CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Becky's Picnic

The next day, Tom heard something that made him for-get all about Indian Joe and the money. He heard that Becky Thatcher had returned home. What was even better was the news that she was going to have her picnic the next day, which meant that Tom could see her very soon.

Early the next day, all of Becky's friends gathered at her home, ready to begin the picnic. Then they all walked down to the river to get on the riverboat that would take them to the park where the picnic would be held.

Poor Sid had become ill, so he stayed home and was looked after by Mary.

Before Becky left her home, her mother said to her: "Since you're going to be out so late today, why don't you just stay at one of your friends' homes near the river? You can just come back home tomorrow."

"OK, I'll stay at Susy Harper's."

"OK. She's a nice girl. Now you be careful today!"

Once the boat arrived at the park, all of the children ran off it and immediately started playing in the forest. They ran about and shouted and laughed for a couple of hours until they started to get hungry. Then they all gathered near the boat and began to eat the food they'd brought with them. And once they'd finished eating they relaxed for a while under the trees.

After a while, someone shouted, "Let's go to the caves!"

Everyone jumped to their feet and gathered lights and sweaters in preparation, for it would be cold and dark inside. When they got to the cave entrance they found that a door had been placed there, but it was wide open for some reason. Inside were cold rock walls with water dripping from them.

The cave was very long and had many different paths and rooms. No one knew just how far it went. The further you walked, the more rooms and paths you found. Usually, people didn't go too far into it for fear that they might get lost and die from hunger and cold. Most of the children walked for about a mile before turning around and meeting again at the entrance. When they had all come back to the entrance they were surprised to see that the sun had almost gone down. And they could hear the boat's bell ringing, which meant that it was time for everyone to return.

While Huckleberry sat in the dark waiting for Indian Joe to leave, he could see the riverboat returning to the shore. The sun had now almost completely gone down. Everyone was now returning home for bed. It was eleven o'clock and still no one had left room number two. Huck found that he couldn't stay awake, so he was about to let himself fall asleep when suddenly he heard something. He looked up and saw two men walking past his hiding place. One of them was carrying a box. He thought for a moment about what he should do. He wanted to run and tell Tom, but if he did that, he might not be able to find these men again. So he decided to follow them.

He followed them as they walked toward the river and then turned and headed up Cardiff Hill. After they'd passed Old Man Jones' home, they reached the top of the hill and hid among the trees. Huck silently waited behind one of the trees near the men and listened.

"All right. I see some lights on inside Mrs Douglas' house. It looks like someone might be there visiting her," he heard one of the men say.

"Lights? What lights? I don't see anything," said the other man.

Huckleberry suddenly realized that Indian Joe planned to hurt Mrs Douglas. This was the job that he'd mentioned in the old house the other day. Huckleberry remembered how kind a woman Mrs Douglas was and he started to feel frightened for her. Would they beat her? Would they kill her? He wanted to warn her, but he knew that they'd just kill them both if he tried.

Then Indian Joe spoke: "If you look from where I'm standing, you can see the lights."

"I see them now. Let's forget it and run away."

"Shut your mouth! Don't you remember what I said before? I'm going to hurt her because her husband put me in jail before! Now that he's dead I can't hurt him, so I'm going after his wife!"

"Don't kill her, Joe!"

"I don't plan to. I'm just going to cut her face a bit and make her horrible to look at. If you don't help me, I will kill you. And if I kill you, I guess that I can just go ahead and kill her too."

"OK ... OK. Let's just get this over with."

"We can't go yet. We'll wait until the lights are out."

This gave Huckleberry some time to try and find help. So he started to run back toward the village. Since Old Man Jones' house was closest, Huck went there first. He hit the door with his fists until Mr Jones answered with his two big sons standing behind him.

"Who are you and what in the hell are you doing knocking on my door at this late hour?"

"Please, Sir, I'm Huckleberry Finn. Quick, let me in before they see us!"

"Huckleberry Finn? What kind of name is that? What do you want?"

"Sir, Mrs Douglas is in terrible trouble. She's a good woman; I don't want anything to happen to her. But you have to promise not to tell anyone I told you, or I might be killed!"

"All right, boy. Tell us what's wrong."

As soon as Huckleberry finished his story, Mr Jones and his two sons were walking toward Mrs Douglas' home with guns in their hands. Huckleberry was too afraid to follow them the whole way. He hid behind a rock and just waited.

Then he heard the guns being fired and a loud cry. He jumped to his feet and ran away as fast as he could without looking back.

(end of section)