Brown was ostensibly an innkeeper, but this business, honest enough in itself, only veiled the man's real trade, in which he defied alike the laws of honesty and of his country. The other was by turns a gentleman of property, a merchant, a cattle owner, or a speculator, in all of which characters he acted excellently, and succeeded in making the acquaintance of men whom he designed to rob.
The two men wore a sober look. In their business, as in those more legitimate, there are good times and dull times, and of late they had not succeeded.
“I want some money, captain,” said Brown, sullenly, laying down a black pipe, which he had been smoking.
“So do I, Brown,” answered Warner, as we will continue to call him. “It's a dry time with me.”
“You don't understand me, captain,” continued Brown. “I want you to give me some money.”
“First you must tell me where I am to get it,” answered Warner, with a shrug of his shoulders.
“Do you mean to say you have no money?” asked Brown, frowning.
“How should I have?”
“Because in all our enterprises you have taken the lion's share, though you haven't always done the chief part. You can't have spent the whole.”
“No, not quite; but I have nothing to spare. I need to travel about, and—”