While wandering down the river, Huck and Jim run across a steamboat named the Walter Scott that has run aground in the Mississippi River. Huck wants to go on board to scout out the boat, and even though Jim is a little frightened, they tie the raft to the boat. When they sneak on board, they overhear some men talking below deck. Jim tries to convince Huck that they are in a dangerous situation and that they need to go back to the raft, but Huck can’t help himself and tiptoes in for a closer look to see what is going on. Huck hears a man named Jake Packard threaten to kill another man, Jim Turner. However, Packard and his partner, Billy, decide to let the tied up Jim Turner drown when the boat sinks so they aren’t “responsible” for his death. Huck debates whether he should save Jim Turner and turn in the other men, and when he and Jim return to the raft to go get a sheriff in a nearby town, the raft has broken away and is drifting down the river. Huck and Jim jump in the robbers’ skiff and “light out,” not realizing that, by taking the skiff, they have sealed the robbers’ fate, and they will drown trapped on the steamboat.
It is suggested that Jake Packard, Billy, and Jim Turner are the men who killed Pap during a card game. Jim finds and covers Pap’s body so Huck won’t see it when they board the house floating down the flooded river earlier in their adventures.
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