Huck wakes up hungry and hears ferryboats sounding the river for his body. Remembering the local superstition that mercury-filled bread dropped in water will hover over a drowned corpse, Huck soon catches some of the bread the sounders drop and feeds himself with it. Soon, the riverboat passes the island while Huck hides in the reeds. Everyone Huck knows is on the boat, seeking out his body. The boat heads back without finding Huck.

For three days Huck fends for himself on Jackson Island. On the third day he stumbles upon evidence of a fresh campfire. This leads him to Jim, who mistakes Huck for a ghost at first. Jim has been away from home since the night after Huck ran away. He is starving, and so they eat together.

Once Huck explains his departure, Jim says he ran away from Miss Watson after overhearing her talk about selling him for $800 to a trader in New Orleans. He used the distraction of Huck’s murder to escape, taking a river route to avoid dogs. After a near run-in with a slave catcher, he hid on the island. Jim cannot show himself in the day and cannot hunt in the dark of night.