CHAPTER XXXIII

On the road to town, Huck stops a passing wagon and is stunned to find Tom Sawyer aboard. After convincing Tom he isn’t a ghost, Huck explains his situation at the Phelps farm and his plan to steal Jim out of slavery. To Huck’s amazement, Tom enthusiastically agrees to help and devises an arrival ruse: Huck will return first with Tom’s trunk while Tom comes later as a stranger.

Back at the Phelpses’, Huck arrives too quickly, drawing praise from Uncle Silas for the mare. Soon Tom appears, pretending to be William Thompson of Hicksville. He impulsively kisses Aunt Sally, causing an uproar, then theatrically reveals himself as “Sid Sawyer,” to Aunt Sally’s delight and Uncle Silas’s welcome.

Over meals, Huck and Tom listen for news of Jim but hear none until supper, when a child mentions the show in town. Uncle Silas says the runaway “nigger” warned him and Burton about the swindle, so the townspeople likely ran the showmen off. Fearing for the king and the duke, Huck and Tom share a bed, then sneak out the window and head to town to warn them.

As they arrive, a mob surges past with torches, horns, and pans, parading the king and the duke tarred, feathered, and astride a rail. Realizing they are too late, Huck and Tom learn the crowd waited for a signal at the show before seizing the con men. Returning, Huck feels humbled and sick with pity, reflecting that conscience hounds a person whether he’s right or wrong and that people can be terribly cruel.