profession – Mountain, the son of a black woman and a mulatto father, claims to have always had a disposition towards being “susceptible of almost any impression”. This means that he had a natural inclination towards a life of crime and after a while he even begins to call his highway robbery his profession. Not being a modest man Mountain even claims to be at the “head of the profession”.
systematic – The process of robbery in Mountain’s life becomes a systematic and simplistic form of crime. He and his partners in crime would simply run upon someone on foot and take over a carriage. The robbery would be accomplished by presenting the victim with a pistol and would say the words, “Deliver or death”. This is a very cut and dry method of robbery which is perhaps why mountain was able to live “very freely” inhis chosen calling.
stage – Mountain uses this word to describe the destinations of his robberies implying that there is something fundamentally entertaining in his pursuits by linking it to a performance of some sort. All of England seemed to be a stage upon which Mountain was capable of creating a thoroughly entertaining crime narrative that was tinged with a bit of sensationalism as is evident when Mountain begins to change the old message of robbery(“deliver or death”) into such new forms as “Deliver or I’ll cool your porridge.” The elements of a preformative act can also be seen when Mountain comments on a man’s watch then promptly saying that he knew his profession and it was time yet again to “deliver”.