“Huck, I didn’t wait to look around.
I didn’t see the box, I didn’t see the
cross. I didn’t see anything but a bottle
and a tin cup on the floor by Injun Joe; yes, I saw
two barrels and lots more bottles in the room.
Don’t you see, now, what’s the matter with
that ha’nted room?”
“How?”
“Why, it’s ha’nted with whiskey!
Maybe all the Temperance Taverns have got a ha’nted
room, hey, Huck?”
“Well, I reckon maybe that’s so.
Who’d ‘a’ thought such a thing?
But say, Tom, now’s a mighty good time to get
that box, if Injun Joe’s drunk.”
“It is, that! You try it!”
Huck shuddered.
“Well, no—I reckon not.”
“And I reckon not, Huck. Only one bottle
alongside of Injun Joe ain’t enough. If
there’d been three, he’d be drunk enough
and I’d do it.”
There was a long pause for reflection, and then Tom
said:
“Lookyhere, Huck, less not try that thing any
more till we know Injun Joe’s not in there.
It’s too scary. Now, if we watch every night,
we’ll be dead sure to see him go out, some time
or other, and then we’ll snatch that box quicker’n
lightning.”
“Well, I’m agreed. I’ll watch
the whole night long, and I’ll do it every night,
too, if you’ll do the other part of the job.”
“All right, I will. All you got to do is
to trot up Hooper Street a block and maow—and
if I’m asleep, you throw some gravel at the window
and that’ll fetch me.”
“Agreed, and good as wheat!”
“Now, Huck, the storm’s over, and I’ll
go home. It’ll begin to be daylight in
a couple of hours. You go back and watch that
long, will you?”
“I said I would, Tom, and I will. I’ll
ha’nt that tavern every night for a year!
I’ll sleep all day and I’ll stand watch
all night.”
“That’s all right. Now, where you
going to sleep?”
“In Ben Rogers’ hayloft. He lets
me, and so does his pap’s nigger man, Uncle
Jake. I tote water for Uncle Jake whenever he
wants me to, and any time I ask him he gives me a
little something to eat if he can spare it. That’s
a mighty good nigger, Tom. He likes me, becuz
I don’t ever act as if I was above him.
Sometime I’ve set right down and eat with
him. But you needn’t tell that. A body’s
got to do things when he’s awful hungry he wouldn’t
want to do as a steady thing.”
“Well, if I don’t want you in the daytime,
I’ll let you sleep. I won’t come
bothering around. Any time you see something’s
up, in the night, just skip right around and maow.”
