'Tain't the putting the big on,
but it's the keepin' on it on. You'd laugh to see how I does it;
it's the way I keeps you out of limbo, though."
We have said these men were Graspum's "men;" they are more-they are
a band of outlaws, who boast of living in a free country, where its
institutions may be turned into despotism. They carry on a system of
trade in human bodies; they stain the fairest spots of earth with
their crimes. They set law at defiance-they scoff at the depths of
hell that yawn for them,--the blackness of their villainy is known
only in heaven. Earth cares little for it; and those familiar with
the devices of dealers in human bodies shrink from the shame of
making them known to the world. There was a discontent in the party,
a clashing of interests, occasioned by the meagre manner in which
Graspum had divided the spoils of their degradation. He had set his
dignity and position in society at a much higher value than they
were willing to recognise,--especially when it was to share the
spoils in proportion. Dan Bengal, so called from his ferocity of
character, was a celebrated dog-trainer and negro-hunter, "was great
in doing the savager portion of negro business." This, Romescos
contended, did not require so much cunning as his branch of the
business-which was to find "loose places," where doubtful whites see
out remnants of the Indian race, and free negroes could be found
easy objects of prey; to lay plots, do the "sharp," carry out plans
for running all free rubbish down south, where they would sell for
something.
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