Page 249 - the-adventures-of-tom-sawyer

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