After the trial Tom was a hero again.
There was a story about him in the town newspaper.
Old people loved him, and young people wanted to be like him.
But Tom didn't feel like a hero because every night he was afraid to go to bed.
In Tom's mind a hero wasn't afraid of the dark.
The fear wasn't so bad during the day when Tom could act like a normal boy.
But his nights were horrible.
Every night he had the same dream: Injun Joe was chasing him.
In the dream Tom ran, and then he fell.
Every night he woke up screaming just as Injun Joe caught him.
Huck was also afraid.
Although Tom hadn't told anyone that Huck saw the murder, Huck was sure it would leak out.
Every day Huck and Tom asked the sheriff if Injun Joe had been caught.
And every day the sheriff said, "No, not yet."
Huck and Tom were convinced that Injun Joe was waiting to get them.
As the summer drifted along, the boys began to lose some of their fear.
One day, feeling more confident, Tom went looking for someone to help him search for buried treasure.
The only person he found was Huck.
"Hey, Huck," said Tom. "Let's find some buried treasure."
"Sure," said Huck. "Where will we dig?"
"You know, under the roots of old trees, on islands, and of course in haunted houses.
We've already searched one island, so maybe we should look under some dead trees or in the haunted house," answered Tom.
"Who hides treasure?" asked Huck.
"Robbers mostly," answered Tom.
"If I were a robber, I wouldn't hide my treasure," said Huck.
"I'd spend it right away and have a good time."
"Me too," agreed Tom.
"But if robbers weren't stupid, there wouldn't be any treasure for us to find!"
The boys found an old pick and a rusty shovel, and they dug under and around lots of dead trees.
But they didn't have any luck.
"Maybe there are no robbers around here," said Huck.
"That's why we're not finding any treasure."
"No, that's not it. We must be doing something wrong."
Tom thought for a while and then he said, "I know what's wrong!
We need to dig at night."
"We need to dig at night?" asked Huck.
"Yes, treasure maps always say, 'When the moon is high in the sky, walk forty paces and dig under the shadow of the biggest branch,'" answered Tom.
"We need to dig again tonight."
Huck and Tom continued their search for buried treasure that night, but they still had no luck.
"I don't understand," said Huck.
"We marked the shadows of the trees' biggest branches, and we still haven't found any treasure."
"We didn't spot the shadows right at midnight," Tom pointed out.
"We've got to give this up, Tom," said Huck.
But Tom wasn't quite ready to abandon the idea of finding treasure.
"There's still one place we can look, Huck."
"No, Tom, I don't like haunted houses," said Huck.
"We won't look tonight," said Tom.
"Everyone knows that ghosts are dangerous at night.
We can look in the haunted house tomorrow."
"Well, okay," answered Huck.
"As long as you're sure that we won't see a ghost."
"Have you ever heard of someone seeing a ghost during the day?" asked Tom.
"Well, no." Huck seemed satisfied, so he agreed to meet Tom by the haunted house the next afternoon.
As the boys walked back to town, they passed the haunted house.
It stood alone in the middle of a moonlit valley, completely dark and evil-looking.
The next day around noon, the two boys met at the haunted house.
The house was still dark and dreary, but it no longer seemed as evil.
Tom and Huck were about to enter the house when Huck suddenly asked, "What day is it today?"
"It's Friday," answered Tom.
"Did you say Friday?" asked Huck.
"I don't think we should go to the haunted house today."
"Friday's an unlucky day to start a new enterprise," Tom agreed.
He suggested that they play Robin Hood instead.
Huck didn't know who Robin Hood was, so Tom explained it to him.
While the boys played, two pairs of sinister eyes watched them closely from the haunted house.