x.xIII
WITHIN a few minutes the news had spread, and a dozen skiff-loads of men were on their way to McDougal"s cave, and the ferryboat, well filled with pa.s.sengers, soon followed. Tom Sawyer was in the skiff that bore Judge Thatcher.
When the cave door was unlocked, a sorrowful sight presented itself in the 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 longing eyes had been fixed, to the latest moment, upon the light and the cheer of the free world outside. Tom was touched, for he knew by his own experience how this wretch had suffered. His pity was moved, but nevertheless he felt an abounding sense of relief and security, now, which revealed to him in a degree which he had not fully appreciated before how vast a weight of dread had been lying upon him since the day he lifted his voice against this b.l.o.o.d.y-minded outcast.
Injun Joe"s bowie-knife lay close by, its blade broken in two. The great foundation-beam of the door had been chipped and hacked through, with tedious labor; useless labor, too, it was, for the native rock formed a sill outside it, and upon that stubborn material the knife had wrought no effect; the only damage done was to the knife itself. But if there had been no stony obstruction there the labor would have been useless still, for if the beam had been wholly cut away Injun Joe could not have squeezed his body under the door, and he knew it. So he had only hacked that place in order to be doing something--in order to pa.s.s the weary time--in order to employ his tortured faculties. Ordinarily one could find half a dozen bits of candle stuck around in the crevices of this vestibule, left there by tourists; but there were none now. The prisoner had searched them out and eaten them. He had also contrived to catch a few bats, and these, also, he had eaten, leaving only their claws. The poor unfortunate had starved to death. In one place, near at hand, a stalagmite had been slowly growing up from the ground for ages, builded by the water-drip from a stalact.i.te overhead. The captive had broken off the stalagmite, and upon the stump had placed a stone, wherein he had scooped a shallow hollow to catch the precious drop that fell once in every three minutes with the dreary regularity of a clock-tick--a dessertspoonful once in four and twenty hours. That drop was falling when the Pyramids were new; when Troy fell; when the foundations of Rome were laid; when Christ was crucified; when the Conqueror created the British empire; when Columbus sailed; when the ma.s.sacre at Lexington was "news."
It is falling now; it will still be falling when all these things shall have sunk down the afternoon of history, and the twilight of tradition, and been swallowed up in the thick night of oblivion. Has everything a purpose and a mission? Did this drop fall patiently during five thousand years to be ready for this flitting human insect"s need? and has it another important object to accomplish ten thousand years to come? No matter. It is many and many a year since the hapless half-breed scooped out the stone to catch the priceless drops, but to this day the tourist stares longest at that pathetic stone and that slow-dropping water when he comes to see the wonders of McDougal"s cave. Injun Joe"s cup stands first 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 flocked there in boats and wagons from the towns and from all the farms and hamlets for seven miles around; they brought their children, and all sorts of provisions, and confessed that they had had almost as satisfactory a time at the funeral as they could have had at the hanging.
This funeral stopped the further growth of one thing--the pet.i.tion to the governor for Injun Joe"s pardon. The pet.i.tion had been largely signed; many tearful and eloquent meetings had been held, and a committee of sappy women been appointed to go in deep mourning and wail around the governor, and implore him to be a merciful a.s.s and trample his duty under foot. Injun Joe was believed to have killed five citizens of the village, but what of that? If he had been Satan himself there would have been plenty of weaklings ready to scribble their names to a pardon-pet.i.tion, and drip a tear on it from their permanently impaired and leaky water-works.
The morning after the funeral Tom took Huck to a private place to have an important talk. Huck had learned all about Tom"s adventure from the Welshman and the Widow Douglas, by this time, but Tom said he reckoned there was one thing they had not told him; that thing was what he wanted to talk about now. Huck"s face saddened. He said:
"I know what it is. You got into No. 2 and never found anything but whiskey. n.o.body told me it was you; but I just knowed it must "a" ben you, soon as I heard "bout that whiskey business; and I knowed you hadn"t got the money becuz you"d "a" got at me some way or other and told me even if you was mum to everybody else. Tom, something"s always told me we"d never get holt of that swag."
"Why, Huck, I never told on that tavern-keeper. _You_ know his tavern was all right the Sat.u.r.day I went to the picnic. Don"t you remember you was to watch there that night?"
"Oh yes! Why, it seems "bout a year ago. It was that very night that I follered Injun Joe to the widder"s."
"_You_ followed him?"
"Yes--but you keep mum. I reckon Injun Joe"s left friends behind him, and I don"t want "em souring on me and doing me mean tricks. If it hadn"t ben for me he"d be down in Texas now, all right."
Then Huck told his entire adventure in confidence to Tom, who had only heard of the Welshman"s part of it before.
"Well," said Huck, presently, coming back to the main question, "whoever nipped the whiskey in No. 2, nipped the money, too, I reckon--anyways it"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 on the 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 in there 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 not get lost."
"Huck, we can do that without the least little bit of trouble in the world."
"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"ll agree to give you my drum and every thing I"ve got in the world. I will, by jings."