Tom Sawyer, Detective

Chapter 11

TOM SAWYER DISCOVERS THE MURDERERS

WELL, that was a hard month on us all. Poor Benny, she kept up the best

she could, and me and Tom tried to keep things cheerful there at the

house, but it kind of went for nothing, as you may say. It was the same

up at the jail. We went up every day to see the old people, but it was

awful dreary, because the old man warn't sleeping much, and was walking

in his sleep considerable and so he got to looking 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

cheerfuler, he only shook his head and said if we only knowed what it was

to carry around a murderer's load in your heart we wouldn't talk that

way. Tom and all 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 have it any other way. He actu'ly begun to come out plain

and square towards trial time and acknowledge that he TRIED to kill the

man. Why, that was awful, you know. It made things seem fifty times as

dreadful, and there warn't no more comfort for Aunt Sally and Benny. But

he promised he wouldn't say a word about his murder when others was

around, and we was glad of that.

Tom Sawyer racked the head off of himself all that month trying to plan

some way out for Uncle Silas, and many's the night he kept me up 'most

all night with this kind of tiresome work, but he couldn't seem to get on

the right track no way. As for me, I reckoned a body might as well give

it up, it all looked so blue and I was so downhearted; but he wouldn't.

He stuck to the business right along, and went on planning and thinking

and ransacking his head.

So at last the trial come on, towards the middle of October, and we was

all in the court. The place was jammed, of course. Poor old 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 set on one side

of him and Aunt Sally on the other, and they had veils on, and was full

of trouble. But Tom he set by our lawyer, and had his finger in

everywheres, of course. The lawyer let him, and the judge let him. He

'most took the business out of the lawyer's hands sometimes; which was

well enough, because that was only a mud-turtle of a back-settlement

lawyer and didn't know enough to come in when it rains, as the saying is.

They swore in the jury, and then the lawyer for the prostitution got up

and begun. He made a terrible speech against the old man, that made him

moan and groan, and made Benny and Aunt Sally cry. The way HE told about

the murder kind of knocked us all stupid it was so different from the old

man's tale. He said he was going to prove that Uncle Silas was SEEN to

kill Jubiter Dunlap by two good witnesses, and done it deliberate, and

SAID he was going to kill him the very minute he hit him with the club;

and they seen him hide Jubiter in the bushes, and they seen that Jubiter

was stone-dead. And said Uncle Silas come later and lugged Jubiter down

into the tobacker field, and two men seen him do it. And said Uncle Silas

turned out, away in the night, and buried Jubiter, and a man seen him at

it.

I says to myself, poor old Uncle Silas has been lying about it because he

reckoned nobody seen him and he couldn't bear to break Aunt Sally's heart

and Benny's; and right he was: as for me, I would 'a' lied the same way,

and so would anybody that had any feeling, to save them such misery and

sorrow which THEY warn't no ways responsible for. Well, it made our

lawyer look pretty sick; and it knocked Tom silly, too, for a little

spell, but then he braced up and let on that he warn't worried--but I

knowed he WAS, all the same. And the people--my, but it made a stir

amongst them!

And when that lawyer was done telling the jury what he was going to

prove, he set down and begun to work his witnesses.

First, he called a lot of them to show that there was bad blood betwixt

Uncle Silas and the diseased; and they told how they had heard Uncle

Silas threaten the diseased, at one time and another, and how it got

worse and worse and everybody was talking about it, and how diseased got

afraid of his life, and told two or three of them he was certain Uncle

Silas would up and kill him some time or another.

Tom and our lawyer asked them some questions; but it warn't no use, they

stuck to what they said.

Next, they called up Lem Beebe, and he took the stand. It come into my

mind, then, how Lem and Jim Lane had come along talking, that time, about

borrowing a dog or something from Jubiter Dunlap; and that brought up the

blackberries and the lantern; and that brought up Bill and Jack Withers,

and how they passed by, talking about a n****r stealing Uncle Silas's

corn; and that fetched up our old ghost that come along about the same

time and scared us so--and here HE was too, and a privileged character,

on accounts of his being deef and dumb and a stranger, and they had fixed

him a chair inside the railing, where he could cross his legs and be

comfortable, whilst the other people was all in a jam so they couldn't

hardly breathe. So it all come back to me just the way it was that day;

and it made me mournful to think how pleasant it was up to then, and how

miserable ever since.

Well, it was awful. It kind of froze everybody's blood to hear it, and

the house was 'most as still whilst he was telling it as if there warn't

nobody in it. And when he was done, you could hear them gasp and sigh,

all over the house, and look at one another the same as to say, "Ain't it

perfectly terrible--ain't it awful!"

Now happened a thing that astonished me. All the time the first

witnesses was proving the bad blood and the threats and all that, Tom

Sawyer was alive and laying for them; and the minute they was through, he

went for them, and done his level best to catch them in lies and spile

their testimony. But now, how different. When Lem first begun to talk,

and never said anything 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 getting ready to cross-question him to death pretty soon, and then I

judged him and me would go on the stand by and by and tell what we heard

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 you ever see--miles and miles

away. He warn't hearing a word Lem Beebe was saying; and when he got

through he was still in that brown-study, just the same. Our lawyer

joggled him, and then he looked up startled, and says, "Take the witness

if you want him. Lemme alone--I want to think."

Well, that beat me. I couldn't understand it. And Benny and her

mother--oh, they looked sick, they was so troubled. They shoved their

veils to one side and tried to get his eye, but it warn't any use, and 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, and he told the very same story over again,

exact. Tom never listened to this one at all, but set there thinking and

thinking, miles and miles away. So the mud-turtle went in alone again and

come out just as flat as he done before. The lawyer for the prostitution

looked very comfortable, but the judge looked disgusted. You see, Tom was

just the same as a regular lawyer, nearly, because it was Arkansaw law

for a prisoner to choose anybody he wanted to help his lawyer, and Tom

had had Uncle Silas shove him into the case, and now he was botching it

and you could see the judge didn't like it much. All that the mud-turtle

got out of Lem and Jim was this: he asked them:

"Why didn't you go and tell what you saw?"

"We was afraid we would get mixed up in it ourselves. And we was just

starting down the river a-hunting for all the week besides; but as soon

as we come back we found out they'd been searching for the body, so then

we went and told Brace Dunlap all about it."

"When was that?"

"Saturday night, September 9th."

The judge he spoke up and says:

"Mr. Sheriff, arrest these two witnesses on suspicions of being

accessionary after the fact to the murder."

The lawyer for the prostitution jumps up all excited, and says:

"Your honor! I protest against this extraordi--"

"Set down!" says the judge, pulling his bowie and laying it on his

pulpit. "I beg you to respect the Court."

So he done it. Then he called Bill Withers.

It made the people shiver to think of poor old Uncle Silas toting off the

diseased down to the place in his tobacker field where the dog dug up the

body, but there warn't much sympathy around amongst the faces, and I

heard one cuss say "'Tis the coldest blooded work I ever struck, lugging

a murdered man around like that, and going to bury him like a animal, and

him a 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 it was plenty poor enough.

Then Jack Withers he come on the stand and told the same tale, just like

Bill done.

And after him comes Brace Dunlap, and he was looking very mournful, and

most crying; and there was a rustle and a stir all around, and everybody

got ready to listen, and lost of the women folks said, "Poor cretur, poor

cretur," and you could see a many of them wiping their eyes.

And he slumped down in his chair crying and sobbing, and 'most everybody

in the house busted out wailing, and crying, and saying, "Oh, it's

awful--awful--horrible! and there was a most tremendous excitement, and

you couldn't hear yourself think; and right in the midst of it up jumps

old Uncle Silas, white as a sheet, and sings out:

"IT'S TRUE, EVERY WORD--I MURDERED HIM IN COLD BLOOD!"

By Jackson, it petrified them! People rose up wild all over the house,

straining and staring for a better look at him, and the judge was

hammering with his mallet and the sheriff yelling "Order--order in the

court--order!"

And all the while the old man stood there a-quaking and his eyes

a-burning, and not looking at his wife and daughter, which was clinging

to him and begging him to keep still, but pawing them off 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 with his awful tale,

everybody a-staring and gasping, judge, jury, lawyers, and everybody, and

Benny and Aunt Sally crying 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 stream of fire:

"I killed him! I am guilty! But I never had the notion in my life to hurt

him or harm him, spite of all them lies about my threatening him, till

the very minute I raised the club--then my heart went cold!--then the

pity all went out of it, and I struck to kill! In that one moment all my

wrongs come into my mind; all the insults that that man and the scoundrel

his brother, there, had put upon me, and how they laid in together to

ruin me with the people, and take away my good name, and DRIVE me to some

deed that would destroy me and my family that hadn't ever done THEM no

harm, so help me God! And they done it in a mean revenge--for why?

Because my innocent pure girl here at my side wouldn't marry that rich,

insolent, ignorant coward, Brace Dunlap, who's been sniveling here over a

brother he never cared a brass farthing for--"[I see Tom give a jump and

look glad THIS time, to a dead certainty]"--and in that moment I'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 I was miserably

sorry--oh, filled with remorse; but I thought of my poor family, and I

MUST hide what I'd done for their sakes; and I did hide that corpse in

the bushes; and presently I carried it to the tobacker field; and in the

deep night I went with my shovel and buried it where--"

Up jumps Tom and shouts:

"NOW, I've got it!" and waves his hand, oh, ever so fine and starchy,

towards the old man, and says:

"Set down! A murder WAS done, but you never had no hand in it!"

Well, sir, you could a heard a pin drop. And the old man he sunk down

kind of bewildered in his seat and Aunt Sally and Benny didn't know it,

because they was so astonished and staring at Tom with their mouths open

and not knowing what they was about. And the whole house the same. I

never seen people look so helpless and tangled up, and I hain't ever seen

eyes bug out and gaze without a blink the way theirn did. Tom says,

perfectly ca'm:

"Your honor, may I speak?"

"For God's sake, yes--go on!" says the judge, so astonished and mixed up

he didn't know what he was about hardly.

Then Tom he stood there and waited a second or two--that was for to work

up an "effect," as he calls it--then he started in just as ca'm as ever,

and says:

"For about two weeks now there's been a little bill sticking on the front

of this courthouse offering two thousand dollars reward for a couple of

big di'monds--stole at St. Louis. Them di'monds is worth twelve thousand

dollars. But never mind about that till I get to it. Now about this

murder. I will tell you all about it--how it happened--who done it--every

DEtail."

You could see everybody nestle now, and begin to listen for all they was

worth.

"This man here, Brace Dunlap, that's been sniveling so about his dead

brother that YOU know he never cared a straw for, wanted to marry that

young girl there, and she wouldn't have him. So he told Uncle Silas he

would make him sorry. Uncle Silas knowed how powerful he was, and how

little chance he had against such a man, and he was scared and worried,

and done everything he could think of to smooth him over and get him to

be good to him: he even took his no-account brother Jubiter on the 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, and

fret and worry him, and try to drive Uncle Silas into doing him a hurt,

so as to injure Uncle Silas with the people. And it done it. Everybody

turned against him and said the meanest kind of things about him, and it

graduly broke his heart--yes, and he was so worried and distressed that

often he warn't hardly in his right mind.

"Well, on that Saturday that we've had so much trouble about, two of

these witnesses here, Lem Beebe and Jim Lane, come along by where Uncle

Silas and Jubiter Dunlap was at work--and that much of what they've said

is true, the rest is lies. They didn't hear Uncle Silas say he would kill

Jubiter; they didn't hear no blow struck; they didn't see no dead man,

and they didn't see Uncle Silas hide anything in the bushes. Look at them

now--how they set there, wishing they hadn't been so handy with their

tongues; anyway, they'll wish it before I get done.

"That same Saturday evening Bill and Jack Withers DID see one man lugging

off another one. That much of what they said is true, and the rest is

lies. First off they thought it was a n****r stealing Uncle Silas's

corn--you notice it makes them look silly, now, to find out somebody

overheard them say that. That's because they found out by and by who it

was that was doing the lugging, and THEY know best why they swore here

that they took it for Uncle Silas by the gait--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 ground in

the tobacker field--but it wasn't Uncle Silas that done the burying. 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, or when they're worried,

are most always doing something with their hands, and they don't know it,

and don't notice what it is their hands are doing, some stroke their

chins; some stroke their noses; some stroke up UNDER their chin with

their hand; some twirl a chain, some fumble a button, then there's some

that draws a figure or a letter with their finger on their cheek, or

under their chin or on their under lip. That's MY way. When I'm

restless, or worried, or thinking hard, I draw capital V's on my cheek or

on my under lip or under my chin, and never anything BUT capital V's--and

half the time I don't notice it and don't know I'm doing it."

That was odd. That is just what I do; only I make an O. And I could see

people nodding to one another, same as they do when they mean "THAT's

so."

"Now, then, I'll go on. That same Saturday--no, it was the night

before--there was a steamboat laying at Flagler's Landing, forty miles

above here, and it was raining and storming like the nation. And there

was a thief aboard, and he had them two big di'monds that's advertised

out here on this courthouse door; and he slipped ashore with his hand-bag

and struck out into the dark and the storm, and he was a-hoping he could

get to this town all right and be safe. But he had two pals aboard the

boat, hiding, and he knowed they was going to kill him the first chance

they got and take the di'monds; because all three stole them, and then

this fellow he got hold of them and skipped.

"Well, he hadn't been gone more'n ten minutes before his pals found it

out, and they jumped ashore and lit out after him. Prob'ly they burnt

matches and found his tracks. Anyway, they dogged along after him all

day Saturday and kept out of his sight; and towards sundown he come to

the bunch of sycamores down by Uncle Silas's field, and he went in there

to get a disguise out of his hand-bag and put it on before he showed

himself here in the town--and mind you he done that just a little after

the time that Uncle Silas was hitting Jubiter Dunlap over the head with a

club--for he DID hit him.

"But the minute the pals see that thief slide into the bunch of

sycamores, they jumped out of the bushes and slid in after him.

"They fell on him and clubbed him to death.

"Yes, for all he screamed and howled so, they never had no mercy on him,

but clubbed him to death. And two men that was running along the road

heard him yelling that way, and they made a rush into the syca-i more

bunch--which was where they was bound for, anyway--and when the pals saw

them they lit out and the two new men after them a-chasing 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.

"THEN what did they do? I will tell you what they done. They found where

the thief had got his disguise out of his carpet-sack to put on; so one

of them strips and puts on that disguise."

Tom waited a little here, for some more "effect"--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 perfectly astonished.

"Yes, it was Jubiter Dunlap. Not dead, you see. Then they pulled off

the dead man's boots and put Jubiter Dunlap's old ragged shoes on the

corpse and put the corpse's boots on Jubiter Dunlap. Then Jubiter Dunlap

stayed where he was, and the other man lugged the dead body off in the

twilight; and after midnight he went to Uncle Silas's house, and took his

old green work-robe off of the peg where it always hangs in the passage

betwixt the house and the kitchen and put it on, and stole the

long-handled shovel and went off down into the tobacker field and buried

the murdered man."

He stopped, and stood half a minute. Then--"And who do you reckon the

murdered man WAS? It was--JAKE Dunlap, the long-lost burglar!"

"Great Scott!"

"And the man that buried him was--BRACE Dunlap, his brother!"

"Great Scott!"

"And who do you reckon is this mowing i***t here that's letting on 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 never see the like of

that excitement since the day you was born. And Tom he made a jump for

Jubiter and snaked off his goggles and his false whiskers, and there was

the murdered man, sure enough, just as alive as anybody! And Aunt Sally

and Benny they went to hugging and crying and kissing and smothering old

Uncle Silas to that degree he was more muddled and confused and mushed up

in his mind than he ever was before, and that is saying considerable.

And next, people begun to yell:

"Tom Sawyer! Tom Sawyer! Shut up everybody, and let him go on! Go on, Tom

Sawyer!"

Which made him feel uncommon bully, for it was nuts for Tom Sawyer to be

a public character that-away, and a hero, as he calls it. So when it was

all quiet, he says:

"There ain't much left, only this. When that man there, Bruce Dunlap,

had most worried the life and sense out of Uncle Silas till at last he

plumb lost his mind and hit this other blatherskite, his brother, with a

club, I reckon he seen his chance. Jubiter broke for the woods to hide,

and I reckon the game 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 somers; and that would ruin Uncle Silas and drive

HIM out of the country--hang him, maybe; I dunno. But when they found

their dead brother in the sycamores without knowing him, because he was

so battered up, they see they had a better thing; disguise BOTH and bury

Jake and dig him up presently all dressed up in Jubiter's clothes, and

hire Jim Lane and Bill Withers and the others to swear to some handy

lies--which they done. And there they set, now, and I told them they

would be looking sick before I got done, and that is the way they're

looking now.

"Well, me and Huck Finn here, we come down on the boat with the thieves,

and the dead one told us all about the di'monds, and said the others

would murder him if they got the chance; and we was going to help him all

we could. We was bound for the sycamores when we heard them killing him

in there; but we was in there in the early morning after the storm and

allowed nobody hadn't been killed, after all. And when we see Jubiter

Dunlap here spreading around in the very same disguise Jake told us HE

was going to wear, we thought it was Jake his own self--and he was

goo-gooing deef and dumb, and THAT was according to agreement.

"Well, me and Huck went on hunting for the corpse after the others quit,

and we found it. And was proud, too; but Uncle Silas he knocked us crazy

by telling us HE killed the man. So we was mighty sorry we found the

body, and was bound to save Uncle Silas's neck if we could; and it was

going to be tough work, too, because he wouldn't let us break him out of

prison the way we done with our old n****r Jim.

"I done everything I could the whole month to think up some way to save

Uncle Silas, but I couldn't strike a thing. So when we come into court

to-day I come empty, and couldn't see no chance anywheres. But by and by

I had a glimpse of something that set me thinking--just a little wee

glimpse--only that, and not enough to make sure; but it set me thinking

hard--and WATCHING, when I was only letting on to think; and by and by,

sure enough, when Uncle Silas was piling out that stuff about HIM killing

Jubiter Dunlap, I catched that glimpse again, and this time I jumped up

and shut down the proceedings, because I KNOWED Jubiter Dunlap was

a-setting here before me. I knowed him by a thing which I seen him

do--and I remembered it. I'd seen him do it when I was here a year ago."

He stopped then, and studied a minute--laying for an "effect"--I knowed

it perfectly well. Then he turned off like he was going to leave the

platform, and says, kind of lazy and indifferent:

"Well, I believe that is all."

Why, you never heard such a howl!--and it come from the whole house:

"What WAS it you seen him do? Stay where you are, you little devil! You

think you are going to work a body up till his mouth's a-watering and

stop there? What WAS it he done?"

That was it, you see--he just done it to get an "effect"; you couldn't

'a' pulled him off of that platform with a yoke of oxen.

"Oh, it wasn't anything much," he says. "I seen him looking a little

excited when he found Uncle Silas was actuly fixing to hang himself for a

murder that warn't ever done; and he got more and more nervous and

worried, I a-watching him sharp but not seeming to look at him--and all

of a sudden his hands begun to work and fidget, and pretty soon his left

crept up and HIS FINGER DRAWED A CROSS ON HIS CHEEK, and then I HAD him!"

Well, then they ripped and howled and stomped and clapped their hands

till Tom Sawyer was that proud and happy he didn't 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 that you've been describing?"

"No, your honor, I didn't see any of them."

"Didn't see any of them! Why, you've told the whole history straight

through, just the same as if you'd seen it with your eyes. How did you

manage that?"

Tom says, kind of easy and comfortable:

"Oh, just noticing the evidence and piecing this and that together, your

honor; just an ordinary little bit of detective work; anybody could 'a'

done it."

"Nothing of the kind! Not two in a million could 'a' done it. You are a

very remarkable boy."

Then they let go and give Tom another smashing round, and he--well, he

wouldn't 'a' sold out for a silver mine. Then the judge says:

"But are you certain you've got this curious history straight?"

"Perfectly, your honor. Here is Brace Dunlap--let him deny his share of

it if he wants to take the chance; I'll engage to make him wish he hadn't

said anything...... Well, you see HE'S pretty quiet. And his brother's

pretty quiet, and them four witnesses that lied so and got paid for it,

they're pretty quiet. And as for Uncle Silas, it ain't any use for him

to put in his oar, I wouldn't believe him under oath!"

Well, sir, that fairly made them shout; and even the judge he let go and

laughed. Tom he was just feeling like a rainbow. When they was done

laughing he looks up at the judge and says:

"Your honor, there's a thief in this house."

"A thief?"

"Yes, sir. And he's got them twelve-thousand-dollar di'monds on him."

By gracious, but it made a stir! Everybody went shouting:

"Which is him? which is him? p'int him out!"

And the judge says:

"Point him out, my lad. Sheriff, you will arrest him. Which one is it?"

Tom says:

"This late dead man here--Jubiter Dunlap."

Then there was another thundering let-go of astonishment and excitement;

but Jubiter, which was astonished enough before, was just fairly

putrified with astonishment this time. And he spoke up, about half

crying, and says:

"Now THAT'S a lie. Your honor, it ain't fair; I'm plenty bad enough

without that. I done the other things--Brace he put me up to it, and

persuaded me, and promised he'd make me rich, some day, and I done it,

and I'm sorry I done it, and I wisht I hadn't; but I hain't stole no

di'monds, and I hain't GOT no di'monds; I wisht I may never stir if it

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'll let up on that

a little. He did steal the di'monds, but he didn't know it. He stole

them from his brother Jake when he was laying dead, after Jake had stole

them from the other thieves; but Jubiter didn't know he was stealing

them; and he's been swelling around here with them a month; yes, sir,

twelve thousand dollars' worth of di'monds on him--all that riches, and

going around here every day just like a poor man. Yes, your honor, he's

got them on him now."

The judge spoke up and says:

"Search him, sheriff."

Well, sir, the sheriff he ransacked him high and low, and everywhere:

searched his hat, socks, seams, boots, everything--and Tom he stood there

quiet, laying for another of them effects of hisn. Finally the sheriff

he give it up, and everybody looked disappointed, and Jubiter says:

"There, now! what'd I tell you?"

And the judge says:

"It appears you were mistaken this time, my boy."

Then Tom took an attitude and let on to be studying with all his might,

and scratching his head. Then all of a sudden he glanced up chipper, and

says:

"Oh, now I've got it! I'd forgot."

Which was a lie, and I knowed it. Then he says:

"Will somebody be good enough to lend me a little small screwdriver?

There was one in your brother's hand-bag that you smouched, Jubiter. but

I reckon you didn't fetch 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 now, and when the thing Tom wanted was

passed over the people's heads till it got to him, he says to Jubiter:

"Put up your foot on this chair." And he kneeled down and begun to

unscrew the heel-plate, everybody watching; and when he got that big

di'mond out of that boot-heel and held it up and let it flash and blaze

and squirt sunlight everwhichaway, it just took everybody's breath; and

Jubiter he looked so sick and sorry you never see the like of it. And

when Tom held up the other di'mond he looked sorrier than ever. Land! he

was thinking how he would 'a' skipped out and been rich and independent

in a foreign land if he'd only had the luck to guess what the screwdriver

was in the carpet-bag for.

Well, it was a most exciting time, take it all around, and Tom got cords

of glory. The judge took the di'monds, and stood up in his pulpit, and

cleared his throat, and shoved his spectacles back on his head, and says:

"I'll keep them and notify the owners; and when they send for them it

will be a real pleasure to me to hand you the two thousand dollars, for

you've earned the money--yes, and you've earned the deepest and most

sincerest thanks of this community besides, for lifting a wronged and

innocent family out of ruin and 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 odious scoundrel and his miserable creatures!"

Well, sir, if there'd been a brass band to bust out some music, then, it

would 'a' been just the perfectest thing I ever see, and Tom Sawyer he

said the same.

Then the sheriff he nabbed Brace Dunlap and his crowd, and by and by next

month the judge had them up for trial and jailed the whole lot. And

everybody crowded back to Uncle Silas's little old church, and was ever

so loving and kind to him and the family and couldn't do enough for them;

and Uncle Silas he preached them the blamedest jumbledest idiotic sermons

you ever struck, and would tangle you up so you couldn't find your way

home in daylight; but the people never let on but what they thought it

was the clearest and brightest and elegantest sermons that ever was; and

they would set there and cry, for love and pity; but, by George, they

give me the jim-jams and the fan-tods and caked up what brains I 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 in his skull as ever he was, which

ain't no flattery, I reckon. And so the whole family was as happy as

birds, and nobody could be gratefuler and lovinger than what they was to

Tom Sawyer; and the same to me, though I hadn't done nothing. And when

the two thousand dollars come, Tom give half of it to me, and never told

anybody so, which didn't surprise me, because I knowed him.