Chapter 13 Chapter Eleven Potter's Difficulty in Eloquence, Tom's Conscience Condemned

Near noon, the terrible news made the whole village stunned.There was no need for a telegraph (at that time people could not even dream of such a thing), and the news spread ten, ten, and hundreds, at the speed of the telegraph, and everyone knew it.Therefore, the principal decided to take half a day off that afternoon, otherwise he would be looked down upon by the townspeople. Rumor has it that a bloody knife was found near the dead man, and was identified as Moff Potter's.Also, a man traveling at night happened to see Potter washing himself in the creek about one or two o'clock in the morning, and slipped away as soon as he saw anyone approaching.It was doubtful indeed, especially since the flushing was not at all Potter's habit.Also, they said the town had been looking for the "murderer" (no one is slow in sifting through the evidence to convict him), but he couldn't find it.Men on horseback pursued him in every direction, and the sheriff of the town was "confident" that he would be caught before dark.

The whole town flocked to the cemetery like a flood, and Tom suddenly lost his heart and followed behind.In fact, he would have liked to be elsewhere, but was drawn here by a terrible, unspeakable fascination.After arriving at this terrible place, his short body huddled among the crowd and squeezed to the front field, seeing the sad scene.It seemed to him that many years had passed since he had been here the first night.Then someone twisted his arm, and he turned to find it was Huckleberry.As soon as their eyes met, they immediately turned to other places, for fear that others would see any flaws in it.But everyone was talking, all focused on the tragedy before them.

"Poor man!" "Unfortunate young man!" "This should be a lesson to grave robbers!" "Muff Potter will be hanged if he is caught!" Spread such words.The pastor said, "This is the punishment he deserves." Then Tom's eyes fell on Injun Joe's face, and he found him impassive.Tom was shivering with fright all the way through.The crowd began to stir, and someone shouted: "It's him! It's him! He's come himself!" "Who is it? Who is it?" Ten or twenty people asked. "It's Muff Potter!" "Ah, he stopped! Watch out, he's turned around! Don't let him get away!"

"He didn't want to run, but he hesitated and flustered." Tom raised his head and saw that it was a person climbing a tree talking. "Damn it!" said a bystander. "You've done something bad, and you still want to watch the excitement secretly. It's really shameless. I didn't expect so many people to come." The crowd moved aside to make way.The sheriff took Potter by the arm and walked over showing off.The poor fellow looked haggard, with a look of terror in his eyes.When he came to the dead, he seemed to have suffered a stroke, covered his face with his hands, and burst into tears.

"I didn't do it, folks," he sobbed. "I swear on it, I never killed anyone." "Who accuses you of murder?" someone shouted. This shout gave Potter a chance.He raised his head and looked around in despair and pitifulness.He cried out when he saw Injun Joe: "Oh, Injun Joe, you promised you would never--" He had hardly finished when the sheriff threw a knife in front of him and said: "Is it your knife?" Hearing this, if Potter hadn't been supported and slowly lowered to the ground, he would almost have fallen headfirst. "For some reason, I couldn't help but want to come and take it away..." He said tremblingly, and then waved his hand feebly like a deflated ball and said:

"Tell the people, Joe. Tell 'em, it ain't no use hiding it anyway." So Huckleberry and Tom stood there dumbfounded, listening to the hard-hearted fellow talk and tell a lie.The two of them hoped that God would see, and immediately strike the liar to death with a lightning strike.But on the contrary, the liar was alive and well, safe and sound.They had intended to throw aside their vows and save the poor man who had been framed, but they hesitated even more at this sight.In addition, that villain must have sold himself to the devil Satan, and it is obvious that fighting against them is tantamount to being a car with arms, and overreaching one's capabilities.

"Why don't you fly far away, what are you doing here?" Someone asked. "If only that," Potter groaned. "I got away, but somehow, there's nowhere else to go but here." And he sobbed again. A few minutes later, during the autopsy, Injun Joe swore and then repeated the lie without haste.There was no thunder and lightning in the sky, and the two children were even more convinced that Joe had indeed sold himself to the devil.Although this guy is a door god, the two children found it very interesting and curious, so they stared at him intently. They secretly resolved to follow him at night if they had the opportunity, to see if they could see the true face of his diabolical master.Injun Joe also helped to load the body into the wagon and carry it away.The terrified crowd murmured that the dead man was bleeding a little from his wound.The two children thought that this gratifying phenomenon would help people make correct judgments and find out the real murderer.But they were immediately discouraged, because more than one villager said:

"Moff Potter was within three feet of the dead man at the time." Tom's fearful truth, and the torment of his conscience, kept him awake for a week after the incident.One day, at breakfast, Sid said: "Tom, you tossed and turned and talked in your sleep. I made you sleep only in the middle of the night." Tom turned pale and lowered his eyelids. "That's not a good omen," said Aunt Polly sullenly. "Tom. What's on your mind?" "No, I don't know anything." But his hands were shaking, and he shook the coffee out. "You did say it last night," Sid said. "You said, 'It's blood, it's blood, it's blood!' Say it!' Say what? What is it?"

Tom only felt dizzy for a while, and the consequences were unpredictable.Fortunately, Aunt Polly's attention was diverted, and she inadvertently rescued Tom. "Hey, it's nothing. It's just that horrible murder. I often dream about that murder at night. Sometimes I dream that I did it." Mary felt the same way about the murder.Now Sid stopped asking questions.Tom's smooth talk satisfies Sid, and he slips away.For the next week, he said he had a toothache, and every night he slept with his mouth tied up.But Sid was always watching him at night, and often undid the straps that tied his mouth, and then leaned over to listen for a while, and then tied the straps again.Tom was kept in the dark about all this. Gradually, Tom's mood calmed down a lot, and he felt tired of pretending to have a toothache, so he returned to normal.Even if Sid figured it out from Tom's nightly utterances, he knew it himself.

Tom felt that the students were always playing the game of autopsy on the cat, which often reminded him of the autopsy scene that day, and felt very unpleasant.Sid discovered that Tom, who used to be the first to do anything new, no longer played the coroner in the autopsy game;Sid also vividly remembers Tom's apparent distaste for playing the autopsy game, always avoiding such play if possible.Sid wondered, but didn't reveal anything. Tom was feeling very sorry all the time, and in a day or two he sent to the "murderer" whatever little tribute he could get his hands on, and passed it in at the little barred window whenever he could.The cell was a small, brick hut on the swamp at the edge of the village, unguarded and, in fact, often empty.Tom found it a great spiritual relief to do so.

The whole village strongly demanded that the grave robber, Injun Joe, be driven away on a pole covered with tar and feathers.But since this guy was not easy to deal with, no one was willing to take the lead, so the matter fell through.Injun Joe testified twice at the autopsy that he only talked about the fight and didn't admit to the robbery, so people think it's better not to go to court for this case at present.