From that time forward I think I may say without boasting that I have been as successful as any man of my age has a right to expect to be.

What is better still, I am now in the happy position of being able to accept or decline business as I choose.
It is in many respects a hard life, and at all times is attended with a fair amount of risk, but you cannot make omelets without breaking eggs, and if any one chooses to spend his life running to earth men who are waging war against Society, well, he must not grumble if he receives some hard knocks in return.
After these preliminaries I will proceed to show how I came to be mixed up in the most curious case it has ever been my good, or evil, fortune to encounter.

It showed me a side of human nature I had not met before, and it brought me the greatest happiness a man can ever hope to find..