Chapter 8.
The Fate of the Wreck I caught my breath and almost fainted.
Stuck on a wreck with a gang like that.
But there was no time to be scared.
We had to find their boat for ourselves.
We searched and searched and finally we found it.
We were almost on board when the door opened.
One of the men looked out.
He was standing just a couple of feet ahead of me, but he didn't see me.
He moved back in to talk to the other man, and I got in the boat with Jim right beside me.
I cut the rope with my knife, and away we went.
We didn't touch an oar.
We didn't speak.
We barely breathed.
We went gliding silently away from the wreckage.
Soon we were so far away that the darkness covered her completely.
We were safe, and we knew it.
When we were far downstream, we saw the lantern show like a little spark at the door for a second.
We knew that the rascals now knew they had missed their boat.
They were beginning to understand that they were in just as much trouble as their partners.
I started to worry about those men.
I said to Jim, I'll think up some kind of story so I can get somebody to go for that gang and get them off that wreck.
Soon after we found our raft, we were mighty glad to be on it again.
We piled all the stuff from the gang's boat onto the raft and Jim floated ahead with it a little ways.
He lit a lantern so I could find him again later.
I took the boat and rowed to the shore.
When I got there, I found a watchman asleep next to a ferry boat.
I told him about the gang on the wreck, but it was too late.
After he left and I found Jim again, we saw the wreck itself, dim and dusky, sliding along down the river.
A cold shiver went through me.
The wreck was very deep in the water and I couldn't see anyone on board.
Before dawn, Jim and I hid the raft and the boat.
Then we laid down and slept like dead people.
When we got up, we went through the stuff the gang had stolen.
We found a lot of clothes and books and other things.
We'd never been so rich in our lives.
We spent the afternoon talking, and I read from the books.
I told Jim about what had happened inside the wreck and said these things were adventures.
He said he didn't want any more of those.
I read to him about kings and dukes and earls.
The book described how they dressed and talked, calling each other Your Majesty, Your Grace, Your Lordship, and so on, instead of Mr.
Some of them even spoke French.
We guessed that it would take us three nights to get to Cairo, which was at the bottom of Illinois, where the Ohio River comes in.
We could sail the raft and take a steamboat into Ohio.
From there, we could get into the Free States, where we would be out of trouble.
Jim missed his children terribly and talked about getting someone to fetch him for him once he was in the Free States.
I knew there'd be big trouble for each of us if we were caught before we could get there.
Jim would be punished for running away, and I could get in trouble for helping him.
On the second night, we got lost and separated in some fog.
I was in the canoe, and Jim was on the raft.
It took us a long time to find each other again.
When we did, we found we had drifted right past Cairo.
We had no choice but to take the canoe back.
We slept all day among the cottonwood thicket so we could paddle back at night.
When we went back to the raft after dark, the canoe was gone.
We'd had a lot of bad luck by then and were mighty upset about it.
We didn't say a word for a while.
Wasn't anything to say.
We... decided to go along down the river on the raft until we found a chance to buy a canoe.
Then we would try to paddle back.
We didn't want to borrow one the way Pap would, for that might set people after us.
So we shoved out after dark on the raft.
Then more bad luck hit us.
The night got gray and thick, which is the next meanest thing to fog.
You can't tell the shape of the river, and you can't see far at all.
It got to be very late and still.
Just then along came a steamboat up the river.
We lit the lantern and judged she'd see it.
We could hear her pounding along, but we didn't see her good until she was close.
She aimed right for us.
They often do that and try to see how close they can come without touching.
Then the pilot sticks his head out and laughs and thinks he's mighty smart.
Well, here she comes, and she didn't seem to be veering off a bit.
She's a big one, and she was coming in a hurry too.
Looking like a black cloud with rows of glowworms around it.
There was a yell at us, a jingling of bells to stop the engines and a lot of cursing and whistling of steam.
As Jim went overboard on one side and I fell off the other, she came smashing straight through the raft.
I dived, and I aimed to find the bottom, too.
30-foot wheel had to pass over me and I wanted it to have plenty of room.
I could always stay under the water for a minute.
This time I reckon I stayed under a minute and a half.
Then I bounced for the top in a hurry for I was nearly busting.
I popped out to my armpits, blew the water out of my nose and puffed a bit.
Course there was a booming current and of course that boat started her engines again ten seconds after she stopped them.
They never cared much for people on rafts.
Now she's turning along up the river.
She's out of sight in the thick weather, although I could hear her.
I called out for Jim about a dozen times, but I didn't get any answer.
Finally, I grabbed a plank that touched me while I was treading water and struck out for shore, shoving it ahead of me.
It took a long time, but I finally made a safe landing.
I couldn't see far and went poking along over rough ground for a long time.
Then I found a big, old-fashioned log house.
I was going to pass it by, but a lot of dogs jumped out and started howling and barking at me.
After about a minute, somebody yelled out of the window and asked me for my name.
George Jackson, sir, I said.
I'm only a boy.
Look here.
If you're telling the truth, you needn't be afraid.
Nobody will hurt you, but don't try to budge.
Stand right where you are.
Go get Bob and Tom, some of you.
Is there anybody with you, George Jackson?
No, sir, nobody.
Now, George Jackson, do you know the Shepherdsons?
No, sir, I never heard of them.
Well, that may be so, and it may be not.
Step forward, George Jackson, and mind, don't you hurry.
Come mighty slow.
Push the door open yourself.
Just enough to squeeze in.
Do you hear?
I didn't hurry.
I couldn't if I'd wanted to.
I heard them unlocking and unbarring and unbolting the door.
I pushed it a little and looked inside.
The candle was on the floor.
They were all standing there looking at me.
I looked back at them.
Three big men staring at me made me wince, I tell you.
The oldest of them was gray and about sixty.
The other two were about thirty or older.
All of them were fine and handsome.
Behind them was a sweet old gray-headed lady.
Behind her were two young women.
The old gentleman locked, barred, and bolted the door as soon as I was in.
He told the young men to come in.
They took a good look at me and said, Wow, he ain't a Shepardson.
No, there ain't any Shepardson about him.
Then the old man said he hoped I wouldn't mind being searched for weapons.
He didn't mean any harm by it.
It was only to make sure.
He told me to make myself easy and at home.
He said I should tell him all about myself, but the old lady said, Why, bless you, Saul.
The poor thing's as wet as can be.
Don't you reckon he's hungry?
True.
For you, Rachel, I forgot.
So the old lady said, Betsy, get him something to eat as quick as you can, poor thing.
But go upstairs and find some clothes to get him.
Buck looked about as old as me, 13 or 14 or along there, though he was a little bigger than me.
I made up a story and told them I'd fallen off a steamboat and I was an orphan.
They said I could have a home there as long as I wanted it.
Then it was almost daylight and everybody went to bed.
When I woke up in the morning, dratted, all I'd forgotten what I told them my name was.
I laid there for about an hour, trying to think, and when Buck woke up, I asked if he could spell.
I bet you can't spell my name, I said.
G-E-O-R-G-E J-A-X-O-N There now, he said.
Well, I said, you did it, but I didn't think you could.
I made sure to remember it in case anybody would ask me how to spell my name.
I learned that this family was named Grangerford.
There was a Colonel Grangerford who was very tall and very slim.
He had the blackest kind of eyes sunk so deep back that they seemed like they were looking out of caverns at you.
His hair was black and straight and hung to his shoulders.
He carried a wooden cane with a silver head to it.
It was as kind as he could be.
You could feel that.
Sometimes he smiled and it was good to see.
But when he looked angry, you wanted to climb a tree first and find out what the matter was afterward.
He didn't ever have to tell anybody to mind their manners.
Everybody was always good-mannered around him.
Bob was the oldest son and Tom next.
They were both tall, beautiful men with very broad shoulders, brown faces, long black hair and black eyes.
They dressed in white linen from head to foot, like the old colonel, and wore broad Panama hats.
Then there was Miss Charlotte.
She was twenty-five, tall and proud.
She was beautiful and kind, but she could get angry just like her father.
Her sister, Miss Sophia, was also beautiful, but it was a different kind.
She was gentle and sweet, like a dove.
She was only twenty.
There was another family around there whose name was Shepardson.
They were as rich and grand as the Grangerfords.
From Buck, I learned that the two families had been fighting with each other for many years.
No one remembered how it all started, but whenever a Shepardson and a Grangerford were near, they started shooting at each other.
