take out a pair of pistols, which he
carried to the light, and examined their locks.

'Are they loaded?' inquired Craig.

Jones nodded: 'Two bullets in each! Suppose they twig us?--are we to fight
or run?'

''You had better die than fail.' He said that,' replied Craig, in a low
tone; 'and when I saw his look I thought so too. D--n him! I'm afraid of
him. It'll be no baby-work if they discover us.'

The other robber made no reply, but continued to examine the pistols,
carefully rubbing the barrels, to remove any trace of rust, and working
the hammers backward and forward; after which he put two fresh caps on the
cones. 'All right! I'm ready as soon as it's time. When do you go?'

'Not till an hour after midnight. That's the time when folks sleep
soundest. You could cut a man's throat then without waking him. Don't let
the fire get down,' said he, turning an apprehensive eye toward the
fire-place. 'It's cold, and we've three hours to be here yet.'

Jones, with the same good-natured alacrity which he had before displayed,
threw several sticks on the fire, and then turning to his comrade, said:

'Suppose we rattle the dice till midnight?'

Craig shook his head.

'What say you to the paste-board?'

'No cards for me,' replied the other, seating himself and leaning his
cheeks between his hands, with his elbows on his knees, and his eyes
fastened on the fire. 'I want to be on the move. God! How I wish it was
time! This cursed room is enough to suffocate one. Curse me, but it smells
of coffins and dead men, and is as cold as a church-vault. It goes to a
fellow's very bones.'

There was something so unusual in the mood of his comrade, that Jones at
last started up and said:

'Blast me, Tim, but you must stop this. You're making me as wild and
frightened as yourself. Talk of your beaks, and courts, and prisons, and
bullets, and pistols, as much as you like; but d--n it, leave your dead
men, and coffins, and vaults, and all them 'ere to themselves, will you!
Curse me, if you ain't enough to make a sneak of any man. So just stop,
will you? If you can't talk of something better, don't talk at all.'

Craig took him at his word; and drawing his bench closer to the fire,
maintained his position, without moving or speaking for more than an hour.

Jones, in the mean while, for want of employment, again examined the
pistols; drew out the loads, and reloaded them; then going to the closet,
he brought out two very dangerous-l