His elbow was pressing against some hard substance. After a long time
he slowly and sadly changed his position, and took up this object with
a sigh. It was in a paper. He unrolled it. A long, lingering, colossal
sigh followed, and his heart broke. It was his brass andiron knob!
This final feather broke the camel s back.
CHAPTER XI
Close upon the hour of noon the whole village was suddenly electrified
with the ghastly news. No need of the as yet un-dreamed-of telegraph;
the tale flew from man to man, from group to group, from house to house,
with little less than telegraphic speed. Of course the schoolmaster gave
holiday for that afternoon; the town would have thought strangely of
him if he had not.
A gory knife had been found close to the murdered man, and it had been
recognized by somebody as belonging to Muff Potter so the story ran. And
it was said that a belated citizen had come upon Potter washing himself
in the branch about one or two o clock in the morning, and that Potter
had at once sneaked off suspicious circumstances, especially the washing
which was not a habit with Potter. It was also said that the town had
been ransacked for this murderer (the public are not slow in the
matter of sifting evidence and arriving at a verdict), but that he
could not be found. Horsemen had departed down all the roads in every
direction, and the Sheriff was confident that he would be captured
before night.
All the town was drifting toward the graveyard. Tom s heartbreak
vanished and he joined the procession, not because he would not
a thousand times rather go anywhere else, but because an awful,
unaccountable fascination drew him on. Arrived at the dreadful place, he
wormed his small body through the crowd and saw the dismal spectacle.
It seemed to him an age since he was there before. Somebody pinched
his arm. He turned, and his eyes met Huckleberry s. Then both looked
elsewhere at once, and wondered if anybody had noticed anything in their
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