Huckleberry Finn--Chapters 24-30:

The Wilks Brothers’ Scam

Chapter 24• As the Duke and the King

tie up the raft to work over another town, Jim complains about having to wait in the raft, frightened, tied up as a runaway slave in order to avoid suspicion.• So, the Duke disguises Jim in a wacky robe, a wig, fake beard, and blue face paint and posts a sign on him that reads, “Sick Arab—but harmless when not out of his head.”

• Huck and the King meet a talkative guy who tells them about a recently deceased local man, Peter Wilks.

• Wilks had recently sent for his two brothers from England—Harvey, whom Peter had not seen since they were boys, and William, who is deaf and mute.

• The man explains that Wilks left a bunch of money and property to these brothers when he died, but it seems uncertain whether they will ever arrive.

• The King manipulates the young traveler into telling him all he knows about the Wilks family.

• Of course, being con-artists, the King and the Duke plan to pretend to be Peter Wilks’s brothers from England.

• So they show up at Wilks’s hometown and pretend to be horribly upset about their brother’s death.

•The scene is enough to make Huck “ashamed of the human race.”

Ch. 25• Pretending to be

their uncles, the King and Duke meet the dead man’s daughters.

Ch. 25Because of their insidious plan, the King and the Duke now have $6,000 of their “brother’s” money. “yaller-boys”

Ch. 26• Huck sees what good

people Peter’s daughters are. He feels guilty about the con.

• “I felt so ornery and low down and mean, that I says to myself, my mind’s made up; I’ll hive that money for them or bust.”

Huck sneaks into the King’s room and takes the money from his hiding place.

Ch. 27• Huck takes the money,

with a plan to hide it and write Mary Jane--one of Peter’s daughters--later with the location…

• But when she comes downstairs, Huck quickly hides the money in Peter’s coffin.

The next day, at Peter Wilks’ funeral, Huck doesn’t know if the money is still in the coffin or not.

Ch. 27

• The King asks Huck, “Was you in my room night before last?” (He’s furious that the money is missing.)

Ch. 28• The King and Duke hold an auction to sell everything else of Peter’s.

• Huck thinks he’s never seen such a thief “as the the king was for wanting to swallow everything.”

Ch. 29• Suddenly two other men show up claiming THEY are Peter Wilks’s brothers. And the older man claiming to be Harvey speaks with a proper English accent.

• A doctor and a lawyer claim the King and Duke must be frauds. They want proof they are really Peter’s brothers.

Ch. 29• In an attempt to find out once and for all who the real brothers are, the new Harvey asks the King “what was tattooed on [Peter’s] breast?”

• The King says “a small, thin, blue arrow.”The new Harvey says it’s “P—B—W”

So they agree to dig up the corpse to settle the matter.

Ch. 29“…if we don’t find them marks we’ll lynch the whole gang!”

• But when they dig up the body and open the coffin, they find the gold.

• Everyone goes nuts, and Huck isable to escape in the midst ofthe fracas.

Ch. 29• Huck returns to the raft, and Jim is excited to see him.• But Huck forgot about the Arab costume, so it scares him to death and he falls overboard.• Jim fishes him out and wants to have a hug fest. Huck says they gotta jet to escape.…But Huck soon hears the sounds of oars and sees it’s…

Ch. 30…the King and the Duke.• The King attacks Huck, but the Duke stops it and points out the whole mess is the King’s fault. • …and if it weren’t for the gold in the coffin, they’d be dead.

Ch. 30• The Duke and King accuse one another of hiding the money in the coffin. • They get into it big time and the Duke strangles the King, shouting “…you got to say you done it, or—”

“Nough!—I own up,” cries the King.

• This relieves Huck—knowing he’s now off the hook for stealing and hiding the money.

• The Duke and King yell and argue, but then get drunk and “went off a snoring in each other’s arms.”

Ch. 30

As soon as they are asleep, Huck and Jim have “a long gabble” and he tells Jim everything that happened.