There was no way out of that cabin.
The window wasn't big enough for even a dog to go through, the chimney was too narrow, and the door was solid oak.
But on one wall of the cabin a blanket was nailed up to keep out the wind.
I searched the cabin for a useful tool and finally found one lying on a roof beam. It was an old rusty saw.
While Pap was away, I began to saw at a log in the wall that was hidden by the blanket.
I was almost finished sawing through the log when Pap came back again.
Pap made me go to the boat and get the things he had bought.
There was a twenty-kilogram sack of cornmeal, a big piece of bacon, and a fifteen-liter jug of whiskey.
I carried the supplies to the cabin, and then I sat down on the bow of the boat to rest.
I decided that when Pap got drunk and fell asleep I would finish sawing a hole in the cabin and run away.
I'd take Pap's gun and I would live by hunting and fishing.
I'd go so far away that neither Pap nor the Widow Douglas would ever find me.
But luck didn't go my way. Instead of falling asleep after drinking his whiskey, Pap had terrible visions.
He thought that snakes were crawling all over him and biting him.
His eyes were wild and he grabbed at the air with his hands, knocking things over.
Later in the night, he thought I was the angel of death.
He chased me around the cabin with a knife until he collapsed, but in the morning, he couldn't remember anything he'd done.
Pap told me to go down to the river and see if we had caught any fish on our lines.
I saw that the water was rising, and many logs and branches were floating down the river.
And then I saw a big canoe riding the waves like a duck. No one was in it.
I waded right into the water to get it, and then I paddled it back to shore and hid it under some willow branches.
By the time Pap came down to the river, I was taking five catfish off the fishing lines.
We had breakfast, and then we took a rest. I was still thinking about my escape.
I needed to make sure that Pap and the Widow Douglas wouldn't try to bring me back. And then I thought of a way.
Later that day, Pap and I saw nine logs joined together—part of a raft—coming down the river.
We went out in our rowboat and towed them ashore.
Then Pap locked me in the cabin and went off in the rowboat, towing the logs to sell them.
I didn't think he'd be back until the next morning.
I finished sawing through my hidden log until I could push out a piece and escape through the hole.
First I took the big sack of cornmeal down to the canoe, pushed the willow branches aside, and put the sack in the canoe.
Then I went back and forth, bringing other things from the cabin: the bacon, the jug of whiskey, and the coffee and sugar.
I also took a tin cup, two blankets, matches, and fishing lines.
I cleaned out that cabin. Last of all I took the gun.
The next thing I did was to go hunting and shoot a wild pig.
I brought its body back to the cabin.
Then I took the ax from our woodpile and smashed in the cabin door.
I smeared some of the pig's blood on the floor of the cabin and on the ax.
I pulled a few hairs out of my head and left them sticking to the bloody ax.
I got rid of the pig by carrying it down to the river and throwing it into the water.
Next I loaded a sack with stones.
Starting at the cabin, I dragged the sack through the dirt so that it left a trail all the way down to the river.
I dumped the sack into the water and it sank.
Then I thought of one more thing I could do.
I took the sack of cornmeal from the canoe up to the cabin, where I cut a small hole in the bottom.
I dragged it to a nearby lake, and as I walked, I left a trail of cornmeal coming out of the hole in the bag.
When I got to the lake, I tied up the bottom of the sack with string, so the cornmeal wouldn't leak anymore.
Then I carried the bag back to the canoe and climbed in.
I paddled a little way down the river to where some willows hung over the bank.
By now it was getting dark. I ate some food and rested and thought about my plan.
I hoped I had made it look as if robbers had come to the cabin, broken down the door, killed me with an ax,
and then dragged my body down to the water.
People might look for my body in the river, but they'd soon give up.
If they decided to chase the robbers, they'd follow the trail of grain to the lake. Meanwhile I would get away.
No one would follow me; I could go anywhere on the Mississippi River I wanted.
I decided I would go to Jackson's Island, out in the middle of the river.
I knew it well, and nobody ever went there.
At night I would be able to paddle over to St. Petersburg and creep around to get the things I needed.