I peeked into a cabin on the wrecked steamboat to see what was going on.
A man was lying on the floor, tied up, and two other men were standing over him.
One had a lantern and the other had a gun.
They were arguing about whether or not to shoot the man on the floor.
Finally they decided that they would just leave him tied up on the wreck.
When it slid off the rock and sank, he would drown.
Meanwhile, they were going to get in their rowboat and row away.
I ran back to Jim, very scared. I whispered, "Quick, Jim, there are murderers on this boat!
We have to find the rowboat and cut it loose, so they can't get away. Then we'll get on our raft—"
But Jim interrupted me. "Huck, we don't have a raft! It broke loose and floated away!"
We were trapped on a wreck with wicked men and no way to get off!
I realized that we had to find that rowboat right away, for ourselves.
Jim and I felt along the sides of the wreck in the dark, until finally we found the boat.
We were about to jump into it when a door opened and the man with the lantern stepped outside.
We kept still and he didn't see us as he threw a big bag into the boat.
Both men got into the rowboat, and one man said to the other, "All ready—shove off."
Then the second man said, "Wait a minute—did you go through his pockets?"
"No, I didn't," replied the first.
The two men decided to go back on the wreck and see if the tied-up man had any money they could take.
The minute they went back inside, Jim and I jumped into the rowboat.
I cut the rope with my knife and the river current began to carry us away.
We didn't touch the oars, and we didn't speak or whisper. We hardly dared to breathe.
When we were about three hundred meters downstream, Jim took the oars and began to row.
I started to worry about the robbers on the wreck.
Even though they were bad men, I didn't want to just leave them to drown.
The storm blew up again, and as the lightning flashed, we searched for our raft in the water.
Finally we found it. Just then we saw a light on the shore too.
"Jim," I said, "you keep floating on the raft.
Shine a lantern for me so I can find you.
I'm going to take the boat and go to that light.
I want to get help for the men on the wreck."
As I got close to shore, I saw that the light came from a ferryboat sitting on the water.
I found the captain on board, asleep. I woke him up and told him a sad story that I made up.
"Pap and Ma'am and my sister . . ." I began, and then I started to cry.
"Don't cry, now," he said. "Everything will be all right. What's the trouble?"
I said that my family had tried to cross the river late at night, but we had lost our oars.
Floating helplessly down the river, our boat had hit the wrecked steamboat.
We all climbed onto the wreck, but we realized it would soon sink.
I was the only one who could swim, so my dad said I must swim to shore and get help.
And now here I was, begging the captain to take his boat and help them.
The captain promised he would get his crew right away, and they would take the ferry out to the wreck.
In the meantime, he directed me to an inn nearby where I could get warm and dry.
But as soon as he left me, I got into the rowboat and rowed out onto the river to find Jim and the raft.
I felt good about trying to save the gang from drowning.
I only wished there was some way the Widow Douglas could know what I had done.
When I rowed past the wreck again, I saw that it was now mostly underwater.
I called out, but no one answered. Then I realized that it was too late to save the men.
I felt sad. It seemed like a long, long time before I saw the light on the raft.
It was almost morning when I finally caught up with Jim.
We found an island, sank the rowboat, and hid the raft on shore. Then we slept until the afternoon.
When we woke up, we looked at all the things the gang had stolen from the wrecked boat.
We found boots, blankets, clothes, and lots of books.
We spent most of the day lying under the trees, talking.
Then I read to Jim from a book about kings and dukes, and how fancy their clothes were,
and how they called each other "Your Majesty" and "Your Grace."
Jim was very interested. He asked me how much a king earned.
"Why, they can have a thousand dollars a month, if they want it," I said.
"They can have anything they want—everything belongs to them."
"What do they have to do to get it?" Jim asked.
"They don't have to do anything," I replied.
"They just sit around—except maybe when there's a war, then they go to the war."