Whether acting as the paid devil of
another, or on his own responsibility, he bowed to no power but his own
will. His physical courage was well known to be of the most obstinate
character. When the coward dandy had an enemy to punish, Vernon, for a
hundred dollars, would first insult and then fight the luckless
individual. This had formerly been a lucrative part of his trade; but
latterly his claims to the distinction of _gentleman_ and _man of honor_
had been of such a questionable character, that the man who refused to
meet him did not lose caste among the bloods of the city.
Vernon was now on his way to a wider sphere of action than New Orleans,
with its yellow fever season at hand, afforded him. As usual, he
practised his arts on board the Chalmetta, which, however, afforded him
but a narrow field, the passengers being mostly officers, who had left
their pay in the _cabarets_ of Mexico.
By some means he had ascertained that Henry Carroll was in possession of
a considerable sum of money. By all the arts in his power he had
endeavored to lure him to the gambling-table, which was constantly
spread in the cabin, and surrounded by unfortunate victims, vainly
striving against the coolness and trickery of professional blacklegs, to
recruit their exhausted finances, or retrieve the ruin to which an
unlucky hour had enticed them.
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