CHAPTER XL

After a carefree day fishing, Huck and Tom return to the Phelps farm and sense tension from an anonymous warning letter. Preparing for the midnight “evasion,” Huck goes to retrieve forgotten butter, hides it in his hat when Aunt Sally confronts him, and is marched into a sitting room crowded with armed farmers.

As the men argue about when to spring the trap, the butter melts and exposes Huck’s concealment; Aunt Sally mistakes the grease for “brain-fever,” then discovers the food and sends Huck to bed. Huck slips out to the lean-to where Tom and Jim are ready to go. Farmers unlock the cabin to ambush the supposed robbers, forcing the trio to crawl out through the escape hole and creep toward the fence in the dark.

Tom’s clothes snag, making noise that triggers a chase. Shots ring out as the three sprint for the river. They outmaneuver the posse and dogs, reach Huck’s canoe, and quietly cross to the raft. Huck declares Jim free, and Tom exults—until he reveals he has been shot in the calf.

Tom urges immediate flight to complete the “evasion,” but Jim and Huck refuse to leave without medical help. Jim insists that Tom would never abandon a wounded friend and won’t budge until a doctor is found. Huck decides to fetch a doctor despite Tom’s elaborate instructions for blindfolds and misdirection, while Jim hides in the woods to avoid capture.