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- 8563
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-28T02:36:01.313Z
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- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
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- text
- Tom got into this and held his candle as far under the rock as he
could, but said he could not see to the end of the rift. He proposed
to explore. He stooped and passed under; the narrow way descended
gradually. He followed its winding course, first to the right, then to
the left, Huck at his heels. Tom turned a short curve, by-and-by, and
exclaimed:
“My goodness, Huck, lookyhere!”
It was the treasure-box, sure enough, occupying a snug little cavern,
along with an empty powder-keg, a couple of guns in leather cases, two
or three pairs of old moccasins, a leather belt, and some other rubbish
well soaked with the water-drip.
“Got it at last!” said Huck, ploughing among the tarnished coins with
his hand. “My, but we’re rich, Tom!”
“Huck, I always reckoned we’d get it. It’s just too good to believe, but
we _have_ got it, sure! Say—let’s not fool around here. Let’s snake it
out. Lemme see if I can lift the box.”
It weighed about fifty pounds. Tom could lift it, after an awkward
fashion, but could not carry it conveniently.
“I thought so,” he said; “_They_ carried it like it was heavy, that day
at the ha’nted house. I noticed that. I reckon I was right to think of
fetching the little bags along.”
The money was soon in the bags and the boys took it up to the cross
rock.
“Now less fetch the guns and things,” said Huck.
“No, Huck—leave them there. They’re just the tricks to have when we
go to robbing. We’ll keep them there all the time, and we’ll hold our
orgies there, too. It’s an awful snug place for orgies.”
“What orgies?”
“I dono. But robbers always have orgies, and of course we’ve got to
have them, too. Come along, Huck, we’ve been in here a long time. It’s
getting late, I reckon. I’m hungry, too. We’ll eat and smoke when we get
to the skiff.”
They presently emerged into the clump of sumach bushes, looked warily
out, found the coast clear, and were soon lunching and smoking in the
skiff. As the sun dipped toward the horizon they pushed out and got
under way. Tom skimmed up the shore through the long twilight, chatting
cheerily with Huck, and landed shortly after dark.
“Now, Huck,” said Tom, “we’ll hide the money in the loft of the widow’s
woodshed, and I’ll come up in the morning and we’ll count it and divide,
and then we’ll hunt up a place out in the woods for it where it will be
safe. Just you lay quiet here and watch the stuff till I run and hook
Benny Taylor’s little wagon; I won’t be gone a minute.”
He disappeared, and presently returned with the wagon, put the two small
sacks into it, threw some old rags on top of them, and started off,
dragging his cargo behind him. When the boys reached the Welshman’s
house, they stopped to rest. Just as they were about to move on, the
Welshman stepped out and said:
“Hallo, who’s that?”
“Huck and Tom Sawyer.”
“Good! Come along with me, boys, you are keeping everybody waiting.
Here—hurry up, trot ahead—I’ll haul the wagon for you. Why, it’s not as
light as it might be. Got bricks in it?—or old metal?”
“Old metal,” said Tom.
“I judged so; the boys in this town will take more trouble and fool away
more time hunting up six bits’ worth of old iron to sell to the foundry
than they would to make twice the money at regular work. But that’s
human nature—hurry along, hurry along!”
The boys wanted to know what the hurry was about.
“Never mind; you’ll see, when we get to the Widow Douglas’.”
Huck said with some apprehension—for he was long used to being falsely
accused:
“Mr. Jones, we haven’t been doing nothing.”
The Welshman laughed.
“Well, I don’t know, Huck, my boy. I don’t know about that. Ain’t you
and the widow good friends?”
“Yes. Well, she’s ben good friends to me, anyway.”
“All right, then. What do you want to be afraid for?”
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- Chunk 5