This image is from Mark Twain's 1876 novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. In it, Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn have entered the local "haunted house" to search for buried treasure. After being unsuccessful on the first floor, they head upstairs to look about the old house. While there, the boys hear someone entering the house and cautiously peer down the stairs. They see the old deaf and mute Spaniard who has been hanging around their town lately, accompanied by a man whom they've never seen before. To their shock, the "mute" Spaniard starts to talk and they realize that he's actually Injun Joe, the criminal whom the two boys witnessed commit a murder some months before. Tom had testified to this in court, but Joe escaped by jumping through a window in the courtroom. Everyone had assumed that he had fled the state, but it turns out he's been in town the whole time in disguise. As the two boys watch fearfully, the two men talk about a "job" they have to pull before leaving for Texas, and get some money from a stash of their ill-gotten gains which is hidden in the fireplace. As they start to hide their stash once more, the two find a box filled with gold coins- the haunted house has been used as a hideout by other criminals over the years. To the disappointment of the two hidden boys, Injun Joe and his pal decide that it's too much money to leave unprotected and determine to move it to Joe's "number two" hiding place. Tom and Huck soon have something else to worry about, though. Joe sees the shovel and pick which the boys had been using leaning against the wall with fresh dirt on them. Wary, he starts up the stairs to look around, but is too heavy for the dilapidated steps, which collapse under his weight. Disgruntled, Joe picks himself off the floor and he and his friend leave, taking the money with them.
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