"Easy, if we had money do you think we'd be lounging around here in the morning?"  Thomas said in a placating tone, holding up his hands to show they were empty and glancing back at John.  This wasn't the first time they'd been on the receiving end of a threat like this, so this was not new ground.
"And as far as your friend there goes, he was probably gonna get beat up at some point here!  Was inevitable really, he just happened to bump into us first so we gave it to him."  He was taking slow and steady steps towards the small man now, still speaking in that deceptively calm voice that didn't really reach the cold glare creeping into his eyes.  "And as for the South?  Tell me just what have you done there, you over saturated filthy flesh peddler?  How many fields have you tilled and how many crops have you harvested by the hard labor of your [i]slaves[/i]?"  Now standing two feet from the right of the man, Thomas's tone had changed along with his glare to an accusatory hiss, disgust seeming to drip from his words like venom.