ood as it had once been. He never permitted any Wall Street
development to pass unexplained--he thought it simple prudence for a
man with the care of a great financial and commercial enterprise to
look into every dark corner of the Street and see what was hatching
there. Accordingly, he sent an inquiry back along his secret avenue.
Soon he learned that Great Lakes was sound, but the Fanning-Smiths had
gone rotten; that they were gambling in the stock of the road they
controlled and were supposed in large part to own; that they were
secretly selling its stock "short"--that is, were betting it would go
down--when there was nothing in the condition of the property to
justify a fall. He reflected on this situation and reached these
conclusions: "James Fanning-Smith purposes to pass the autumn
dividend, which will cause the stock to drop. Then he will take his
profits from the shares he has sold short and will buy back control at
the low price. He is a fool and a knave. Only an imbecile would thus
trifle with an established property. A chance for some one to make a
fortune and win a railroad by smashing the Fanning-Smiths." Having
recorded in his indelible memory these facts and conclusions as to
James Fanning-Smith's plunge from business into gambling, Dumont
returned to his own exacting affairs.

He had himself begun the race for multi-millions as a gambler and had
only recently become ALMOST altogether a business man. But he thought
there was a radical difference between his case and Fanning-Smith's.
To use courageous gambling as means to a foothold in business--he
regarded that as wise audacity. To use a firm-established foothold in
business as a means to gambling--he regarded that as the acme of
reckless folly. Besides, when he marked the cards or loaded the dice
for a great Wall Street game of "high finance," he did it with skill
and intelligence; and Fanning-Smith had neither.

When the banking-house of Fanning-Smith and Company undertook to
finance the raid on National Woolens it was already deep in the Great
Lakes gamble. James was new to Wall Street's green table; and he liked
the sensations and felt that his swindle on other gamblers and the
public--he did not call it by that homely name, though he knew others
would if they found him out--was moving smoothly. Still very, very
deep down his self-confidence was underlaid with quicksand. But Herron
was adroit and convincing to the degree attainable only