The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain (best thriller novels to read txt) đ
- Author: Mark Twain
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âNow, weâll start this band of robbers and call it Tom Sawyerâs Gang. Everybody that wants to join has got to take an oath, and write his name in blood.â
Everybody was willing. So Tom got out a sheet of paper that he had wrote the oath on, and read it. It swore every boy to stick to the band, and never tell any of the secrets; and if anybody done anything to any boy in the band, whichever boy was ordered to kill that person and his family must do it, and he mustnât eat and he mustnât sleep till he had killed them and hacked a cross in their breasts, which was the sign of the band. And nobody that didnât belong to the band could use that mark, and if he did he must be sued; and if he done it again he must be killed. And if anybody that belonged to the band told the secrets, he must have his throat cut, and then have his carcass burnt up and the ashes scattered all around, and his name blotted off of the list with blood and never mentioned again by the gang, but have a curse put on it and be forgot forever.
Everybody said it was a real beautiful oath, and asked Tom if he got it out of his own head. He said, some of it, but the rest was out of pirate-books and robber-books, and every gang that was high-toned had it.
Some thought it would be good to kill the families of boys that told the secrets. Tom said it was a good idea, so he took a pencil and wrote it in. Then Ben Rogers says:
âHereâs Huck Finn, he hainât got no family; what you going to do âbout him?â
âWell, hainât he got a father?â says Tom Sawyer.
âYes, heâs got a father, but you canât never find him these days. He used to lay drunk with the hogs in the tanyard, but he hainât been seen in these parts for a year or more.â
They talked it over, and they was going to rule me out, because they said every boy must have a family or somebody to kill, or else it wouldnât be fair and square for the others. Well, nobody could think of anything to doâ âeverybody was stumped, and set still. I was most ready to cry; but all at once I thought of a way, and so I offered them Miss Watsonâ âthey could kill her. Everybody said:
âOh, sheâll do. Thatâs all right. Huck can come in.â
Then they all stuck a pin in their fingers to get blood to sign with, and I made my mark on the paper.
âNow,â says Ben Rogers, âwhatâs the line of business of this Gang?â
âNothing only robbery and murder,â Tom said.
âBut who are we going to rob?â âhouses, or cattle, orâ ââ
âStuff! stealing cattle and such things ainât robbery; itâs burglary,â says Tom Sawyer. âWe ainât burglars. That ainât no sort of style. We are highwaymen. We stop stages and carriages on the road, with masks on, and kill the people and take their watches and money.â
âMust we always kill the people?â
âOh, certainly. Itâs best. Some authorities think different, but mostly itâs considered best to kill themâ âexcept some that you bring to the cave here, and keep them till theyâre ransomed.â
âRansomed? Whatâs that?â
âI donât know. But thatâs what they do. Iâve seen it in books; and so of course thatâs what weâve got to do.â
âBut how can we do it if we donât know what it is?â
âWhy, blame it all, weâve got to do it. Donât I tell you itâs in the books? Do you want to go to doing different from whatâs in the books, and get things all muddled up?â
âOh, thatâs all very fine to say, Tom Sawyer, but how in the nation are these fellows going to be ransomed if we donât know how to do it to them?â âthatâs the thing I want to get at. Now, what do you reckon it is?â
âWell, I donât know. But perâaps if we keep them till theyâre ransomed, it means that we keep them till theyâre dead.â
âNow, thatâs something like. Thatâll answer. Why couldnât you said that before? Weâll keep them till theyâre ransomed to death; and a bothersome lot theyâll be, tooâ âeating up everything, and always trying to get loose.â
âHow you talk, Ben Rogers. How can they get loose when thereâs a guard over them, ready to shoot them down if they move a peg?â
âA guard! Well, that is good. So somebodyâs got to set up all night and never get any sleep, just so as to watch them. I think thatâs foolishness. Why canât a body take a club and ransom them as soon as they get here?â
âBecause it ainât in the books soâ âthatâs why. Now, Ben Rogers, do you want to do things regular, or donât you?â âthatâs the idea. Donât you reckon that the people that made the books knows whatâs the correct thing to do? Do you reckon you can learn âem anything? Not by a good deal. No, sir, weâll just go on and ransom them in the regular way.â
âAll right. I donât mind; but I say itâs a fool way, anyhow. Say, do we kill the women, too?â
âWell, Ben Rogers, if I was as ignorant as you I wouldnât let on. Kill the women? No; nobody ever saw anything in the books like that. You fetch them to the cave, and youâre always as polite as pie to them; and by and by they fall in love with you, and never want to go home any more.â
âWell, if thatâs the way Iâm agreed, but I donât take no stock in it. Mighty soon weâll have the cave so cluttered up with women, and fellows waiting to be ransomed, that there wonât be no place for the robbers. But go ahead, I ainât got nothing to
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