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Chapter twenty four. Splendid days andfearsome nights. Tom was a glittering hero,
once more, the pet of theold, the envy of the young.
His name even went into immortal print, for the village paper magnified him.
There were some that believed he wouldbe president. Yet if he escaped
hanging, as usual, the fickle, unreasoning world took muff Potter to its
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bosom and fondled him as lavishly asit had abused him before. But that
sort of conduct is to the world'scredit. Therefore it is not well to
find fault with it. Tom's dayswere days of splendor and exaltation to him,
but his nights were seasons of horror. Injun Joe infested all his dreams,
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and all was with doom in hiseye. Hardly any temptation could persuade
the boy to stir abroad after nightfall. Poor Huck was in the same state
of wretchedness and terror, for Tomhad told the whole story to the lawyer
the night before the great day ofthe trial, and Huck was sore afraid
that his share in the business mightleak out. Yet, notwithstanding, Injun
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Joe's flight had saved him the sufferingof testifying in court. The poor fellow
had got the attorney to promise secrecy, but what of that, Since Tom's
harassed conscience had managed to drive himto the lawyer's house by night and ring
a dread tail from lips that hadbeen sealed with the dismallest and most formidable
of oaths, Huck's confidence in thehuman race was well nigh obliterated. Daily
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muff Potter's gratitude made Tom glad hehad spoken, but nightly he wished he
had sealed up his tongue. Halfthe time Tom was afraid Injun Joe would
never be captured. The other halfhe was afraid he would be. He
felt sure he never could draw asafe breath again until that man was dead
and he had seen the corpse.Rewards had been offered, the country had
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been scoured, but no Injun Joewas found. One of those o't and
awe inspiring marvels, a detective cameup from Saint Louis, moused around,
shook his head, looked wise,and made that sort of astounding success which
members of the craft usually achieve.That is to say, he found a
clue, but you can't hang aclue for murder, And so after that
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detective had got through and gone home, Tom felt just as insecure as he
was before. The slow days driftedon, and each left behind it a
slightly lightened weight of apprehension. Endof Chapter twenty four. Chapter twenty five,
Seeking the Buried Treasure. There comesa time in every rightly constructed boy's
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life when he has a raging desireto go somewhere and dig for hidden treasure.
This desire suddenly came upon Tom.One day He sallied out to find
Joe Harper, but failed of success. Next he sought Ben Rogers, he
had gone fishing. Presently he stumbledupon Huck Finn. The red handed Huck
would answer. Tom took him toa private place and opened the matter to
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him confidentially. Huck was willing.Huck was always willing to take a hand
in any enterprise that offered entertainment andrequired no capital, for he had a
troublesome superabundance of that sort of time, which is not money. Where'll we
dig, said Huck? Oh,most anywhere? Why is it hid all
round? No? Indeed it ain't. It's hid in mighty particular places.
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Huck sometimes on islands, sometimes inrotten chests, under the end of a
limb of an old dead tree,just where the shadow falls at midnight,
but mostly under the floor in hauntedhouses. Who hides it? Why?
Robbers? Of course? Who'd youreckon Sunday School superintendence? I don't know.
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If twas mine, I wouldn't hideit. I'd spend it and have
a good time, so would I. But robbers don't do that way.
They always hide it and leave itit there. Don't they come after it
anymore? No, they think theywill, but they generally forget the marks,
or else they die. Anyway,it lays there a long time and
gets rusty, and buy and buy. Somebody finds an old yellow paper that
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tells how to find the marks,a paper that's got to be ciphered over
about a week because it's mostly signsin the high rod glyphics highro which high
rode glyphics, pictures and things youknow that don't seem to mean anything.
If you got one of them papers, Tom, No, well then how
are you going to find the marks? No? I don't want to find
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any marks. They always bury itunder a haunted house or on an island,
or under a dead tree that's gotone limb sticking out. Well,
we've tried Jackson's Island a little,and we can try it again sometime.
And there's the old Haunted house upthe still House branch, and there's lots
of dead limb trees, dead loadsof them? Is it? Under all
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of them? How you talk?No? And how are you going to
know which one to go? For? Go for all of them? Why?
Tom, it'll take all summer?Well what of that? Suppose you
find a brass pot with a hundreddollars in it, all rusty and gay,
or a rotten chest full of diamonds. How's that? Huck's eyes glowed?
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That's bully plenty, bully enough forme. Just you gimme the hundred
dollars. And I don't want nodiamonds, all right, But I bet
you I ain't going to throw offon diamonds. Some of them's worth twenty
dollars apiece. There ain't any hardly, but it's worth six bits or a
dollar? No? Is that so? Certainly? Anybody tell you so?
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Hain't you ever seen one? Huck? Not as I remember? Oh,
kings have slathers of them. Well, I don't know no, kings,
Tom, and I reckon you don't. But if you was to go to
Europe, you see a raft ofem hoppin around? Do they hop hop?
You're grannie? No, Well,what'd you say they did for shocks?
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I only meant you'd see him nothopping, of course, what do
they want to hop for? ButI mean you just see him scattered around,
you know, in a kind ofa general way, like that old
humpbacked Richard. Richard what's his othername? He didn't have any other name.
Kings don't have any but a givenname. No, but they don't.
Well if they like it, Tom, all right, but I don't
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want to be a king and haveonly just a given name, like a
nigger. But say, where areyou going to dig? First? Well?
I don't know. Suppose we tacklethat old dead limb tree on the
hill to other side of stillhouse branch. I'm agreed. So they got a
crippled pick and a shovel and setout on their three mile tramp. They
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arrived hot and panting, and threwthemselves down in the shade of a neighboring
elm to rest and have a smoke. I like this, said Tom,
So do I say, if wefind a treasure here, what are you
going to do with your share?Well, I'll have pie and a glass
of so every day, and I'llgo to every circus that comes along.
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I bet I'll have a gay time. Well, ain't you going to save
any of it? Save it?What for? Why? So as to
have something to live on? Buyand buy? Oh, that ain't any
use. Pap would come back tothis year town someday and get his claws
on it if I didn't hurry up, And I tell you, he'd clean
it out pretty quick. What you'regonna do with yourn, Tom, I'm
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going to buy a new drum anda sure enough sword, and a redneck
tie and a bull pup and getmarried. Married? That's it, Tom?
You why you ain't in your rightmind? Wait you'll see. Well
that's the foolishest thing you could do. Look at Pap and my mother fight.
Why they used to fight all thetime. I remember, mighty well,
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that ain't anything. The girl I'mgoing to marry won't fight, Tom.
I reckon, they're all alike.They'll all comb a body. Now
you better think about this a while. I tell you you better. What's
the net of the gal. Itain't a gal at all, it's a
girl. It's all the same,I reckon. Some says gal, some
says girl. Both's right. Likeenough anyway, what's her name? Tom?
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I'll tell you sometime, not now, all right, that'll do.
Only if you get married. I'llbe more and lonesomer than ever. No
you won't. You'll come and livewith me. Now, stir out of
this and we'll go to digging.They worked and sweated for half an hour,
no result. They toiled another halfhour, still no result. Huck
said, do they always buried asdeep as this? Sometimes? Not always,
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not generally. I reckon, wehaven't got the right place. So
they chose a new spot and beganagain. The labor dragged a little,
but still they made progress. Theypegged away in silence for some time.
Finally Huck leaned on his shovel,swabbed the beaded drops from his brow with
his sleeve, and said, whereare you going to dig next? After
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we get this one? I reckon, maybe we'll tackle the old tree that's
over yonder on Cardiff Hill, backof the widows. I reckon, that'll
be a good one. But won'tthe widow take it away from us.
Tom it's on her land. Shetake it away. Maybe she'd like to
try it once. Whoever finds oneof these hid treasures, it belongs to
him. It don't make any differencewhose land it's on. That was satisfactory.
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The work went on by, andbye, Huck said, blame it.
We must be in the wrong placeagain. What do you think it
is? Mighty curious, Huck,I don't understand it. Sometimes witches interfere,
I reckon. Maybe that's what's thetrouble, now, shucks, witches
ain't got no power in the daytime. Well that's so I didn't think of
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that. Oh, I know whatthe matter is. What a blamed lot
of fools we are. You gotto find out where the shadow of the
limb falls at midnight, and that'swhere you dig. Then con sound it.
We fooled away all this work fornothing. Now hang it all.
We've got to come back in thenight. It's an awful long way.
Can you get out? I betI will. We've got to do it
to night too, because if somebodysees these holes, they'll know in a
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minute what's here and they'll go forit. Well, I'll come around and
mow to night. All right,let's hide the tools in the bushes.
The boys were there that night aboutthe appointed time. They sat in the
shadow waiting. It was a lonelyplace, and an hour made solemn by
old traditions. Spirits whispered in therustling leaves, Ghosts lurked in the murky
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nooks. The deep baying of ahound floated up out of the distance.
An owl answered with his sepulchral note. The boys were subdued by these solemnities,
and talked little by and by.They judged that twelve had come.
They marked where the shadow fell,and began to dig. Their hopes commenced
to rise. Their interests grew stronger, and their industry kept pace with it.
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The hole deepened and still deepened,but every time their hearts jumped to
hear the pick strike upon something,they only suffered a new disappointment. It
was only a stone or a chunk. At last, Tom said, it
ain't no use, Huck, We'rewrong again. Well, but we can't
be wrong. We spotted the shatterto a dot, I know it.
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But then there's another thing. What'sthat? Why we only guessed at the
time? Like enough, it wastoo late or too early. Huck dropped
his shovel. That's it, hesaid. That's the very trouble. We
got to give this one up.We can't ever tell the right time.
And besides, this kind of thing'stoo awful here this time of night,
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with witches and ghosts of fluttering around. So I feel as if something's behind
me all the time, and I'ma fear to turn around because maybe there's
others in front of waiting for achance. I've been creeping all over ever
since I got here. Well,I've been pretty much so too, Huck.
They most always put in a deadman when they bury a treasure under
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a tree, to look out forit. Lordy, yes they do.
I've always heard that, Tom.I don't like to fool around much where
there's dead people, A body's boundto get into trouble with. I'm sure
I don't like to stir him upeither. Suppose this one here was to
stick his skull out and say something, don't Tom, it's awful. Well,
it just is talk. I don'tfeel comfortable a bit. Say Tom,
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let's give this place up and trysomewhere else, all right, I
reckon we better? What'll it be? Tom considered a while and then said,
the hanted house. That's it.Blame it. I don't like hanted
houses, Tom, Why they're aderned sight, worse than dead people.
Dead people might talk, maybe,but they don't come sliding around in a
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shroud when you ain't noticing, andpeep over your shoulder all of a sudden
and grit their teeth the way aghost does. I couldn't stand such a
thing as that, Tom, nobodycould. Yes, but hack ghosts don't
travel around only at night. Theywon't hander us from digging there in the
daytime. Well that's so. Butyou know, mighty well, people don't
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go about that handed house in theday nor the night. Well that's mostly
because they don't like to go wherea man's been murdered. Anyway, But
nothing's ever been seen around that houseexcept in the night. Just some blue
lights slipping by the windows. Noregular ghosts. Well, where you see
one of them blue lights flickering around, Tom, you can bet there's a
ghost mighty close behind it. Itstands to reason, because you know that
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they don't anybody but ghosts use them. Yes, that's so. Anyway,
they don't come round in the daytime. So what's the use of our being
affeered? Well, all right,we'll tackle the handed house if you say
so, but I reckon it's takenchances. They had started down the hill
by this time. There in themiddle of the moonlit valley below them stood
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the hanted house, utterly isolated,its fences gone long ago, rank weeds
smothering the very doorsteps, the chimneycrumpled to ruin, the window sashes vacant,
a corner of the roof caved in. The boys gazed awhile, half
expecting to see a blue light flitpast a window. Then, talking in
a low tone as befitted the timeand the circumstances, they struck far off
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to the right to give the hauntedhouse a wide berth, and took their
way homeward through the woods that adornedthe rearward side of Cardiff Hill. End
of Chapter twenty five