TOM SAWYER ABROAD TOM SAWYER, DETECTIVE
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Concerning the Carnival of Crime in Connecticut 313
would droop under the burdening influence instantly. Fool, I should have weighed a ton, and could not have budged from the floor; but instead, you are so cheer­fully anxious to kill me that your conscience is as light as a feather; hence I am away up here out of your reach. I can almost respect a mere ordinary sort of fool; but you — pah !''
I would have given anything, then, to be heavy-hearted, so that I could get this person down from there and take his life, but I could no more be heavy-hearted over such a desire than I could have sorrowed over its accomplishment. So I could only look long­ingly up at my master, and rave at the ill-luck that denied me a heavy conscience the one only time that I had ever wanted such a thing in my life. By and by I got to musing over the hour's strange adventure, and of course my human curiosity began to work. I set myself to framing in my mind some questions for this fiend to answer. Just then one of my boys entered, leaving the door open behind him, and exclaimed:
" My! what z.? been going on here? The bookcase is all one riddle of—"
I  sprang up in consternation, and shouted:
"Out of this! Hurry! Jump! Fly! Shut the door! Quick, or my Conscience will get away !"
The door slammed to, and I locked it. I glanced up and was grateful, to the bottom of my heart, to see that my owner was still my prisoner. I said:
"Hang you, I might have lost you ! Children are the heedlessest creatures. But look here, friend, the boy did not seem to notice you at all; how is that?']
"  For a very good reason. I am invisible to all but you."
I made a mental note of that piece of information with a good deal of satisfaction. I could kill this mis­creant now, if I got a chance, and no one would know