The people here appear to possess instincts of
self-preservation and illiberality. I fear me that we are not cultured
enough to tackle this game."
"Don't worry," says Silver. "I've got this Jayville-near-Tarrytown
correctly estimated as sure as North River is the Hudson and East River
ain't a river. Why, there are people living in four blocks of Broadway
who never saw any kind of a building except a skyscraper in their lives!
A good, live hustling Western man ought to get conspicuous enough here
inside of three months to incur either Jerome's clemency or Lawson's
displeasure."
"Hyperbole aside," says I, "do you know of any immediate system of
buncoing the community out of a dollar or two except by applying to the
Salvation Army or having a fit on Miss Helen Gould's doorsteps?"
"Dozens of 'em," says Silver. "How much capital have you got, Billy?"
"A thousand," I told him.
"I've got $1,200," says he. "We'll pool and do a big piece of business.
There's so many ways we can make a million that I don't know how to
begin."
The next morning Silver meets me at the hotel and he is all sonorous and
stirred with a kind of silent joy.
"We're to meet J. P. Morgan this afternoon," says he.
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