Chapter 12.
Huck's a Hero The first thing Tom heard on Friday morning was a glad piece of news.
Becky Thatcher and her family had finally come back to town from their summer holiday.
Tom saw Becky right away, and they had a great time playing games with their schoolmates.
Becky then convinced her mother to choose the next day for a long-promised and long-delayed school picnic.
Next morning, a rowdy group of youngsters gathered outside Judge Thacker's house.
An old steamboat had been chartered for the all-day trip and presently the happy throng of children, laden with baskets of food, made their way to the boat.
"'You'll not get back too late,' Mrs. Thatcher said to Becky as the children prepared to leave.
"'You better stay the night with some of the girls who live near Fairy Landing.'
I'll stay with Susie Harper, Mama.
Very well, and mind you don't be any trouble.
As Tom raced along with Becky and the other children toward the ferry, he thought suddenly of Huck that he might come that very night and give Tom a signal that Injun Joe's room was empty.
Still, the signal hadn't come the night before, so why should it be any more likely to come tonight?
Three miles below town, the ferry boat stopped at the mouth of a woody hollow.
The crowd of happy children swarmed ashore, and soon the forest distances and rocky heights echoed far and near with shouting and laughter.
All the different ways of getting hot and tired were fully explored before the picnickers straggled back to the camp with mighty appetites.
After much feasting, it now was time to explore MacDougall's Cave.
Candles were brought, and the whole group scampered up the hill.
The cave's entrance was up the hillside, and its massive oak door stood wide open.
It was breathtaking to stand there in the deep gloom at the cave's mouth and look out upon the green valley shining in the sun.
By and by, the procession of children began filing down the steep descent of the cave's main passage, their flickering rank of lights dimly revealing the lofty walls of rock surrounding them,
It was no more than ten feet wide, and narrower crevices branched off it every few feet.
It was sad that one might wander days and nights through this vast tangle of rifts and chasms and never find the end of it.
After a while, some of the children began to sneak away from the larger group and play hide-and-seek in the explored areas of the cave, before straggling back toward the mouth of the cavern, panting for breath laughing, smeared head-to-toe with candle drippings, daubed with clay, and delighted with their adventure.
They arrived just in time.
The bell had been clanging and the ferry boat was set to return to town.
An hour later, Huck was just starting on his watch when he saw the ferry boat's lights go glinting past the wharf.
He wondered what boat it was and why it didn't stop at the wharf, but he didn't wonder long.
The night was growing dark, and he had business to attend to.
Ten o'clock came, and the noise of vehicles ceased.
Scattered lights also began to go out, and the streets grew empty.
By eleven o'clock, darkness was everywhere.
Huck waited for what seemed like a weary long time, but nothing happened.
Was there really any use in staying longer, he wondered.
Why not give it up and turn in?
Then a noise fell upon his ear.
The alley door closed softly.
Huck sprang to the corner of a closed barbershop.
The next moment, two men brushed by him, and one seemed to have something under his arm.
The box.
They were going to remove the treasure.
Huck's mind was racing.
The men would get away with the box and never be found again.
No, he would follow them himself.
Huck stepped out and glided behind the men cat-like, with bare feet, allowing them to keep just far enough ahead so as not to be invisible.
They moved along River Street three blocks and then turned left.
They went up the path to Cardiff Hill, passed by the old Welshman's cabin halfway up the hill, and still kept climbing.
Good, Huck thought.
They'll bury the box in the old But the men didn't stop at the quarry.
They passed on up the summit and plunged into the narrow path between the tall sumac bushes.
Huck shortened his distance.
It was too dark now for the men to see him.
He trotted along a while and then stopped.
He listened but heard no sound, none but the beating of his own heart.
Huck was again about to give up when a man cleared his throat not four feet away.
Huck stood there shaking badly.
He knew just where he was, within five feet of the pathway leading to Widow Douglas's house.
Let them bury it there.
It would be hard to find.
Now there was a voice, a very low voice, Injun Joe's.
Look, there's lights.
Maybe she's got company.
I can't see. recognized the sound of Joe's partner.
A dead chill shot through him.
This was the revenge job.
He remembered that the widow Douglas's husband had been the justice of the peace and had arrested Injun Joe countless times.
Now Joe and his partner were planning to get revenge on his widow by robbing her. or worse.
Huck held his breath and slowly took one step back, then another.
After he'd gone far enough away, he started flying down the hill.
Down, down he sped until he reached the old Welshman's cabin.
Huck banged loudly at the door, and soon the heads of the old man and his two strong sons appeared in the windows.
"'What's the row there?
Who's banging?
What do you want?'
Huckleberry Finn.
Quick, let me in.
Huckleberry Finn, indeed.
It ain't a name to open many doors.
But let him in, lads, and let's see what's the trouble.
Please, don't ever tell I told you.
Were Huck's first words when he got in.
But the wit of Douglas has been good to me sometimes.
I want to tell.
I will tell if you promise you won't even say it was me.
He has got something to tell her.
He wouldn't act so, exclaimed the old man.
Out, out with it, and nobody here will ever tell, lad.
Three minutes later, the old man and his sons, well-armed, were up the hill right by the sumac path.
Huck left them there and hid behind a great boulder.
After a few moments of tense silence, all of a sudden the small boy heard an explosion of guns and a cry.
Huck didn't wait to find out what had happened.
He sprang away and sped down the hill as fast as his legs could carry him.
