At the beginning of summer vacation, everyone in town was talking about two things: the spectacular finale to the school's end-of-year recital and Muff Potter's trial. After his book had been torn, Mr. Dobbins became very quick-tempered, and he often used his whip on the children unjustly.
Tom and the other schoolchildren had decided to get some revenge. Unknown to most of the town, Mr. Dobbins was bald. He hid his baldness with a wig. The plan was to expose Mr. Dobbins' baldness to the whole town. Tom thought the plan was good, but not good enough. He felt it needed something extra special.
The night before the recital, Tom and several other boys slipped into the teacher's bedroom while he was sleeping. The boys knew that the teacher enjoyed several shots of whiskey before going to bed, and this made him a deep sleeper. The boys carefully painted Mr. Dobbins' bald head gold.
The next evening Tom asked Huck to help. During the recital Huck cast his fishing line through the open window and snagged the teacher's wig. As the teacher was making his closing remarks, Huck reeled in his fishing line. The wig flew off, and the teacher's gold head was exposed. Everyone agreed it was a historic ending to the recital.
The other event on everyone's mind was Muff Potter's trial. Whenever anyone mentioned it, or the murder, chills ran down Tom's spine.
One day Tom went to Huck and asked, "Have you told anyone about what we saw?"
"Of course not," replied Huck. "Why, Tom, we wouldn't be alive two days if that got out. Injun Joe would kill us."
Tom relaxed. "I guess we're safe as long as we keep quiet."
The boys promised again that they wouldn't say anything to anyone about Doc Robinson's murder.
"Muff Potter is going to die!" said Tom.
"He is," replied Huck sadly.
"Don't you feel sorry for him?" asked Tom.
"Yes," Huck said. "Muff may be a drunk, but he isn't a murderer. He's stood by me when I was out of luck."
"He's fixed my kites plenty of times," added Tom. "I wish we could get him out of trouble."
"The only way to do that is to talk. But if we talk, we'll be dead," said Huck.
Tom and Huck did the only thing they could do to help Muff. That was to pass tobacco, matches, and other things to Muff through the window of his cell. Muff was grateful, but the visits only made Tom more depressed.
On the day of the trial, the whole town gathered in the courthouse to watch. The prosecution called many witnesses to the stand, and none of them said anything good about Muff Potter. Even Muff's lawyer didn't defend him, and the prosecution was able to quickly build a solid case against him. The judge decided to break early for lunch.
Tom knew that Muff would be hanged if he didn't say anything. He pulled Muff's lawyer aside as everyone was leaving the courtroom. Tom and the lawyer talked rapidly in hushed voices. When the trial resumed after lunch, the judge asked Muff Potter's lawyer if he had any witnesses that he wanted to call.
The lawyer looked at the judge and said, "Yes, I would like to call Thomas Sawyer to the stand." The courtroom buzzed like a hive of bees as everyone whispered. After the oath was administered, the lawyer asked Tom where he had been on the night of the murder. Tom was about to answer when he saw Injun Joe staring at him.
Tom, suddenly afraid, stammered his answer. "I . . . I . . . was in the graveyard." Tom explained that he had been hiding behind the large tree near Hoss Williams' grave. The lawyer then showed the court the bag of Indian herbs that the boys had left behind.
The courtroom was silent. "How close were you to the murder that you witnessed?" the lawyer questioned Tom.
"I was about as close as I am to you, sir," said Tom.
"Can you describe to us exactly what you saw? Start at the beginning and don't leave anything out," cautioned the lawyer.
Tom started his story. It was hard to speak at first, but soon words began to flow. He described Doc Robinson knocking out Muff with a rock and continued, "I saw Injun Joe grabbing a knife and—"
Suddenly there was a loud crash. Injun Joe was gone. He had jumped through the courtroom window!