Tom and Huck were very frightened. They ran towards
the town. Had Injun Joe seen them? Was he running
after them?
Tom and Huck ran through the open door of an old
barn. They both fell onto the floor.
‘What will happen now?’ asked Tom.
‘Injun Joe murdered Doctor Robinson,’ said Huck. ‘The
sheriff will catch him. Injun Joe will be sent to jail. Then he
will be killed. He will be hanged.’
Tom thought for a minute. Then he said, ‘We know about
the murder. But nobody in the town knows. Who will tell the
sheriff? You and me?’
‘No, I won’t tell him,’ said Huck. ‘I’m frightened of Injun Joe.
Muff Potter must tell the sheriff.’
Tom thought for another minute. Then he said, ‘Huck, Muff
Potter didn’t see the murder.’
‘What?’
‘Doctor Robinson hit Muff with a piece of wood. Muff fell on
the ground,’ said Tom. ‘He didn’t see anything.’
‘Tom, we must not tell anybody,’ replied Huck. ‘The sheriff
will look for Injun Joe. Then Injun Joe will look for us. He’ll
find us and he’ll murder us. We must not tell anybody.
Let’s swear.’
‘Yes,’ said Tom. ‘Let’s hold hands and swear—’
‘No,’ said Huck. ‘We’re going to write our promise in blood!’
‘Yes,’ Tom said. ‘Let’s write in blood.’
He picked up a flat piece of wood. Then he took a pencil
out of his pocket and wrote on the wood.
Tom had a knife. He cut his finger and some blood came
out. He wrote ‘TS’ on the wood with his blood.
Then Huck cut his finger. Huck could not read or write but
Tom helped him. Huck wrote ‘HF’ on the wood in blood.
The words on the wood were:
Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer swear this -
They won’t tell anybody about the murder
TS HF
‘We have written our promise in blood,’ said Tom. ‘Now, we
can’t tell anybody. Let’s go!’
The boys ran back to the town