The Murder

Tom and Huck pressed themselves against the trees. Three men came into the graveyard carrying a lantern and a shovel: Muff Potter, a harmless local drunk; Dr. Robinson, a young doctor; and Injun Joe, a dangerous man with a history of violence.

The men began to dig up a recently buried body. Tom and Huck watched in horror.

An argument broke out over money. Injun Joe lunged at the doctor, and a fight began. Muff Potter was knocked unconscious. Then Injun Joe grabbed Potter's knife from the ground and stabbed the doctor. He died immediately.

Injun Joe pressed the knife into the unconscious Potter's hand.

"You did that," Injun Joe said quietly to the confused man when he woke. "You killed him with your own knife."

Potter, who remembered nothing, believed him.

Tom and Huck ran. They did not stop until they were far from the graveyard. Shaking with fear, they made a solemn oath in blood — written on a piece of wood — never to tell a single word of what they had seen. Injun Joe, they were sure, would kill anyone who talked.