Chapter 9 (Tom Sawyer (Full Cast))

01Chapter 9.

02A Solemn Situation, Grave Subjects Introduced, Injun Joe Explains.

03At half-past nine that night Tom and Sid were sent to bed, as usual.

04They said their prayers, and Sid was soon asleep.

05Tom lay awake and waited, in restless impatience.

06When it seemed to him that it must be nearly daylight, he heard the clock strike ten.

07This was despair.

08He would have tossed and fidgeted, as his nerve demanded, but he was afraid he might wake Sid.

09So he lay still and stared up into the dark.

10Everything was dismally still.

11By and by, out of the stillness, little, scarcely perceptible noises began to emphasize themselves.

12The ticking of the clock began to bring itself into notice.

13Old beams began to crack mysteriously.

14The stairs creaked faintly.

15Evidently, spirits were abroad.

16A measured, muffled snore issued from Aunt Polly's chamber.

17And now, the tiresome chirping of a cricket that no human ingenuity could locate began.

18Next, the ghastly ticking of a death watch in the wall at the bed's head made Tom shudder.

19It meant that somebody's days were numbered.

20Then the howl of a far-off dog rose on the night air, and was answered by a fainter howl from a remoter distance.

21Tom was in an agony.

22At last he was satisfied that time had ceased an eternity begun.

23He began to doze in spite of himself.

24The clock chimed eleven, but he did not hear it.

25And then there came, mingling with his half-formed dreams, a most melancholy caterwauling.

26The raising of a neighboring window disturbed him.

27A cry of— scat, you devil!

28And the crash of an empty bottle against the back of his aunt's woodshed brought him wide awake.

29And a single minute later, he was dressed and out of the window and creeping along the roof of the L on all fours.

30He me-ow-ed with caution once or twice as he went, then jumped to the roof of the woodshed and thence to the ground.

31Huckleberry Finn was there with his dead cat.

32The boys moved off and disappeared in the gloom.

33At the end of half an hour they were wading through the tall grass of the graveyard.

34It was a graveyard of the old-fashioned western kind.

35It was on a hill about a mile and a half from the village.

36It had a crazy board fence around it, which leaned inward in places and outward the rest of the time, but stood upright nowhere.

37Grass and weeds grew rank over the whole cemetery.

38All the old graves were sunken in.

39There was not a tombstone on the place.

40Round-topped, worm-eaten boards staggered over the graves, leaning for support and finding none.

41Sacred to the memory of so-and-so had been painted on them once, but it could no longer have been read on the most of them now, even if there had been light.

42A faint wind moaned through the trees, and Tom feared it might be the spirits of the dead complaining and being disturbed.

43The boys talked little, and only under their breath, for the time and the place and the pervading solemnity and silence oppressed their spirits.

44They found the sharp new heap they were seeking, and ensconced themselves within the protection of three great elms that grew in a bunch within a few feet of the grave.

45Then they waited in silence for what seemed a long time.

46The hooting of a distant owl was the only sound that troubled the dead stillness.

47Tom's reflections grew oppressive.

48He must force some talk.

49So he said, in a whisper, Hucky, do you believe the dead people like it for us to be here?

50Huckleberry whispered, I wish I knowed.

51It's awful solemn-like, ain't it?

52I bet it is.

53There was a considerable pause while the boys canvassed this matter inwardly.

54Then Tom whispered, Say, Hucky, do you reckon Hoss Williams hears us talking?

55Huckleberry, of course he does.

56Least his spirit does.

57Tom, after a pause.

58I wish I'd said Mr.

59Williams, but I never meant any harm.

60Everybody calls him Hoss.

61A body can't be too particular about how they talk about these here dead people, Tom.

62This was a damper, and conversation died again.

63Presently Tom seized his comrade's arm and said, Shh!

64What is it, Tom?

65And the two clung together with beating hearts.

66Shh!

67There it is again.

68Didn't you hear it?

69I There!

70Now you hear it!

71Lord Tom, they're coming!

72They're coming!

73Sure!

74What'll we do?

75I don't know.

76Think they'll see us?

77Oh, Tom, they can see in the dark.

78Same as cats.

79I wished I hadn't come.

80Oh, don't be feared.

81I don't believe they'll bother us.

82We ain't doing any harm.

83If we keep perfectly still, maybe they won't notice us at all.

84I'll try to, Tom.

85But, Lord, I'm all of a shiver.

86Listen!

87The boys bent their heads together and scarcely breathed.

88A muffled sound of voices floated up from the far end of the graveyard.

89Look!

90See there?

91Whispered Tom.

92What is that?

93It's devil fire.

94Oh, Tom, this is awful!

95Some vague figures approached through the gloom, swinging an old-fashioned tin lantern that freckled the ground with innumerable little spangers of light.

96Presently Huckleberry whispered with a shudder.

97It's the devil, sure enough.

98Three of them.

99Lordy, Tom, we're goners.

100Can you pray?

101I'll try, but don't you be feared.

102They ain't gonna hurt us.

103Now I lay me down to sleep, I...

104Shh!

105What is it, Huck?

106They're humans!

107One of them is, anyway.

108One of them's old Muff Potter's voice.

109No.

110Ain't so, is it?

111I bet I know it.

112Don't you stir nor budge.

113He ain't sharp enough to notice us.

114Drunk, the same as usual, likely, blamed old Rip.

115All right, I'll keep still.

116Now they're stuck.

117Can't find it.

118Here they come again.

119Now they're hot.

120Cold again.

121Hot again.

122Red hot.

123They're pointed right this time.

124Say, Huck, I know another of them voices.

125It's Injun Joe.

126That's so.

127That murder and half-breed.

128I'd rather they was devils a dern sight.

129What can they be up to?

130The whisper died wholly out now, for the three men had reached the grave and stood within a few feet of the boy's hiding-place.

131Here it is, said the third voice, and the owner of it held the lantern up and revealed the face of young Dr.

132Robinson.

133Potter and Injun Joe were carrying a hand-barrow with a rope and a couple of shovels on it.

134They cast down their load and began to open the grave.

135The doctor put the lantern at the head of the grave and came and sat down with his back against one of the elm trees.

136He was so close the boys could have touched him.

137Hurry, men, he said in a low voice.

138The moon might come out at any moment.

139They growled a response and went on digging.

140For some time there was no noise but the grating sound of the spades discharging their freight of mold and gravel.

141It was very monotonous.

142Finally, a spade struck upon the coffin with a dull woody accent, and within another minute or two the men had hoisted it out on the ground.

143They pried off the lid with their shovels, got out the body, and dumped it rudely on the ground.

144The moon drifted from behind the clouds and exposed the pallid face.

145The barrow was got ready, and the corpse placed on it, covered with a blanket, and bound to its place with the rope.

146Potter took out a large spring knife and cut off the dangling end of the rope, and then said, Now the cursed thing's ready, Sawbones, and you'll just out with another five or here she stays.

147That's the talk, said Injun Joe.

148Look here, what does this mean?

149said the doctor.

150You required your pay in advance, and I've paid you.

151Yes, and you've done more than that, said Injun Joe, approaching the doctor, who was now standing.

152Five years ago you drove me away from your father's kitchen one night, when I come to ask for something to eat.

153And you said I weren't there for any good.

154And when I swore I'd get even with you if it took a hundred years, your father had me jailed for a vagrant.

155Did you think I'd forget?

156The Injun blood ain't in me for nothing.

157And now I've got you, and you've got to settle, you know.

158He was threatening the doctor with a fist in his face by this time.

159The doctor struck out suddenly, and stretched the ruffian on the ground.

160Potter dropped his knife, and exclaimed, Here now, don't you hit my part.

161And the next moment he had grappled with the doctor, and the two were struggling with might and main, trampling the grass and tearing the ground with their heels.

162Injun Joe sprang to his feet, his eyes flaming with passion, snatched up Potter's knife, and went creeping, cat-like and stooping, round and round about the combatants, seeking an opportunity.

163All at once the doctor flung himself free, seized the heavy headboard of Williams's grave, and felled Potter to the earth with it.

164And in the same instant the half-breed saw his chance, and drove the knife to the hilt in the young man's breast.

165He reeled and fell partly upon Potter, flooding him with his blood, and in the same moment the clouds blotted out the dreadful spectacle, and the two frightened boys were speeding away in the dark.

166Presently, when the moon emerged again, Injun Joe was standing over the two forms, contemplating them.

167The doctor murmured inarticulately, gave a long gasp or two, and was still.

168The half-breed muttered, That score is settled, damn you!

169Then he robbed the body, after which he put the fatal knife in Potter's open right hand, and sat down on the dismantled coffin.

170Three, four, five minutes passed, and then Potter began to stir and moan.

171His hand closed upon the knife, he raised it, glanced at it, and let it fall with a shudder.

172Then he sat up, pushing the body from him, and gazed at it, and then around him, confusedly.

173His eyes met Joe's.

174Lord, how is this Joe?

175He said.

176It's dirty business, said Joe, without moving.

177What did you do it for?

178I-I never done it.

179Look here, that kind of talk won't wash.

180Potter trembled and grew white.

181I thought I'd got sober.

182I'd no business to drink tonight.

183But it's in my head yet worse than when we started here.

184I'm all in a muddle.

185Can't relect anything of it, hardly.

186Tell me, Joe, honest now, old fellow.

187Did I do it?

188Joe, I never meant to.

189Pa my soul in honor, I never meant to, Joe.

190Tell me how it was, Joe.

191Oh, it's awful.

192And him so young and promising.

193Why, you two was scufflin', and he fetched you one with the headboard, and you fell flat, and then up you come, all reeling and staggering like, and snatched the knife and jammed it into him, just as he fetched you another awful clip, and here you've laid as dead as a wedge till now.

194Oh, I didn't know what I was a-doing.

195I wish I may die this minute if I did.

196It was all on account of the whiskey and the excitement, I reckon.

197I never used a weapon in my life before, Joe.

198I fought, but never with weapons.

199They'll say that, Joe.

200Don't tell.

201Say you won't tell, Joe.

202That's a good feller.

203I always liked you, Joe, and stood up for you, too.

204Don't you remember?

205You won't tell, will you, Joe?

206And the poor creature dropped on his knees before the stolid murderer, and clasped his appealing hands.

207No, you've always been fair and square with me, muffed Potter, and I won't go back on you.

208There, now, it's as fair as a man can say.

209Oh, Joe, you're an angel.

210I'll bless you for the longest day I live.

211And Potter began to cry.

212Come, now, that's enough of that.

213This ain't any time for blubbering.

214You be off yonder way, and I'll go this.

215Move now, and don't leave any tracks behind you.

216Potter started on a trot that quickly increased to a run.

217The half-breed stood looking after him.

218He muttered, If he's as much stunned with the lick and fuddled with the rum as he had the look of being, he won't think of the knife till he's gone so far he'll be afraid to come back after it to such a place by himself.

219Chicken heart.

220Two or three minutes later, the murdered man, the blanketed corpse, the lidless coffin, and the opened grave were under no inspection but the moons.

221The stillness was complete again, too.

222End of chapter 9