Tracing Welty

"Taking from this man a prim-cut coat, a broad brim hat, half a dozen white neckcloths, a bible, a double-barrelled pistol, and a heavy knife, Murrell stood prepared to play the preacher or the devil, as the fluctuations of his fortune might require; and after storing them away in a small valise, and obtaining a sum of twenty dollars from the receiver, as a loan, he sat down and wrote a letter, directing his brother to meet him at Natchez. He and his friend then started for the shore, and taking a boat, shot down the river with the current, and at midnight parted on the opposite bank—the receiver to return to the city, and the robber to set out toward the north, in the guise of a preacher of the Gospel, and with a forged certificate of probation in his pocket. Availing himself of the information he had obtained during his recent residence in New Orleans, of the haunts of the associates of the clans to which Phelps and Haines belonged, Murrell found in Ibberville a friendly gang of counterfeiters, who, on the presentation of his credentials, readily admitted him to their confidence, and supplied him with a large amount of counterfeit money to aid him in his northern progress. In return, they only asked for payment for the boodle, his personal due bill, which they filed among the rest of their accounts, to await the chance when his affairs should be in a more flourishing condition. With three or four hundred dollars, mostly in spurious tens and twenties, the desperate adventurer then set out again, so as to be in Natchez at the appointed time to keep his appointment with his brother. He still kept up his character of Methodist preacher, and, during the course of his journey, delivered several sermons, and indeed lost no opportunity of ingratiating himself with the godly of each village, by a passing exhortation to sinners to seek the blessings of redeeming grace. The result of these amiable little pauses was generally the passing off of several counterfeit notes, which, in consequence of their coming from the very pouch of sanctity itself, were never mistrusted for a moment."