His shop is a regular pawnshop of infamy.

In the States it has been elevated to the dignity of a profession, and the citizen at New York dreads the blackmailers more than the police, if he is meditating some dishonorable action.

Our first operations did not bring in any quick returns, and the harvest promised to be a late one; but you have come upon us just as we are about to reap our harvest.

The professions of Hortebise and Catenac--the one a doctor and the other a lawyer--facilitated our operations greatly.

One administered to the diseases of the body, and the other to that of the purse, and, of course, thus they became professors of many secrets.