I agree with Joe about the escape route taken by Huck and Jim. I also recall that another reason for going to Cairo is that Jim would stand a better chance of escape in a city large enough to have a chapter of an abolitonist society or a branch of the underground railroad. Joel Chandler Harris writes of "Patty-Rollers" (Patrollers) in Georgia, which I'm sure existed in Missouri and Illinois as well, who patrolled, especially the border, looking for runaway slaves, seeking the bounty as Joe said or re-sale. Jim could not know what type of people he might encounter or whom he could trust simply crossing and walking through unknown countryside without knowing a direction to take or a place to go; he might add to his chances of being caught. Aggitation that would result in the Fugitive Slave Act, intended to increase or legalize pressure on non-slave states to return runaways, is also already in the air. Of course, Jim misses Cairo (Kay-row) and, as though it were Cairo (Ky-row), finds himself in danger of "being sold into Egypt" when they journey into the Deep South ("sold down the river" is the phrase that often appears). John Davis