CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Was it all just a Dream?

Tom had difficult dreams that night. All he could think about was the money. Each time he dreamed that the money was his and he imagined himself spending it in all kinds of ways: buying a new house for his aunt, buying himself a nice boat, and so on. But with each dream disappointment followed because he would wake up and find himself the same young man whose most valuable possession was a gold ball, which the girl he loved didn't want.

Tom had never seen so much money before. It was almost unbelievable to him that someone could have found that much money in his village. Then he began to doubt that any of it had been real at all. He thought that maybe the whole thing had been a dream.

Early next morning Tom went looking for Huckleberry. When he found him he planned not to say anything about the money. If Huckleberry didn't mention it, then Tom would know it had all just been a dream.

He found him at the river sitting on the side of a boat, looking sad.

"Hello, Huck!"

"Hello."

Huck was silent for a moment and then he said:

"We were so stupid to leave our tools down in that room! We could have found that money instead of Indian Joe!"

"Wow! It wasn't a dream!"

"Dream? No way! If those stairs hadn't broken when Indian Joe was walking up them we wouldn't be here today!"

"Huck, we have to find him! We have to get that money! I remember them saying something about 'number two' when they were talking about the secret hiding place. It could be the number of a house or something."

"But none of the houses in this village have numbers."

"Hmm. Well, maybe it's a room number in one of the public houses for travelers."

"You may be right, Tom! This village only has two of those!"

"Wait for me here, Huck. I'll be right back."

A half-hour later Tom returned. He'd asked about room number two in both public houses and found out that in one of them there lived a young man whom everybody knew, but no one was sure who lived in the other public house. One man said that, the night before, he had seen a light in the window there.

"That must be Indian Joe's room, Huck."

"Yes, it must be. So what's our plan, Tom?"

"Well, we still have to make sure that it's Indian Joe's room. If you see him sometime in the next day or two, follow him. If he doesn't go there, it must not be his room. If it is his room, I think we should be able to easily get in at night, because the entrance is around the back and no one will see us."

"I don't want to follow him by myself, Tom!"

"Well you know he won't come to the village until dark, so he probably won't see you. I promise you that I'll follow him if I see him. You have to be strong if you want to find that money, Huck!"

(end of section)