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Show lOG UNCLE TOM.'S CABIN : OR, show'd us the game? It's 3l! free to us 3l! you, I hope. If you or Shelby wants to chase us, look where the partridges was last year; if you find them or us, you're quite welcome.'' "0, wal, certainly, jest let it go at that," said Haley, alarmed ; "you catch the hoy for tho job; -you allers did trade Jar with me, Tom, and W:ll! up to yer word." '' Ye know that, '' sa.id Tom; ''I don't pretend none of your snivelling ways, but I won't lie in my 'counts with the devil himself. What I ses I 'II do, I will do,- you know t!tat, Dan Haley." " Jes so, jcs so,- I said so, Tom," said Haley ; "and if you'd only promise to have the hoy for mo in a week, at any point you 'II name, that's all I want." "But it an't all I want, by a long jump," said Tom. "Ye don't think I did business with you, down in Natchez, for nothing, Haley; I 've learned to hold an eel, when I catch him. You've got to fork over fifty dollars, flat down, or this child don't start a peg. I know yer." "Why, when you have a job in hand that may bring a clean profit of somewhere about a thousand or sixteen hundred, why, Tom, you 'rc onreasonable," said Haley. "Yes, and h:ll! n't we business hooked for five weeks to como,- all we can do? And suppose we leaves all, and goes to bushwhacking round arter yer young un, and finally doesn't catch tho gal,- and gals allers is the devil to catch,what 's then? would you pay us a cent- would you? I think I see you a doin' it- ugh! No, no; flap down your fifty. If we get the job, and it pays, I 'II hand it back; if we don't, it's for our trouble,- that's far, an't it, Marks?'' "Certainly, certainly," said Marks, with a conciliatory tone; "it 'a only a retaining fee, you see,- he! he! he!wo lawyers, you know. Wal, we must all keep good-natured, LIFE AMONG TilE LOWLY. 107 -keep eMy, yer know. Tom '11 have the hoy for yer, anywhere ye '11 name; won't ye, Tom 1" " If I find the young un, I 'II bring him on to Cinciimati, nnd leave him at Granny Belcher's, on the landing," said Loker. Marks bad got from his pocket a greasy pocket-book, and taking a long paper from thence, be sat down, and fixing his keen black eyes on it, began mumbling over its contents : " Barnes- Shelby County- hoy Jim, three hundred dollars for him, dead or alive. "Edwards -Dick and Lucy- man and ,vifc, six hundred dollars; wench Polly and two children- six hundred for her or her head. ''I'm jest a runnin' over our business, to see if we can take up this yer handily. Loker," he said, after a pause, "we must set Adams and Springer on the track of these yer; they 'vc been booked some time." ''They 'II charge too much," said Tom. ''I 'II manage that ar; they 's young in the business, and . must spect to work cheap," said Marks, as he continued to read. "Thcr 's three on 'em easy cases, 'cause all you 'vo got to do is to shoot 'em, or swear they is shot; they couldn't, of course, charge much for that. Them other cases,'' he said, folding tho paper, "will bear puttin' off a spell. So now let's como to the particulars. Now, Mr. Haley, you saw this yer gal when she landed 1" ''To be sure,- plain as I see you.'' "And a man helpin' on her up the bank? " said Loker. " To be sure, I did." "Mostlikely," said Marks, "she's took in somewhere; but where, 's a question. Tom, what do you say?" "We must cross the river to-night, no mistake," said Tom. |
