MARTHA DOUGLAS, in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, was the widow of Judge Douglas, who sat on the bench in Hannibal, Missouri at about the time Tom Sawyer grew up in that town.When her husband died, and Judge Thatcher came to take over, Martha Douglas stayed on, as a well-respected citizen.She never knew how narrowly she escaped death when the dangerous cutthroat Injun Joe came to her house, intent on torturing and killing her. Her husband the judge had once had Injun Joe horsewhipped for some offense, the nature of which Samuel L. Clemens does not record. Injun Joe now planned revenge against her. But on that fateful night, she had company, and that gave Injun Joe and his then-current partner pause.And Huckleberry Finn, son of the town drunkard, saved her life that night. He did so by loudly calling on a Welshman who lived in town and telling him what he had overheard. The Welshman and his two sons, armed with rifles, walked up the road to Martha's house. They fought a brief gun battle with the two cutthroats, chased them away, and captured their sack of burglar's tools.Eventually, Injun Joe met his death in MacDougall's Cave.And Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer found a cache of stolen gold, twenty-four thousand dollars' worth. After that, Martha Douglas took Huck into her home to care for him. Of course, Huck famously ran away, in the company of a runaway slave. Eventually, though, Huck and Tom came back to Hannibal, claimed their money, and traveled to the Oklahoma or Indian Territory to have further adventures.