To see a great speculation pass by without yielding him any return was very painful to him.

During his brief stay in New York he had been approached by speculators from the new field of promise; and had been able by his quick wit and ready business instinct to ascertain just the way in which money was made and was to be made.

He dismissed them all, for he had the means in his hands of starting nearer the sources of profit than themselves, and to be not only one of the "bottom ring," but to be the bottom man.

No moderate profit and no legitimate income would satisfy him.

He would gather the investments of the multitude into his own capacious pockets, or he would have nothing to do with the matter.