Page 249 - the-adventures-of-tom-sawyer
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random,  in  desperate  hope  of  finding  the  one  that  was
           wanted. He still said it was ‘all right,’ but there was such a
            leaden dread at his heart that the words had lost their ring
            and sounded just as if he had said, ‘All is lost!’ Becky clung
           to his side in an anguish of fear, and tried hard to keep back
           the tears, but they would come. At last she said:
              ‘Oh, Tom, never mind the bats, let’s go back that way! We
            seem to get worse and worse off all the time.’
              ‘Listen!’ said he.
              Profound silence; silence so deep that even their breath-
           ings were conspicuous in the hush. Tom shouted. The call
           went echoing down the empty aisles and died out in the dis-
           tance in a faint sound that resembled a ripple of mocking
            laughter.
              ‘Oh, don’t do it again, Tom, it is too horrid,’ said Becky.
              ‘It is horrid, but I better, Becky; they might hear us, you
            know,’ and he shouted again.
              The  ‘might’  was  even  a  chillier  horror  than  the  ghost-
            ly laughter, it so confessed a perishing hope. The children
            stood still and listened; but there was no result. Tom turned
           upon the back track at once, and hurried his steps. It was
            but a little while before a certain indecision in his manner
           revealed another fearful fact to Becky — he could not find
           his way back!
              ‘Oh, Tom, you didn’t make any marks!’
              ‘Becky, I was such a fool! Such a fool! I never thought we
           might want to come back! No — I can’t find the way. It’s all
           mixed up.’
              ‘Tom, Tom, we’re lost! we’re lost! We never can get out of

                                       The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
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