Tom Sawyer, Detective by Mark Twain

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Chapter one of Tom Sawyer Detective.This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox
recordings are in the public domain.For more information or to volunteer, please
visit LibriVox dot org. Tom SawyerDetective by Mark Twain, Chapter one an
invitation for Tom and Huck. Notestrange as the incidents of this story are.

(00:24):
They are not inventions but facts,even to the public confession of the
accused. I take them from anold time Swedish criminal trial, change the
characters, and transfer the scenes toAmerica. I have added some details,
but only a couple of them areimportant ones. M T Well. It

(00:44):
was the next spring after me andTom Sawyer set our old nigger Jim free,
the time he was chained up fora runaway slave down there on Tom's
uncle Silas's farm in Arkansas. Thefrost was working out of the ground and
out of the air too, Andit is getting closer and closer onto barefoot
time every day, and next itwould be marble time, and next mumbletypeg

(01:07):
and next tops and hoops, andnext kites, and then right away it
would be summer and going in aswimming It just makes a boy homesick to
look ahead like that and see howfar off summer is. Yes, And
it sets him to sighing and saddeninground, and there's something the matter with
him, and he don't know what, but anyway, he gets out by

(01:29):
himself and mopes and thinks. Mostlyhe hunts for a lonesome place high up
on the hill in the edge ofthe woods, and sets there and looks
away off on the big Mississippi downthere, or reaching miles and miles around
the points where the timber looks smokyand dim. It's so far off and
still, and everything's so solemn.It seems like everybody you've loved is dead

(01:51):
and gone, and you most wishyou was dead and gone too, and
done with it all. Don't youknow what that is? It's spring fever,
that is what the name of itis. And when you've got it,
you want, Oh you don't quiteknow what it is you do want,
but it just fairly makes your heartache. You want it. So it
seems to you that mainly what youwant is to get away, get away

(02:15):
from the same old, tedious thingsyou're so used to seeing and so tired
of, and set something new.That is the idea you want to go
and be a wanderer. You wantto go wandering far away to strange countries
where everything is mysterious and wonderful andromantic. And if you can't do that,
you'll put up with considerable less.You'll go anywhere you can go,

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just so as to get away andbe thankful of the chance too. Well,
me and Tom Sawyer had the springfever, and had it bad too.
But it weren't any use to thinkabout Tom trying to get away,
because, as he said, hisaunt Polly wouldn't let him quit school and
go trapsing off Somers wasting time.So we was pretty blue. We were

(02:59):
sitting on the front steps one dayabout sundown, talking this way, when
out comes his aunt Polly with aletter in her hand and says, Tom,
I reckon, you've got to packup and go down to Arkansas.
Your aunt Sally wants you. Imost jumped out of my skin for joy.
I reckon. Tom would fly athis aunt and hug her head off.

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But if you believe me, hesat there like a rock and never
said a word. It made mefit to cry to see him act so
foolish with such a noble chance asthis opening up why we might lose it
if he didn't speak up and showhe was thankful and grateful. But he
sat there and studied and studied tillI was that distressed. I didn't know
what to do. Then, hesays, very calm, and I could

(03:43):
have shot him for it. Well, he says, I'm right down,
sorry, Aunt Polly, But Ireckon, I got to be excused for
the present. His Aunt Polly wasknocked so stupid and so mad at the
cold impudence of it that she couldn'tsay a word for as much as half
a minute. And this gave mea chance to nudge Tom and whisper,
ain't you got any sense spiling sucha noble chance as this and throwing it

(04:06):
away? But you weren't disturbed,he mumbled back, huck Finn, do
you want me to let her seehow bad I want to go? Why
she'd begin to doubt right away andimagine a lot of sickness and dangers and
objections, and first you know she'dtake it all back. You let me
alone, I reckon, I knowhow to work her now. I never

(04:29):
would have thought of that. Buthe was right. Tom Sawyer was always
right. The levelest head I eversee, and always at himself and ready
for anything you might spring on him. By this time, his aunt Polly
was all straight again, and shelet fly. She says, you'll be
excused, you will. Well,I never heard the like of it in
all my days, the idea ofyou talking like that to me. Now

(04:54):
take yourself off and pack your traps. And if I hear another word out
of you about what you'll be excusedfrom and what you won't, I lay
I'll excuse you with a hickory.She hit his head a thump with her
thimble as we dodged by, andhe led on to be whimpering. As
we struck for the stairs up inhis room, he hugged me. He
was so out of his head forgladness because he was going traveling. And

(05:16):
he says, before we get away, she'll wish she hadn't let me go,
but she won't know any way toget around it now after what she
said, her pride won't let hertake it back. Tom was packed in
ten minutes, all except what hisaunt and Mary would finish up for him.
Then we waited ten more for herto get cooled down and sweet and
gentle again. For Tom said ittook her ten minutes to unruffle in times

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when half of her feathers was up, but twenty when they was all up,
and this was one of the timeswhen they was all up. Then
we went down, being in asweat, to know what the letter said.
She was settin there in a brownstudy with it laying in her lap.
We sat down and she says,therein consider trouble down there, and
they think you and huck'll be akind of diversion for them comfort. They

(06:05):
say much of that they'll get outof you and Huck Finn. I reckon
there's a neighbor named Brace Dunlap that'sbeen wanting to marry their benny for three
months, and at last they toldhim point blank and once for all,
he couldn't, so he has souredon them, and they're worried about it.
I reckon he's somebody they think theybetter be on the good side of,

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for they've tried to please him byhiring his no account brother to help
on the farm when they can't hardlyafford it and don't want him round anyhow.
Who are the Dunlaps. They liveabout a mile from Uncle Silas's place.
Aunt Polly. All the farmers liveabout a mile apart down there,
and Brace Dunlap is a long sightricher than any of the others, and

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owns a whole grist of niggers.He's a widower, thirty six years old,
without any children, and is proudof his money and overbearing, and
everybody is a little afraid of him. I judge he thought he could have
any girl he wanted, just forthe asking, and it must have set
him back a good deal when hefound he couldn't get Benny. Why Benny's

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only half as old as he is, and just as sweet and lovely as
well. You've seen her, poorold uncle Silas. Why it's pitiful him
trying to curry favor that way,so hard pushed and poor, and yet
hiring that useless jubiter Dunlap to pleasehis ornery brother. What a name,
Jubiter? Where'd he get it?It's only just a nickname, I reckon

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they'd forgot his real name long beforethis. He's twenty seven now and has
had it ever since the first timehe ever went in swimming. The school
teacher's seen a round, brown molethe size of a dime on his left
leg above his knee, and fourlittle bits of moles around it when he
was naked, and he said itminded him of Jubiter and his moons,
and the children thought it was funny, and so they got to calling him

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Jubiter. And he's Jubiter. Yethe's tall and lazy and sly and sneaky,
and rather cowardly too, but kindof good natured, and wears long
brown hair and no beard, andhasn't got a cent, and brace boards
him for nothing and gives him hisold clothes to wear and despises him.
Jubiter is a twin. What's theother twin? Like? Just exactly like

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Jubiter, so they say, usedto was anyway, but he ain't been
seen for seven years. He gotto Robin when he was nineteen or twenty,
and they jailed him, but hebroke jail and got away up north
here Somers. They used to hearabout him robbing and burglaring now and then,
but that was years ago. He'sdead now, at least that's what

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they say. They don't hear abouthim any more. What was his name,
Jake? There wasn't anything more saidfor a considerable while. The old
lady was thinking at last, Shesays. The thing that is mostly worrying
your Aunt Sally is the tempers thatthat man Jupiter gets your uncle into.

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Was astonished, and so was I, Tom says, tempers, Uncle Silas
Land, you must be jokin'.I didn't know he had any temper works
him up into perfect rages. YourAunt Sally says, says, he acts
as if he would really hit theman sometimes, Aunt Polly, it beats
anything I ever heard of. Whyhe's just as gentle as mush Well,

(09:24):
she's worried anyway, says, youruncle Silas is like a changed man on
account of all this quarreling. Andthe neighbors talk about it and lay all
the blame on your uncle, ofcourse, because he's a preacher and ain't
gotten any business to quarrel. YourAunt Sally says, he hates to go
into the pulpit. He's so ashamed, and the people have begun to cool

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toward him, and he ain't aspopular now as he used to was.
Well, ain't it strange, why, Aunt Polly, he was always so
good and kind and moony and absentminded and chuckle headed and lovable. He
was just an angel. What canbe the matter of him? Do you
reckon? End of chapter one.This is chapter two of Tom Sawyer Detective.

(10:15):
This LibriVox recording is in the publicdomain. Tom Sawyer Detective by Mark
Twain, Chapter two Jake Dunlap.We had powerful good luck because we got
a chance in a stern wheeler fromaway North, which was bound for one
of them by us or one horserivers away down Louisiana Way, and so
we could go all the way downthe Upper Mississippi and all the way down

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the Lower Mississippi to that farm inArkansas without having to change steamboats at Saint
Louis not so very much short ofa thousand miles at one pull a pretty
lonesome boat. There weren't but fewpassengers, and all old folks that set
around wide apart dozing and was veryquiet. We was four days getting out

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of the Upper River because we gota ground so much, but it weren't
dull, couldn't be for boys thatwas traveling. Of course, from the
very start me and Tom allowed thatthere was somebody sick in the stateroom next
arn, because the meals was alwaystoted in there by the waiters. Bye
and bye, we asked about it. Tom did, and the waiters said
he was a man, but hedidn't look sick. Well, but ain't

(11:22):
he sick? I don't know.Maybe he is, but appears to me
he's just letting on. What makesyou think that? Because if he was
sick, he would pull his clothesoff sometime or other. Don't you reckon
he would? Well, this onedon't. At least he don't ever pull
off his boots anyway. The mischiefhe don't, not even when he goes

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to bed. No, it wasalways nuts for Tom Sawyer. A mystery
was But you'd lay out a mysteryand a pie before me and him,
and you wouldn't have to say,take your choice. It was a thing
that would regulate itself, because inmy nature owl was run to pie,
whilst in his nature he has alwaysrun to mystery. People are made different,

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and it is the best way.Tom says to the waiter, what's
the man's name, Phillips? Where'dhe come aboard? I think he got
aboard at Alexandria, up on theIowa line. What do you reckon?
He's a playing I ain't any notion. I never thought of it, I
says to myself, here's another onethat runs to pie. Anything peculiar about

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him, the way he acts ortalks, No, nothing except he seems
so scary and keeps his doors lockednight and day both and when you knock,
he won't let you in until heopens the door crack and sees who
it is. By Jimmy, it'sinteresting. I'd like to get a look
at him. Say the next timeyou're going in there, don't you reckon?

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You could spread the door and no, indeed, he he's always behind
it. He would block that game. Tom studied over it, and then
he says, look a here,you lend me your apron Let me take
him his breakfast in the morning.I'll give you a quarter. The boy
was plenty willing enough if the headStewart wouldn't mind. Tom says, that's
all right. He reckoned. Hecould fix it with the head Stewart,

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and he'd done it. He fixedit so as we could both go in
with aprons on and totin' victuals.He didn't sleep much. He was in
such a sweat to get in thereand find out the mystery about Phillips.
And moreover, he'd done a lotof guessing about it all night, which
warn't no use. For if youare going to find out the facts of
a thing, what's the sense inguessing out what ain't the facts and wasting

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ammunition. I didn't lose no sleep. I wouldn't give a dern to know
what's the matter of Phillips, Isays to myself. Well, in the
morning, we put on the apronsand got a couple of trays of truck
and Tom he knocked on the door. The man opened at a crack,
and then he let us in andshut it quick, pat Jackson. When
we got sight of him, wemost dropped the trays, and Tom says,

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why you better, Dunlap, where'dyou come from? Well the man
was astonished, of course, andfirst off he looked like he didn't know
whether to be scared or glad orboth or which. But finally he settled
down to being glad, and thenhis color come back, though at first
his face had turned pretty white.So we got to talkin together while he

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had his breakfast, and he says, but I ain't jubeter, Dunlap.
I'd just as soon tell you whoI am, though, if you'll swear
to keep mum, for I ain'tno Phillips either. Tom says, we'll
keep mum. But there ain't anyneed to tell who you are if you
ain't Jubiter Dunlap Why because if youain't him, you're t'other twin, Jake,

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you're the spittin' image of Jubiter.Well, I'm Jake. But looky
here, how do you come toknow us? Dunlaps? Tom told about
the adventures we'd had down there athis uncle Silas's last summer. And when
he see that there warn't anything abouthis folks or him either for that matter,
that we didn't know, he openedout and talked perfectly, free and

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candid. He never made any bonesabout his own case. Said he'd been
a hard lot, was a hardlot yet and reckoned. He'd be a
hard lot plumb to the end.He said, of course, it was
a dangerous life, and he gavea kind of gasp and set his head
like a person that's listening. Wedidn't say anything, and so it was
very still for a second or so, and there weren't no sounds but the

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screaking of the woodwork and the chugchugging of the machinery down below. Then
we got him comfortable again, tellinghim about his people, and how Brace's
wife had been dead three years andBrace wanted to marry Benny, and she
shook him. And Jubiter was workingfor Uncle Silas, and him and Uncle
Silas quarreling all the time, andthen he let go and laughed. Lad

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He says, it's like old timesto hear all this tittle title and does
me good. It's been seven yearsand more since I heard any How do
they talk about me these days?Who the farmers and the family. Why
they don't talk about you at all, at least only just to mention once
in a long time the nation,He says, surprised. Why is that

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because they think you are dead longago. No, you're speaking true,
Honor Bright. Now, he jumpedup, excited, Honor Bright. There
ain't anybody thinks you are alive.Then I'm saved. I'm saved. Sure,
I'll go home. They'll hide meand save my life. You keep

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mum swear, you'll keep mum swear, you'll never never tell on me.
Oh, boys, be good toa poor devil. It's being hunted day
and night and doesn't show his face. I've never done you any harm.
I'll never do you any as Godis in the heavens, swear you'll be
good to me and help me savemy life. We'd just swore if it
had been a dog. And sowe done it. Well. He couldn't

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love us enough for it or begrateful enough. Poor cuss. It was
all he could do to keep fromhugging us. We talked along, and
he got out a little handbag andbegun to open it and told us to
turn our back. We done it, and when he told us to turn
again, he was perfectly different towhat he was before. He had on
blue goggles and the naturalists looking long, brown whiskers and mustache as you ever

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see. His own mother wouldn't haveknown him. He asked us if he
looked like his brother Jubiter. Nowno, Tom said, there ain't anything
left that's like him except the longhair. All right, I'll get that
crop close to my head before Iget there. Then him and Brace will
keep my secret, and I'll livewith them as being a stranger, and
the neighbors won't ever guess me out. What do you think, Tom?

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He studied a while, Then hesays, well, of course me and
Huck are going to keep mum there. But if you don't keep mum yourself,
there's going to be a little bitof a risk. It ain't much,
maybe, but it's a little.I mean, if you talk,
won't people notice that your voice isjust like Jubiter's And mightn't it make them
think of the twin they reckoned wasdead? But maybe after all, was

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hid all his time under another name. By George. He says, you're
a sharp one. You're perfectly right. I've got to play deef and dumb
when there's a neighbor around. IfI had just struck for home and forgot
that little detail. However, Iwasn't striking for home. I was breaking
for any place where I could getaway from these fellows that are after me.
Then I was going to put onthis disguise and get some different clothes.

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And he jumped for the outside doorand laid his ear against it and
listened, pale and kind of panting. Presently he whispers, sounded like cocking
a gun. Lord, What alife to lead. Then he sunk down
in a chair, all limp andsick like, and wiped the sweat off
his face. End of chapter two. This is chapter three of Tom Sawyer

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detective. This LibriVox recording is inthe public domain. Tom Sawyer Detective by
Mark Twain, Chapter three, ADiamond Robbery. From that time, we
was with him most all the time, and one or t'other of us slept
in his upper berth. He saidhe had been so lonesome and it was
such a comfort to him to havecompany and somebody to talk to in his

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troubles. We was in a sweatto find out what his secret was,
but Tom said the best way wasnot to seem anxious. Then likely he
would drop into it himself in oneof his talks. But if we go
to asking questions, he would getsuspicious and shet up his shell. It
turned out just so, it warn'tno trouble to see that he wanted to
talk about it, but always alongat first he would scare away from it

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when he got on the very edgeof it and go to talking about something
else. The way it come aboutwas this, He got to asking us
kind of indifferent like about the passengersdown on deck. We told him about
them, but he warn't satisfied wewarn't particular enough. He told us to
describe them better. Tom done itat last, when Tom was describing one

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of the roughest and raggedest ones,he gave a sh in a gasp and
says, oh, lordy, that'sone of them. They're aboard. Sure,
I just knowed it. I sortof hoped i'd got away, but
I never believed it. Go onpresently, when Tom was describing another mangy
rough deck passenger, he gave thatshiver again and says, that's him.

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That's the other one. If it'llonly come a good black, stormy night
and I could get ashore. Yousee, they've got spies on me.
They've got a right to come upand buy drinks at the bar yonder Forward,
and they take that chance to bribesomebody to keep watch on me,
Porter or Boots or somebody. IfI was to slip ashore without anybody seeing

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me, they would know it insideof an hour. So then he got
to wandering along, and pretty soonsure enough he was telling he was poking
along through his ups and downs,and when he come to that place,
he went right along. He says, it was a confidence game. We
played it on a jewel shop inSaint Louis. What we was after was

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a couple of noble big diamonds,as big as hazel nuts, which everybody
was running to see. We wasdressed up fine, and we played it
on them in broad daylight. Weordered the diamonds sent to the hotel for
us to see if we wanted tobuy, and when we was examining them,
we had paste counterfeits all ready,And then was the things that went
back to the shop when we saidthe water wasn't quite fine enough for twelve

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thousand dollars. Twelve thousand dollars,Tom says, was they really worth all
that money? Do you reckon everycent of it? And you fellows got
away with them as easy as nothing. I don't reckon the jewelry. People
know they've been robbed yet. Butit wouldn't be good sense to stay round
Saint Louis course, so we consideredwhere we'd go. One was for going

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one way, one another, sowe throwed up heads or tails, and
the Upper Mississippi won. We'd doneup the diamonds in a paper and put
our names on it and put itin the keep of the hotel clerk and
told him not to ever let eitherof us have it again without the others
was on hand to see it done. Then we went downtown, each by

(22:10):
his own self, because I reckonmaybe we all had the same notion.
I don't know for certain, butI reckon maybe we had what notion Tom
says, to rob the others,what one take everything after all of you
had helped to get it. Certainlyit disgusted Tom Sawyer, and he said
it was the orneriest, low downestthing he ever heard of. But Jake

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Dunlap said it warn't unusual in theprofession. Said when a person was in
that line of business, he'd gotto look out for his own interest.
There warn't nobody else goin to doit for him. And then he went
on, he says, you see, the trouble was you couldn't divide up
two di'monds amongst three if there'd beenthree. But never mind about that there
warn't three. I loafed along theback street, studying and studying, and

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I says to myself, I'll hogthem di'monds the first chance I get,
and I'll have a disguise all ready, and I'll give the boys the slip,
and when I'm safe away, I'llput it on and then let them
find me if they can. SoI got the false whiskers and the goggles,
and this countryfiede suit of clothes andfetched them along back in a handbag.
And when I was passing a shopwhere they sell all sorts of things,

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I got a glimpse of one ofmy pals through the window. It
was Bud Dixon. I was glad, you bet, I says to myself.
I'll see what he buys. SoI kept shady and watched. Now
what do you reckon it was?He bought? Whiskers? Said I,
No goggles, No, oh,keep still, huck Finn. Can't you

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You're only just hendering all you can. What was it he bought? Jake,
You'd never guess it in the world. It was only just a screwdriver,
just a wee little bit of ascrewdriver. Well, I declare,
what do you want with that?That's what I thought. It was curious,
it clean stumped me. I saysto myself, what can he want

(24:00):
with that thing? Well, whenhe come out, I stood back out
of sight, and then tracked himto a second hand slop shop and see
him buy a red flannel shirt andsome old ragged clothes, just the ones
he's got on now, as you'vedescribed. Then I went down to the
wharf and hid my things aboard theup river boat that we had picked out,
and then started back and had anotherstreak of luck. I seen our

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other pal lay in his stock ofold, rusty second handers. We got
the diamonds and went aboard the boat. But now we was up a stump,
for we couldn't go to bed.We had to set up and watch
one another. Pity. That waspity to put that kind of a strain
on us, because there was badblood between us from a couple of weeks
back, and we was only friendsin the way of business. Bad anyway,

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seeing there was only two diamonds TwixTthree men. First we had supper
and then tramped up and down thedeck together, smoking till most midnight.
Then we went and sat down inmy stateroom and locked the doors and looked
in a piece of paper to seeif the diamonds was all right. Then
laid it on the lower berth rightin full sight. And there we set

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and set, and by and by. It got to be dreadful hard to
keep awake. At last, BudDixon he dropped off as soon as he
was snoring, a good regular gaitthat was likely to last, and had
his chin on his breast and lookedpermanent. Hal Clayton nodded towards the diamonds
and then towards the outside door,and I understood. I reached and got
the paper, and then we stoodup and waited perfectly still, but never

(25:32):
stirred. I turned the key ofthe outside door very soft and slow,
then turned the knob the same way, and we went tiptoeing out onto the
guard and shut the door very softand gentle. There warn't nobody stirring anywhere,
and the boat was slipping along,swift and steady through the big water
and the smoky moonlight. We neversaid a word, but went straight up

(25:53):
onto the hurricane deck and plumb backaft and sat down on the end of
the skylight. Both both of usknowed what that meant, without having to
explain to one another. Bud Dixonwould wake up and miss the swag and
would come straight for us, forhe ain't afeard of anything or anybody that
man ain't He would come and wewould heave him overboard or get killed trying.

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It made me shiver, because Iain't as brave as some people.
But if I showed the white feather. Well, I knowed better than do
that. I kind of hoped theboat would land somers and we could skip
ashore and not have to run therisk of this row. I was so
scared of bud Dixon, But shewas an upper river tub and there warn't
no real chance of that. Well, the time strung along and along,

(26:37):
and that fellow never come. Whyit strung along till dawn begun to break,
and still he never come. Thunder, I says, what do you
make out of this? Ain't itsuspicious? Land Hell says, do you
reckon? He's playing us? Openthe paper? I done it, and
by gracious, there warn't anything init but a couple of little pieces of
loaf sugar. That's the reason hecould set there and snooze all night,

(27:00):
so comfortable. Smart Well, Ireckon. He had had them two papers,
all fixed and ready, and hehad put one of them in place
of t'other right under our noses.We felt pretty cheap. But the thing
to do straight off was to makea plan, and we done it.
We would do up the paper againjust as it was, and slip in

(27:21):
very elaborate and soft, and layit on the bunk again and let on.
We didn't know about any trick andhadn't any idea. He was laughing
at us behind them bogus snores ofhis'n And we would stick by him,
and the first night we was ashore, we would get him drunk and search
him and get the di'monds and dofor him too, if it warn't too
risky, if we got the swag, we'd got to do for him,

(27:44):
or he would hunt us down anddo for us. Sure, but I
didn't have no real hope. Iknowed we could get him drunk. He
was always ready for that. Butwhat's the good of it? You might
search him a year and never fight. Well, right there, I catched
my breath and broke off my thoughtfor an idea went ripping through my head.
That tore my brains to rags andland. But I felt gay and

(28:06):
good. You see, I hadhad my boots off to unswell my feet,
and just then I took up oneof them to put it on,
and I catched a glimpse of theheel bottom, and it just took my
breath away. You remember about thatpuzzlesome little screwdriver, You bet I do,
says Tom, all excited. Well, When I catched that glimpse of
that boot heel. The idea thatwent smashing through my head was I know

(28:32):
where he'd hid the di'monds. Youlook at this boot heel. Now,
see it's bottom with a steel plate, and the plate is fastened on with
little screws. Now, there wasn'ta screw about that feller anywhere but in
his boot heels, So if heneeded a screwdriver, I reckoned. I
knowed why huck ain't it? Bullysays Tom. Well, I got my

(28:53):
boots on and we went down andslipped in and laid the paper of sugar
on the berth, and sat downsoft and sheepish, and went to listening
to Bud Dixon snore. Hal Claytondropped off pretty soon, but I didn't.
I wasn't ever so wide awake inmy life. I was spying out
from under the shade of my hatbrim, searching the floor for leather.

(29:15):
It took me a long time,and I begun to think maybe my guess
was wrong, But at last Istruck it. It laid over by the
bulkhead and was nearly the color ofthe carpet. It was a little round
plug about as thick as the endof your little finger, And I says
to myself, there's a diamond inthe nest you've come from. Before long,
I spied out the plug's mate.Think of the smartness and coolness of

(29:37):
that blatherskite. He put up thatscheme on us and reasoned out what we
would do. And we went aheadand done it perfectly exact, like a
couple of pudd'nheads. He sat thereand took his own time to unscrew his
heel plates and cut out his plugsand stick in the diamonds and screw on
his plates again. He lowed wewould steal the bogus swag and wait all

(29:59):
night for him to come up andget drowned. And by George, it's
just what we'd done. I thinkit was powerful, smart. You bet
your life it was, says Tom, just full of admiration. End of
chapter three. This is chapter fourof Tom Sawyer Detective. This LibriVox recording

(30:22):
is in the public domain. TomSawyer Detective by Mark Twain. Chapter four
The three Sleepers, Well, allday we went through the humbug of watching
one another, and it was prettysickly business for two of us, and
hard to act out. I cantell you about night. We landed at
one of them little Missouri towns,high up toward Iowa, and had supper

(30:45):
at the tavern and got a roomupstairs with a cot and a double bed
in it. But I dumped mybag under a deal table in the dark
hall while we was moving along itto bed. Single file, me last
and the landlord, and with atallow candle, we had up a lot
of whiskey and went to playing highlow jack for dimes. And as soon

(31:06):
as the whisky began to take holdof Bud, we stopped drinking, but
we didn't let him stop. Weloaded him till he fell out of his
chair and laid there snoring. Wewas ready for business now. I said
we'd better pull our boots off andhis'n too, and not make any noise.
Then we could pull him and haulhim round and ransack him without any
trouble. So we done it.I set my boots and buds side by

(31:30):
side where they'd be handy. Thenwe stripped him and searched his seams and
his pockets and his socks and insideof his boots and everything, and searched
his bundle. Never found any diamonds. We found a screwdriver, and Hal
says, oh, what do youreckon? He wanted with that, and
I said I didn't know, butwhen he wasn't looking, I hooked it.
At last. Hal he looked beatand discouraged and said we'd got to

(31:53):
give it up. That was whatI was waiting for. I says,
there's one place we hate so arched. What place is that? He says
his stomach. By gracious, Inever thought of that. Now we're on
the home stretch to a dead moralcertainty. How we manage well? I
says, just stay by him tillI turn out and hunt up a drug

(32:15):
store, and I reckon, I'llfetch something that'll make them diamonds. Tired
of the company they're keeping, Hesaid, that's the ticket, And with
him looking straight at me, Islid myself into buds boots instead of my
own, and he never noticed.They was just a shade large for me,
but that was considerable better than beingtoo small. I got my bag
as I went a groping through thehall, and in about a minute I

(32:38):
was out the back way and stretchingup the river road at a five mile
gate, and not feeling so verybad. Neither walking on diamonds don't have
no such effect. When I hadgone fifteen minutes, I says to myself,
there's more than a mile behind me, and everything quiet. Another five
minutes and I says, there's considerablemore land behind me now, and there's

(32:59):
a man back there that's begun towonder what's the trouble. Another five and
I says to myself, he's gettingreal uneasy. He's walking the floor.
Now. Another five and I saysto myself there's two miles and a half
behind me, and he's awful uneasy, beginning to cuss. I reckon pretty
soon, I says to myself.Forty minutes gone, he knows there's somethin

(33:21):
up. Fifty minutes the truth's abusting on him. Now he's reckoning.
I found the diamonds whilst we weresearching, and shoved them in my pocket
and never let on. Yes,and he's starting out to hunt for me.
He'll hunt for new tracks in thedust, and they'll as likely send
him down. The river is up. Just then I see a man coming
down on a mule, and beforeI thought, I jumped into the bush.

(33:43):
It was stupid when he got abreast, he stopped and waited a little
for me to come out, andthen he rode on again. But I
didn't feel gay any more, Isays to myself. I've watched my chances
by that, I surely have ifhe meets up with hal Clayton. Well,
about three in the morning, I'vewretched Alexandria and see this stern wheeler
laying there, and was very gladbecause I felt perfectly safe. Now you

(34:07):
know, it was just daybreak.I went aboard and got this stateroom and
put on these clothes and went upin the pilot house to watch. Though
I didn't reckon there was any needof it. I sat there and played
with my diamonds and waited and waitedfor the boat to start. But she
didn't. You see, they wasmending her machinery, but I didn't know
anything about it, not being verymuch used to steamboats. Well, to

(34:30):
cut the tail short. We neverleft there till plumb noon, and long
before that, I was hid inthis stateroom for before breakfast. I see
a man coming away off that hada gate like hal Clayton's, and it
made me just sick. I saysto myself, if he finds out I'm
aboard this boat. He's got melike a rat in a trap. All

(34:51):
he's got to do is to haveme watched. And wait, wait till
I slip ashore, thinking he isa thousand miles away, Then slip after
me and dogged me to a goodplace and make me give up the di'monds,
and then he'll, Oh, Iknow what he'll do. Ain't it
awful? Awful? And now tothink the other ones aboard too? Oh,

(35:12):
ain't it hard? Luck? Boys? Ain't it hard? But you'll
help save me, won't you?Oh? Boys, be good to a
poor devil that's being hunted to death, and save me. I'll worship the
very ground you walk on. Weturned in and soothed him down and told
him we would plan for him andhelp him, and he needn't be so
feared, And so by and byhe got the feeling kind of comfortable again,

(35:35):
and unscrewed his heel plates and heldup his di'monds this way and that,
admiring them and loving them. Andwhen the light struck into them,
they was beautiful. Sure why theyseemed to kind of bust and snapped fire
out all round, but all thesame I judged he was a fool.
If I had been him, Iwould have handed the di'monds to them pals
and got them to go ashore andleave me alone. But he was made

(35:59):
different. He said it was awhole fortune, and he couldn't bear the
IDEA Twice we stopped to fix themachinery and lay it a good while once
in the night, but it wasn'tdark enough, and he was a feared
to skip. But the third timewe had to fix it there was a
better chance. We laid up ata country wood yard about forty mile above
Uncle Silas's place a little after oneat night, and it was thickening up

(36:22):
and going to storm, so Jakehe laid for a chance to slide.
We begun to take in wood.Pretty soon the rain come a drenching down,
and the wind blowed hard. Ofcourse, every boat hand fixed a
gunnysack and put it on like abonnet, the way they do when they
are toting wood, and we gotone for Jake. And he slipped down
aft with his hand bag and cometramping forward just like the rest, and

(36:45):
walked ashore with them. And whenwe see him pass out of the light
of the torch basket and get swallowedup in the dark. We got our
breath again and just felt grateful andsplendid. But it wasn't for long.
Somebody told I reckon for in abouteight or ten minutes. Then two pals
come tearing forward as tight as theycould jump, and darted ashore and was

(37:05):
gone. We waited plumb till dawnfor them to come back, and kept
hoping they would, but they neverdid. We was awful, sorry and
low spirited. All the hope wehad was that Jake had got such a
start that they couldn't get on histrack, and he would get to his
brothers and hide there and be safe. He was going to take the river
road and told us to find outif Brace and Jubiter was to home and

(37:28):
no strangers there, and then slipout about sundown and tell him. Said
he would wait for us in alittle bunch of sycamores right back of Tom's
uncle Silas's tobackerfield on the river road, a lonesome place. We sat and
talked a long time about his chances, and Tom said he was all right
if the pals struck up the riverinstead of down, but it wasn't likely

(37:49):
because maybe they knowed where he wasfrom. More likely they would go right
and dog him all day him notsuspecting, and kill him when it come
dark and take the boots. Sowe was pretty sorrowful. End of chapter
four. This is chapter five ofTom Sawyer Detective. This LibriVox recording is

(38:15):
in the public domain. Tom SawyerDetective by Mark Twain, Chapter five,
A Tragedy in the Woods. Wedidn't get done tinkering the machinery till away
late in the afternoon, and soit was so close to sundown when we
got home that we never stopped onour road, but made a break for
the sycamores as tight as we couldgo to tell Jake what the delay was

(38:36):
and have him wait till we couldgo to Braces and find out how things
was there. It was getting prettydim by the time we turned the corner
of the woods, sweating and pantingwith that long run, and see the
sycamores thirty yards ahead of us,And just then we see a couple of
men run into the bunch and heardtwo or three terrible screams for help.
Poor Jake is killed. Sure,we says. We was scared through and

(39:00):
through and broke for the tobacco fieldand hid there, trembling so our clothes
would hardly stay on. And justas we skipped in there, a couple
of men went tearing by, andinto the bunch they went, and in
a second out jumps four men andtook out up the road as tight as
they could go, too, chasingtwo. We laid down, kind of
weak and sick, and listened formore sounds, but didn't hear none for

(39:22):
a good while. But just ourhearts, we was thinking about that awful
thing laying yonder in the sycamores,and it seemed like being that close to
a ghost, and it gave methe cold shudders. The moon comes swelling
up out of the ground, nowpowerful, big and round and bright,
behind a comb of trees, likea face looking through prison bars, and

(39:44):
the black shatters and white places begunto creep around, and it was miserable,
quiet and still and night breezy andgraveyardy and scary. All of a
sudden, Tom whispers, Look what'sthat, don't, I says, don't
take a person by surprise that way. I'm most ready to die anyway without

(40:05):
you doing that. Look, Itell you it's something coming out of the
sycamores. Don't, Tom, it'sterrible tall. Oh lordy, lordy,
let's keep still. It's comin thisway. He was so excited he could
hardly get breath enough to whisper.I had to look. I couldn't help
it. So now we was bothon our knees with our chins on a
fence rail and gazing, yes,and gasping too. It was comin down

(40:30):
the road, coming in the shatterof the trees, and you couldn't see
it good, not till it waspretty close to us. Then it stepped
into a bright splotch of moonlight,and we sunk right down in our tracks.
It was Jake Dunlap's ghost. Thatwas what we said to ourselves.
We couldn't stir for a minute ortwo. Then it was gone. We
talked about it in low voices.Tom says, you're mostly dim and smoky,

(40:54):
or like they've made out of fog. But this one wasn't. No,
I says, I seen the gogglesand the whiskers, perfectly plain,
yes, and the very colors inthem, loud countryfied sunday clothes, plaid
bridges, green and black cotton,velvet waistcoat, fire red and yaller squares

(41:17):
leathers straps to the bottoms of thebreeches legs and one of them hanging unbuttoned.
Yes, and that hat. Whata hat for a ghost to wear?
You see, it was the firstseason anybody wore that kind a black,
stiff brimmed stovepipe, very high andnot smooth, with a round top,
just like a sugar loaf. Didyou notice if its hair was the

(41:38):
same, Huck, No, seemsto me. I did. Then again,
it seems to me I didn't.I didn't either, But it had
its bag along. I noticed that, so did I. How can there
be a ghost bag, Tom Sho, I wouldn't be as ignorant as that
if I was you, Huck Finn. Whatever a ghost has turns to ghost
stuff, They've got to have theirthings like anybody else. You see yourself

(42:00):
that its clothes was turned to ghoststuff, well, then wants to hander
its bag from turning too. Ofcourse had done it. That was reasonable.
I couldn't find no fault with it. Bill Withers and his brother Jack
come along by it, talkin andJack says, what do you reckon?
He was totin. I don't know, but it was pretty heavy. Yes,

(42:22):
all he could lug niggers stealing cornfrom old pyssin Silas. I judged,
so did I, and so Iallowed. I wouldn't let on to
see him. That's me too.Then they both laughed and went on out
of hearing. It showed how unpopularold Uncle Silas had got to be.
Now they wouldn't have let a niggersteal anybody else's corn, and never done

(42:43):
anything to him. We heard somemore voices mumbling along towards us and getting
louder, and sometimes the cackle ofa laugh. It was Lem Beebe and
Jim Lane. Jim Lane says,hoo, Joe better dune lap. Yes,
Oh, I don't know. Ireckon so oh. I've seen him
spading up some ground long about anhour ago, just before sundown. Him

(43:05):
and the parson said he guessed hewouldn't go tonight, but we could have
his dog if we wanted him tootired, I reckon, yes, works
so hard, Oh you bet.They cackled at that and went on by.
Tom said we'd better jump out andtag along with them, because they
was going our way and it wouldn'tbe comfortable to run across the ghost all

(43:28):
by ourselves. So we'd done itand got home all right. That night
was the second of September, aSaturday. I shan't ever forget it.
You'll see why pretty soon. Endof chapter five. This is chapter six
of Tom Sawyer Detective. This LibriVoxrecording is in the public domain. Tom

(43:52):
Sawyer Detective by Mark Twain. Chaptersix plans to secure the diamonds. We
tramped along behind Jim and Lem tillwe come to the back style where old
Jim's cabin was that he was captivatedin the time we've set him free,
and here come the dogs piling aroundus to say howdye? And there was

(44:12):
the lights of the house too,so we warn't afeared any more, and
was going to climb over, butTom says, hold on, sit down
here a minute. By George,what's the matter? Says I matter enough,
He says, wasn't you expecting wewould be the first to tell the
family who it is that's been killed. Yonder and the sycamores and all about
them rapscallions that done it, andabout the diamonds. They've smooched off of

(44:36):
the corpse and painted up fine andhave the glory of being the ones that
knows a lot more about it thanany one else. Why, of course
it wouldn't be you, Tom Sawyer, if you was to let such a
chance go by. I reckon itain't going to suffer none for lack of
paint, I says, when youstarted to scollop the facts? Well,
now, he says, perfectly calm. What would you say if I was

(44:59):
to tell you I ain't goin tostart it at all? I was astonished
to hear him talk, so Isays, I'd say it's a lie.
You ain't in earnest, Tom Sawyer. You'll soon see. Was the ghost
barefooted? No he wasn't. Whatof it? You wait, I'll show
you what? Did it have itsboots on? Yes? I seen them?

(45:20):
Plain swear it. Yes, Iswear it, so do I.
Now do you know what that means? No? What does it mean?
Means? That them thieves didn't getthe diamonds? Jimminy? What makes you
think that? I don't only thinkit, I know it didn't. The
breeches and goggles and whiskers and handbagand every blessed thing turned to ghost stuff.

(45:44):
Everything it had on turn didn't it? It shows that the reason it's
boots turned too, was because itstill had them on after it started to
go hatting around. And if thatain't proof that them blatherskites didn't get the
boots, I'd like to know whatyou'd call proof, think o that now.
I never see such a head asthat boy had. Why I had

(46:06):
eyes, an, I could seethings, but they never meant nothin to
me. But Tom Sawyer was different. When Tom Sawyer seen a thing,
it just got up on its hindlegs, an talked to him, told
him everything it knowed. I'd neversee such a head Tom Sawyer, I
says. I'll say it again asI've said it a many a time before.
I ain't fittin to black your boots. But that's all right. That's

(46:29):
neither here nor there. God Almightymade us all an some he give eyes
that's blind, and some he giveseyes that can see. An I reckon,
it ain't none of our look outwhat he'd done it for? It's
all right, or he'd a fixedit some other way. An, go
on, I see plenty plain enoughnow that them thieves didn't get away wi
the di'monds. Why didn't they do? You reckon? Because they got chased

(46:53):
away by them other two men beforethey could pull the boots off the corpse.
That's so, I see it now. But look a here, Tom,
Why ain't we to go and tellabout it? Oh? Shucks,
huck Finn, can't you see lookat it? What's it going to happen?
There's going to be an inquest inthe mornin them two men will tell

(47:14):
how they heard the yells and rushedthere just in time to not save the
stranger. Then the jury'll twaddle andtwaddle and twaddle, and finally they'll fetch
in a verdict that he got shotor stock or busted over the head with
something and come to his death bythe inspiration of God. And after they've
buried him, they'll auction off histhings for to pay the expenses. And

(47:35):
then's our chance. How Tom buythe boots for two dollars? Well,
it most took my breath, myland, Why Tom, we'll get the
diamonds, you bet some day there'llbe a big reward offered for them,
a thousand dollars. Sure, that'sour money. Now we'll trot in and
see the folks, And mind you, we don't know anything about any murder

(47:59):
or any di'monds or any thieves.Don't you forget that? I had to
sigh a little over the way hehad got it fixed. I'd have sold
them diamonds, yes, sir,for twelve thousand dollars, but I didn't
say anything. It wouldn't have doneany good, I says, But what
are we going to tell your auntSally has made us so long getting down
here from the village. Tom Oh, I'll leave that to you, he

(48:22):
says. I reckon, you canexplain it somehow. He was always just
that strict and delicate. He neverwould tell a lie himself. We struck
across the big yard, noticing this, that and the other thing that was
so familiar, and we so gladto see it again. And when we
got to the roofed big passageway betwixtthe double log house and the kitchen part,

(48:43):
there was everything hanging on the wall, just as it used to was,
even to Uncle Silas's old faded greenbaize working gown with the hood to
it and raggedy white patch between theshoulders that always looked like somebody had hit
him with a snowball. And thenwe lifted the latch and walked in.
Aunt Sally. She was just arippin and a tearin around, and the
children was huddled in one corner,and the old man, he was huddled

(49:06):
in the other and praying for helpin time of need. She jumped for
us with joy and tears running downher face, and give us a whacking
box on the ear, and thenhugged us and kissed us and boxed us
again, and just couldn't seem toget enough of it. She was so
glad to see us, and shesays, where have you been? A
loaf? And two? You goodfor nothin' trash. I've been that worried

(49:28):
about you. I didn't know whatto do your traps has been here ever
so long, and I've had suppercooked fresh about four times so as to
have it hot and good when youcome. Till at last my patience has
just plumb war out. And Ideclare, I I why I could skin
you alive? You must be starving, poor things. Sit down, Sit
down, everybody, don't lose nomore time. It was good to be

(49:52):
there again, behind all that noblecorn pone and spare ribs in everything that
you could ever want in this world. Old uncle Silas he peeled off one
of his bulliest old time blessings withas many layers to it as an onion,
And whilst the angels was hauling inthe slack of it, I was
trying to study up what to sayabout what kept us so long? When

(50:13):
our plates was all loadened and we'dha got a going, she asked me,
and I says, well, yousee, missus, huck Finn,
Since when am I missus to you? Have I ever been stingy of cuffs
or kisses for you? Since theday you stood in this room and I
took you for Tom Sawyer and blessedGod for sending you to me. Though
you told me four thousand lies,and I believed every one of them like

(50:35):
a simpleton call me Aunt Sally,like you always done. So I done
it, and I says, well, me and Tom allowed we would come
along a foot and take a smellof the woods. And we run across
lem Beebee and Jim Lane, andthey asked us to go with them black
bearing tonight, and said they couldborrow Jubiter Dunlap's dog because he had told
them just that minute. Where didthey see him? Says the old man?

(50:59):
And I looked up to see howhe come to take an interest in
a little thing like that. Hiseyes was just burning into me. He
was that eager. It surprised me, so it kind of throwed me off,
But I pulled myself together again andsays it was when we was spadin'
up some ground along with you,towards sundown or along there. He only
said hm in a kind of adisappointed way, and didn't take no more

(51:23):
interest. So I went on,I says. Well, then as I
was a saying that'll do, youneedn't go no further, it was Aunt
Sally. She was boring right intome with her eyes and very indignant.
Hut finn. She says, how'dthem men come to talk about going a
black burying in September in this region? I see, I had slipped up

(51:45):
and I couldn't say a word.She waited, still a gazin' at me.
Then she says, and how'd theycome to strike that idiot idea of
going a black bearing in the night? Well they are They told us they
had a lantern, and oh shutup, do look a here? What

(52:05):
was they going to do with thedog? Hunt blackberries with it? I
think, man, they naw TomSawyer, what kind of a lie are
you fixing your mouth to contribute tothis messy rubbage? Speak out? And
I warn you before you begin thatI don't believe a word of it.
You and Huck's been up to somethingyou know business to. I know it
perfectly well. I know you,both of you. Now you explain that

(52:27):
dog and then blackberries and the lanternand the rest of that rot, and
mind you talk as straight as astring, d'ye hear? Tom? He
looked considerable hurt and says very dignified. It is a pity if Huck is
to be talked to that way,just from making a little bit of a
mistake that anybody could make. Whatmistake has he made? Why only the

(52:49):
mistake of saying blackberries, when ofcourse he meant strawberries, Tom Sawyer,
I lay, if you aggravate mea little more, I'll aunt Sally.
Without knowing it, and of coursewithout intending it, you are in the
wrong. If you'd a studied naturalhistory the way you ought to, you
would know that all over the worldexcept just here in Arkansas, they always
hunt strawberries with a dog and alantern. But she busted in on him

(53:14):
there and just piled into him andsnowed him under. She was so mad
she couldn't get the words out fastenough, and she gushed them out in
one everlasting fresh at. That waswhat Tom Sawyer was after. He allowed
to work her up and get herstarted, and then leave her alone and
let her burn herself out. Thenshe would be so aggravated with that subject

(53:35):
that she wouldn't say another word aboutit, nor let anybody else. Well,
it happened just so when she wastuckered out and had to hold up,
he says, quite calm, andyet all the same Aunt Sally shut
up. She says, I don'twant to hear another word out of you.
So we was perfectly safe then anddidn't have no more trouble about that

(53:55):
delay. Tom done it elegant endof chapter six. This is chapter seven
of Tom Sawyer Detective. This LibriVoxrecording is in the public domain. Tom
Sawyer Detective, Chapter seven, ANight's Vigil Banny. She was looking pretty

(54:22):
sober, and she sighed some nowand then, but pretty soon she got
to asking about Mary and Sid andTom's Aunt Polly, and then Aunt Sally's
clouds cleared off and she got ina good humor and joined in on the
questions, and was her lovingest,best self. And so the rest of
the supper went along, gay andpleasant. But the old man he didn't

(54:42):
take any hand hardly, and wasabsent minded and restless, and done a
considerable amount of sighing. And itwas kind of heartbreaking to seem so sad
and troubled and worried by and byea spell after supper come a nigger and
knocked on the door and put hishead in with his old straw hat in
his hand, bowing and scraping,and said his Myr's brace was out at
the stile, and wanted his brother, and was getting tired waiting supper for

(55:07):
him, and would Mars Silas pleasetell him where he was? I never
see uncle Silice speak up so sharpand fractious before he says, am I
his brother's keeper? And then hekind of wilted together and looked like he
wished he hadn't spoken so. Andthen he says, very gentle, but
you needn't say that, Billy.I was took sudden and irritable, and

(55:30):
I ain't very well these days,and not hardly responsible. Tell him he
ain't he and when the nigger wasgone, he got up and walked the
floor backwards and forwards, mumbling andmuttering to himself and plowing his hands through
his hair. It was real pitifulto see him aunt Sally, she whispered
to us and told us not totake notice of him. It embarrassed him.

(55:52):
She said, he was always thinkingand thinking since these troubles come on.
And she allowed he didn't mourn bouthow know what he was about when
the thinking spells was on him.And she said he walked in his sleep
considerable more now than he used to, and sometimes wandered around over the house
and even outdoors in his sleep.And if we catched him at it,

(56:13):
we must let him alone and notdisturb him. She said. She reckoned
it didn't do no harm, andmaybe it done him good. She said
Benny was the only one that wasmuch help to him these days. Said
Benny appeared to know just when totry to soothe him and when to leave
him alone. So he kept ontramping up and down the floor and muttering
till by and by he begun tolook pretty tired. Then, Benny,

(56:37):
she went and snuggled up to hisside and put one hand in his and
one arm around his waist, andwalked with him, and he smiled down
on her and reached down and kissedher, and so little by little the
trouble went out of his face,and she persuaded him off to his room.
They had very petting ways together,and it was uncommon pretty to see

(56:59):
Aunt Sally. She was busy gettingthe children ready for bed, so by
and by it got dull and tedious, and me and Tom took a turn
in the moonlight and fetched up inthe watermelon patch and et one and had
a good deal of talk. AndTom said he'd bet the quarreling was all
Jubiter's fault, and he was goingto be on hand the first time he
got a chance and see, andif it was so, he was going

(57:21):
to do his level best to getUncle Silas to turn him off. And
so we talked and smoked and stuffedwatermelons much as two hours, and then
it was pretty late, and whenwe got back the house was quiet and
dark, and everybody gone to bed. Tom he always seen everything, and
now he see that the old greenbayze work gown was gone, and said

(57:42):
it wasn't gone when he went out, So he allowed. It was curious,
And then we went up to bed. We could hear Benny stirring round
in her room, which was nexttime, and judged she was worried a
good deal about her father and couldn'tsleep. We found we couldn't either,
so we set up a long timeand smoked and talked in a low voice
and felt pretty dull and downhearted.We talked the murderer and the ghost over

(58:07):
and over again and got so creepyand crawley we couldn't get sleepy, nohow,
and no way by and by whenit was away late in the night
and all the sounds was late soundsand solemn. Tom nudged me and whispers
to me to look, and I'ddone it, And there we see a
man poking around in the yard likehe didn't know just what he wanted to
do, but it was pretty dimand we couldn't see him good. Then

(58:30):
he started for the style, andas he went over it, the moon
came out strong, and he hada long handled shovel over his shoulder,
and we see the white patch onthe old workdown. So Tom says,
he's a walkin in his sleep.I wish we was allowed to follow him
an see where he's goin to.There he's turned down by the tobacco field

(58:50):
out of sight. Now it's adreadful pity. He can't rest no better.
We waited a long time, buthe didn't come back any more,
or if he did, come aroundthe other way. So at last we
was tuckered out and went to sleepand had nightmares, a million of them.
But before dawn we was awake againbecause meantime a storm had come up
and been raging, and the thunderand lightning was awful, and the wind

(59:14):
was a thrashing the trees around,and the rain was driving down and slanting
sheets, and the gullies was runningrivers. Tom says, lookye here,
huck, I'll tell you one thingthat's mighty curious. Up to the time
we went out last night, thefamily hadn't heard about Jake Dunlap being murdered.
Now, the men that chased HalClayton and Bud Dixon away would spread

(59:35):
the thing around in half an hour, and every neighbor that heard it would
shin out and fly around from onefarm to'other and try to be the first
to tell the news. Land theydon't have such a big thing as that
to tell twice in thirty year,Huck, it's mighty strange. I don't
understand it. So then he wasin a fidget for the rain to let
up so we could turn out andrun across some of the people and see

(59:58):
if they would say anything about itto us. And he said, if
they did, we must be horriblysurprised and shocked. We was out an
gone a minute. The rain stopped. It was just broad day. Then
we loafed along up the road andnow and then met a person and stopped
and said howdy, and told themwhen we come, and how we left
the folks at home, and howlong we was going to stay and all

(01:00:20):
that. But none of them saida word about that thing, which was
just astonishing and no mistake. Tomsaid he believed if we went to the
sycamores, we would find that bodylaying there, solitary and alone, and
not a soul around. Said hebelieved the men chased the thieves so far
into the woods that the thieves probablyseen a good chance and turned on them
at last, and maybe they allkilled each other, and so there wasn't

(01:00:43):
anybody left to tell. First,renowed, gabbling along that way. We
was right at the sycamores. Thecold chills trickled down my back and I
wouldn't budge another step for all Tom'spersuading, but he couldn't hold in.
He'd got to see if the bootswere safe on that body yet, so
he crope in and the next minuteout he comes again, with his eyes
bulging. He was so excited andsays, Huck, it's gone. I

(01:01:08):
was astonished, I says, Tom, you don't meet it. It's gone.
Sure, there ain't a sign ofit. The ground has trampled some,
but if there was any blood,it's all washed away by the storm.
For it's all puddles and slush inthere. At last, I gave
in and went and took a lookmyself, and it was just as Tom
said. There wasn't a sign ofa corpse. Turn it, I says,

(01:01:30):
the di'monds is gone. Don't youreckon? The thieves slunk back and
lugged him off. Tom looks likeit. It just does. Now where'd
they hide him? Do you reckon? I don't know, I says,
disgusted. And what's more, Idon't care. They've got the boots and
that's all I cared about, he'lllay around these woods a long time before

(01:01:50):
I hunt him up. Tom didn'tfeel no more interest in him, neither
only curiosity to know what come ofhim. But he said we'd lay low
and keep dark, and it wouldn'tbe long till the dogs or somebody roused
him out. We went back hometo breakfast. Ever so bothered and put
out and disappointed and swindled. Iwarn't ever so down on a corpse before

(01:02:13):
end of chapter seven. This ischapter eight of Tom Sawyer Detective. This
LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Tom Sawyer Detective, Chapter eight,
Talking with the ghost. It weren'tvery cheerful at breakfast. Aunt Sally.

(01:02:34):
She looked old and tired and letthe children snarl and fuss at one another,
and didn't seem to notice it wasgoing on, which wasn't her usual
style. Me and Tom had plentyto think about without talking. Benny,
she looked like she hadn't had muchsleep, and whenever she'd lift her head
a little and steal a look towardsher father, you could see there was
tears in her eyes. And asfor the old man, his thing stayed

(01:02:58):
on his plate and got cold withouthim knowing they was there, I reckon,
for he was thinking and thinking allthe time, and never said a
word, and never read a bite. By and by, when it was
stillest, that nigger's head was pokedin at the door again, and he
said his Mar's brace was getting powerful, uneasy about Mars Jubiter, which hadn't
come home yet, and would MarsSilas please. He was looking at Uncle

(01:03:21):
Silas, and he stopped there likethe rest of his words was froze for
Uncle Silas. He rose up,shaky and steadied himself, leaning his fingers
on the table, and he waspanting, and his eyes was set on
the nigga, and he kept swallowingand put his other hand up to his
throat a couple of times, andat last he got his words started and
says, does he does he think? What does he think? Tell him?

(01:03:46):
Tell him? Then he sunk downin his chair, limp and weak,
and says, so as you couldhardly hear him, go away,
go away. Nigga looked scared andcleared out, and we all felt well,
I don't know how we felt it, but it was awful with the
old man panting there and his eyesset and looking like a person that was

(01:04:06):
dying. None of us could budge. But Benny she slid around, soft,
with her tears running down, andstood by his side and nestled his
old gray head up against her,and begun to stroke it and pet it
with her hands, and nodded tous to go away. And we done
it, going out, very quiet, like the dead was there. Me

(01:04:27):
and Tom struck out for the woods, mighty solemn, and saying how different
it was now to what it waslast summer when we was here, and
everything was so peaceful and happy,and everybody thought so much of Uncle Silas,
and he was so cheerful and simplehearted and putting headed and good.
And now look at him. Ifhe hadn't lost his mind, he wasn't
much short of it. That waswhat we allowed. It was a most

(01:04:48):
lovely day now, and brightened,sunshiny. And the further and further we
went over the hills towards the prairie, the lovelier and lovelier the trees and
flowers got to be, and themore it seem semed strange and somehow wrong
that there had to be trouble insuch a world as this. And then
all of a sudden I catched mybreath and grabbed Tom's arm, and all

(01:05:09):
my livers and lungs an things felldown in my legs. There it is,
I says. We jumped back behinda bush, shivering, and Tom
says, sh don't make a noise. It was settin on a log right
in the edge of a little prairiethinkin. I tried to get Tom to
come away, but he wouldn't.I doesn't budge him by myself. He
said we mightn't ever get another chanceto see one, and he was going

(01:05:31):
to look his fill at this oneif he died for it. So I
looked too, though it give methe fan TODs to do it. Tom,
he had to talk, and hetalked low. He says, poor
Jakie, it's got all its thingson, just as he said he would.
Now you see what we wasn't certainabout. It's hair. It's not
long now the way it was.It's got it cropped close to its head

(01:05:56):
the way he said he would.How can never see anything look any more
natural than what it does? NorI neither, I says I'd recognize it
anywheres, so would I. Itlooks perfectly solid and genuine, just the
way it done before it died,so we kept a gazing pretty soon,
Tom says, Huck, there's somethingmighty curious about this one, don't you

(01:06:17):
know? It oughtn't to be goingaround in the daytime. That's so Tom,
I never heard the like of itbefore, No, sir, they
don't ever come out. Only atnight, and then not till after twelve.
There's something wrong about this one,now, you mark my words.
I don't believe it's got any rightto be around in the daytime. But
don't it look natural? Jake wasgoing to play deef and dumb here,

(01:06:41):
so the neighbors wouldn't know his voice. Do you reckon it would do that
if we was to holler at it. Lordy, Tom don't talk, so
if you was to holler at it, I'd die in my tracks, don't
you worry. I ain't goin toholler at it. Look, Huck,
it's a scratch in its head,don't you see? Well? What of
it? Why this? What's thesense of it scratching its head? There

(01:07:02):
ain't anything there to itch. Itshead is made out of fog or something
like that, and can't itch afog, can't itch Any fool knows that
well, then if it don't itchand can't itch, what the nation is
it scratching it for? Ain't itjust habit? Don't you reckon? No,
sir, I don't. I ain'ta bit satisfied about the way this
one acts. I've a blame goodnotion. It's a bogus one. I

(01:07:26):
have as sure as I'm a sittinghere, because if it, Huck,
well, what's the matter now,you can't see the bushes through it?
Well, Tom, it's so sure, it's as solid as a cow.
Ah sort of begin to think,Huck, it's biting off a chaw of
Tobacker by George. They don't chaw. They ain't got anything to draw with,

(01:07:49):
Huck. I'm listening. He ain'ta ghost at all. It's Jake
Dunlap his own self. Oh you'regranny, I says Finn. Did we
find any corpse in the sycamores?No? Or any sign of one?
No? Mighty good reason? Hadn'tever been any corpse there? Why?

(01:08:09):
Tom? You know we heard,yes, we did, heard a howl
or two. Does that prove anybodywas killed? Course it don't. And
we see four men run. Thenthis one come walking out, and we
took it for a ghost, nomore ghost than you are. It was
Jake Dunlap his own self, andit's Jake Dunlap. Now he's been and
got his hair cropped the way hesaid he would, and he's playing himself

(01:08:31):
for a stranger, just the sameas he said he would. Ghost.
He's as sound as a nut.Then I see it all, and how
we had took too much for granted, I was powerful glad he didn't get
killed, and so is Tom.And we wondered which he would like the
best for us to never let onto know him, or how Tom reckoned

(01:08:54):
the best way would be to goand ask him, so he started,
but I kept a little behind becauseI didn't know if it might be a
ghost after all. When Tom gotto where he was, he says me,
An, Huck's mighty glad to seeyou again. An, you needn't
be afeared. We'll tell an ifyou think it'll be safer for you if
we don't let on to know you. When we run across you say the

(01:09:15):
word an, you'll see you candepend on us and would rather cut our
hands off than get you into theleast little bit of danger. First off,
he looked surprised to see us,not very glad either, But as
Tom went on he looked pleasanter,and when he was done, he smiled
and nodded his head several times andmade signs with his hands and says goo

(01:09:35):
goo gool ghoul the way deef andummies does. Just then we see some
of Steve Nickerson's people coming that livedt'other side of the prairie. So Tom
says, you'd do it elegant.I never see anybody do it better.
You're right, Play it on ustoo, Play it on us same as
the others. It'll keep you inpractice an prevent you makin' blunders. We'll

(01:09:59):
keep away from you, and leton. We don't know you, but
any time we can be any helpyou, just let us know. Then
we loafed along past the Nickersons,and of course they asked if that was
the new stranger Yonder, and where'dhe come from, and what was his
name? And which communion was heBaptists or Methodist? And which politics Whig

(01:10:19):
or Democrat? And how long ishe staying? And all them other questions
that humans always ask when a strangercomes, and animals does too. But
Tom said he warn't able to makeanything out of deef and dumb signs,
and the same with googooing. Thenwe watched them go and bully rag Jake
because we was pretty uneasy for him. Tom said it would take him days

(01:10:42):
to get so he wouldn't forget hewas a deef and dummy sometimes and speak
out before he thought. When wehad watched long enough to see that Jake
was getting along all right and workinghis signs very good, we loafed along
again, allowing to strike the schoolhouse about recess time, which was a
three mile tramp. I was sodisappointed not to hear Jake tell about the

(01:11:02):
row and the sycamores and how nearhe come to getting killed, that I
couldn't seem to get over it.And Tom he felt the same, but
said if we was in Jake's fix, we would want to go careful and
keep still and not take any chances. The boys and girls was all glad
to see us again, and wehad a real good time all through recess.
Coming to school, the Henderson boyshad come across the new deef and

(01:11:24):
dummy and told the rest, soall the scholars was chuck full of him
and couldn't talk about anything else,and was in a sweat to get a
sight of him, because they hadn'tever seen a deef and dummy in their
lives, and it made a powerfulexcitement. Tom said it was tough to
have to keep mum now, saidwe would be heroes if we could come
out and tell all we knowed.But after all it was still more heroic

(01:11:46):
to keep mum. And weren't twoboys and a million could do it?
That was Tom Sawyer's idea about it, and I reckoned there warn't anybody could
better it. End of chapter eight. This is chapter nine of Tom Sawyer
a Detective. This LibriVox recording isin the public domain. Tom Sawyer Detective

(01:12:11):
by Mark Twain, Chapter nine,finding of Jubiter Dunlop. In the next
two or three days, Dummy,he got to be powerful, popular.
He went associating around with the neighbors, and they made much of him,
and was proud to have such arattling curiosity among them. They had him
to breakfast, they had him todinner, they had him to supper.

(01:12:32):
They kept him loaded up with hogand hominy, and warn't ever tired staring
at him and wondering over him,and wishing they knowed more about him.
He was so uncommon and romantic.His signs weren't no good. People couldn't
understand them, and he probably couldn'thimself. But he'd dine his sight of
good gooing, and so everybody wassatisfied and admired to hear him go it.

(01:12:55):
He toted a piece of slate aroundand a pencil, and people wrote
questions on it, and he wroteanswers. But there warn't anybody could read
his writin', but Brace Dunlap.Brace said he couldn't read it very good,
but he could manage to dig outthe meaning most of the time,
he said. Dummy said he belongeda way off somers and used to be
well off, but got busted byswindlers which he had trusted, and was

(01:13:18):
poor now and hadn't any way tomake a living. Everybody praised Brace Dunlap
for being so good to that stranger. He let him have a little log
cabin all to himself, and hadhis knittas take care of it and fetch
him all the vi'lls he wanted.Dummy was at our house some because Old
Silas was so afflicted himself these daysthat anybody else that was afflicted was a

(01:13:40):
comfort to him. Me and Tomdidn't let on that we had knowed him
before, and he didn't let onthat he had known us before. The
family talked their troubles out before him, the same as if he wasn't there,
but we reckoned. It wasn't anyharm for him to hear what they
said. Generally he didn't seem tonotice, but sometimes he did well.
Two or three days went long,and everybody got to getting uneasy about Jubiter

(01:14:04):
Dunlap. Everybody was asking everybody ifthey had any idea what had become of
him. No, they hadn't,they said, and they shook their heads
and said there was something powerful strangeabout it. Another and another day went
by. Then there was a reportgot around that perhaps he was murdered.
You bet it made a big stir. Everybody's tongue was clacking away. After

(01:14:28):
that Saturday, two or three gangsturned out and hunted the woods to see
if they could run across his remainders. Me and Tom helped, and it
was noble, good times and exciting. Tom. He was so brim full
of it he couldn't eat nor rest. He said, if we could find
that corpse, we would be celebratedand more talked about than if we got
drowned. The others got tired andgive it up, but not Tom Sawyer.

(01:14:51):
That warn't his style. Saturday nighthe didn't sleep any hardly, trying
to think up a plan, andtowards daylight in the morning he struck it.
He snaked me out of bed andwas all excited and says, quick,
Huck, snatch on your clothes.I've got it bloodhound. In two
minutes we was tearin up the riverroad in the dark, towards the village.

(01:15:13):
Old Jeff Hooker had a bloodhound andTom was going to borrow him.
I says, the trail's too old, Tom, An besides, it's rained.
You know it don't make any difference, Huck. If the body's hid
in the woods anywhere around, thehound will find it. If he's been
murdered and buried, they wouldn't buryhim deep, it ain't likely. And
if the dog goes over the spot, he'll scent him. Sure, Huck,

(01:15:34):
we're goin to be celebrated. Sureas you're born. He was just
a blazing and whenever he got afire, he was most likely to get
a fire all over. That wasthe way this time. In two minutes
he got it all ciphered out andwasn't only just going to find the corpse.
Now he was going to get onthe track of that murderer and hunt

(01:15:54):
him down too, And not onlythat, but he was going to stick
to him till. Well, youbetter find the corpse first, I reckon
that's a plenty for today. Forall we know, there ain't any corpse,
and nobody hain't been murdered. ThatCuss could have gone all summer's and
not been killed at all. Thatgraveled him. And he says, huck
Finn, I never see such aperson as you to want to spoil everything.

(01:16:17):
As long as you can't see anythinghopeful in the thing, you won't
let anybody else. What good canit do you to throw cold water on
that corpse and get up that selfishtheory that there ain't been any murder none
in the world. I don't seehow you can act, So I wouldn't
treat you like that. And youknow it. Here we've got a noble
good opportunity to make a reputation,and I'll go ahead. I says,

(01:16:42):
I'm sorry, and I take itall back. I didn't mean nothing.
Fix it any way you wanted.He ain't any consequence to me. If
he's killed, I'm as glad ofit as you are. And if I
never said anything about being glad,I only well, then I'm as sorry
as you are. Anyway you'd ratherhave it, that is the way I'd

(01:17:03):
rather have it. He there ain'tany druthers about it, Huck Finn.
Nobody said anything about druthers. Andas for he forgot he was talking and
went tramping along studying. He beganto get excited again, and pretty soon
he says, Huck, it'll bethe bulliest thing that ever happened. If
we find the body after everybody elsehas quit looking, and then go ahead

(01:17:27):
and hunt up the murderer. Itwon't only be an honor to us,
but it'll be an honor to UncleSilas because it was us that done it.
It'll set him up again, yousee, if it don't. But
oh, Jeff Hooker, he throwedcold water on the whole business when we
got to his blacksmith's shop and toldhim what we come for. You can
take the dog, he says,But you ain't a goin to find any

(01:17:49):
corpse, because there ain't any corpseto find. Everybody's quit looking, and
they're right soon as they come tothink, they know there warn't no corpse.
And I'll tell you for why whatdoes a person kill another person for?
Tom Sawyer answer me that? Why? He? Uh? Answer up?
He ain't no fool. What didhe kill him for? Well?

(01:18:12):
Sometimes it's for revenge? And wait, one thing at a time. Revenge,
says you, And right you are. Now, whoever had anything again,
that poor trifling no accountant, whodo you reckon would want to kill
him? That rabbit? Tom wasstuck, I reckon. He hadn't thought
of a person having to have areason for killing a person before, and

(01:18:34):
now he sees it warn't likely anybodywould have that much of a grudge against
a lamb like Jupiter Dunlap. Theblacksmith says, by and bye, the
revenge idea won't work. You see, Well then what's next? Robbery?
But gosh, that must have beenit? Tom, Yes, sir,
I reckon, we've struck. Atthis time some feller wanted his Gallas buckles,

(01:18:56):
and so he bet it was sofunny he busted out laugh and just
went on laughing and laughing and laughingtill he was most dead. And Tom
looked so put out and cheap thatI knowed he was ashamed he had come,
and he wished he hadn't. Butold Hooker never let up on him.
He raked up everything a person evercould want to kill another person about,
and any fool could see they didn'tany of them fit this case.

(01:19:20):
And he just made no end offun of the whole business and of the
people that had been hunting the body. And he said, if they'd had
any sense, they'd a knowed.The lazy cuss slid out because he wanted
a loaf and spell after all thiswork. He'll come pottering back in a
couple of weeks and then how youfellers feel. But Law's bless you take

(01:19:42):
the dog and go and hunt hisremainders, do Tom? Then he busted
out and had another of them fortyrow laughs of his. Tom couldn't back
down after all this, so hesaid, all right, unchain him and
the blacksmith done it, and westarted home and left that old man laughing.
Yet it was a lovely dog.There ain't any dog that's got a

(01:20:03):
lovelier disposition than a bloodhound, andthis one knowed us and liked us.
He capered and raced around, everso friendly and powerful, glad to be
free and have a holiday. ButTom was so cut up he couldn't take
any interest in him, and saidhe wished he'd stopped and thought a minute
before he ever started on such afool Errand he said, old Jeff Hooker

(01:20:24):
would tell everybody, and we'd neverhear the last of it. So we
loafed along home down the back lanes, feeling pretty glum and not talking.
When we was passing the far cornerof our tobacco field, we heard the
dog set up a long howl inthere, and we went to the place
and he was scratching the ground withall his might and ever now and then

(01:20:45):
canting up his head sideways and fetchinganother howl. It was a long square,
the shape of a grave. Therain had made it sink down and
show the shape the minute we comeand stood there, we looked at one
another and never said a word.When the dog had dug down only a
few inches, he grabbed something andpulled it up, and it was an

(01:21:05):
arm and a sleeve. Tom kindof gasped out and says, come away,
Huck, it's found. I justfelt awful. We struck for the
road and fetched the first men thatcome along. They got a spade at
the crib and dug out the body. And you never see such an excitement.
You couldn't make anything out of theface, but you didn't need to.

(01:21:27):
Everybody said, poor Jubiter, it'shis clothes to the last rag.
Some rushed off to spread the newsand tell the justice of the peace and
have an inquest. And me andTom lit out for the house. Tom
was all afire and most out ofbreath when we come tearin in where Uncle
Silas an that Sally an Benny was. Tom sung out, Me and Hucks

(01:21:47):
found Jubiter Dunlap's corpse all by ourselveswith a bloodhound, after everybody else had
quit hunting and give it up.And if it hadn't been for us,
it never would have been found.And he was murdered too. They've done
it with the club or something likethat. And I'm going to start in
and find the murderer next, andI bet I'll do it. And Sally

(01:22:10):
and Benny sprung up pale and astonished. But Uncle Silas fell right forward out
of his chair onto the floor andgroans out, oh my god, you've
found him now, end of chapternine. This is chapter ten of Tom

(01:22:32):
Sawyer Detective. This LibriVox recording isin the public domain. Tom Sawyer Detective
by Mark Twain. Chapter ten.The arrest of Uncle Silas. Them awful
words froze us solid. We couldn'tmove hand or foot for as much as
half a minute. Then we kindof come to and lifted the old man

(01:22:56):
up and got him into his chair, and Benny petted him and kissed him
and tried to comfort him. Andpoor old aunt Sally she done the same.
But poor things, they was sobroke up and scared and knocked out
of their right minds that they didn'thardly know what they was about. With
Tom, it was awful. Itmost petrified him to think maybe he had

(01:23:19):
got his uncle into a thousand timesmore trouble than ever, and maybe it
wouldn't ever happened if he hadn't beenso ambitious to get celebrated and let the
corpse alone the way the others done. But pretty soon he sort of come
to himself again and says, UncleSilas, don't you say another word like
that it's dangerous and there ain't ashatter of truth in it. Aunt Sally

(01:23:43):
and Benny was thankful to hear himsay that, and they said the same.
But the old man he wagged hishead, sorrowful and hopeless, and
the tears run down his face,and he says, no, I'd done
it, poor Jubiter, I'd doneit. It was dreadful to hear him
say it. Then he went onand told about it, and said it

(01:24:04):
happened the day me and Tom comealong about sundown. He said, Jubiter
pestered him and aggravated him till hewas so mad he just sort of lost
his mind and grabbed up a stickand hit him over the head with all
his might, and Jubiter dropped intohis tracks. Then he was scared and
sorry and got down on his kneesand lifted his head up and begged him

(01:24:27):
to speak and say he wasn't dead. And before long he come too,
And when he see who it washolding his head, he jumped like he
was most scared to death, andcleared the fence and tore into the woods
and was gone. So he hopedhe wasn't hurt by but laws he says,
it was only just fear that gavehim that last little spurt of strength,
And of course it soon played out, and he laid down in the

(01:24:50):
bush, and there wasn't anybody tohelp him, and he died. Then
the old man cried and grieved andsaid he was a murderer in the mark
of king was on him, andhe had disgraced his family and was going
to be found out and hung.But Tom said, no, you ain't
going to be found out. Youdidn't kill him. One lick wouldn't kill

(01:25:13):
him. Somebody else done it?Oh, yes, he says, I'd
done it. Nobody else, whoelse had anything against him? Who else
could have anything against him? Helooked up kind of like he hoped some
of us could mention somebody that couldhave a grudge against that harmless no count.
But of course it warn't no usehe had us. We couldn't say

(01:25:35):
a word. He noticed that,and he saddened down again. And I
never see a face so miserable andso pitiful to see. Tom had a
sudden idea and says, but holdon, somebody buried him? Now?
Who he shut off? Sudden?I knowed the reason. It gave me
the cold shudders when he said themwords, because right away I remembered about

(01:25:58):
us seeing Uncle Silas prowling around witha long handled shovel away in the night
that night, And I knowed Benny'sseen him too, because she was talking
about it one day. The minuteTom shut off, he changed the subject
and went to begging Uncle Silas tokeep mum, and the rest of us
done the same, and said hemust, and said it wasn't his business

(01:26:19):
to tell on himself, and ifhe kept Mum, no one would ever
know. But if it was foundout and any harm come to him,
it would break the family's hearts andkill them, and yet never do anybody
any good. So at last hepromised we was all of us more comfortable
then, and went to work.To cheer up the old man. We

(01:26:41):
told him all he'd got to dowas to keep still, and it wouldn't
be long till the whole thing wouldblow over and be for God. We
all said, there wouldn't anybody eversuspect Uncle Silas, nor ever dream of
such a thing, he being sogood and kind and having such a good
character. And Tom says, Joel, and Hardy he says, why just

(01:27:01):
look at it a minute. Justconsider, here is Uncle Silas, all
these years, a preacher at hisown expense, all these years, doing
good with all his might and everyway he can think of, at his
own expense all the time, alwaysbeen loved by everybody and respected, always

(01:27:21):
been peaceable and minding his own business. The very last man in this whole
district to touch a person, andeverybody knows it. Suspect him. Why
it ain't any more possible than bythirty of the State of Arkansas, I
arrest you for the murderer of Jupiter. Dunlap, shouts the sheriff at the

(01:27:42):
door. It was awful. AuntSally and Benny flung themselves at Uncle Silas,
screaming and crying and hugged him andhung to him, and Aunt Sally
said go away. She wouldn't evergive him up. They shouldn't have him.
And the niggers they'd come, crowdingand crying to the door, and
well, I couldn't stand it.It was enough to break a person's heart,

(01:28:03):
so I got out. They tookhim up to the little one horse
jail in the village, and weall went along to tell him goodbye.
And Tom was feeling elegant and saysto me, we'll have a most noble
good time and heaps of danger somedark night getting him out of there,
huck, and it'll be talked abouteverywheres an we will be celebrated. But

(01:28:24):
the old man busted that scheme upthe minute he whispered to him about it.
He said, no, it washis duty to stand whatever the law
done to him, and he wouldstick to the jail plumb through to the
end, even if there warn't nodoor to it. It disappointed Tom and
graveled him a good deal, buthe had to put up with it.
But he felt responsible and bound toget his uncle Silas free. And he

(01:28:46):
told Aunt Sally the last thing notto worry, because he was going to
turn in and work night and dayand beat this game and fetch Uncle Silas
out innocent. And she was veryloving to him and thanked him and said
she knows he would do his verybest. And she told us to help
Benny take care of the house andthe children. And then we had a
goodbye cry all around, and wentback to the farm and left her there

(01:29:11):
to live with the jailer's wife amonth till the trial in October end of
chapter ten. This is chapter elevenof Tom Sawyer Detective. This LibriVox recording
is in the public domain. TomSawyer Detective by Mark Twain, Chapter eleven,

(01:29:32):
Tom Sawyer discovers the Murderers. Well, that was a hard month on
us all. Poor Benny, shekept up the best she could, and
me and Tom tried to keep thingscheerful there at the house, but it
kind of went for nothing. Asyou may say, It was the same
up at the jail. We wentup every day to see the old people,

(01:29:54):
but it was awful, dreary becausethe old man warn't sleeping much and
was walking in his sleep considerable andso he got to look in fagged and
miserable, and his mind got shaky, and we all got afraid his troubles
would break him down and kill him. And whenever we tried to persuade him
to feel cheerfuller, he only shookhis head and said, if we only

(01:30:16):
knowed what it was to carry arounda murderer's load in your heart, we
wouldn't talk that way. Tom andall of us kept telling him it wasn't
murder, but just accidental killing,but it never made any difference. It
was murder, and he wouldn't haveit any other way. He actively begun
to come out plain and square towardstrial time and acknowledge that he tried to

(01:30:38):
kill the man. Why that wasawful, you know. It made things
seem fifty times as dreadful, andthere weren't no more comfort for Aunt Sally
and Benny. But he promised hewouldn't say a word about his murder when
others was around, and we wasglad of that. Tom Sawyer racked the
head off of himself all that monthtrying to plan some way out Fromncle Silas

(01:31:00):
an Many's the night. He keptme up most all night with this kind
of tiresome work, but he couldn'tseem to get on the right track.
No way. As for me,I reckoned a body might as well give
it up. It all looked soblue, and I was so downhearted.
But he wouldn't. He stuck tothe business right along and went on planning
and thinking and ransacking his head.So at last the trial come on towards

(01:31:26):
the middle of October, and wewas all in the court. The place
was jammed, of course, poorold Uncle Silas he looked more like a
dead person than a live one.His eyes was so hollow, and he
looked so thin and so mournful.Benny, she sat on one side of
him, and Aunt Sally on theother, and they had veils on,
and was full of trouble. ButTom he set by our lawyer and had

(01:31:48):
his finger in everywheres. Of course, the lawyer let him, and the
judge led him. He most tookthe business out of the lawyer's hands sometimes,
which was well enough, because thatwas only a mud turtle of a
back settlement lawyer, and didn't knowenough to come in when it rains.
As the saying is, they sworein the jury. And then the lawyer

(01:32:09):
for the prostitution got up and begun. He made a terrible speech against the
old man that made him moan andgroan, and made Benny and Aunt Sally
cry. The way he told aboutthe murder kind of knocked us all stupid.
It was so different from the oldman's tale. He said he was
going to prove that Uncle Silas wasseen to kill Jubiter Dunlap by two good

(01:32:31):
witnesses, and done it deliberate,and said he was going to kill him
the very minute he hit him withthe club and they seen him hide Jubiter
in the bushes, and they seenthat Jubiter was stone dead, and said
Uncle Silas come later and lugged Jubiterdown into the tobacco field. And two
men seen him do it, andsaid Uncle Silas turned out away in the

(01:32:53):
night and buried Jubiter, and aman seen him at it. I says
to myself, poor old Uncle Silashas been lying about it because he reckoned.
Nobody's seen him, and he couldn'tbear to break Aunt Sally's heart and
Benny's, and right he was.As for me, I would allied the
same way, and so would anybodythat had any feeling to save them such

(01:33:15):
misery and sorrow which they warn't noways responsible for. Well, it made
our lawyer look pretty sick, andit knocked Tom silly too for a little
spell. But then he braced upand let on that he warn't worried.
But I knowed he was all thesame, and the people my But it
made a stir amongst them. Andwhen that lawyer was done telling the jury

(01:33:38):
what he was going to prove,he sat down and begun to work his
witnesses. First, he called alot of them to show that there was
bad blood betwixt Uncle Silas and thediseased. And they told how they had
heard Uncle Silas threaten the diseased atone time and another, and how it
got worse an worse, and everybodywas talking about it, and how diseased
got afraid of his life and toldtwo or three of them he was certain

(01:34:00):
Uncle Silas would up and kill himsometime or another. Tom and our lawyer
asked them some questions, but itweren't no use. They stuck to what
they said. Next they called uplem Beebe and he took the stand.
It come into my mind then,how Limb and Jim Lane had come along
talking that time about borrowing a dogor something from Jubiter Dunlap, and that

(01:34:24):
brought up the blackberries and the lantern, and that brought up Bill and Jack
Withers, and how they passed bytalking about a nigger's stealing Uncle Silas's corn,
and that fetched up our old ghostshad come along about the same time
and scared us so And here hewas, too, and a privileged character
on accounts of his being deef anddumb and a stranger, and they had

(01:34:45):
fixed him a chair inside the railingwhere he could cross his legs and be
comfortable, whilst the other people wasall in a jam so they couldn't hardly
breathe. So it all come backto me just the way it was that
day, and it made me moref to think how pleasant it was up
to then, and how miserable eversince. Lem beebe sworn said, I

(01:35:08):
was comin along that day, secondSeptember, and Jim Lane was with me,
and it was towards sundown, andwe heard loud talk like quarreling,
and we was very close only thehazel bushes between that's a long the fence,
and we heard a voice say,I told you more'n once I'd kill

(01:35:29):
you, and knowed it was thisprisoner's voice. And then we see a
club come up above the bushes anddown out of sight again, and heard
a smashing thump and then a groanor two, and then we croped soft
to where we could see, andthere lay Jubiter Dunlap dead and this prisoner
standing over him with the club,And the next he hauled the dead man

(01:35:50):
into a clump of bushes and hidhim, and then we stooped low to
be cut of sight. Man gotaway well, it was awful. It
kind of froze everybody's blood to hearit. And the house was most as
still whilst he was telling it,as if there weren't nobody in it.
And when he was done, youcould hear them gasp and sigh all over

(01:36:13):
the house and look at one anotherthe same as to say, he did
perfectly terrible, He did it awful. Now happened a thing that astonished me.
All the time the first witnesses wasproving the bad blood and the threats
and all that Tom Sawyer was aliveand laying for them, And the minute
they was through, he went forthem and done his level best to catch

(01:36:35):
them and lies and spy their testimony. But now, how different when Lem
first begun to talk and never saidanything about speaking to Jubiter or trying to
borrow a dog off of him,he was all alive and laying for Lem,
and you could see he was gettingready to cross question him to death
pretty soon. And then I judgedhim and me would go on to stand

(01:36:58):
by and by and tell what weheard him and Jim Lane say. But
the next time I looked at Tom, I got the cold shivers. Why
he was in the brownest study youever see, miles an miles away.
He warn't hearing a word lem Beebewas saying. And when he got through,
he was still in that brown study, just the same. Our lawyer

(01:37:19):
joggled him, and then he lookedup, startled and says, take the
witness if you want him, letme alone. I want to think.
Well that beat me. I couldn'tunderstand it. And Benny and her mother
they looked sick. They was sotroubled. They shoved their veils to one
side and tried to get his eye, but it warn't any use. And

(01:37:40):
I couldn't get his eye either.So the mud turtle he tackled the witness,
but it didn't amount to nothing,and he made a mess of it.
Then they called up Jim Lane andhe told the very same story over
again, exact. Tom never listenedto this one at all, but set
there thinking and thinking, miles andmiles away. So the mud turtle went
in alone again and come out justas flat as he done before. The

(01:38:04):
lawyer for the prostitution looked very comfortable, but the judge looked disgusted. You
see, Tom was just the sameas a regular lawyer nearly because it was
Arkansas law for a prisoner to chooseanybody he wanted to help his lawyer.
And Tom had had Uncle Silas shovehim into the case, and now he

(01:38:24):
was batching it. And you couldsee the judge didn't like it much.
All that the mud turtle got outof Lem and Jim was this. He
asked them, why didn't you goand tell what you saw? We was
afraid we would get mixed up init ourselves, and we was just starting
down the river a hunting for allthe week besides, But as soon as

(01:38:45):
we come back, we found outthey'd been searching for the body. So
then we went and told brace Dunlapall about it. When was that Saturday
night, September ninth? The judgehe spoke up and says, mister Sheriff,
arrest these two witnesses on suspicions ofbeing accessionary after the fact of the
murder. The lawyer for the prostitutionjumps up all excited and says, your

(01:39:09):
honor, I protest against this extraordinarysit down, says the judge, pulling
his bowie and laying it on hispulpit. I beg you to respect the
court. So he done it.Then he called Bill Withers. Bill Withers
Sworn said, I was coming alongabout sundown Saturday, September second, by

(01:39:30):
the prisoner's field, and my brotherJack was with me, and we seen
a man toting off something heavy onhis back, and allowed it was a
nigga stealing corn. Couldn't see distinct. Next we made out that it was
one man carrying another, and theway it hung so kind of limp,
we judged it was somebody that wasdrunk, and by the man's walk we

(01:39:50):
said it was Parson Silas, andwe judged he had found Sam Cooper drunk
in the road, which he wasalways trying to reform him, and was
toting him out of danger. Hemade the people shiver to think of poor
old Uncle Silas toading off the diseaseddown to the place in his tobacco field
where the dog dug up the body. But there warn't much sympathy around amongst

(01:40:13):
the faces. And I heard onecuss say, there's the coldest blooded work
I ever struck, lugging a murderedman around like that and going to bury
him like an animal. An hima preacher at that tom He went on
thinking and never took no notice.So our lawyer took the witness and done
the best he could, and itwas plenty poor enough. Then Jack Withers,

(01:40:36):
he come on the stand and toldthe same tale, just like Bill
done. And after him comes BraceDunlap, and he was looking very mournful,
and most crying, and there wasa rustle and a stir all around,
and everybody got ready to listen,and lots of the women folks said,
poor creater, poor creater, andyou could see many of them wiping

(01:40:58):
their eyes. Race Dunlop swore andsaid, I was in considerable trouble a
long time about my poor brother.But I reckon things warn't near so bad
as he made out. And Icouldn't make myself believe anybody would have the
heart to hurt a poor, harmlesscritter like that. By Jings, I
was sure. I seen Tom givea kind of a faint little start,

(01:41:20):
and then looked disappointed again. Andyou know, I couldn't think the preacher
would hurt him. It warn't naturalto think such an unlikely thing. So
I never paid much attention. Andnow I shall ever ever forgive myself for
if I had a done different,my poor brother would be with me this

(01:41:41):
day, and not lying yonder murderedand him so harmless. He kind of
broke down there and choked up andwaited to get his voice, and people
all around said the most pitiful things, and women cried, and it was
very still in there, and solemn, and old uncle silas, poor thing,
you give a grown right out,So everybody heard him. Then brace

(01:42:01):
he went on Saturday, September second, he didn't come home to supper by
and bye. I got a littleuneasy, and one of my niggers went
over to this prisoner's place, butcome back and said he weren't there.
So I got uneasier and uneasier andcouldn't rest. I went to bed,
but I couldn't sleep, and turnedout away late in the night and went

(01:42:24):
wandering over to this prisoner's place,and all around about there a good while,
hoping I wouldn't run across my poorbrother, never knowing he was out
of his troubles, gone to abetter shore. So he broke down and
choked up again, and most allthe women was crying. Now pretty soon
he got another start and says,but there weren't no use, So at

(01:42:48):
last I went home and tried toget some sleep, but couldn't well.
In a day or two, everybodywas uneasy, and they got to talking
about this prisoner's threats and took tothe eye idea which I didn't take no
stock in, that my brother wasmurdered. So they hunted around and tried
to find his body, but couldn'tand give it up. And so I

(01:43:10):
reckoned he was gone off somers tohave a little peace and would come back
to us when his troubles was kindof filled. But late Saturday night the
ninth, lem Beebe and Jim Lanecome to my house and told me all
told me the whole awful sassination,and my heart was broke. And then
I remembered something that hadn't took nohold of me at the time, because

(01:43:32):
reports said this prisoner had took meto walkin in his sleep and doing all
kinds of things of no consequence,not knowing what he was about. I
will tell you what that thing wasthat come back into my memory away late
that awful Saturday night, when Iwas wandering around about this prisoner's place,
grieving and troubled, I was downby the corner of the tobaccer field,

(01:43:55):
and I heard a sound like diggingin a gritty soil, and I croped
near and peeped through the vines thathung on the rail fence, and seeing
this prisoner shoveling, shoveling with along handled shovel, heaving earth into a
big hole that was most filled up. His back was to me, but
it was bright moonlight, and Iknowed him by his old green baize,

(01:44:18):
worked down with a splattery white patchin the middle of the back, like
somebody had hit him with a snowball. He was burying the man he murdered.
He slumped down in his chair,crying and sobbing, and most everybody
in the house busted out wailing andcrying and saying, oh, it's awful,

(01:44:39):
awful, horrible, And there wasa most tremendous excitement, and you
couldn't hear yourself think and rapp inthe midst of it, up jumps old
uncle Silas, white as a sheet, and sings out it's true, every
word. I murdered him in coldblood by Jackson it petcher. Find them.

(01:45:00):
People rose up wild all over thehouse, straining and staring for better
look at him. And the judgewas hammering with his mallet, and the
sheriff yelling order, orderer in thecourt order, and all the while the
old man stood there, a quakingin his eyes, a burning and not
looking at his wife and daughter,which was clinging to him and begging him

(01:45:23):
to keep still, but pawing themoff with his hands, and saying he
would clear his black soul from crime, he would heave off this load that
was more than he could bear,and he wouldn't bear it another hour.
And then he raged right along withhis awful tail, everybody staring and gasping.
Judge, jury, lawyers and everybody, and Benny and Aunt Sally crying

(01:45:47):
their hearts out, and by George, Tom Sawyer never looked at him once,
never once, just set there,gazing with all his eyes at something
else. I couldn't tell what.And so the old man raged right along,
pouring his words out like a streamof fire. I killed him.

(01:46:08):
I am guilty, but I neverhad the notion in my life to hurt
him or harm him, spite ofall them lies about my threatening him,
till the very minute I raised theclub. Then my heart went cold,
then the pity all went out ofit, and I struck to kill.

(01:46:32):
In that one moment, all mywrongs come into my mind, all the
insults that that man and the scoundrelhis brother there had put upon me,
and how they laid in together toruin me with the people and take away
my good name and drive me tosome deed that would destroy me and my

(01:46:54):
family that hadn't ever done them noharm. So help me God, they
he'd done it in a mean revenge. For why because my innocent, pure
girl here at my side wouldn't marrythat rich, insolent, ignorant, cowered
brace Dunlap, who's been sniveling hereover a brother he never cared a brace

(01:47:15):
farthing for I see Tom give ajump and look glad this time to a
dead certainty. And in that momentI've told you about, I forgot my
God and remembered only my heart's bitterness. God forgive me, and I struck
to kill. In one second Iwas miserably sorry, oh, filled with

(01:47:36):
remorse. But I thought of mypoor family, and I must hide what
I had done for their sakes.And I did hide that corpse in the
bushes, And presently I carried itto the tobacco field, and in the
deep night, I went with myshovel and buried it. Where up jumps
Tom and shouts, now I've gotit, and waves his hand and oh,

(01:48:00):
ever, so fine and starchy towardsthe old man that says, sit
down, A murder was done,but you never had no hand in it.
Well, sir, you could hurta pin drop. And the old
man he sunk down, kind ofbewildered in his seat, and Aunt Sally
and Benny didn't know it because theywere so astonished and staring at Tom with
their mouths open and not knowing whatthey was about, and the whole house

(01:48:25):
the same. I never seen peoplelook so helpless and tangled up, and
I had ever seen eyes bug outand gaze without a blink the way there
and did Tom says perfectly, Tom, you're right. May I speak for
goodness sakes? Yes? Go on, says the judge, so astonished and
mixed up he didn't know what hewas about hardly then Tom, he stood

(01:48:47):
there and waited a second or twothat was to work up and effect,
as he calls it. Then hestarted in just as calm as ever,
and says, for about two weeksnow, there's been a little bills sticking
on the front of this court houseoffering two thousand dollars reward for a couple
of big diamonds stole at Saint Louis. Them diamonds is worth twelve thousand dollars.

(01:49:13):
But never mind about that till Iget to it. Now, about
this murder, I will tell youall about it, how it happened,
who done it, every detail.You could see everybody nestle down and begin
to listen for all they was worth. This man here, brace Dunlap,
that's been sniveling so about his deadbrother that you know he never cared a

(01:49:34):
straw for wanted to marry that younggirl there, and she wouldn't have him.
So he told Uncle Silas he wouldmake him sorry. Uncle Silas knowed
how powerful he was and how littlechance he had against such a man,
and he was scared and worried anddone everything he could think of to smooth
him over and get him to begood to him. And he even took

(01:49:57):
his no account brother Jubiter, onthe farm and give him wages, and
stinted his own family to pay them. And Jubiter done everything his brother could
contrive to insult Uncle Silas, andfret and worry him and try to drive
Uncle Silas into doing him a hurtso as to injure Uncle Silas with the
people. And it done it.Everybody turned against him and said the meanest

(01:50:18):
kind of things about him, andit gradly broke his heart. Yes,
and he was so worried and distressedthat often he warn't hardly in his right
mind. Well, on that Saturdaythat we've had so much trouble, about
two of these witnesses here lem Beebeeand Jim Lane come along by where Uncle
Silas and Jubiter Dunlap was at work, And that much of what they said

(01:50:42):
is true, the rest is lies. They didn't hear Uncle Silas say he
would kill Jubiter. They didn't hearno blows struck. They didn't see no
dead man, and they didn't seeUncle Silas hide anything in the bushes.
Look at them now, how theyset there wishing they hadn't been so handy
with their tongues. Anyway, they'llwish it before I get done. That
Saturday evening, Bill and Jack Withersdid see one man lugging off another one.

(01:51:08):
That much of what they said istrue, and the rest it lies.
First off. They thought it wasa nigger stealing Uncle Silas's corn.
You notice it makes them look sillynow to find out somebody overheard them say
that. That's because they found outby and by who it was that was
doing the lugging. And they knowbest why they swore here that they took

(01:51:28):
it for Uncle Silas by the gate, which it wasn't, and they knowed
it when they swore to that lie. A man out in the moonlight did
see a murdered person put under groundin the tobacco field, But it wasn't
Uncle Silas that had done the buring. He was in his bed at that
very time. Now, then,before I go on, I want to
ask you if you've ever noticed this, that people, when they're thinking deep

(01:51:51):
or when they're worried, are mostalways doing something with their hands, and
they don't know it and don't noticewhat it is. Their hands are doing.
Some stroke their chins, some stroketheir noses, some stroke up under
their chin with her hand, sometwirl a chain, some fumble a button.
Then there's some that draws a figureor a letter with their finger on

(01:52:13):
their cheek or under their chin,or on their under lip. That's my
way when I'm restless or worried orthinking hard, I'd draw capital v's on
my cheek or on my under lipor under my chin, and never anything
but capital v's. And half thetime I don't notice it and don't know
I'm doing it. That was odd. That is just what I do.

(01:52:36):
Only I make an oh. AndI could see people nodding to one another,
same as they do when they meanthat's so now, then I'll go
on. That's same Saturday. No, it was the night before. There
was a steamboat laying at Flagler's landingforty miles above here, and it was
raining and storming like the nation,and there was a thief aboard and he

(01:52:58):
had them too big diamond that's advertisedout here on this court house door.
And he slipped ashore with his handbag and struck out into the dark in
the storm. And he was ahoping he could get to this town all
right an be safe. But hehad two pals aboard the boat hiding,
and he knowed they was going tokill him the first chance they got and
take the diamonds, because all threestole them. And then this fellow he

(01:53:21):
got a hold of them and skippedwell he hadn't been gone more'n ten minutes
before his pals found it out,and they jumped ashore and lit out after
him. Probably they'd burnt matches andfound his tracks. Anyway, they dogged
along after him all day Saturday andkept out of his sight, and towards
sundown he come to the bunch ofsycamores down by Uncle Silas's field, and

(01:53:44):
he went in there to get adisguise out of his hand bag and put
it on before he showed himself herein the town. And mind you,
he'd done that just a little afterthe time that Uncle Silas was hitting Jubiter
Dunlap over the head with the club, for he did hit him. But
the minute the pal see that thiefslide into the bunch of sycamores, they
jumped out of the bushes and slidin after him. They fell on him

(01:54:06):
and clubbed him to death. Yes, for all he screamed and howled,
so they never had no mercy onhim, but clubbed him to death.
And two men that was running alongthe road heard him yelling that way,
and they made a rush into thesycamore bunch, which was where they was
bound for anyway, And when thepals saw them, they lit out,

(01:54:28):
and the two men after them atchasing them as tight as they could go.
But only a minute or two.Then these two new men slipped back,
very quiet into the sycamores. Thenwhat did they do? I will
tell you what they'd done. Theyfound where the thief had got his disguise
out of his carpet sack to puton. So one of them strips and
puts on that disguise. Tom waiteda little here for some more effect.

(01:54:54):
Then he says, very deliberate,the man that put on that dead man's
disguise was Jubiter Dunlap, Great Scott. Everybody shouted all over the house,
and old Uncle Silas he looked perfectlyastonished. Yes it was Jubiter Dunlap,
not Dad, you see. Thenthey pulled off the dead man's boots and
put Jubiter Dunlap's old ragged shoes onthe corpse, and put the corpse's boots

(01:55:17):
on Jubiter Dunlap. Then Jubiter Dunlapstayed where he was, and the other
man lugged the dead body off inthe twilight, and after midnight he went
to Uncle Silas's house and took hisold green work robe off the peg where
it always hangs in the passage betwixtthe house and the kitchen, and put
it on, and stole the longhandled shovel and went off down into the

(01:55:40):
tobacco field and buried the murdered man. He stopped and stood half a minute.
Then, and who do you reckonthe murdered man was? It was
Jake Dunlap, the long lost burglar, Great Scott. And the man that
buried him was Brace Dunlap, hisgreat Scott. And who do you reckon

(01:56:02):
is this mowing idiot here that's lettingon all these weeks to be a deef
and dumb stranger. It's Jubiter Dunlap, my land. They all busted out
in a howl, and you neversee the like of that excitement since the
day you was born. And Tomhe made a jump for Jubiter and snaked
off his goggles and his false whiskers. And there was the murdered man,

(01:56:25):
sure enough, just as alive asanybody. And Aunt Sally and Benny they
went to hugging and crying and kissingand smothering old Uncle Silas to that degree,
he was more muddled and confused andmushed up in his mind than he
ever was before, and that issaying considerable. And next people began to
yell Tom Sawyer. Tom Sawyer shutup everybody and let him go on,

(01:56:48):
go on, Tom Sawyer, whichmade him feel uncommon bully, for it
was nuts for Tom Sawyer to bea public character that way, and a
hero, as he calls it.When it was all quiet, he says,
there ain't much left, only this, When that man there, Brace
Dunlap, had most worried the lifeand sense out of Uncle Silas till at

(01:57:10):
last he plumb lost his mind andhit this other blather Skype his brother with
a club. I reckon he's seenhis chance. Jubiter broke for the woods
to hide, and I reckon thegame was for him to slide out in
the night and leave the country.Then Brace would make everybody believe Uncle Silas
killed him and hid his body Summers, and that would ruin Uncle Silas and

(01:57:30):
drive him out of the country hanghim maybe, I don't know. But
when they found their dead brother andthe sycamores without knowing him because he was
so battered up, they see theyhad a better thing disguise. Both and
Barry Jake and dig him up presently, all dressed up in Jubiter's clothes,
and hire Jim Lane and Bill Withersand the others to swear to some handy

(01:57:51):
lies, which they done. Andthere they sat now, and I told
them they would be looking sick beforeI got done, and that is the
way they're looking now. Well,me an Huck Finn here we come down
on the boat with the thieves,and the dead one told us all about
the diamonds and said the others wouldmurder him if they got the chance,

(01:58:13):
and we was going to help himall we could. We was bound for
the sycamores when we heard them killinghim in there. But we was in
there in the early morning after thestorm an loud nobody hadn't been killed after
all. And when we see JubiterDunlap here spreading around in the very same
disguise Jake told us he was goingto wear, we thought it was Jake

(01:58:33):
his own self, and he wasgoogooing deef and dumb, and that was
according to agreement. Well, meAn Huck went on hunting for the corpse
after the others quit, and wefound it, and was proud too.
But Uncle Silas, he knocked uscrazy by telling us he killed the man,
so we was mighty sorry. Wefound the body and was bound to

(01:58:56):
save Uncle Silas's neck if we could, And it was going to be tough
work too, because he wouldn't letus break him out of prison the way
we done with our old nigger Jim. I'd done everything I could the whole
month to think up some way tosave Uncle Silas, but I couldn't strike
a thing. So when we comeinto court to day, I come empty
and couldn't see no chance anywheres.But by and by I had a glimpse

(01:59:17):
of something that set me thinking,just a little wee glimpse, only that,
and not enough to make sure,but it set me thinkin hard and
watching when I was only letting onto think. And by and by,
sure enough, when Uncle Silas waspiling out that stuff about him killing Jubiter
Dunlap, I catched that glimpse again, and this time I jumped up an

(01:59:39):
shut down the proceedings because I knowedJubiter Dunlap was a settin here before me.
I knowed him by a thing whichI seen him do, an I
remembered it. I'd seen him doit when I was here a year ago.
He stopped then and studied a minute, laying for an effect. I
knowed it perfectly. Well. Thenhe turned off like he was going to

(02:00:00):
leave the platform and says, kindof lazy and indifferent. Well, I
believe that is all. Wow,you never heard such a howl, and
it come from the whole house.What was it you've seen him do?
Stay where you were, you littledevil. You think you were going to
work a body up till his mouthso watering? And stop there? What

(02:00:20):
was it he done? That wasit? You see? He just done
it to get an effect. Youcouldn't have pulled him off that platform with
a yoke of oxen. Oh,it wasn't anything much, he says.
I seen him looking a little excitedwhen he found Uncle Silas was actually fixing
to hang himself for a murder thatwarn't ever done. And he got more

(02:00:42):
and more nervous and worried. Iwatching him sharp, but not seeming to
look at him, And all ofa sudden his hands begun to work and
fidget, and pretty soon his leftcrept up and his finger drawed across on
his cheek, And then I hadhim well, then they and howled and
stomped and clapped their hands till TomSawyer was that proud and happy he didn't

(02:01:04):
know what to do with himself.And then the judge he looked down over
his pulpit and says, my boy, did you see all the various details
of this strange conspiracy and tragedy thatyou've been describing, know, your honor,
I didn't see any of them.Didn't see any of them. Why

(02:01:25):
you've told the whole history straight through, just the same as if you'd seen
it with your eyes. How damagethat? Tom says, kind of easy
and comfortable. Oh, just noticingthe evidence and piecing this and that together,
your honor, just an ordinary littlebit of detective work. Anybody could
have done it, nothing of thekind, not two in a million could

(02:01:45):
have done it. You are avery remarkable boy. Then they let go
and give Tom another smashing round,and he well, he wouldn't sold out
for a silver mine. Then thejudge says, but are you certain you've
got this curious history straight perfectly?Your honor? Here is brace dunlap.

(02:02:06):
Let him deny his share of it. If he wants to take the chance.
I'll engage to make him wish hehadn't said anything. Well, you
see, he's pretty quiet, andhis brother's pretty quiet. And them four
witnesses that lied so and got paidfor it, they're pretty quiet. And
as for Uncle Silas, it ain'tany use for him to put in his

(02:02:26):
oar. I wouldn't believe him underoath. Well, sir, that fairly
made them shout, and even thejudge he let go and laughed. Tom,
he was just feeling like a rainbow. When they was done laughing,
he looks up at the judge andsays, your honor, there's a thief
in this house, a thief,yes, sir, and he's got them
twelve thousand dollar diamonds on him,by gracious. But it made a stir.

(02:02:49):
Everybody went shouting, witches him,witches him, pint him out,
and the judge says, point himout, my lad Sheriff, you will
arrest him. Which one is it? Tom says, this late dead man
here, Jubiter Dunlap. Then therewas another thundering let go of astonishment and

(02:03:09):
excitement. But Jubiter, which wasastonished enough before, was just fairly putrified
with astonishment this time. And hespoke up about half crying and says,
no, that's a lie, yourhonor, it ain't fire. I'm plenty
bad enough without that. I'd donethe other things. Brace he put me
up to it and persuaded me andpromised he'd make me rich someday, and

(02:03:31):
I'd done it, and I'm sorryI'd done it, and I wished I
hadn't. But I ain't stole nodiamonds, and I ain't got no di'monds.
I wished I may never stir ifit ain't, so the sheriff can
search me and see Tom says,your honor, it wasn't right to call
him a thief, and I letup on that a little. He did
steal the diamonds, but he didn'tknow it. He stole them from his

(02:03:55):
brother Jake, when he was layingdead, after Jake had stole them from
the other thieves. But Jubiter didn'tknow he was stealing them. And he's
been swelling around here with them amonth, Yes, sir, twelve thousand
dollars worth of diamonds on him,all that riches, and going around here
every day just like a poor man. Yes, your honor, he's got

(02:04:15):
them on him now. The judgespoke up and says, search him,
sheriff, Well, sir, thesheriff he ransacked him high and low and
everywhere, searched his hat, socks, seams, boots, everything, and
Tom he stood there quiet, layingfor another of them effects of his Finally,
the sheriff he gave it up,and everybody looked disappointed, and Jubiter

(02:04:36):
says, they are now what Itell you, And the judge says,
it appears you were mistaken this time, my bar Then Tom took an attitude
and led on to be studying withall his might and scratching his head.
Then all of a sudden he glancedup Chipper and says, oh, now
I've got it. I'd forgot whichwas a lie, and I noted it.

(02:04:58):
Then he says, well, somebodybe good enough to lend me a
little small screwdriver. There was onein your brother's handbag that you smooched,
Jubiter, But I reckon you didn'tfetch it with you. No, I
didn't. I didn't want it,and I give it away. That's because
you didn't know what it was for. Jubiter had his boots on again by

(02:05:19):
now, and when the thing Tomwanted was passed over the people's heads till
it got to him. He saysto Jubiter, put up your boot on
this chair, and he kneeled downand begun to unscrew the heel plate,
everybody watching. And when he gotthat big diamond out of that boot heel
and held it up and let itflash and blaze and squirt sunlight every which

(02:05:41):
way, it just took everybody's breath. And Jubiter he looked so sick and
sorry. You never see the likeof it. And when Tom held up
the other diamond, he looked sorrierthan ever land. He was thinking how
he would have skipped out and beenrich and independent in a foreign country if
he'd only had the luck to guesswhat the screwdriver was in the carpet bag

(02:06:01):
for. Well, it was themost exciting time to take it all round,
and Tom got cords of glory.The judge took the diamonds and stood
up in his pulpit and cleared histhroat and shoved his spectacles back on his
head and says, I'll keep themand notify the owners, and when they
send for them, it will bea real pleasure to me to hand you

(02:06:26):
the two thousand dollars, for you'veearned the money, yes, and you've
earned the deepest and most sincereous thanksof this community, besides for lifting a
wronged and innocent family out of ruinand shame, and saving a good and
honorable man from a felon's death,and for exposing to infamy and the punishment
of the law a cruel and odiousscoundrel and his miserable creatures. Well,

(02:06:53):
sir, if there's been a brassband to bust out some music, then
it would have been just the perfectestthing I ever see. And Tom Sawry
he said the same. Then thesheriff he now braced Dunlap in his crowd,
and by and by next month thejudge had them up for trial and
jailed a whole lot, and everybodycrowded back to Uncle Silas's little old church

(02:07:15):
and was ever so loving and kindto him and the family, and couldn't
do enough for them. And UncleSilas he preached them the blamedest, jumbledest
idiotic sermons you ever struck, andwould tangle you up so you couldn't find
your way home in daylight. Butthe people never let on. But they
thought it was the clearest and brightestand elegant at sermons that ever was,

(02:07:38):
and they would sit there and cryfor love and pity. But by George,
they'd give me the jim jams andthe fan TODs and caked up my
brain's eye had and turned them solid. But by and by they loved the
old man's intellects back into him again, and he was as sound and his
skull as he ever was, whichain't no flattery, I reckon. And

(02:07:58):
so the whole family was as happyas birds, and nobody could be gratefuller
and lovinger than what they was toTom Sawyer, and the same to me,
though I hadn't done nothing. Andwhen the two thousand dollars come,
Tom give half of it to me, and never told anybody so, which
didn't surprise me, because I knowedhim. End of Chapter eleven and end

(02:08:22):
of Tom Sawyer Detective