Chapter 17 Saving Jim.
The next day Tom told me that he'd seen one of the slaves bring in some food to a little hut some distance away from the house.
I'd seen him too, and Tom said Jim might be in there.
Tom said the slave had unlocked the door to the hut with a key that Uncle Silas carried.
Well, Right away I thought we should steal the key that night and set Jim free, but Tom had other ideas.
That would certainly work, he said, but it's too darn simple.
There is nothing to it.
I knew Tom would have his own plans.
I also knew that they would be difficult and dangerous and he'd probably change them ten times a minute.
And that's what he did.
He wanted to set Jim free, but he had to do it in his own way.
We went to the hut that night.
There was a hole on one side that I thought Jim could climb through if we could tear off one of the boards.
I should hope that we could find a way that's a little more complicated than that, Tom said.
Something mysterious and troublesome and good.
We found some tools, which delighted Tom.
We'll dig him out, he said.
It'll take about a week.
It's perfect.
The next day we followed the slave who was bringing food out to the hut.
After a lot of talking, we convinced him to let us see inside.
It was dark, but Jim was there.
He was sitting on a flimsy bed, leaning up against the wall.
He looked sad.
Wah-hawk.
My goodness, is that Tom Sawyer?
Jim said.
We said we were going to set him free and that he shouldn't worry if he heard any digging at night.
It was just us.
Jim only had time to hold each of us by the hand and thank us.
Then we had to leave before the slave who had brought the food came looking for us.
It didn't take long for Tom to start changing his plan.
He decided it was just too easy to dig Jim out of the hut.
Jim needed a rope ladder, and he had to write letters about how lonely he felt.
Tom had many ideas like these, which he had picked up from all the adventure stories he read.
We started digging under the hut that night after everyone went to sleep.
At first, Tom wanted us to dig with our hands, but that was taking too long.
Finally, he said it would probably be all right for us to use the picks and shovels we had borrowed.
We dug until we were too tired to continue.
The hole was just deep enough to crawl under the wall of the hut and get inside.
The next day we borrowed a sheet for Jim to write on, and we also brought Jim some spoons and a candlestick that he could use to make a pen.
We took some candles and plates and other things that Tom thought would be useful.
That night, we crawled into the hut and woke Jim.
He was so happy to see us that he almost cried.
He wanted to leave with us right away, but Tom explained how that wasn't the right way to do things.
He said we had to save Jim according to all the adventure stories.
Well, Tom was the expert on that, so Jim and I went along with him.
Tom explained how Jim should write on the sheet and the plates and told him how to make the rope ladder.
It was all very confusing, but Jim said he would try to do it all.
Tom was in high spirits.
He said it was the best fun he ever had in his life.
