They walked and talked, and went into a
second tunnel, then a third. Sometimes
Tom put a mark with candle smoke on the tunnel wall - he wanted to find the mouth
of the cave again! Then they came out of the tunnels into a big room. There were
hundreds of bats in this room, - and the candles woke them up. Tom took Becky's
hand and they ran into the
nearest tunnel, with the bats behind them. But one bat hit
Becky's candle and it went out. The children ran and ran through the tunnels, and at
last they got away from the bats. They stopped and sat down. Suddenly, it was very,
very quiet,
'Where are we now, Tom?' Becky whispered, afraid.
'I don't know,' said Tom. 'I think it's time to go back. But we can't go through that
big room because of the bats. Let's so down this tunnel.'
They went down one tunnel, then a second, a third, a fourth... Then they wanted to
find the big room with the bats again, but they couldn't. Becky began to cry:
'Tom, we can't get out. We're lost, Tom, we're lost!'
They walked, and walked. When they were tired, they sat down; Then they got up
and walked again. Time went by. Was it day, or night? They didn't know.
Then Tom wanted to find water. They had nothing to eat, and they must have
something to drink. They found a very small river and sat down next to it.
'Becky,' said Tom. 'We must stay here. Near this river. This is our
last candle, and
...'
He did not finish, but Becky understood.
'Tom?'
'Yes, Becky.'
'Are they going to come and look for us?'
'Of course! When the boat gets to St Petersburg —'
'But how can they find us, in these hundreds of tunnels? Oh, Tom, Tom, we're
going to die in here!'
Becky began to cry again. Then the candle went out and the two children were in
the dark. They sat for hours and hours. They slept a little, then woke up, then slept
again. Was it Sunday now? Or Monday?
Suddenly Tom sat up. 'Listen! Somebody's calling!'
The two children listened. They heard it again, a little nearer. They called back;
then they began to walk down the tunnel in the dark, with their hands on the wall.
They stopped and listened again, but now they couldn't hear anything. Slowly, they
went back to their river.
They slept again, and woke up very, very hungry.
'Perhaps it's Tuesday now,' Tom thought. 'What can I do? I must do something?
Then he had an idea.
'Becky, listen. I've got a long string in my pocket. I can go down some of the
small tunnels and get back to you with the string. You wait here.'
Slowly and carefully, Tom went down the first tunnel on his hands and knees.
Then the tunnel wall on his right finished, and there was nothing.
Tom put out his
hand to feel the floor. And just then, away to his right, he saw a hand - a hand with a
candle.
At once Tom called out. 'Help!' he cried.
The hand moved, and Tom saw an arm and a face. It was Injun Joe! Tom was
very afraid, but Injun Joe was afraid too, and he quickly ran away down the tunnel.
Tom went back to Becky, but he did not tell her about Injun Joe.
Tom waited for
an hour, then went into a different tunnel with his string. Then a third tunnel...
It was Tuesday evening, and St Petersburg waited. Many of the villagers were in
the cave, and they looked for the children day and night. But they heard nothing, saw
nothing, and found nothing.
Then, late that evening, there was a sudden noise in the streets. People began to
run to the Thatchers' house.
'They're here! Becky and Tom are here!'
Most of the village came to listen to Tom's story.
'It was in the sixth tunnel,' he told them. T went to the end of my string, and
suddenly, I could see daylight! There was a little hole in the cave wall. I
put my head
out, and there was the river, right under my nose! I went back and got Becky, and we
climbed out through the hole. Then we stopped a boat on the river. We were five
miles from the mouth of the cave!'
Tom was very tired after
his three days in the cave, and he went to bed and stayed
there for two days. He heard about Huck and went to see him on Sunday, and then
every day. But Mrs. Douglas was always in the room.
'You can just say hello,' she told Tom. 'And then you must go. Huck is very ill,
and he needs to sleep.'
So Tom could not talk about anything exciting, and he could not tell Huck about
Injun Joe.
One day, about two weeks after the picnic, Tom was in Becky's house, and her
father came in.
'Well, Tom,' Mr. Thatcher said. 'Would you like to go back to the
cave again, one
day?'
I’m not afraid of that cave,’ said Tom.
Mr. Thatcher laughed. 'There are a lot of people like you, Tom. But nobody's
going into the cave again. There are big doors across the cave mouth now - and
nobody can open them!'
Tom's face went white. 'But Mr. Thatcher - Injun Joe's in that cave!'
An hour later, fifty men were at the cave and they opened the doors. Injun Joe was
on the ground, dead, his face to the door and his knife in his hand.
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