Latest / Classic Adventure Books - Daily / 15 - The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain

Transcript

15 - The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain · Classic Adventure Books - Daily

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Chapter thirty, Tom and Becky in the cave as the
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: earliest suspicion of Dawn appeared. On Sunday morning, Huck came
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: groping up the hill and rapped gently at the old
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Welshman's door. The inmates were asleep, but it was a
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: sleep that was set on a hair trigger on account
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: of the exciting episode of the night. A call came
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: from a window. Who's there, Huck's scared voice answered in
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: a low tone, Please let me in. It's only Huck Finn.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: It's a name that can open this door night or day.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Lad and welcome. These were strange words to the vagabond
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: boy's ears, and the pleasantest he had ever heard. He
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: could not recollect that the closing word had ever been
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: applied in his case. Before the door was quickly unlocked
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: and he entered. Huck was given a seat, and the
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: old man and his brace of tall suns speedily dressed themselves. Now,
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: my boy, I hope you're good and hungry, because breakfast
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: will be ready as soon as the sun's up, and
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: we'll have a piping hot one too. Make yourself easy
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: about that. I and the boys hoped you'd turn up
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: and stop here last night. I was awful scared, said Huck,
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: and I run. I took out when the pistols went off,
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: and I didn't stop for three miles. I've come now
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: because I wanted to know about it, you know. And
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: I come before daylight because I didn't want to run
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: across them devils, even if they was dead. Well, poor Chap,
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: you do look as if you'd had a hard night
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: of it. But there's a bed here for you when
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: you've had your breakfast. No, they ain't dead, lad, We're
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: sorry enough for that, you see. We knew right word
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: to put our hands on them, by your description. So
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: we crept along on tiptoe till we got within fifteen
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: feet of them. Dark as a cellar, that sumac path was,
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: and just then I found I was going to sneeze.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: It was the meanest kind of luck. I tried to
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: keep it back, but no use. Twas bound to come,
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: and it did come. I was in the lead with
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: my pistol raised, and when the sneeze started, those scoundrels
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: are rustling to get out of the path. I sung out,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: fire boys and blazed away at the place where the
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: rustling was. So did the boys, but They were off
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: in a jiffy, those villains, and we after them down
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: through the woods. I judge we never touched them. They
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: fired a shot a piece as they started, but their
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: bullets whizzed by and didn't do us any harm. As
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: soon as we lost the sound of their feet, we
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: quit chason and went down and stirred up the constables.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: They got a posse together and went off to guard
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: the river bank. And as soon as it is light,
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: the sheriff and a gang are going to beat up
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: the woods. My boys will be with them presently. I
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: wish we had some sort of description of those rascals.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: Twould help a good deal. But you couldn't see what
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: they were like in the dark, lad, I suppose, oh yes,
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: I saw them downtown and followed them splendid. Describe them.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: Describe them, my boy. One is the old deaf and
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: dumb spaniard that's been round here once or twice, and
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: t'other's a mean looking ragged That's enough, lad. We know
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: the men happened on them in the woods back of
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: the widows one day, and they slunk away off with
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: you boys, and tell the sheriff get your breakfast tomorrow morning.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: The Welshman's sons departed at once. As they were leaving
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: the room, Huck sprang up and exclaimed, oh please, don't
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: tell anybody it was me that blowed on him. Oh please,
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: all right if you say it, Huck, but you ought
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: to have the credit of what you did. Oh no, no, please,
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: please don't tell. When the young men were gone, the
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: old Welshman said, they won't tell, and I won't. But
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: why don't you want it known? Huck would not explain
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: further than to say that he already knew too much
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: about one of those men, and would not have the
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: man know that he knew anything against him, for the
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: whole world he would be killed for knowing it. Sure,
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: The old man promised secrecy once more, and said, how
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: did you come to follow these fellows? Lad? Were they
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: looking suspicious? Huck was silent while he framed a duly
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: cautious reply. Then he said, well, you see, I'm a
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: kind of a hard lot. Least everybody says so. And
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: I don't see nothing again, and sometimes I can't sleep
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: much on accounts of thinking about it and sort of
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: trying to strike out a new way of doing That
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: was the way it was last night I couldn't sleep,
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: and so I come along up streep about midnight, turning
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: it all over. And when I got to the old
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: shackly brick store by the Temperance Tavern, I backed up
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: again the wall to have another think. Well. Just then
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: along comes these two chaps slipping along close by me
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: with something under their arm, and I reckoned they'd stole it.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: One was a smokin' and t'other one wanted a light,
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: so they stopped right before me, and the cigars lit
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: up their faces, and I see that the big one
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: was the deaf and dumb spaniard by his white whiskers
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: and the patch on his eye, and t'other one was
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: a rusty, ragged looking devil. Could you see the rags
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: by the light of the cigars. This staggered Huck for
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: a moment. Then he said, well, I don't know, but
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: somehow it seems as if I did. Then they went
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: on and you followed them, Yes, that was it. I
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: wanted to see what was up. They sneaked along, so
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: I dogged him too the winter's style, and stood in
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: the dark and heard the ragged one beg for the winter,
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: and the spaniard swear he'd spile her looks, just as
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: I told you when you're two. What the deaf and
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: dumb man said? All that, Huck had made another terrible mistake.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: He was trying his best to keep the old man
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: from getting the faintest hint of who the spaniard might be,
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: and yet his tongue seemed determined to get him into trouble.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: In spite of all he could do. He made several
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: efforts to creep out of his scrape, but the old
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: Man's eye was upon him, and he made blunder after blunder. Presently,
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: the Welshman said, my boy, don't be afraid of me.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't hurt a hair of your head for all
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: the world. No, I'd protect you, I'll i'd protect you.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: This spaniard is not deaf and dumb. You've let that
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: slip without intending it. You can't cover that up. Now.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: You know something about that spaniard that you want to
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: keep dark. Now trust me, tell me what it is,
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: and trust me I won't betray you. Huck looked into
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: the old man's honest eyes a moment, then bent over
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: and whispered in his ear, tain't a spaniard it's injun. Joe,
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: the Welshman almost jumped out of his chair in a moment.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: He said, it's all plain enough now. When you talked
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: about notching ears and the slitting noses, I judged that
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: was your own embellishment, because white men don't take that
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: sort of revenge. But an injun that's a different matter altogether.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: During breakfast, the talk went on, and in the course
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: of it the old man said that the last thing
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: which he and his sons had done before going to
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: bed was to get a lantern and examine the style
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: at its vicinity for marks of blood. They found none,
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: but captured a bulky bundle of of what If the
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: words had been lightning, they could not have leapt with
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: a more stunning suddenness from Huck's blanched lips. His eyes
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: were staring wide now, and his breath suspended waiting for
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: the answer. The Welshman started stared in return three seconds,
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: five seconds ten, then replied, of Burglar's tools, why what's
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: the matter with you? Huck sank back, panting gently but deeply,
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: unutterably grateful. The Welchman eyed him gravely, curiously, and presently said, yes,
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: Burglar's tools that appears to relieve you a good deal.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: But what did give you that turn? What were you
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: expecting we'd found? Huck was in a close place. The
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: inquiring eye was upon him. He would have given anything
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: for material for a plausible answer. Nothing suggested itself. The
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: your inquiring eye was boring deeper and deeper. A senseless
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: reply offered. There was no time to weigh it, so
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: at a venture, he uttered it feebly Sunday school books.
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: Maybe poor Huck was too distressed to smile. But the
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: old man laughed loud and joyously, shook up the details
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: of his anatomy from head to foot, and ended by
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: saying that such a laugh was money in a man's pocket,
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: because it cut down the doctor's bills like everything. Then
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: he added, poor old chap, you're white and jaded. You
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: ain't well a bit, no wonder. You're a little flighty
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: and off your balance. But you'll come out of it.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: Rest and sleep. We'll catch you up, all right, I hope.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: Huck was irritated to think he had been such a
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: goose and betrayed such a suspicious excitement, for he had
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: dropped the idea that the parcel brought from the tavern
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: was the treasure. As soon as he had heard the
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: talk at the Winter's Style, he had only thought it
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: was not the treasure. However, he had not known that
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: it wasn't, and so the suggestion of a captured bundle
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: was too much for his self possession. But on the
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: whole he felt glad the little episode had happened, for
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: now he knew beyond all question that that bundle was
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: not the bundle, and so his mind was at rest
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: and exceedingly comfortable. In fact, everything seemed to be drifting
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: just in the right direction. Now the treasurer must be
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: still in number two. The men would be captured and
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: jailed that day, and he and Tom could seize the
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: gold that night without any trouble or any fear of interruption.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: Just as breakfast was completed, there was a knock at
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: the door. Huck jumped for a hiding place, for he
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: had no mind to be connected even remotely with the
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: late event. The Welshmen admitted several ladies and gentlemen, among
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: them the widow Douglas, and noticed that groups of citizens
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: were climbing up the hill to stare at the stile.
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: So the news had spread The Welshman had to tell
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: the story of the night to the visitors. The widow's
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: gratitude for her preservation was outspoken. Don't say a word
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: about it, madam. There's another that you're more beholden too
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: than you are to me and my boys. Maybe, but
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: he don't allow me to tell his name. We wouldn't
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: have been there but for him. Of course, this excited
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: a curiosity so vast that it almost belittled the main matter.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: But the Welshmen allowed it to eat into the vitals
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: of his visitors, and through them be transmitted to the
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: whole town. For he refused to part with his secret.
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: When all else had been and learned, The widow said,
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: I went to sleep, reading in bed and slept straight
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: through all that noise. Why didn't you come and wake me?
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: We judged it warn't worth while those fellows weren't likely
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: to come again. They hadn't any tools left to work with,
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: and what was the use of waking you up and
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: scaring you to death. My three negro men stood guard
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: at your house all the rest of the night. They've
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: just come back. More visitors came, and the story had
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: to be told and retold for a couple of hours more.
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: There was no sabbath school during day school vacation, but
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: everybody was early at church. The stirring event was well canvassed.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: News came that not a sign of the two villains
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: had been yet discovered. When the sermon was finished, Judge
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: Thatcher's wife dropped alongside of Missus Harper as she moved
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: down the aisle with the crowd, and said, is my
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: Becky going to sleep all day? I just expected she
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: would be tired to death. You're Becky, yes, with a
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: startled look. Didn't she stay with you last night? Why no?
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: Missus Thatcher turned pale and sank into a pew, just
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: as Aunt Polly, talking briskly with a friend passed by.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: Aunt Polly said, good morning, Missus Thatcher. Good morning, Missus Harper.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: I've got a boy that's turned up missing. I reckon
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: my Tom stayed at your house last night, one of you,
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: and now he's afraid to come to church. I've got
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: to settle with him. Missus Thatcher shook her head feebly
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: and turned paler than ever. He didn't stay with us,
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: said Missus Harper, beginning to look uneasy. A marked anxiety
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: came to Aunt Polly's face. Joe Harper, have you seen
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: my Tom this morning? No, Ram, When did you see
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: him last? Joe tried to remember, but was not sure
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: he could say. The people had stopped moving out of church,
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: Whispers passed along, and aboding uneasiness took possession of every countenance.
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: Children were anxiously questioned, and young teachers. They all said
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: they had not noticed whether Tom and Becky were on
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: board the ferry boat on the homeward trip. It was dark,
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: no one thought of inquiring if anyone was missing. One
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: young man finally blurted out his fear that they were
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: still in the cave. Missus Thatcher swooned away. Aunt Polly
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: fell to crying and wringing her hands. The alarm swept
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: from lip to lip, from group to group, from street
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: to street, and within five minutes the bells were wildly clanging,
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: and the whole town was up. The card of Hill
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: episode sank into instant insignificance. The burglars were forgotten, horses
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: were saddled, skiffs were manned, the ferryboat ordered out, and
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: before the horror was half an hour old, two hundred
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: men were pouring down high road and river toward the cave.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: All the long afternoon the village seemed empty and dead.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: Many women visited Aunt Polly and Missus Thatcher and tried
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: to comfort them. They cried with them too, and that
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: was still better than words. All the tedious night the
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: town waited for news. But when the morning dawned at last,
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: all the word that came was send more candles and
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: send food. Missus Thatcher was almost crazed, and Aunt Polly
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: also judge. Thatcher sent messages of hope and encouragement from
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: the cave, but they conveyed no real cheer. The old
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: Welshman came home toward daylight, spattered with candle grease, smeared
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: with clay, and almost worn out. He found Huck still
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: in the bed that had been provided for him, and
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: delirious with fever. The physicians were all at the cave,
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: so the widow Douglas came and took charge of the patient.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: She said she would do her best by him, because
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: whether he was good, bad, or indifferent, he was the
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: Lord's and nothing that was the lord's was a thing
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: to be neglected. The Welshman said Huck had good spots
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: in him, and the widow said you can depend on it.
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: That's the Lord's mark. He don't leave it off. He
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: never does. Puts it somewhere on every creature that comes
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: from his hands. Early in the forenoon, parties of jaded
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: men began to straggle into the village, but the strongest
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: of the citizens continued searching. All the news that could
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: be gained was that remotenesses of the cavern were being
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: ransacked that had never been visited before, that every corner
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: and crevice was going to be thoroughly searched, That wherever
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: one wandered through the maze of passages, lights were to
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: be seen flitting hither and thither in the distance, and
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: shoutings and pistol shots sent their hollow reverberations to the ear.
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: Down the Somber aisles. In one place, far from the
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: section usually traversed by tourists, the names Becky and Tom
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: had been found traced upon the rocky wall with candle smoke,
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: and near at hand a grease soiled bit of ribbon.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: Missus Thatcher recognized the ribbon and cried over it. She
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: said it was the last relic she would ever have
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: of her child, and that no other memorial of her
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: could ever be so precious, because this one parted latest
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: from the living body before the awful death came. Some
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: said that now and then in the cave, a far
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: away speck of light would glimmer, and then a glorious
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: shout would burst forth, and a score of men go
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: trooping down the ex going isle, and then a sickening
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: disappointment always followed. The children were not there. It was
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: only a searcher's light. Three dreadful days and nights dragged
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: their tedious hours along, and the village sank into a
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: hopeless stupor. No one had heart for anything. The accidental
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: discovery just made that the proprietor of the Temperance Tavern
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: kept liquor on his premises, scarcely fluttered the public pulse,
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: tremendous as the fact was. In a lucid interval, Hack
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: feebly led up to the subject of taverns and finally asked, dimly,
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: dreading the worst, if anything had been discovered at the
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: Temperance Tavern since he had been ill. Yes, said the widow.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: Huck started up in bed, wild eyed. What what was it? Liquor?
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: And the place has been shut up? Lie down, child,
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: What a turn you did give me. Only tell me
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: just one thing, only just one please. Was it Tom
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: Sawyer that found it? The widow burst into tears. Hush, hush, child, hush,
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: I've told you before. You must not talk. You are very,
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: very sick. Then nothing but liquor had been found. There
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: would have been a great pow wow if it had
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: been the gold. So the treasure was gone, forever, gone forever.
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: But what could she be crying about? Curious that she
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: should cry, These thoughts worked their dim way through Huck's mind,
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: and under the weariness they gave him, he fell asleep.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: The widow said to herself, there he's asleep, poor wreck
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: Tom Sawyer find it. Pity, but somebody could find Tom Sawyer. Ah,
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: there ain't many left now. It's got hope enough or
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: strength enough either to go on searching. End of chapter
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: thirty