15 Jim Vanishes

CHAPTER 15 Jim Vanishes We didn't stop at a town again for days and days. We just kept on floating right down the river. Once the frauds reckoned they were out of danger, they started to work the villages again. They tried all sorts of tricks and games to make money, but none of them seemed to work. At last they were dead broke. They laid around on the raft, thinking and thinking. They were awfully sad and desperate.

After awhile they started talking together in private. This made Jim and me uneasy. We didn't like the look of things. We knew the old frauds were planning some kind of trouble. We decided to give them the cold shake at the first opportunity, then clear out and leave them behind. At the next town, the king went ahead to look around. The duke and I followed a few hours later. We found the king getting in trouble and carrying-on. While he and the duke argued, I escaped. I ran back to the raft and called out to Jim, but there was no answer. He was gone! I searched and searched, but he was nowhere in sight. Finally I sat down and cried. I couldn't help it. I saw a young boy walking nearby. I described Jim, and asked the boy if he'd seen anyone like him that day. The boy said Jim was at the farm of a man named Silas Phelps. "That Jim was a runaway slave and now

they've got him," the boy said. "There was a two hundred dollar reward for him. I saw the poster myself. Some old man gave away the information to the men in town for just forty dollars. It was like finding money on the road." I sat on the raft and tried to figure out what to do next. I thought until my head was sore, but I couldn't see any way out of the trouble. After all we'd done for those scoundrels, everything was ruined because they were heartless enough to sell Jim out for forty dollars. I thought I could write a letter back to Miss Watson. Maybe she would know what to do. Then I thought I would get in trouble for helping Jim escape and causing all of this trouble. I remembered all the good things Jim had done for me and how we helped and cared for each other. I knew that Jim would have to go back to his old life if I sent that letter. But if I could save him, he would be free again. Even if it meant that people thought I was doing a bad thing. I didn't

care if people thought it was wrong. I was going to help him get free. I hid the raft, the canoe, and all of our gear. Then I headed up toward the Phelps' farm. When I got there, it was all still and lonesome. It was a small cotton plantation with a rail fence around a two-acre yard and a big log house that had been whitewashed. As I walked toward the house, some dogs started barking. They didn't stop until a woman came outside. She was about forty-five or fifty years old. Two children and some slaves followed behind her. Everyone was smiling. "It's you at last!" she said. "Am I right?" "Yes, ma'am," I said, before I could even think about it. She hugged me tightly and started crying. Then she told me that I didn't look like my mother, as she had expected. "I'm so glad to see you!" she said. "Children, it's your cousin Tom! Come say hello. We thought you'd be here a few days ago. We were

so worried." I made up a story about my boat being delayed. While we talked I tried to get information about who I was pretending to be. I also tried to find out anything I could about Jim. I guessed this woman was Mrs. Phelps. When she brought me into the house, I guessed that the man inside was Mr. Phelps. "Why, who's this?" he asked when he saw me. "Well, who do you think?" she said. "It's Tom Sawyer!"