There was, besides, but
little necessity for its employment. The place of counsel and assemblage
was not necessarily their place of abode, and the several members of the
band found it more profitable to reside, or keep stations, in the
adjacent hamlets and _stands_ (for by this latter name in those regions,
the nightly stopping-places of wayfarers are commonly designated) where,
in most cases, they put on the appearance, and in many respects bore the
reputation, of staid and sober working men.
This arrangement was perhaps the very best for the predatory life they
led, as it afforded opportunities for information which otherwise must
have been lost to them. In this way they heard of this or that
traveler--his destination--the objects he had in view, and the wealth he
carried about with him. In one of these situations the knowledge of old
Snell's journey, and the amount of wealth in his possession, had been
acquired; and in the person of the worthy stable-boy who brought corn to
the old fellow's horses the night before, and whom he rewarded with a
_thrip_ (the smallest silver coin known in the southern currency, the
five-cent issue excepted) we might, without spectacles, recognise the
active fugleman of the outlaws, who sawed half through his axle, cleaned
his wheels of all their grease, and then attempted to rob him the very
night after.
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