THAT night Tom and Huck were ready for their adventure. They hung about the neighborhood of the tavern until after nine, one watching the alley at a distance and the other the tavern door. Nobody entered the alley or left it; nobody resembling the Spaniard entered or left the tavern door. The night promised to be a fair one; so Tom went home with the understanding that if a considerable degree of darkness came on, Huck was to come and "maow," whereupon he would slip out and try the keys. But the night remained clear, and Huck closed his watch and retired to bed in an empty sugar hogshead about twelve.
Aquella nit Tom i Huck foren amatents a llur aventura. Rondaren pel veïnatge de la taverna fins després de les nou: l'un sotjava el carreró a distància, i l'altra la porta de la taverna. Ningú entrà ni sortí pel carreró; ningú que s'assemblés a l'espanyol entrà o sortí per la porta de la taverna. La nit prometia d'ésser clara: així és que Tom se n'anà cap a casa, amb el ben entès que, si sobrevenia algun grau considerable de fosquedat, Huck vindria i miolaria, i ell aleshores lliscaria enfora i provaria les claus. Però la nit romangué clara, i Huck acabà la seva vetlla i es ficà al llit dins una bóta de sucre, buida, vora la mitja nit.
Tuesday the boys had the same ill luck. Also Wednesday. But Thursday night promised better. Tom slipped out in good season with his aunt's old tin lantern, and a large towel to blindfold it with. He hid the lantern in Huck's sugar hogshead and the watch began. An hour before midnight the tavern closed up and its lights (the only ones thereabouts) were put out. No Spaniard had been seen. Nobody had entered or left the alley. Everything was auspicious. The blackness of darkness reigned, the perfect stillness was interrupted only by occasional mutterings of distant thunder.
El dimarts els minyons tingueren la mateixa pega. El dimecres igual. Però la nit del dijous era més prometedora. Tom lliscà enfora, en bona avinentesa, amb la vella llanterna de llautó de la seva tia, i una tovallola gran per a embolcallar-la. Amagà la llanterna en la bóta de sucre, buida, de Huck, i començà la vetlla. Una hora abans de la mitja nit la taverna va tancar, i sos llums (els únics d'aquells voltants) foren apagats. No s'havia vist cap espanyol. Ningú havia entrat o sortit pel carreró. Tot era de bon averany. Regnava una fosca d'allò més negra. El perfecte silenci era només interromput per l'eventual rondineig de trons llunyans.
Tom got his lantern, lit it in the hogshead, wrapped it closely in the towel, and the two adventurers crept in the gloom toward the tavern. Huck stood sentry and Tom felt his way into the alley. Then there was a season of waiting anxiety that weighed upon Huck's spirits like a mountain. He began to wish he could see a flash from the lantern--it would frighten him, but it would at least tell him that Tom was alive yet. It seemed hours since Tom had disappeared. Surely he must have fainted; maybe he was dead; maybe his heart had burst under terror and excitement. In his uneasiness Huck found himself drawing closer and closer to the alley; fearing all sorts of dreadful things, and momentarily expecting some catastrophe to happen that would take away his breath. There was not much to take away, for he seemed only able to inhale it by thimblefuls, and his heart would soon wear itself out, the way it was beating. Suddenly there was a flash of light and Tom came tearing by him: "Run!" said he; "run, for your life!"
Tom agafà la llanterna, l'encengué dins la bóta, l'embolicà ben embolicada amb la tovallola, i els dos aventurers avançaren quietament, en la tenebror, cap a la taverna. Huck restà de sentinella i Tom féu un reconeixement pel carreró. Després hi hagué una estona d'afanyosa espera, que pesà damunt l'esperit de Huck com una muntanya. Començà de desitjar que pogués veure una pampalluga de la llinterna. L'astoraria, però això almenys li faria saber que Tom encara era viu. Semblava que haguessin passat hores d'ençà que Tom havia partit. Segurament havia caigut en basca i potser era mort i potser li havia esclatat el cor, d'excitació i esglai. En la seva angúnia, Huck va adonar-se que s'anava acostant més i més al carreró, tement tota mena de coses esgarrifoses i esperant que esdevingués momentàniament alguna catàstrofe que li retirés l'alè. No en tenia gaire a perdre, d'alè, perquè semblava que no en pogués pendre sinó amb didalons, i el seu cor aviat es trencaria, batent d'aquella manera. De cop i volta hi hagué un ràpid esquinç de llum, i Tom comparegué corrents al seu devora:
-Correu!- digué. -Correu, per salvar la vida!
He needn't have repeated it; once was enough; Huck was making thirty or forty miles an hour before the repetition was uttered. The boys never stopped till they reached the shed of a deserted slaughter-house at the lower end of the village. Just as they got within its shelter the storm burst and the rain poured down. As soon as Tom got his breath he said:
No hauria calgut que ho repetís: amb una vegada n'hi havia prou: Huck ja feia trenta o quaranta milles per hora abans que la repetició fos pronunciada. Els minyons no s'aturaren fins que hagueren arribat al cobert d'un escorxador abandonat, al capdavall del poblet. Tan aviat com Tom hagué recobrat l'alè, va dir:
"Huck, it was awful! I tried two of the keys, just as soft as I could; but they seemed to make such a power of racket that I couldn't hardly get my breath I was so scared. They wouldn't turn in the lock, either. Well, without noticing what I was doing, I took hold of the knob, and open comes the door! It warn't locked! I hopped in, and shook off the towel, and, Great Caesar's Ghost!"
-Huck, ha estat esglaiador! He provat dues claus, tan blanament com podia; però feien un tan maleït garranyac, que amb prou feines podia contenir l'alè, d'esparverat que estava. I tampoc no daven el tomb dintre el pany. Bé, sense adonar-me del que feia, agafo el pom, i la porta que s'obre! No estava tancada! Salto a dins, llenço la tovallola, i... gran espectre de Cèsar!
"What!--what'd you see, Tom?"
-Què? Què heu vist, Tom?
"Huck, I most stepped onto Injun Joe's hand!"
-Huck! Gairebé he trepitjat la mà de Joe l'Indi!
"No!"
-Sí?
"Yes! He was lying there, sound asleep on the floor, with his old patch on his eye and his arms spread out."
-Jeia allí ben adormit en terra, amb el vell emplastre a l'ull i els braços estesos.
"Lordy, what did you do? Did he wake up?"
-Llamp! I què heu fet? S'ha despertat?
"No, never budged. Drunk, I reckon. I just grabbed that towel and started!"
-No, no s'ha remenat gens. Estava pet, ben segur. He arrabassat la tovallola i m'he engegat.
"I'd never 'a' thought of the towel, I bet!"
-Mai no hi hauria pensat, en la tovallola: m'hi jugo el coll!
"Well, I would. My aunt would make me mighty sick if I lost it."
-Bé, doncs, jo sí. La meva tia no em marejaria poc ni gaire, si la perdés!
"Say, Tom, did you see that box?"
-Digueu, Tom: heu vist aquella caixa?
"Huck, I didn't wait to look around. I didn't see the box, I didn't see the cross. I didn't see anything but a bottle and a tin cup on the floor by Injun Joe; yes, I saw two barrels and lots more bottles in the room. Don't you see, now, what's the matter with that ha'nted room?"
-Huck, no vaig esperar-me a mirar els encontorns. No he vist la caixa ni he vist la creu: no he vist sinó una ampolla i un pot de llauna en terra, a prop de Joe l'Indi! Sí; i he vist dos barrils, i una pila pila d'ampolles a la cambra. No veieu, ara, quína és la cosa d'aquesta cambra on surt por?
"How?"
-Quina cosa?
"Why, it's ha'nted with whiskey! Maybe all the Temperance Taverns have got a ha'nted room, hey, Huck?"
-Ves, que la por que hi surt és el whisky! Gairebé totes les tavernes de Temperança tenen una cambra on surt por: compreneu, Huck?
"Well, I reckon maybe that's so. Who'd 'a' thought such a thing? But say, Tom, now's a mighty good time to get that box, if Injun Joe's drunk."
-Bé, jo diria que potser sí, que és veritat. Quí hauria pensat una cosa així? Però, escolteu, Tom: ara és una hora de primera per a afanar aquella caixa, si Joe l'Indi està pet.
"It is, that! You try it!"
-Què l'és? Feu-ne la prova!
Huck shuddered.
Huck va esgarrifar-se.
"Well, no--I reckon not."
-Bé, no... trobo que no l'és.
"And I reckon not, Huck. Only one bottle alongside of Injun Joe ain't enough. If there'd been three, he'd be drunk enough and I'd do it."
-I jo també ho trobo, Huck. Una sola ampolla vora de Joe l'Indi no és prou. Si n'hi hagués hagut tres, hauria estat prou embriagat, i jo ho hauria fet.
There was a long pause for reflection, and then Tom said:
Hi hagué una llarga pausa de reflexió, i després Tom digué:
"Lookyhere, Huck, less not try that thing any more till we know Injun Joe's not in there. It's too scary. Now, if we watch every night, we'll be dead sure to see him go out, some time or other, and then we'll snatch that box quicker'n lightning."
-Mireu, Huck: no ho provem més, això, fins que sapiguem que Joe l'Indi no hi sigui. És massa espalmador. Ara, que, si vetllem cada nit, podem estar ressegurs de veure'l sortir una vegada o altra, i aleshores rapissarem la caixa més de pressa que el llamp.
"Well, I'm agreed. I'll watch the whole night long, and I'll do it every night, too, if you'll do the other part of the job."
-Bé, m'hi avinc: vigilaré mentre nit sigui nit, i cada nit tanmateix, si vós feu l'altra part de la feina.
"All right, I will. All you got to do is to trot up Hooper Street a block and maow--and if I'm asleep, you throw some gravel at the window and that'll fetch me."
-Prou! Ho faré. Tot el que haureu de fer és pujar corrents una illa de cases per Hooper Street, i miolar; i, si dormo, tireu-me una mica de sorra a la finestra, i això em farà bellugar.
"Agreed, and good as wheat!"
-Tracte fet, i amb aquella alegria!
"Now, Huck, the storm's over, and I'll go home. It'll begin to be daylight in a couple of hours. You go back and watch that long, will you?"
-Ara, Huck, s'ha acabat la tamborinada, i me'n vaig a casa. D'aquí a un parell d'hores començarà a ser de dia. Tornareu allí i vetllareu aquesta estona: oi?
"I said I would, Tom, and I will. I'll ha'nt that tavern every night for a year! I'll sleep all day and I'll stand watch all night."
-He dit que ho faria, Tom, i ho faré. No deixaré de petge la taverna, cada nit, encara que passi un any. Dormiré tot el dia i vetllaré tota la nit.
"That's all right. Now, where you going to sleep?"
-Molt bé. I escolteu: on anireu a dormir?
"In Ben Rogers' hayloft. He lets me, and so does his pap's nigger man, Uncle Jake. I tote water for Uncle Jake whenever he wants me to, and any time I ask him he gives me a little something to eat if he can spare it. That's a mighty good nigger, Tom. He likes me, becuz I don't ever act as if I was above him. Sometime I've set right down and eat with him. But you needn't tell that. A body's got to do things when he's awful hungry he wouldn't want to do as a steady thing."
-A la pallissa de Ben Rogers. M'hi deixa ser, i també m'hi deixa ser el negre que té son pare, l'oncle Jake. Carrego aigua per a l'oncle Jake sempre que li convé; i, cada vegada que l'hi demano, em dona un bocí de qualsevol cosa per menjar, si pot estalviar-ho. És un negre d'allò més bon home, Tom. Em veu de bon ull, perquè mai faig accions com si fos al damunt d'ell. De vegades m'ajec a terra i menjo amb ell. Però no ho digueu, això: un hom ha de fer coses, quan té una gana que nò hi veu, que no faria en tornar a ésser una çosa redreçada.
"Well, if I don't want you in the daytime, I'll let you sleep. I won't come bothering around. Any time you see something's up, in the night, just skip right around and maow."
-Bé: si no us necessito de dia, Huck, us deixaré dormir: no us inquietaré pas. I cada vegada que vegeu, de nit, que passa quelcom, quatre gambades i a miolar tot seguit.