The Dauphin gets up and declares himself a former pirate, now reformed by the meeting, who will return to the Indian Ocean as a missionary. The crowd joyfully takes up a collection, netting the Dauphin eighty-seven dollars and seventy-five cents, and many kisses from pretty young women. Meanwhile, the Duke took over the deserted print offce and got nine and a half dollars selling advertisements in the local newspaper. The Duke also prints up a handbill offering a reward for Jim, so that they can travel freely by day and tell whoever asks about Jim that the slave is their captive. The Duke and Dauphin practice the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet and the sword fight from Richard III on the raft in Chapter Twenty-one.
The duke also works on his recitation of Hamlet's "To be or not to be," soliloquy, which he has butchered, throwing in lines from other parts of the play, and even Macbeth. But to Huck, the Duke seems to possess a great talent. They visit a one-horse town in Arkansas where lazy young men loiter in the streets, arguing over chewing tobacco. The Duke posts handbills for the performance. Huck witnesses the shooting of a rowdy drunk by a man, Sherburn, he insulted, in front of the victim's daughter. A crowd gathers around the dying man and then goes off to lynch Sherburn.
The mob charges through the streets in Chapter Twenty-two, sending women and children running away crying in its wake. They go to Sherburn's house, knock down the front fence, but back away as the man meets them on the roof of his front porch, ri e in hand. After a chilling silence, Sherburn delivers a haughty speech on human nature, saying the average person, and everyone in the mob, is a coward. Southern juries don't convict murderers because they rightly fear being shot in the back, in the dark, by the man's family. Mobs are the most pitiful of all, since no one in them is brave enough in his own right to commit the act without the mass behind him. Sherburn declares no one will lynch him: it is daylight and the Southern way is to wait until dark and come wearing masks. The mob disperses. Huck then goes to the circus, a "splendid" show, whose clown manages to come up with fantastic one-liners in a remarkably short amount of time. A performer, pretending to be a drunk, forces himself into the ring and tries to ride a horse, apparently hanging on for dear life. The crowd roars its amusement, except for Huck, who cannot bear to watch the poor man's danger. Only twelve people came to the Duke's performance, and they laughed all the way through. So the Duke prints another handbill, this time advertising a performance of "The King's Cameleopard [Girafie] or The Royal Nonesuch." Bold letters across the bottom read, "Women and Children Not Admitted."
Chapters 23-25 Summary
The new performance plays to a capacity audience. The Dauphin, naked except for body paint and some "wild" accouterments, has the audience howling with laughter. But the Duke and Dauphin are nearly attacked when the show is ended after this brief performance. To avoid losing face, the audience convinces the rest of the town the show is a smash, and a capacity crowd follows the second night. As the Duke anticipated, the third night's crowd consists of the two previous audiences coming to get their revenge. The Duke and Huck make a getaway to the raft before the show starts. From the three-night run, they took in four-hundred sixty-five dollars. Jim is shocked that the royals are such "rapscallions." Huck explains that history shows nobles to be rapscallions who constantly lie, steal, and decapitate{describing in the process how Henry VIII started the Boston Tea Party and wrote the Declaration of Independence. Huck doesn't see the point in telling Jim the two are fakes; besides, they really do seem like the real thing. Jim spends his night watches "moaning and mourning" for his wife and two children, Johnny and Lizabeth. Though "It don't seem natural," Huck concludes that Jim loves his family as much as whites love theirs. Jim is torn apart when he hears a thud in the distance, because it reminds him of the time he beat his Lizabeth for not doing what he said, not realizing she had been made deaf-mute by her bout with scarlet fever.
In Chapter Twenty-four, Jim complains about having to wait, frightened, in the boat, tied up (to avoid suspicion) while the others are gone. So the Duke dresses Jim in a calico stage robe and blue face paint, and posts a sign, "Sick Arab{but harmless when not out of his head." Ashore and dressed up in their newly bought clothes, the Dauphin decides to make a big entrance by steamboat into the next town. The Dauphin calls Huck "Adolphus," and encounters a talkative young man who tells him about the recently deceased Peter Wilks. Wilks sent for his two brothers from Shefield, England: Harvey, whom he had not seen since he was five, and William, who is deaf-mute. He has left all his property to his brothers, though it seems uncertain whether they will ever arrive. The Dauphin gets the young traveler, who is en route to Rio de Janeiro, to tell him everything about the Wilks. In Wilks' town, they ask after Peter Wilks, pretending anguish when told of his death. The Dauphin even makes strange hand signs to the Duke. "It was enough to make a body ashamed of the human race," Huck thinks.
A crowd gathers before Wilks' house in Chapter Twenty-five, as the Duke and Dauphin share a tearful meeting with the three Wilks daughters. The entire town then joins in the "blubbering." "I never see anything so disgusting," Huck thinks. Wilks' letter (which he left instead of a will) leaves the house and three thousand dollars to his daughters, and to his brothers, three thousand dollars, plus a tan-yard and seven thousand dollars in real estate. The Duke and Dauphin privately count the money, adding four-hundred fifteen dollars of their own money when the stash comes up short of the letter's six-thousand, for appearances. They then give it all to the Wilks women in a great show before a crowd of townspeople. Doctor Abner Shackleford, an old friend of the deceased, interrupts to declare them frauds, their accents ridiculously phony. He asks Mary Jane, the oldest Wilks sister, to listen to him as a friend and turn the impostors out. In reply, she hands the Dauphin the six thousand dollars to invest however he sees fit.
Chapters 26-28 Summary
Huck has supper with Joanna, a Wilks sister he refers to as "the Harelip" ("Cleft lip," a birth defect she possesses). She cross-examines Huckleberry on his knowledge of England. He makes several slips, forgetting he is supposedly from Shefield, and that the Dauphin is supposed to be a Protestant minister.
Finally she asks whether he hasn't made the entire thing up. Mary Jane and Susan interrupt and instruct Joanna to be courteous to their guest. She graciously apologizes. Huck feels awful about letting such sweet women be swindled. He resolves to get them their money. He goes to the Duke and Dauphin's room to search for the money, but hides when they enter. The Duke wants to leave that very night, but the Dauphin convinces him to stay until they have stolen all the family's property. After they leave, Huckleberry takes the gold to his sleeping cubby, and then sneaks out late at night.
Huck hides the sack of money in Wilks' coffn in Chapter Twenty-seven, as Mary Jane, crying, enters the front room. Huck doesn't get another opportunity to safely remove the money, and feels dejected that the Duke and Dauphin will likely get it back. The funeral the next day is briefly interrupted by the racket the dog is making down cellar. The undertaker slips out, and after a "whack" is heard from downstairs, the undertaker returns, whispering loudly to the preacher, "He had a rat!" Huck remarks how the rightfully popular undertaker satisfied the people's natural curiosity.
Huck observes with horror as the undertaker seals the coffn without looking inside. Now he will never know whether the money was stolen from the coffn, or if he should write Mary Jane to dig up the coffn for it.
Saying he will take the Wilks' family to England, the Dauphin sells off the estate and the slaves. He sends a mother to New Orleans and her two sons to Memphis. The scene at the grief-stricken family's separation is heart-rending. But Huck comforts himself that they will be reunited in a week or so when the Duke and Dauphin are exposed. When questioned by the Duke and Dauphin, Huck blames the loss of the six thousand dollars on the slaves they just sold, making the two regret the deed.
Huck finds Mary Jane crying in her bedroom in Chapter Twenty-eight. All joy regarding the trip to England has been destroyed by the thought of the slave mother and children never seeing each other again. Touched, Huck unthinkingly blurts out that the family will be reunited in less than two weeks. Mary Jane, overjoyed, asks Huck to explain. Huck is uneasy, having little experience telling the truth while in a predicament. He tells Mary Jane the truth, but asks her to wait at a relative's house until eleven that night to give him time to get away, since the fate of another person hangs in the balance. He tells her about the Royal Nonesuch incident, saying that town will provide witnesses against the frauds. He instructs her to leave without seeing her "uncles," since her innocent face would give away their secret. He leaves her a note with the location of the money. She promises to remember him forever, and pray for him. Though Huck will never see her again, he will think of her often. Huck meets Susan and Joanna, and says Mary Jane has gone to see a sick relative. Joanna cross-examines him about this, but he manages to trick them into staying quiet about the whole thing{almost as well as Tom Sawyer would have. But later, the auction is interrupted by a mob{ bringing the real Harvey and William Wilks!
Chapters 29-31 Summary
The real Harvey, in an authentic English accent, explains the delay: their luggage has been misdirected, and his brother's arm has been broken, making him unable to sign. The doctor again declares The Duke and Dauphin frauds, and has the crowd bring both real and fraudulent Wilks brothers to a tavern for examination. The frauds draw suspicion when they are unable to produce the six thousand dollars. A lawyer friend of the deceased has the Duke, Dauphin, and the real Harvey sign a piece of paper, then compares the writing samples to letters he has from the real Harvey.
The frauds are disproved, but the Dauphin doesn't give up. So the real Harvey declares he knows of a tattoo on his brother's chest, asking the undertaker who dressed the body to back him up. But after the Dauphin and Harvey say what they think the tattoo is, the undertaker declares there wasn't one at all. The mob cries out for the blood of all four men, but the lawyer instead sends them out to exhume the body and check for the tattoo themselves. The mob carries the four and Huckleberry with them. The mob is shocked to discover the gold in the coffn. In the excitement, Huck escapes. Passing the Wilks's house, he notices a light in the upstairs window.
Huck steals a canoe and makes his way to the raft, and, exhausted, shoves off. Huck dances for joy on the raft, but his heart sinks as the Duke and Dauphin approach in a boat.
The Dauphin nearly strangles Huck in Chapter Thirty, out of anger at his desertion. But the Duke stops him. They explain that they escaped after the gold was found. The thieves start arguing about which one of the two hid the gold in the coffn, to come back for later. But they make up and go to sleep.
They take the raft downstream without stopping for several days. The Duke and Dauphin try several scams on various towns, without success. The two start to have secret discussions, worrying Jim and Huck, who resolve to ditch them at the first opportunity. Finally, the Duke, Dauphin, and Huck go ashore in one town to feel it out. The Duke and Dauphin get into a fight in a tavern, and Huck takes the chance to escape. But back at the raft, there is no sign of Jim. A boy explains that a man recognized Jim as a runaway from a handbill they had found, offering two hundred dollars for him in New Orleans{the handbill the Duke had printed earlier. But he said he had to leave suddenly, and so sold his interest for forty dollars. Huck is disgusted by the Dauphin's trick. He would like to write to Miss Watson to fetch Jim, so he could at least be home and not in New Orleans. But he realizes she would simply sell him downstream anyway, and he would get in trouble as well. The predicament is surely God's punishment for his helping Jim. Huck tries to pray for forgiveness, but cannot.
He writes the letter to Miss Watson giving Jim up. But thinking of the time he spent with Jim, of his kind heart and their friendship, Huck trembles. After a minute he decides, "All right then, I'll go to hell!" He resolves to "steal Jim out of slavery." He goes in his store-bought clothes to see Phelps, the man who is holding Jim. He finds the Duke putting up posters for the Royal Nonesuch. Huck concocts a story about how he wandered the town, but didn't find Jim or the raft. The Duke says he sold Jim to a man forty miles away, and sends Huck on the three day trip to get him.
Chapters 32-35 Summary
Huck goes back to the Phelps's house in Chapter Thirty-two. A bunch of hounds threaten him, but a slave woman calls them off. The white mistress of the house, Sally, comes out, delighted to see the boy she is certain is her nephew, Tom. Sally asks why he has been delayed the last several days. He explains that a cylinder- head on the steamboat blew out. She asks whether anyone got hurt, and he replies no, but it killed a black person. The woman is relieved that no one was hurt. Huck is nervous about not having any information on his identity, but when Sally's husband, Silas, returns, he shouts out for joy that Tom Sawyer has finally arrived! Hearing a steamboat go up the river, Huck heads out to the docks, supposedly to get his luggage, but really to head off Tom should he arrive.
Huck interrupts Tom's wagon coming down the road in Chapter Thirty-three. Tom is at first startled by the "ghost," but is eventually convinced that Huck is alive. He even agrees to help Huck free Jim. Huck is shocked by this: "Tom Sawyer fell, considerable, in my estimation." Tom follows Huck to the Phelps's a half hour later. The isolated family is thrilled to have another guest. Tom introduces himself as William Thompson from Ohio, stopping on his way to visit his uncle nearby. But Tom slips and kisses his aunt, who is outraged by such familiarity from a stranger. Taken aback for a few moments, Tom recovers by saying he is another relative, Sid Sawyer, and this has all been a joke. Later, walking through town, Huck sees the Duke and Dauphin taken by a mob, tarred and feathered on a rail. Jim had told on the pair. Tom feels bad for the two, and his ill feelings toward them melt away. "Human beings can be awful cruel to one another," Huck observes.
Huck concludes that a conscience is useless, since it makes you feel bad for everyone. Tom agrees. Huck is impressed by Tom's intelligence when he skillfully figures out that Jim is being held in a shed. Huck's plan to free Jim is to steal the key and make off with Jim by night. Tom belittles this plan for its simplicity and lack of showmanship. Tom's plan is fifteen times better than Huck's for its style{it might even get all three killed. Meanwhile, Huck is incredulous that respectable Tom is going to sacrifice his reputation by helping a slave escape.
Huck and Tom get Jim's keeper, a superstitious slave, to let them see him. When Jim cries out for joy, Tom tricks Jim's keeper into thinking the cry a trick some witches had played on him. Tom and Huck promise to dig Jim out.
Tom is upset in Chapter Thirty-five. Innocent uncle Phelps has taken so few precautions to guard Jim, they have to invent all the obstacles to his rescue. Tom says they must saw Jim's chain off instead of just lifting it off the bedstead, since that's how it's done in all the books. Similarly, Jim requires a rope ladder, a moat, and a shirt on which to keep a journal, presumably in his own blood. Sawing his leg off to escape would also be a nice touch. But since they're pressed for time, they will dig Jim out with case-knives (large kitchen knives).
Chapters 36-39 Summary
Out late at night, Huck and Tom give up digging with the case-knives after much fruitless efiort. They use pick-axes instead, but agree to "let on"{pretend{that they are using case-knives. The next day, Tom and Huck gather candlesticks, candles, spoons, and a tin plate. Jim can etch a declaration of his captivity on the tin plate using the other objects, then throw it out the window to be read by the world, like in the novels. That night, the two boys dig their way to Jim, who is delighted to see them. He tells them that Sally and Silas have been to visit and pray with him. He doesn't understand the boys' scheme but agrees to go along. Tom thinks the whole thing enormously fun and "intellectural." He tricks Jim's keeper, Nat, into bringing Jim a "witch pie" to help ward off the witches that have haunted Nat.