Chapter fourteen
WilmingtonThe sunny conditions did not keep up for the auction later that day.
Denning focused his attention on the hundreds of businessmen in the crowd. Most of the men were well-dressed. By the size of some stomachs, many were obviously well-fed, too, lacking very little in the way of daily necessities. These were men of leisure, professional merchants, blockade skippers turned speculators, and fancy low-lives, vowing to outbid each other for the recent blockaded goods imported from Bermuda and the Bahamas. Some individuals were trustworthy, others were of dubious honesty. The rest were out-and-out cheats. There could even be a Union spy or two in there. A few ladies were sprinkled through the crowd, clinging to their escorts. Denning quickly picked out the Silver Sall
