ely man. He failed to find the one
man, or group of several men, with whom he could be really intimate.
Cities did not make for comradeship as did the Alaskan trail. Besides,
the types of men were different. Scornful and contemptuous of business
men on the one hand, on the other his relations with the San Francisco
bosses had been more an alliance of expediency than anything else. He
had felt more of kinship for the franker brutality of the bosses and
their captains, but they had failed to claim any deep respect. They
were too prone to crookedness. Bonds were better than men's word in
this modern world, and one had to look carefully to the bonds.

In the old Yukon days it had been different. Bonds didn't go. A man
said he had so much, and even in a poker game his appeasement was
accepted.

Larry Hegan, who rose ably to the largest demands of Daylight's
operations and who had few illusions and less hypocrisy, might have
proved a chum had it not been for his temperamental twist. Strange
genius that he was, a Napoleon of the law, with a power of visioning
that far exceeded Daylight's, he had nothing in common with Daylight
outside the office. He spent his time with books, a thing Daylight
could not abide. Also, he devoted himself to the endless writing of
plays which never got beyond manuscript form, and, though Daylight only
sensed the secret taint of it, was a confirmed but temperate eater of
hasheesh. Hegan lived all his life cloistered with books in a world of
agitation. With the out-of-door world he had no understanding nor
tolerance. In food and drink he was abstemious as a monk, while
exercise was a thing abhorrent. Daylight's friendships, in lieu of
anything closer, were drinking friendships and roistering friendships.
And with the passing of the Sunday rides with Dede, he fell back more
and more upon these for diversion. The cocktail wall of inhibition he
reared more assiduously than ever.

The big red motor-car was out more frequently now, while a stable hand
was hired to give Bob exercise. In his early San Francisco days, there
had been intervals of easement between his deals, but in this present
biggest deal of all the strain was unremitting. Not in a month, or two,
or three, could his huge land investment be carried to a successful
consummation. And so complete and wide-reaching was it that
complications and knotty situations constantly arose. Every day
brought its problems, and when he had