The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Chapters 25-28
These chapters begin after the trial. Tom is once again a hero of the town. His days are extremely happy, and spent in joy. But his nights are filled with terror and nightmares, because of his fear of Injun Joe. Huck is going through this same problem.
Soon, Tom gets a desire many boys experience... the desire to go and dig up treasure! Tom looks for companions, but a good deal of his friends and chosen playmates aren't around. Tom manages to "recruit" Huckleberry for the job. Tom has to explain a few things to Huck, but Huck's up and raring to go.
They first do some digging under a dead tree with a limb sticking out. They even go back to their chosen spot at night so they can see where the limb's shadow lands at midnight so they can dig there. But they have no luck.
Their next target is a local house that's supposedly haunted. But the next day, they remember it's Friday, which is considered a bad-luck day to do major things. And Huck had a dream which supposedly predicts that trouble is around. These things make the boys decide to put off their expedition off until the next day. Instead, Tom teaches Huck how to play Robin Hood, and the duo play for the rest of the day.
The next day, the boys approach the haunted house, and go inside. They're scared at first, but eventually warm up to the place. They even go upstairs to explore!
Then trouble brews. Two men come to the house. One of them is supposedly a deaf Spaniard who's stupid too, who's been hanging around the town lately. However, it turns out to be Injun Joe!!!
The boys are terrified. They hear the men talk about their next job, and how about they're heading for Texas afterwards. They see through their peepholes in knots in the floor's wood Injun Joe's companion take out a bag with a ton of money. Then they watch as Injun Joe digs up a box full of a lot of money!
The men stay pretty most of the day at the haunted house, mostly sleeping. Tom tries to use this advantage for escape. But the floor gives off a loud creak when he steps, so he goes back to laying on the floor. He can't get back up, due to fear.
Then the men awake while the sun descends. Injun Joe remembers that some of the tools used to dig up the box were found in the house, and had fresh dirt on them (these tools were the boys'). He tries to go upstairs to investigate, but instead falls through the old and messed-up staircase.
The men then leave. Soon afterwards, the boys soon leave as well. They think about following the men, but decide that they've had enough. So they just go on home.
Tom has a rough night. When he wakes the next morning, he's unsure whether or not the whole adventure is a dream. But his conversation with Huck kills that hope.
The duo want the treasure box. They heard a little talk of where Injun Joe took it, but it's mostly just some clues. Tom investigates the town a little, and discovers a possible room at a tavern that might be the spot.
Then the duo make a plan to steal as many keys as possible, and meet at the room's back door. The plan is to try and use those keys to open the door, and Huck is to keep watch for Injun Joe. However, if Huck was to see Injun Joe at night, before the duo met up at the room's back door, he was to follow Injun Joe to the spot the men were talking about.
Once again, the boys made a dumb move. They should have told someone about seeing Injun Joe and his companion, and about the plot of Injun Joe's next move! And since they feared it was Tom who was the next possible victim, that would have been a super-wise move!
The boys' fear made a lot of sense. Injun Joe was a scary man, and they had seen him murder a man. It was totally reasonable that he haunted their dreams, and that they were terrified that Tom may be the next target.
I kind of like one twist that Mark Twain put in. I don't like the level of superstition that existed in those days. But it worked to the boys' advantage this time... Mark Twain puts in clearly that the boys would have been killed if they had indeed gone to the haunted house on Friday! That twist is a clever and cool one on the part of the author.
Tom was clever and smart in this chapter. He didn't need a map or a piece of paper with clues on it to know the best places to look for treasure. He realized that there were certain places that treasure was hidden every time, and figured that they would be the best places to dig.
However, he didn't think of something. There were a ton of places, in his theory, where the treasure could be hidden. If he had a map, piece of paper with clues, a story, or something to help him, he would have dug up a treasure quickly, and not only save time, but also spare him and Huck a lot of work.
There is a big blank, however. Why hasn't been Aunt Polly been showing up? From the rest of the book, I would think she would be upset with Tom being away all day. But there's no sure explanation for her sudden "disappearance" for this little bit.
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