Read Online Mississippi River Blues by Tony Abbott - Free Book Online Page B

“This man objects to your honor. How dare he! Fire him! Send him to jail! I’ll take over the questioning now.”
    â€œBut, you haven’t tried any cases!” said the judge.
    â€œI’ll try anything once— ooomph !”
    I was suddenly on the floor. Frankie had tackled me.
    â€œDevin, you’re spoiling everything. Muff’s lawyer has a plan, and you’re wrecking it, big-time!”
    â€œA … plan?” I said.
    Frankie nodded. “If you’d read, you’d know. Look.”
    Muff’s lawyer stood before the court and said, “I wish to call … Thomas Sawyer to the stand!”
    â€œWhoa! A little surprise here!” I mumbled.
    Every eye fastened on Tom as he appeared at the side door. He took his place on the stand, looking scared.
    â€œTom Sawyer,” said Muff’s lawyer, “where were you on the seventeenth of June, at the hour of midnight?”
    Tom opened his mouth, glanced at Stinky Joe’s cold, hard face, and closed it again. A moment later, Tom seemed to get his strength back.
    â€œIn the graveyard,” he said.
    A crazy smile flitted across Joe’s face.
    â€œWere you anywhere near Hoss Williams’s grave?”
    â€œYes, sir,” Tom answered. “As near as I am to you.”
    â€œWas anyone with you?”
    â€œOnly a cat, sir,” Tom said. “A dead one.”
    There was a ripple of laughter in the courtroom.
    â€œNow, Tom,” said the lawyer, “tell us what you saw when you and your dead cat were in the graveyard.”
    Tom began, slowly at first, but then more easily, to describe everything he had seen that night. He purposely left out that Frankie and me and Huck were there with him. To keep us out of all the trouble, I guess.
    When Tom got to the big part, everyone in the room leaned in close and hung on every word he said.
    â€œAnd as the doctor fetched the board around and Muff Potter fell, Joe jumped with Muff’s knife and—”
    CRASH!
    As quick as lightning, the murderer sprang out of his seat, hurtled himself straight through a window, and was gone!
    â€œWhoa!” I said. “Is that guy guilty or what?”

Chapter 14
    Faster than you can say, “There he goes!” search parties of noisy men with sticks were combing every street and alley in the village for signs of Stinky Joe.
    But nobody could find him anywhere.
    Muff Potter was free, of course. But an even bigger thing was that Tom was a hero. The townsfolk carried him right out of that courthouse and down the main street, cheering and whooping up a storm.
    Back at Aunt Polly’s, Tom told us what he had done.
    â€œAfter we saw Muff in jail, I felt so bad I went straight to Muff’s lawyer and told him how I saw Stinky Joe do the murder.”
    â€œGood job,” I said. “I was waiting for that lawyer to come up with something. It turned out to be something huge!”
    â€œTom, you sure made Muff happy,” Huck added. “And Stinky Joe mad.”
    Frankie didn’t say anything.
    â€œWhat’s the matter?” I asked her.
    She pulled me aside. “Devin, I’m really glad Muff is free, but we’re two thirds through the book, we’ve been to the school, the graveyard, the island, the courthouse, the jail, and no lost page. What if we don’t find it?”
    I grumbled at the thought. “Maybe it’s hidden somewhere we haven’t thought of.”
    Tom’s eyes suddenly lit up. “Hidden? As in … buried?” Then he nearly exploded with the word.
    â€œTreasure!”
    Tom was already running for the door. “If you got something that’s hidden, it’s most likely buried. And what’s buried is meant to be dug up!”
    â€œI like the way your brain works, Tom,” I said. “But where should we dig?”
    â€œTreasure is mostly hid under the floors of a haunted house!” he said.
    Frankie shuddered.