THE adventure of the day mightily tormented Tom's dreams that night. Four times he had his hands on that rich treasure and four times it wasted to nothingness in his fingers as sleep forsook him and wakefulness brought back the hard reality of his misfortune. As he lay in the early morning recalling the incidents of his great adventure, he noticed that they seemed curiously subdued and far away -- somewhat as if they had happened in another world, or in a time long gone by. Then it occurred to him that the great adventure itself must be a dream! There was one very strong argument in favor of this idea -- namely, that the quantity of coin he had seen was too vast to be real. He had never seen as much as fifty dollars in one mass before, and he was like all boys of his age and station in life, in that he imagined that all references to "hundreds" and "thousands" were mere fanciful forms of speech, and that no such sums really existed in the world. He never had supposed for a moment that so large a sum as a hundred dollars was to be found in actual money in any one's possession. If his notions of hidden treasure had been analyzed, they would have been found to consist of a handful of real dimes and a bushel of vague, splendid, ungraspable dollars.

But the incidents of his adventure grew sensibly sharper and clearer under the attrition of thinking them over, and so he presently found himself leaning to the impression that the thing might not have been a dream, after all. This uncertainty must be swept away. He would snatch a hurried breakfast and go and find Huck. Huck was sitting on the gunwale of a flatboat, listlessly dangling his feet in the water and looking very melancholy. Tom concluded to let Huck lead up to the subject. If he did not do it, then the adventure would be proved to have been only a dream.

"Hello, Huck!"

"Hello, yourself."

Silence, for a minute.

"Tom, if we'd 'a' left the blame tools at the dead tree, we'd 'a' got the money. Oh, ain't it awful!"

"'Tain't a dream, then, 'tain't a dream! Somehow I most wish it was. Dog'd if I don't, Huck."

"What ain't a dream?"

"Oh, that thing yesterday. I been half thinking it was."

"Dream! If them stairs hadn't broke down you'd 'a' seen how much dream it was! I've had dreams enough all night -- with that patch-eyed Spanish devil going for me all through 'em -- rot him!"

"No, not rot him. FIND him! Track the money!"

"Tom, we'll never find him. A feller don't have only one chance for such a pile -- and that one's lost. I'd feel mighty shaky if I was to see him, anyway."

"Well, so'd I; but I'd like to see him, anyway -- and track him out -- to his Number Two."

"Number Two -- yes, that's it. I been thinking 'bout that. But I can't make nothing out of it. What do you reckon it is?"

"I dono. It's too deep. Say, Huck -- maybe it's the number of a house!"

"Goody! ... No, Tom, that ain't it. If it is, it ain't in this one-horse town. They ain't no numbers here."

"Well, that's so. Lemme think a minute. Here -- it's the number of a room -- in a tavern, you know!"

"Oh, that's the trick! They ain't only two taverns. We can find out quick."

"You stay here, Huck, till I come."

Tom was off at once. He did not care to have Huck's company in public places. He was gone half an hour. He found that in the best tavern, No. 2 had long been occupied by a young lawyer, and was still so occupied. In the less ostentatious house, No. 2 was a mystery. The tavern-keeper's young son said it was kept locked all the time, and he never saw anybody go into it or come out of it except at night; he did not know any particular reason for this state of things; had had some little curiosity, but it was rather feeble; had made the most of the mystery by entertaining himself with the idea that that room was "ha'nted"; had noticed that there was a light in there the night before.

"That's what I've found out, Huck. I reckon that's the very No. 2 we're after."

"I reckon it is, Tom. Now what you going to do?"

"Lemme think."

Tom thought a long time. Then he said:

"I'll tell you. The back door of that No. 2 is the door that comes out into that little close alley between the tavern and the old rattle trap of a brick store. Now you get hold of all the door-keys you can find, and I'll nip all of auntie's, and the first dark night we'll go there and try 'em. And mind you, keep a lookout for Injun Joe, because he said he was going to drop into town and spy around once more for a chance to get his revenge. If you see him, you just follow him; and if he don't go to that No. 2, that ain't the place."

"Lordy, I don't want to foller him by myself!"

"Why, it'll be night, sure. He mightn't ever see you -- and if he did, maybe he'd never think anything."

"Well, if it's pretty dark I reckon I'll track him. I dono -- I dono. I'll try."

"You bet I'll follow him, if it's dark, Huck. Why, he might 'a' found out he couldn't get his revenge, and be going right after that money."

"It's so, Tom, it's so. I'll foller him; I will, by jingoes!"

"Now you're talking! Don't you ever weaken, Huck, and I won't."

那天晚上，汤姆一夜都没睡好，白天的历险也被带入梦乡。他梦中抓住了宝箱有四次，
可是当睡梦消失，他醒后面对的还是那不幸的严酷现实：宝箱化为乌有，他仍是两手空空。
一大早，他躺在那儿，回想着伟大的冒险经历，觉得那些事件越来越模糊，越来越远——有
点像是在另一个世界里发生的，或者是很久很久以前发生过的事情。于是他突然意识到这次
大冒险本身一定是一场梦！这种想法强有力的论点就是他见到的金币数量太多，不敢当真，
以前他从没有一下子看过五十块。他和同年孩子们一样，认为什么几万元、成千上万元，只
不过是谈谈而已，根本不存在这么大数目的钱。他一刻也没有认为，哪个人真拥有一百美元
这样大数目的钱。如果分析一下，他认为埋藏的那部分财宝，只不过是一把真分币和一大堆
可观不可及、光亮闪闪的块票而已。
    可是他越想，冒险的事情就越历历在目，他倒觉得这也许不是梦，是真的。他一定要弄
个水落石出，于是他三口两口吃完早饭后就去找哈克。
    哈克坐在一条平底船的船舷上边，两只脚没精打采地放在水里，看上去忧心忡忡。汤姆
决定让哈克先开口谈这个问题。他要是不提这事，那足以证明上次的冒险只是场梦。
    “哈克，你好！”
    “喂，你好。”
    一阵沉默。
    “汤姆，要是把那该死的工具放在枯树那边，我们就拿到钱了，唉，你说糟糕不糟糕！”
    “不是梦，是真的喽！不知怎的，我倒希望它是个梦。骗人是小狗，哈克。”
    “什么不是梦呀？”
    “欧，就是昨天那件事，我刚才还半信半疑那是个梦。”
    “梦！要不是那楼梯倒了，你会做更多的梦！我一夜梦得够多的，那个独眼的西班牙鬼
子一直追着我——该死的家伙！”
    “不不，不要咒他死，要找到活人！把钱追出来！”
    “汤姆，我们不会找到他，人发财的机会又不多，而这次发大财的机会又错过了。不管
怎么说，要是见到他，我非发抖不可。”
    “对，我也会发抖，不过无论如何得见到他，就是到二号去也要把他挖出来。”
    “二号，对，就是嘛，我也在想这事，可理不出头绪来，你有何高招？”
    “我也不知道那是个什么地方。太难了，想不出来。哈克，那要么是门牌号码？”
    “太对了！……不，汤姆，那不是门牌号，这个巴掌大的小镇，这城里就这么巴掌大一
块，根本用不着什么门牌号。”“对，这话不假。让我再想想，这是房间号，是客栈里的，
你知道吧。”
    “噢，你说对了！这儿只有两家客栈，会弄明白的。”
    “哈克，呆在这儿，等我回来。”
    汤姆立刻出去了，他不喜欢在大众场合下和哈克在一块。他去了有半个小时，他发现在
那家较好的客栈里，一个年青的律师长期住在二号，现在也没走。可是那家较差的客栈，二
号却是个谜。客栈老板那年青的儿子说，二号一直锁着，除了晚上，从来没有人进出，他也
不知道为什么会这样，只觉得略有点好奇，以那房子“闹鬼”为由来满足自己的好奇心。
    他还曾注意到前天晚上，二号里有灯光。
    “哈克，这就是我调查的结果。我想我们要找的就是这个二号。”
    “我想是的，汤姆。你打算怎么办？”
    “让我想想。”
    想了很久之后，汤姆说：
    “听着，二号后门通着客栈和旧轮窑厂之间的小窄巷子。你去把所有能找到的门钥匙全
弄到手，我去偷姨妈的，等天一黑我们就去试门。提醒你注意印第安·乔的动静，他说过要
溜回城里打探虚实以便伺机报复。你如果看见他，就跟踪他；他要不进二号，那就不是这个
地方。”
    “乖乖，一个人跟着他，我不干！”
    “是晚上去，他肯定看不见你——就是看见了，也不会多想的。”
    “好，如果确确实实是晚上去，我想我去，不过说不准，说不准，试试吧。”
    “要是天黑的话，哈克，我准会跟着他。他也许看到复仇无望，不如去把钱先弄到手。”
    “说得对，汤姆，说得对，我去盯着他，一定去，敲定了。”
    “这才是好样的！别动摇呀，哈克，我是不会动摇的。”