Call_ sent him in one leaping, exultant paragraph
out of his position as "our esteemed fellow townsman" into a position of
far more classic significance by naming him the "Colossus of Canaan."
Madeira was a man of lightning-like execution of a plan, once he had got
hold of his plan, and Bruce Steering, sharpened by circumstances into a
consideration of every chance about him and even beyond him, had brought
Madeira the plan from far away New York. Throwing his immense energies
toward the prospect of ore in the Canaan Tigmores, bringing forward
every dollar of his fortunes,--as usual not so large as they were
accredited with being,--to finance his new projects, Madeira had
accomplished wonders within an incredibly short time. There were those,
unacquainted with the contents of an envelope in Madeira's vest pocket,
who marvelled that a sharp man should let his projects be entangled with
entailed property, but for the most part Canaanites were too accustomed
to follow where Madeira led to marvel, or to ask foolish questions. Even
for those so inclined Madeira had good answers. On the one side, he
could show, from the progress already made, that there must be such a
great quantity of ore in the Canaan Tigmores that it would be possible
to take fortunes out of them during old Grierson's possession of the
hills, even though the old man lived but a few years. On the other side
he could show that it was not in the Canaan Tigmores alone that he was
pushing the search for ore, but in the outlying land that had passed
into his control as well. It was true that he had put a steam-drill into
the Canaan Tigmores, but it was equally true that he had put
steam-drills up the Di at two or three points far beyond the Tigmores.
He made it as plain as day that the operations of the Canaan Mining and
Development Company would extend all over that section, and that the
Company's chances could not be taken away even by the death of
Grierson. And he made it equally and cheerfully plain that Grierson
would not die.

Out on the streets of Canaan, among the puppets who danced at his touch
upon the strings, Madeira never faltered in his exposition of the
Company's affairs and enterprises, and in the Company's offices behind
the Bank of Canaan, his direction was steady, resourceful and
comforting. He could build up potential profits for the investing
Canaanites and build down potential failure in a manner so satisfying
that the Canaanites gladly gav