- description
- # The Welshman's Account of the Chase
## Overview
This entity is a textual scene extracted from Mark Twain’s novel *The Adventures of Tom Sawyer*. It appears in [CHAPTER XXX](arke:01KG2TRBFGT9BXWC4TFW74S3TZ) of the novel and spans lines 7401 to 7419 in the source file [tom_sawyer.txt](arke:01KG2T4RHC4E1XKJ12BJRXE8E8). The scene captures a pivotal moment in which the old Welshman recounts to Huck Finn the failed attempt to capture two intruders who had threatened the Widow Douglas.
## Context
The scene follows [Huck's Description of the Events](arke:01KG2TS11QQ99ZHK0YQWZV2099), in which Huck explains his fear and flight after hearing gunfire. It is part of a larger narrative sequence in [CHAPTER XXX](arke:01KG2TRBFGT9BXWC4TFW74S3TZ), which details the aftermath of the attempted burglary and Huck’s growing involvement in the unfolding events. The account is delivered early one Sunday morning, shortly after the incident, and sets the stage for Huck’s subsequent revelation of the intruders’ identities in the following scene, [Huck's Description of the Men](arke:01KG2TS12ZMEDJJVCGCFX0KKWF).
## Contents
In this passage, the Welshman describes how he and his sons tracked the two intruders based on Huck’s earlier description. They crept within fifteen feet of the men along a dark sumac path, but the Welshman sneezed at the critical moment, alerting the villains. He gave the order to fire, and though both sides exchanged shots, no one was injured. The intruders escaped into the woods, prompting the Welshman to summon the constables. A posse was formed to guard the riverbank, and a search party led by the sheriff was to scour the woods at first light. The Welshman expresses regret at not having a clear description of the fugitives—information Huck is then able to provide, identifying one as the “deaf and dumb Spaniard,” who is later revealed to be the antagonist Injun Joe.
- description_generated_at
- 2026-01-28T17:39:25.687Z
- description_model
- Qwen/Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507
- description_title
- The Welshman's Account of the Chase
- end_line
- 7419
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-28T17:35:17.899Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 7401
- text
- ain’t dead, lad—we are sorry enough for that. You see we knew right
where to put our hands on them, by your description; so we crept along
on tiptoe till we got within fifteen feet of them—dark as a cellar that
sumach path was—and just then I found I was going to sneeze. It was the
meanest kind of luck! I tried to keep it back, but no use—’twas bound to
come, and it did come! I was in the lead with my pistol raised, and when
the sneeze started those scoundrels a-rustling to get out of the path,
I sung out, ‘Fire boys!’ and blazed away at the place where the rustling
was. So did the boys. But they were off in a jiffy, those villains, and
we after them, down through the woods. I judge we never touched them.
They fired a shot apiece as they started, but their bullets whizzed by
and didn’t do us any harm. As soon as we lost the sound of their feet
we quit chasing, and went down and stirred up the constables. They got a
posse together, and went off to guard the river bank, and as soon as it
is light the sheriff and a gang are going to beat up the woods. My boys
will be with them presently. I wish we had some sort of description of
those rascals—’twould help a good deal. But you couldn’t see what they
were like, in the dark, lad, I suppose?”
- title
- The Welshman's Account of the Chase