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Las aventuras de Tom Sawyer
Capítulo 31, Página 1
Now
to
return
to
Tom
and
Becky’s
share
in
the
picnic.
They
tripped
along
the
murky
aisles
with
the
rest
of
the
company,
visiting
the
familiar
wonders
of
the
cave—wonders
dubbed
with
rather
over-descriptive
names,
such
as
“The
Drawing-Room,”
“The
Cathedral,”
“Aladdin’s
Palace,”
and
so
on.
Presently
the
hide-and-seek
frolicking
began,
and
Tom
and
Becky
engaged
in
it
with
zeal
until
the
exertion
began
to
grow
a
trifle
wearisome;
then
they
wandered
down
a
sinuous
avenue
holding
their
candles
aloft
and
reading
the
tangled
webwork
of
names,
dates,
postoffice
addresses,
and
mottoes
with
which
the
rocky
walls
had
been
frescoed
(in
candle-smoke).
Still
drifting
along
and
talking,
they
scarcely
noticed
that
they
were
now
in
a
part
of
the
cave
whose
walls
were
not
frescoed.
They
smoked
their
own
names
under
an
overhanging
shelf
and
moved
on.
Presently
they
came
to
a
place
where
a
little
stream
of
water,
trickling
over
a
ledge
and
carrying
a
limestone
sediment
with
it,
had,
in
the
slow-dragging
ages,
formed
a
laced
and
ruffled
Niagara
in
gleaming
and
imperishable
stone.
Tom
squeezed
his
small
body
behind
it
in
order
to
illuminate
it
for
Becky’s
gratification.
He
found
that
it
curtained
a
sort
of
steep
natural
stairway
which
was
enclosed
between
narrow
walls,
and
at
once
the
ambition
to
be
a
discoverer
seized
him.
Becky
responded
to
his
call,
and
they
made
a
smoke-mark
for
future
guidance,
and
started
upon
their
quest.
They
wound
this
way
and
that,
far
down
into
the
secret
depths
of
the
cave,
made
another
mark,
and
branched
off
in
search
of
novelties
to
tell
the
upper
world
about.
In
one
place
they
found
a
spacious
cavern,
from
whose
ceiling
depended
a
multitude
of
shining
stalactites
of
the
length
and
circumference
of
a
man’s
leg;
they
walked
all
about
it,
wondering
and
admiring,
and
presently
left
it
by
one
of
the
numerous
passages
that
opened
into
it.
This
shortly
brought
them
to
a
bewitching
spring,
whose
basin
was
incrusted
with
a
frostwork
of
glittering
crystals;
it
was
in
the
midst
of
a
cavern
whose
walls
were
supported
by
many
fantastic
pillars
which
had
been
formed
by
the
joining
of
great
stalactites
and
stalagmites
together,
the
result
of
the
ceaseless
water-drip
of
centuries.
Under
the
roof
vast
knots
of
bats
had
packed
themselves
together,
thousands
in
a
bunch;
the
lights
disturbed
the
creatures
and
they
came
flocking
down
by
hundreds,
squeaking
and
darting
furiously
at
the
candles.
Tom
knew
their
ways
and
the
danger
of
this
sort
of
conduct.
He
seized
Becky’s
hand
and
hurried
her
into
the
first
corridor
that
offered;
and
none
too
soon,
for
a
bat
struck
Becky’s
light
out
with
its
wing
while
she
was
passing
out
of
the
cavern.
The
bats
chased
the
children
a
good
distance;
but
the
fugitives
plunged
into
every
new
passage
that
offered,
and
at
last
got
rid
of
the
perilous
things.
Tom
found
a
subterranean
lake,
shortly,
which
stretched
its
dim
length
away
until
its
shape
was
lost
in
the
shadows.
He
wanted
to
explore
its
borders,
but
concluded
that
it
would
be
best
to
sit
down
and
rest
awhile,
first.
Now,
for
the
first
time,
the
deep
stillness
of
the
place
laid
a
clammy
hand
upon
the
spirits
of
the
children.
Becky
said:
“Why,
I
didn’t
notice,
but
it
seems
ever
so
long
since
I
heard
any
of
the
others.”
“Come
to
think,
Becky,
we
are
away
down
below
them—and
I
don’t
know
how
far
away
north,
or
south,
or
east,
or
whichever
it
is.
We
couldn’t
hear
them
here.”
Becky
grew
apprehensive.
“I
wonder
how
long
we’ve
been
down
here,
Tom?
We
better
start
back.”
“Yes,
I
reckon
we
better.
P’raps
we
better.”
“Can
you
find
the
way,
Tom?
It’s
all
a
mixed-up
crookedness
to
me.”
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Las aventuras de Tom Sawyer — C1 Inglés | Cuentana