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THE
ADVENTURES
OF
HUCKLEBERRY
FINN
(Globe-Fearon
Version) Adventure Review: Peter Wilks Inheritance Scam (Chapters 19-22) |
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KEY CHARACTERS: The
Duke
(phony
Reverend
Alexander
Blodgett,
phony
Harvey
Wilks) Return to Smartsparks.net Return to Huck Finn Main Page
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KEY EVENTS 1. Duke and King paint Jim blue and put a sign over the wigwam that says: "Sick Arab." Now Jim does not have to be tied up on the raft when they leave him alone. 2. Huck and the King travel upstream in a canoe so the King can get on a steamboat and arrive in town as a traveler. Before reaching the boat they pick up a young man who thinks they are the brothers of Peter Wilks. The King says he is Reverend Alexander Blodgett and tricks the man into telling him about Peter Wilks's death and the money Wilks has left for his brothers in England. 3. The King changes his plans and does not board the boat until the Duke is with him. They travel a few miles on the boat and get off at Wilks's hometown, posing to be his brothers from England. They lead the family to believe Huck is their servant, Adolphus. 4. All of Wilks's family and friends believe the Duke and King are Peter's real brothers except Dr. Robinson who knows their accents are fake. Peter's niece, Mary Jane, hands over her share of the inheritance, a bag of gold, to the King as a sign of faith. 5. Huck likes Mary Jane, who is kind and beautiful. To help the Wilks family, Huck takes the bag of money from the bed where the Duke and King hid it. Huck tries to hide the gold till he can safely return it, but must hide it quickly in Peter's coffin when he hears someone coming. 6. The Duke and King argue because the Duke wants to leave with the money but the King wants to stay around until all of Peter's property is auctioned off. The King wins the argument. They sell off Peter's slaves, separating a slave family while doing so. 7. Huck catches Mary Jane crying over the treatment of the slaves. Huck feels so bad for her that he tells her not to worry because the slaves will be reunited. She is curious, and he must tell her the whole story about the Duke and King being phonies. He tells her nothing about Jim, but asks her to trust him. Huck asks Mary Jane to go stay with friends because he is afraid she cannot hide her emotions and will send clues to the Duke and King. Huck promises to send her a note soon, telling her where she can find the missing bag of gold. 8. While Peter's property is being auctioned off, his real brothers arrive in town. They have lost their baggage and cannot prove their identities. The townspeople try to figure out which pair of men are the real brothers. Levi Bell tricks the Duke and King into writing their names on paper. Then he compares their signatures to letters he had received from Harvey Wilks. The signatures don't match, but neither does the signature of the man who recently arrived claiming to be Harvey Wilks. This man says it is because his deaf brother has been writing the letters for him. Unfortunately, the deaf man cannot write now because his hand was broken. 9. As alternate proof, the real Harvey Wilks claims that there is a small scar on his dead brother's chest. The townspeople dig up the body and find the missing bag of gold. Everyone is excited and Huck is able to slip away unnoticed. 10. Huck runs back to the raft, hoping he and Jim can escape the Duke and King. His hopes are destroyed with the arrival of the Duke and King, who quarrel with each other over the lost money. |
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