bout his keen black eyes, with which every feature of his face seemed
sharpened into sympathy; his thin, long nose, ran out as if it was eager
to bore into the nature of things in general; his sleek, thin, black
hair was stuck eagerly forward, and all his motions and evolutions
expressed a dry, cautious acuteness. The great man poured out a big
tumbler half full of raw spirits, and gulped it down without a word. The
little man stood tiptoe, and putting his head first to one side and then
the other, and snuffing considerately in the directions of the various
bottles, ordered at last a mint julep, in a thin and quivering voice,
and with an air of great circumspection. When poured out, he took it and
looked at it with a sharp, complacent air, like a man who thinks he has
done about the right thing, and hit the nail on the head, and proceeded
to dispose of it in short and well-advised sips.

"Wal, now, who'd a thought this yer luck 'ad come to me? Why, Loker, how
are ye?" said Haley, coming forward, and extending his hand to the big
man.

"The devil!" was the civil reply. "What brought you here, Haley?"

The mousing man, who bore the name of Marks, instantly stopped his
sipping, and, poking his head forward, looked shrewdly on the new
acquaintance, as a cat sometimes looks at a moving dry leaf, or some
other possible object of pursuit.

"I say, Tom, this yer's the luckiest thing in the world. I'm in a devil
of a hobble, and you must help me out."

"Ugh? aw! like enough!" grunted his complacent acquaintance. "A body may
be pretty sure of that, when _you're_ glad to see 'em; something to be
made off of 'em. What's the blow now?"

"You've got a friend here?" said Haley, looking doubtfully at Marks;
"partner, perhaps?"

"Yes, I have. Here, Marks! here's that ar feller that I was in with in
Natchez."

"Shall be pleased with his acquaintance," said Marks, thrusting out a
long, thin hand, like a raven's claw. "Mr. Haley, I believe?"

"The same, sir," said Haley. "And now, gentlemen, seein' as we've met so
happily, I think I'll stand up to a small matter of a treat in this here
parlor. So, now, old coon," said he to the man at the bar, "get us hot
water, and sugar, and cigars, and plenty of the _real stuff_ and we'll
have a blow-out."

Behold, then, the candles lighted, the fire stimulated to the burning
point in the grate, and our three worthies seated round a table, well
spread with all the accessories to good fellows