Mississippi River Blues by Tony Abbott

Author:Tony Abbott
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781480486881
Publisher: Open Road Media

Chapter 13

No sooner had everyone finished cheering about Tom and the boys being alive, than they started gossiping about the trial getting ready to start.

“It’s all Muff Potter, Muff Potter, Muff Potter on the street,” Huck said, when we met at the courthouse the next day.

Tom shook his head slowly. “I reckon he’s a goner. I sure feel sorry for him sometimes.”

“Muff’s always been good to me,” said Huck. “He gave me half a fish once when there wasn’t enough for two. He loafs around, of course, but we all do that.”

“I’m even an expert loafer myself,” I said.

“He’s mended kites for me,” said Tom. “And helped me knot hooks on my fishing line.”

Frankie frowned. “Maybe we could break him out?”

Tom and Huck both shook their heads.

“I heard people say that if he was to get free, they’d find him and hang him, anyway,” said Huck.

That stopped conversation for a while.

“Let’s go to him now,” said Tom. “At least we can make him feel better.”

That sounded good to all of us, so together we sneaked between the buildings until we were behind the jail. Tom went to the barred window and peeked in. “Muff?”

The balding head rose up slowly behind the bars, blinked, and grinned at us. A strange pain stung my throat and chest as I saw the poor guy in there. Like Frankie, I really wanted to bust him free, but the story didn’t seem to want to go there.

Huck passed some tobacco and matches through the bars, and Muff looked as if he would cry at the kindness of it.

“You’ve been mighty good to me,” Muff said. “Better than anybody else in town. And I won’t forget it. Often I’ve said to myself, I used to mend all the boys’ kites and things and show them where the good fishing was and befriend them when I could, and now they’ve all forgotten old Muff when he’s in trouble, but Tom don’t and Huck don’t, they don’t forget him! And I don’t forget them! Well, boys, I’ve done an awful thing. I was drunk and crazy at the time, I guess, and now I’ve got to pay for it with my life. It’s only right …”

We so wanted to tell Muff that he was innocent, but we settled for asking him if he had seen any lost page with a scribble on it in the jail. He shook his head. Finally, we all left the place, miserable and sad and feeling wrong about the whole thing.

“The author’s not going to let this happen, is he?” Frankie said as we headed out to the main street.

“It looks like it,” I said.

“But this is so wrong!” she said. “All the evidence will point to Muff being guilty. Everyone will be too afraid of Stinkhead Joe to say anything. He’ll just be sitting there in the courtroom like some kind of …”

“Murderer?” I suggested.

“Exactly.”

Tom frowned. “I’ll meet you all inside the courthouse. There’s something I have to do first.” He slipped through the gathering crowd and disappeared.

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