a string of banks,
insurance manipulator, reputed ally of the lieutenants of Standard Oil,
and known ally of the Guggenhammers.

Nor did his looks belie his reputation and his manner.

Physically, he guaranteed all that Daylight knew of him. Despite his
sixty years and snow-white hair, his hand-shake was firmly hearty, and
he showed no signs of decrepitude, walking with a quick, snappy step,
making all movements definitely and decisively. His skin was a healthy
pink, and his thin, clean lips knew the way to writhe heartily over a
joke. He had honest blue eyes of palest blue; they looked out at one
keenly and frankly from under shaggy gray brows. His mind showed
itself disciplined and orderly, and its workings struck Daylight as
having all the certitude of a steel trap. He was a man who KNEW and
who never decorated his knowledge with foolish frills of sentiment or
emotion. That he was accustomed to command was patent, and every word
and gesture tingled with power. Combined with this was his sympathy
and tact, and Daylight could note easily enough all the earmarks that
distinguished him from a little man of the Holdsworthy caliber.
Daylight knew also his history, the prime old American stock from which
he had descended, his own war record, the John Dowsett before him who
had been one of the banking buttresses of the Cause of the Union, the
Commodore Dowsett of the War of 1812 the General Dowsett of
Revolutionary fame, and that first far Dowsett, owner of lands and
slaves in early New England.

"He's sure the real thing," he told one of his fellow-clubmen
afterwards, in the smoking-room of the Alta-Pacific. "I tell you,
Gallon, he was a genuine surprise to me. I knew the big ones had to be
like that, but I had to see him to really know it. He's one of the
fellows that does things. You can see it sticking out all over him.
He's one in a thousand, that's straight, a man to tie to. There's no
limit to any game he plays, and you can stack on it that he plays right
up to the handle. I bet he can lose or win half a dozen million
without batting an eye."

Gallon puffed at his cigar, and at the conclusion of the panegyric
regarded the other curiously; but Daylight, ordering cocktails, failed
to note this curious stare.

"Going in with him on some deal, I suppose," Gallon remarked.

"Nope, not the slightest idea. Here's kindness. I was just explaining
that I'd come to understand how these big fellows do big thi