nd had a good long smoke, and went on watching. The
ferryboat was floating with the current, and I allowed I'd have a
chance to see who was aboard when she come along, because she would
come in close, where the bread did. When she'd got pretty well along
down towards me, I put out my pipe and went to where I fished out the
bread, and laid down behind a log on the bank in a little open place.
Where the log forked I could peep through.

By and by she come along, and she drifted in so close that they could
'a' run out a plank and walked ashore. Most everybody was on the boat.
Pap, and Judge Thatcher, and Bessie Thatcher, and Joe Harper, and Tom
Sawyer, and his old Aunt Polly, and Sid and Mary, and plenty more.
Everybody was talking about the murder, but the captain broke in and
says:

"Look sharp, now; the current sets in the closest here, and maybe he's
washed ashore and got tangled amongst the brush at the water's edge. I
hope so, anyway."

I didn't hope so. They all crowded up and leaned over the rails,
nearly in my face, and kept still, watching with all their might. I
could see them first-rate, but they couldn't see me. Then the captain
sung out: "Stand away!" and the cannon let off such a blast right
before me that it made me deef with the noise and pretty near blind
with the smoke, and I judged I was gone. If they'd 'a' had some
bullets in, I reckon they'd 'a' got the corpse they was after. Well, I
see I warn't hurt, thanks to goodness. The boat floated on and went
out of sight around the shoulder of the island. I could hear the
booming now and then, further and further off, and by and by, after an
hour, I didn't hear it no more. The island was three mile long. I
judged they had got to the foot, and was giving it up. But they didn't
yet awhile. They turned around the foot of the island and started up
the channel on the Missouri side, under steam, and booming once in a
while as they went. I crossed over to that side and watched them. When
they got abreast the head of the island they quit shooting and dropped
over to the Missouri shore and went home to the town.

I knowed I was all right now. Nobody else would come a-hunting after
me. I got my traps out of the canoe and made me a nice camp in the
thick woods. I made a kind of a tent out of my blankets to put my
things under so the rain couldn't get at them. I catched a catfish and
haggled him open with my saw, and towards sundown I started my
camp-fire and had su