The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson • Paragraph 834
Stage 1 of 6

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Tom had been gradually sinking into a state of ghastly terror, and he said to himself, now: "I'm lost, no matter what turn things take! This man has said to me that he thinks there was something suspicious about that sale. He said he had a letter from a passenger on the Grand Mogul saying that Roxy came here on that boat and that everybody on board knew all about the case; so he says that her coming here instead of flying to a free State looks bad for me, and that if I don't find her for him, and that pretty soon, he will make trouble for me. I never believed that story; I couldn't believe she would be so dead to all motherly instincts as to come here, knowing the risk she would run of getting me into irremediable trouble. And after all, here she is! And I stupidly swore I would help him find her, thinking it was a perfectly safe thing to promise. If I venture to deliver her up, she--she--but how can I help myself? I've got to do that or pay the money, and where's the money to come from? I--I--well, I should think that if he would swear to treat her kindly hereafter--and she says, herself, that he is a good man--and if he would swear to never allow her to be overworked, or ill fed, or--"