6 The House on the River

CHAPTER 6 The House on the River The river kept on rising for ten or twelve days, until at last it was over the banks. The water was three or four feet deep on the island. During the day, we would paddle all over the island in the canoe. It was cool and shady in the deep woods, even if the sun was blazing. One night, just before daylight, a whole house came floating down the river. It was two stories tall and tilted over. We paddled to it and climbed

in an upstairs window. There was something laying on the floor in the far corner that looked like a man. So Jim said: "Hello, you!" But the figure didn't budge. So I hollered, and then Jim said: "That man ain't asleep. He's dead. You hold still. I'll go and see." He went in, looked at the man and said: "It's a dead man. Yes, indeed. He's been shot in the back. It looks like he's been dead for two or three days. Come in, Huck, but don't look at his face. It's too scary." I didn't look at him at all. Jim threw some old rags over him to make sure I wouldn't see the man's face, but he didn't need to do that. I didn't want to see him. We loaded the things we found there into the canoe and paddled home. After breakfast I wanted to talk about the dead man and guess how he had been killed, but Jim didn't want to. He said it would bring bad luck

and the dead man might come back to haunt us. I didn't say any more about it, but I wished I knew who shot the man and why they did it. The next morning I said it was getting slow and dull. I wanted to do something new. I decided to go across the river and find out what was happening. Jim liked the idea, but he said I must go in the dark and be very careful. Then he thought about it and said that I should put on some of the clothes we had found in the house and dress up like a girl. That way no one would think it was really me. I rowed across the river and talked to an old woman there. She saw through my disguise right away and I felt a little foolish about it. But she only knew that I was a boy, not Huck Finn. She must have thought I was a runaway. From her I learned that people did believe that I was dead, but she said they thought that Jim had killed me! She said Jim had run away the same night I had disappeared, so he must have done it.

Even worse, she said people were on their way to Jackson's Island to search it that very night. She was sure they would catch the murderer. Well right away I made up an excuse to leave and headed back to our camp. When I got there, Jim was asleep. I said: "Get up, Jim! There's not a minute to lose. They're after us!" He didn't ask any questions. In fact, he never even spoke. But the way he moved showed he was scared. In half an hour we had everything on our raft. I got in the canoe and looked around. I couldn't see anyone coming. Then we tied the canoe to the raft, got both of them out on the river, and started out. Neither of us said a single word.