"O, that's good—I tell you, Tom, I was most scared to death; I'd a bet anything it was a stray dog."
The dog howled again. The boys' hearts sank once more.
"O, my! that ain't no Bull Harbison!" whispered Huckleberry, "Do, Tom!"
Tom, quaking with fear, yielded, and put his eye to the crack. His whisper was hardly audible when he said:
"O, Huek, IT'S A STRAY DOG!"
"Quick, Tom, quick! Who does he mean?"
"Huck, he must mean us both we're right together."
"O, Tom, I reckon we're goners. I reckon there ain't no mistake 'bout where I'll go to. I been so wicked."
"Dad fetch it! This comes of playing hookey and doing everything a feller's told not to do. I might a been good, like Sid, if I'd a tried but no, I wouldn't, of course. But if ever I get off this time, I lay I'll just waller in Sunday-schools!"
And Tom began to snuffle a little.
"You bad!" and Huckleberry began to snuffle too. "Consound it, Tom Sawyer, you're just old pie, 'longside o'what I am. O, lordy, lordy, lordy, I wisht I only had half your chance."
Tom choked off and whispered:
"Look, Hucky, look! He's got his back to us!"
Hucky looked, with joy in his heart.
"Well he has, by jingoes! Did he before?"
"Yes, he did. But I, like a fool, never thought. O, this is bully, you know. Now who can he mean?"
The howling stopped. Tom pricked up his ears.
"Sh! What's that?" he whispered.
"Sounds like—like hogs grunting. No it's—somebody snoring, Tom."
"That is it? Where 'bouts is it, Huck?"
"I bleeve it's down at 'tother end. Sounds so, anyway. Pap used to sleep there, sometimes, 'long with the hogs, but laws bless you, he just lifts things when he snores. Besides, I reckon he ain't ever coming back to this town any more."
The spirit of adventure rose in the boys' souls once more.
