"Why, hain't two enough? I might as well give up the job at once, and done with it, if I'm to pay out all the fees."
"One more will make all sure," said Primus, who, prudent general that he was, thought no odds could be too great against an enemy. "S'pose I speak to Missa Gladding to insist?"
"Tom Gladding be hung. I won't give him a cent."
"But," said Primus, who seemed determined to have his own way in everything, "you no interjection, I guess, if it don't cost you noting."
"No," replied Basset, who was glad enough of another auxiliary, provided his own packet was not affected. "But, mind ye, I don't pay him a red cent."
"I pay him myself, out ob my own pass. De danger won't be so much, and de work will be done up right, sartin. So, atween genlmn, de business is settle."
They parted with the understanding that the General was to see Gladding and induce him to take part in the enterprise, and that the three would meet at a certain place in the evening, the constable being careful to repeat that he couldn't afford more than fifty cents for any assistance that might be rendered. Primus accordingly called upon Gladding, and the arrangement must have been satisfactory, for the three were all at the place of rendezvous at the appointed hour.
CHAPTER XIII.
"All these tales told in that dreamy undertone with which men talk in the dark, the countenances of the listeners only now and then receiving a casual gleam from the glare of a pipe, sunk deep in the mind of Ichabod."
Legend of Sleepy Hollow