The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Марк Твен

us at all.’

      ‘I’ll try to, Tom, but, Lord! I’m all of a shiver.’

      ‘Listen!’

      The boys bent their heads together and scarcely breathed. A muffled sound of voices floated up from the far end of the graveyard.

      ‘Look! see there!’ whispered Tom. ‘What is it?’

      ‘It’s devil-fire. Oh, Tom, this is awful.’

      Some vague figures approached through the gloom, swinging an old-fashioned tin lantern that freckled the ground with innumerable little spangles of light. Presently Huckleberry whispered with a shudder:

      ‘It’s the devils, sure enough. Three of ’em? Lordy, Tom, we’re goners! Can you pray?’

      ‘I’ll try, but don’t you be afeard. They ain’t going to hurt us. “Now I lay me down to sleep, I –”’

      ‘Sh!’

      ‘What is it, Huck?’

      ‘They’re humans! One of ’em is, anyway. One of ’em’s old Muff Potter’s voice.’

      ‘No—’tain’t so, is it?’

      ‘I bet I know it. Don’t you stir nor budge. He ain’t sharp enough to notice us. Drunk, same as usual, likely – blamed old rip!’

      ‘All right, I’ll keep still. Now they’re stuck. Can’t find it. Here they come again. Now they’re hot. Cold again. Hot again. Red hot! They’re pinted right, this time. Say, Huck, I know another o’ them voices; it’s Injun Joe.’

      ‘That’s so – that murderin’ half-breed! I’d druther they was devils a dern sight. What kin they be up to?’

      The whispers died wholly out now, for the three men had reached the grave, and stood within a few feet of the boys’ hiding-place.

      ‘Here it is,’ said the third voice; and the owner of it held the lantern up and revealed the face of young Dr. Robinson.

      Potter and Injun Joe were carrying a handbarrow with a rope and a couple of shovels on it. They cast down their load and began to open the grave. The doctor put the lantern at the head of the grave, and came and sat down with his back against one of the elm-trees. He was so close the boys could have touched him.

      ‘Hurry, men!’ he said in a low voice. ‘The moon might come out at any moment.’

      They growled a response and went on digging. For some time there was no noise but the grating sound of the spades discharging their freight of mould and gravel. It was very monotonous. Finally a spade struck upon the coffin with a dull, woody accent, and within another minute or two the men had hoisted it out on the ground. They prised off the lid with their shovels, got out the body and dumped it rudely on the ground. The moon drifted from behind the clouds and exposed the pallid face. The barrow was got ready and the corpse placed on it, covered with a blanket, and bound to its place with the rope. Potter took out a large spring-knife and cut off the dangling end of the rope, and then said: