Lordy, I don t want to foller him by myself!
Why, it ll be night, sure. He mightn t ever see you and if he did,
maybe he d never think anything.
Well, if it s pretty dark I reckon I ll track him. I dono I dono. I ll
try.
You bet I ll follow him, if it s dark, Huck. Why, he might a found
out he couldn t get his revenge, and be going right after that money.
It s so, Tom, it s so. I ll foller him; I will, by jingoes!
Now you re _talking_! Don t you ever weaken, Huck, and I won t.
CHAPTER XXVIII
That night Tom and Huck were ready for their adventure. They hung about
the neighborhood of the tavern until after nine, one watching the alley
at a distance and the other the tavern door. Nobody entered the alley or
left it; nobody resembling the Spaniard entered or left the tavern
door. The night promised to be a fair one; so Tom went home with the
understanding that if a considerable degree of darkness came on, Huck
was to come and maow, whereupon he would slip out and try the keys.
But the night remained clear, and Huck closed his watch and retired to
bed in an empty sugar hogshead about twelve.
Tuesday the boys had the same ill luck. Also Wednesday. But Thursday
night promised better. Tom slipped out in good season with his aunt s
old tin lantern, and a large towel to blindfold it with. He hid the
lantern in Huck s sugar hogshead and the watch began. An hour before
midnight the tavern closed up and its lights (the only ones thereabouts)
were put out. No Spaniard had been seen. Nobody had entered or left the
alley. Everything was auspicious. The blackness of darkness reigned,
the perfect stillness was interrupted only by occasional mutterings of
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