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94 |
TOM SAWYER |
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and fell grateful and exhausted in the sheltering shadows beyond. By and by their pulses slowed down, and Tom whispered:
"Huckleberry, what do yon reckon '11 come of this?"
"If Dr. Robinson dies, I reckon hanging '11 come of it."
" Do you though ? "
"Why I know it, Tom."
Tom thought a while, then he said:
"Who'll tell? We?"
"What are you talking about? S'pose something happened and Injun Joe didnt hang? Why he'd kill us some time or other, just as dead sure as we're a laying here."
" That's just what I was thinking to myself, Huck."
"If anybody tells, let Muff Potter do it, if he's fool enough. He's generally drunk enough."
Tom said nothing—went on thinking. Presently he whispered:
" Huck, Muff Potter don't know it. How can he tell ? "
"What's the reason he don't know it ? "
"Because he'd just got that whack when Injun Joe done it. D' you reckon he could see anything? D' you reckon he knowed anything? "
" By hokey, that's so Tom! "
"And besides, look-a-here—maybe that whack done for him ! "
"No, 'taint likely Tom. He had liquor in him; I could see that; and besides, he always has. Well when pap's full, you might take and belt him over the head with a church and you couldn't phase him. He says so, his own self. So it's the same with Muff Potter, of course. But if a man was dead sober, I reckon maybe that whack might fetch him ; I dono."
After another reflective silence, Tom said:
" Hucky, you sure you can keep mum ? "
" Tom, wre got to keep mum. You know that. That Injun devil would'nt make any more of drownding us than a couple of cats, if we was to squeak 'bout this and they didn't hang him. Now look-a-here, Tom, less take and swear to one another—that's what we got to do—swear to keep mum." |
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