Tom Sawyer Detective | Page 8

either of us have it again
without the others was on hand to see it done; then we went down town, each by his own
self--because I reckon maybe we all had the same notion. I don't know for certain, but I
reckon maybe we had."
"What notion?" Tom says.
"To rob the others."
"What--one take everything, after all of you had helped to get it?"
"Cert'nly."
It disgusted Tom Sawyer, and he said it was the orneriest, low-downest thing he ever
heard of. But Jake Dunlap said it warn't unusual in the profession. Said when a person
was in that line of business he'd got to look out for his own intrust, there warn't nobody
else going to do it for him. And then he went on. He says:

"You see, the trouble was, you couldn't divide up two di'monds amongst three. If there'd
been three--But never mind about that, there warn't three. I loafed along the back streets
studying and studying. And I says to myself, I'll hog them di'monds the first chance I get,
and I'll have a disguise all ready, and I'll give the boys the slip, and when I'm safe away
I'll put it on, and then let them find me if they can. So I got the false whiskers and the
goggles and this countrified suit of clothes, and fetched them along back in a hand-bag;
and when I was passing a shop where they sell all sorts of things, I got a glimpse of one
of my pals through the window. It was Bud Dixon. I was glad, you bet. I says to myself,
I'll see what he buys. So I kept shady, and watched. Now what do you reckon it was he
bought?"
"Whiskers?" said I.
"No."
"Goggles?"
"No."
"Oh, keep still, Huck Finn, can't you, you're only just hendering all you can. What WAS
it he bought, Jake?"
"You'd never guess in the world. It was only just a screwdriver--just a wee little bit of a
screwdriver."
"Well, I declare! What did he want with that?"
"That's what I thought. It was curious. It clean stumped me. I says to myself, what can he
want with that thing? Well, when he come out I stood back out of sight, and then tracked
him to a second-hand slop-shop and see him buy a red flannel shirt and some old ragged
clothes--just the ones he's got on now, as you've described. Then I went down to the
wharf and hid my things aboard the up-river boat that we had picked out, and then started
back and had another streak of luck. I seen our other pal lay in HIS stock of old rusty
second-handers. We got the di'monds and went aboard the boat.
"But now we was up a stump, for we couldn't go to bed. We had to set up and watch one
another. Pity, that was; pity to put that kind of a strain on us, because there was bad blood
between us from a couple of weeks back, and we was only friends in the way of business.
Bad anyway, seeing there was only two di'monds betwixt three men. First we had supper,
and then tramped up and down the deck together smoking till most midnight; then we
went and set down in my stateroom and locked the doors and looked in the piece of paper
to see if the di'monds was all right, then laid it on the lower berth right in full sight; and
there we set, and set, and by-and-by it got to be dreadful hard to keep awake. At last Bud
Dixon he dropped off. As soon as he was snoring a good regular gait that was likely to
last, and had his chin on his breast and looked permanent, Hal Clayton nodded towards
the di'monds and then towards the outside door, and I understood. I reached and got the
paper, and then we stood up and waited perfectly still; Bud never stirred; I turned the key
of the outside door very soft and slow, then turned the knob the same way, and we went

tiptoeing out onto the guard, and shut the door very soft and gentle.
"There warn't nobody stirring anywhere, and the boat was slipping along, swift and
steady, through the big water in the smoky moonlight. We never said a word, but went
straight up onto the hurricane-deck and plumb back aft, and set down on the end of the
sky-light. Both of us knowed what that meant, without having to explain to one another.
Bud Dixon would wake up and miss the swag, and would come straight for us, for he
ain't afeard of anything or anybody, that man ain't. He would come, and we would heave
him overboard, or get killed trying.