his marshals, is accustomed. The mystery of his origin, which was at
first against him, became at length an element of his strength and of
the fear he inspired, as a sort of elemental force of unknown power.
Newspaper biographies of him constantly appeared, but he had evaded
every attempt to include him and his portrait in the Lives of Successful
Men. The publishers of these useful volumes for stimulating speculation
and ambition did not dare to take the least liberties with Murad Ault.

The man was like the boy whom Philip remembered. Doubtless he
appreciated now as then the value of the mystery that surrounded his
name and origin; and he very soon had a humorous conception of the
situation that made him decline to be pilloried with others in one of
those volumes, which won from a reviewer the confession that "lives
of great men all remind us we may make our lives sublime." One of the
legends current about him was that he first appeared in New York as a
"hand" on a canal-boat, that he got employment as a check-clerk on the
dock, that he made the acquaintance of politicians in his ward, and went
into politics far enough to get a city contract, which paid him very
well and showed him how easily a resolute man could get money and use it
in the city. He was first heard of in Wall Street as a curbstone broker,
taking enormous risks and always lucky. Very soon he set up an office,
with one clerk or errand-boy, and his growing reputation for sagacity
and boldness began to attract customers; his ventures soon engaged the
attention of guerrillas like himself, who were wont to consult him.
They found that his advice was generally sound, and that he had not only
sensitiveness but prescience about the state of the market. His office
was presently enlarged, and displayed a modest sign of "Murad Ault,
Banker and Broker."

Mr. Ault's operations constantly enlarged, his schemes went beyond the
business of registering other people's bets and taking a commission on
them; he was known as a daring but successful promoter, and he had a
visible ownership in steamships and railways, and projected such vast
operations as draining the Jersey marshes. If he had been a citizen
of Italy he would have attacked the Roman Campagna with the same
confidence. At any rate, he made himself so much felt and seemed to
command so many resources that it was not long before he forced his way
into the Stock Exchange and had a seat in the Board of Brokers. He