apse into
"you-all," "knowed," "sure," and similar solecisms. He learned to eat
and dress and generally comport himself after the manner of civilized
man; but through it all he remained himself, not unduly reverential nor
considerative, and never hesitating to stride rough-shod over any
soft-faced convention if it got in his way and the provocation were
great enough. Also, and unlike the average run of weaker men coming
from back countries and far places, he failed to reverence the
particular tin gods worshipped variously by the civilized tribes of
men. He had seen totems before, and knew them for what they were.

Tiring of being merely an onlooker, he ran up to Nevada, where the new
gold-mining boom was fairly started--"just to try a flutter," as he
phrased it to himself. The flutter on the Tonopah Stock Exchange
lasted just ten days, during which time his smashing, wild-bull game
played ducks and drakes with the more stereotyped gamblers, and at the
end of which time, having gambled Floridel into his fist, he let go for
a net profit of half a million. Whereupon, smacking his lips, he
departed for San Francisco and the St. Francis Hotel. It tasted good,
and his hunger for the game became more acute.

And once more the papers sensationalized him. BURNING DAYLIGHT was a
big-letter headline again. Interviewers flocked about him.

Old files of magazines and newspapers were searched through, and the
romantic and historic Elam Harnish, Adventurer of the Frost, King of
the Klondike, and father of the Sourdoughs, strode upon the breakfast
table of a million homes along with the toast and breakfast foods.
Even before his elected time, he was forcibly launched into the game.
Financiers and promoters, and all the flotsam and jetsam of the sea of
speculation surged upon the shores of his eleven millions. In
self-defence he was compelled to open offices. He had made them sit up
and take notice, and now, willy-nilly, they were dealing him hands and
clamoring for him to play. Well, play he would; he'd show 'em; even
despite the elated prophesies made of how swiftly he would be
trimmed--prophesies coupled with descriptions of the bucolic game he
would play and of his wild and woolly appearance.

He dabbled in little things at first--"stalling for time," as he
explained it to Holdsworthy, a friend he had made at the Alta-Pacific
Club. Daylight himself was a member of the club, and Holdsworthy had
proposed him. And it w