They met—thanks to "our" Mr. Howison,—up the Hudson, in a magnificent country home. Daylight, according to instructions, arrived in a private motor-car which had been furnished him. Whose car it was he did not know any more than did he know the owner of the house, with its generous, rolling, tree-studded lawns. Dowsett was already there, and another man whom Daylight recognized before the introduction was begun. It was Nathaniel Letton, and none other. Daylight had seen his face a score of times in the magazines and newspapers, and read about his standing6 in the financial world and about his endowed University of Daratona. He, likewise, struck Daylight as a man of power, though he was puzzled in that he could find no likeness7 to Dowsett. Except in the matter of cleanness,—a cleanness that seemed to go down to the deepest fibers8 of him,—Nathaniel Letton was unlike the other in every particular. Thin to emaciation9, he seemed a cold flame of a man, a man of a mysterious, chemic sort of flame, who, under a glacier-like exterior10, conveyed, somehow, the impression of the ardent11 heat of a thousand suns. His large gray eyes were mainly responsible for this feeling, and they blazed out feverishly12 from what was almost a death's-head, so thin was the face, the skin of which was a ghastly, dull, dead white. Not more than fifty, thatched with a sparse13 growth of iron-gray hair, he looked several times the age of Dowsett. Yet Nathaniel Letton possessed14 control—Daylight could see that plainly. He was a thin-faced ascetic15, living in a state of high, attenuated16 calm—a molten planet under a transcontinental ice sheet. And yet, above all most of all, Daylight was impressed by the terrific and almost awful cleanness of the man. There was no dross17 in him. He had all the seeming of having been purged18 by fire. Daylight had the feeling that a healthy man-oath would be a deadly offence to his ears, a sacrilege and a blasphemy19.
They drank—that is, Nathaniel Letton took mineral water served by the smoothly20 operating machine of a lackey21 who inhabited the place, while Dowsett took Scotch22 and soda23 and Daylight a cocktail24. Nobody seemed to notice the unusualness of a Martini at midnight, though Daylight looked sharply for that very thing; for he had long since learned that Martinis had their strictly25 appointed times and places. But he liked Martinis, and, being a natural man, he chose deliberately27 to drink when and how he pleased. Others had noticed this peculiar28 habit of his, but not so Dowsett and Letton; and Daylight's secret thought was: "They sure wouldn't bat an eye if I called for a glass of corrosive29 sublimate30."
Leon Guggenhammer arrived in the midst of the drink, and ordered Scotch. Daylight studied him curiously31. This was one of the great Guggenhammer family; a younger one, but nevertheless one of the crowd with which he had locked grapples in the North. Nor did Leon Guggenhammer fail to mention cognizance of that old affair. He complimented Daylight on his prowess—"The echoes of Ophir came down to us, you know. And I must say, Mr. Daylight—er, Mr. Harnish, that you whipped us roundly in that affair."
Echoes! Daylight could not escape the shock of the phrase—echoes had come down to them of the fight into which he had flung all his strength and the strength of his Klondike millions. The Guggenhammers sure must go some when a fight of that dimension was no more than a skirmish of which they deigned32 to hear echoes.
"They sure play an almighty33 big game down here," was his conclusion, accompanied by a corresponding elation35 that it was just precisely36 that almighty big game in which he was about to be invited to play a hand. For the moment he poignantly37 regretted that rumor38 was not true, and that his eleven millions were not in reality thirty millions. Well, that much he would be frank about; he would let them know exactly how many stacks of chips he could buy.
Leon Guggenhammer was young and fat. Not a day more than thirty, his face, save for the adumbrated39 puff40 sacks under the eyes, was as smooth and lineless as a boy's. He, too, gave the impression of cleanness. He showed in the pink of health; his unblemished, smooth-shaven skin shouted advertisement of his splendid physical condition. In the face of that perfect skin, his very fatness and mature, rotund paunch could be nothing other than normal. He was constituted to be prone41 to fatness, that was all.
The talk soon centred down to business, though Guggenhammer had first to say his say about the forthcoming international yacht race and about his own palatial42 steam yacht, the Electra, whose recent engines were already antiquated43. Dowsett broached44 the plan, aided by an occasional remark from the other two, while Daylight asked questions. Whatever the proposition was, he was going into it with his eyes open. And they filled his eyes with the practical vision of what they had in mind.
"They will never dream you are with us," Guggenhammer interjected, as the outlining of the matter drew to a close, his handsome Jewish eyes flashing enthusiastically. "They'll think you are raiding on your own in proper buccaneer style."
"Of course, you understand, Mr. Harnish, the absolute need for keeping our alliance in the dark," Nathaniel Letton warned gravely.
Daylight nodded his head. "And you also understand," Letton went on, "that the result can only be productive of good. The thing is legitimate45 and right, and the only ones who may be hurt are the stock gamblers themselves. It is not an attempt to smash the market. As you see yourself, you are to bull the market. The honest investor46 will be the gainer."
"Yes, that's the very thing," Dowsett said. "The commercial need for copper47 is continually increasing. Ward2 Valley Copper, and all that it stands for,—practically one-quarter of the world's supply, as I have shown you,—is a big thing, how big, even we can scarcely estimate. Our arrangements are made. We have plenty of capital ourselves, and yet we want more. Also, there is too much Ward Valley out to suit our present plans. Thus we kill both birds with one stone—"
"And I am the stone," Daylight broke in with a smile.
"Yes, just that. Not only will you bull Ward Valley, but you will at the same time gather Ward Valley in. This will be of inestimable advantage to us, while you and all of us will profit by it as well. And as Mr. Letton has pointed26 out, the thing is legitimate and square. On the eighteenth the directors meet, and, instead of the customary dividend48, a double dividend will be declared."
"And where will the shorts be then?" Leon Guggenhammer cried excitedly.
"The shorts will be the speculators," Nathaniel Letton explained, "the gamblers, the froth of Wall Street—you understand. The genuine investors49 will not be hurt. Furthermore, they will have learned for the thousandth time to have confidence in Ward Valley. And with their confidence we can carry through the large developments we have outlined to you."
"There will be all sorts of rumors50 on the street," Dowsett warned Daylight, "but do not let them frighten you. These rumors may even originate with us. You can see how and why clearly. But rumors are to be no concern of yours. You are on the inside. All you have to do is buy, buy, buy, and keep on buying to the last stroke, when the directors declare the double dividend. Ward Valley will jump so that it won't be feasible to buy after that."
"What we want," Letton took up the strain, pausing significantly to sip51 his mineral water, "what we want is to take large blocks of Ward Valley off the hands of the public. We could do this easily enough by depressing the market and frightening the holders52. And we could do it more cheaply in such fashion. But we are absolute masters of the situation, and we are fair enough to buy Ward Valley on a rising market. Not that we are philanthropists, but that we need the investors in our big development scheme. Nor do we lose directly by the transaction. The instant the action of the directors becomes known, Ward Valley will rush heavenward. In addition, and outside the legitimate field of the transaction, we will pinch the shorts for a very large sum. But that is only incidental, you understand, and in a way, unavoidable. On the other hand, we shall not turn up our noses at that phase of it. The shorts shall be the veriest gamblers, of course, and they will get no more than they deserve."
"And one other thing, Mr. Harnish," Guggenhammer said, "if you exceed your available cash, or the amount you care to invest in the venture, don't fail immediately to call on us. Remember, we are behind you."
"Yes, we are behind you," Dowsett repeated.
Nathaniel Letton nodded his head in affirmation.
"Now about that double dividend on the eighteenth—" John Dowsett drew a slip of paper from his note-book and adjusted his glasses.
"Let me show you the figures. Here, you see..."
And thereupon he entered into a long technical and historical explanation of the earnings53 and dividends54 of Ward Valley from the day of its organization.
The whole conference lasted not more than an hour, during which time Daylight lived at the topmost of the highest peak of life that he had ever scaled. These men were big players. They were powers. True, as he knew himself, they were not the real inner circle. They did not rank with the Morgans and Harrimans. And yet they were in touch with those giants and were themselves lesser55 giants. He was pleased, too, with their attitude toward him. They met him deferentially56, but not patronizingly. It was the deference57 of equality, and Daylight could not escape the subtle flattery of it; for he was fully58 aware that in experience as well as wealth they were far and away beyond him.
"We'll shake up the speculating crowd," Leon Guggenhammer proclaimed jubilantly, as they rose to go. "And you are the man to do it, Mr. Harnish. They are bound to think you are on your own, and their shears59 are all sharpened for the trimming of newcomers like you."
"They will certainly be misled," Letton agreed, his eerie60 gray eyes blazing out from the voluminous folds of the huge Mueller with which he was swathing his neck to the ears. "Their minds run in ruts. It is the unexpected that upsets their stereotyped61 calculations—any new combination, any strange factor, any fresh variant62. And you will be all that to them, Mr. Harnish. And I repeat, they are gamblers, and they will deserve all that befalls them. They clog63 and cumber64 all legitimate enterprise. You have no idea of the trouble they cause men like us—sometimes, by their gambling65 tactics, upsetting the soundest plans, even overturning the stablest institutions."
Dowsett and young Guggenhammer went away in one motor-car, and Letton by himself in another. Daylight, with still in the forefront of his consciousness all that had occurred in the preceding hour, was deeply impressed by the scene at the moment of departure. The three machines stood like weird66 night monsters at the gravelled foot of the wide stairway under the unlighted porte-cochere. It was a dark night, and the lights of the motor-cars cut as sharply through the blackness as knives would cut through solid substance. The obsequious67 lackey—the automatic genie68 of the house which belonged to none of the three men,—stood like a graven statue after having helped them in. The fur-coated chauffeurs69 bulked dimly in their seats. One after the other, like spurred steeds, the cars leaped into the blackness, took the curve of the driveway, and were gone.
Daylight's car was the last, and, peering out, he caught a glimpse of the unlighted house that loomed70 hugely through the darkness like a mountain. Whose was it? he wondered. How came they to use it for their secret conference? Would the lackey talk? How about the chauffeurs? Were they trusted men like "our" Mr. Howison? Mystery? The affair was alive with it. And hand in hand with mystery walked Power. He leaned back and inhaled71 his cigarette. Big things were afoot. The cards were shuffled72 even then for a mighty34 deal, and he was in on it. He remembered back to his poker73 games with Jack74 Kearns, and laughed aloud. He had played for thousands in those days on the turn of a card; but now he was playing for millions. And on the eighteenth, when that dividend was declared, he chuckled75 at the confusion that would inevitably76 descend77 upon the men with the sharpened shears waiting to trim him—him, Burning Daylight.
该作者的其它作品
《The Sea-Wolf海狼》
《白牙 White Fang》
《The Son of the Wolf狼孩儿》
该作者的其它作品
《The Sea-Wolf海狼》
《白牙 White Fang》
《The Son of the Wolf狼孩儿》
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1
afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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ward
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| n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开 | |
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gorged
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| v.（用食物把自己）塞饱，填饱( gorge的过去式和过去分词 )；作呕 | |
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conned
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| adj.被骗了v.指挥操舵( conn的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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peremptorily
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| adv.紧急地，不容分说地，专横地 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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likeness
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| n.相像，相似（之处） | |
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fibers
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| 光纤( fiber的名词复数 )； （织物的）质地； 纤维，纤维物质 | |
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emaciation
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| n.消瘦，憔悴，衰弱 | |
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exterior
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| adj.外部的，外在的；表面的 | |
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ardent
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，强烈的，烈性的 | |
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feverishly
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| adv. 兴奋地 | |
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sparse
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| adj.稀疏的，稀稀落落的，薄的 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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ascetic
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| adj.禁欲的；严肃的 | |
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attenuated
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| v.（使）变细( attenuate的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）变薄；（使）变小；减弱 | |
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dross
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| n.渣滓；无用之物 | |
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18
purged
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| 清除（政敌等）( purge的过去式和过去分词 )； 涤除（罪恶等）； 净化（心灵、风气等）； 消除（错事等）的不良影响 | |
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blasphemy
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| n.亵渎，渎神 | |
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smoothly
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| adv.平滑地，顺利地，流利地，流畅地 | |
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lackey
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| n.侍从；跟班 | |
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scotch
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| n.伤口，刻痕；苏格兰威士忌酒；v.粉碎，消灭，阻止；adj.苏格兰(人)的 | |
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soda
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| n.苏打水；汽水 | |
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cocktail
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| n.鸡尾酒；餐前开胃小吃；混合物 | |
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strictly
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| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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corrosive
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| adj.腐蚀性的；有害的；恶毒的 | |
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sublimate
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| v.(使)升华，净化 | |
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curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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deigned
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| v.屈尊，俯就( deign的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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almighty
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| adj.全能的，万能的；很大的，很强的 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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elation
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| n.兴高采烈，洋洋得意 | |
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precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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poignantly
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rumor
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| n.谣言，谣传，传说 | |
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adumbrated
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| v.约略显示，勾画出…的轮廓( adumbrate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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puff
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| n.一口(气)；一阵(风)；v.喷气，喘气 | |
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41
prone
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| adj.(to)易于…的，很可能…的；俯卧的 | |
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42
palatial
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| adj.宫殿般的，宏伟的 | |
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antiquated
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| adj.陈旧的，过时的 | |
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broached
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| v.谈起( broach的过去式和过去分词 )；打开并开始用；用凿子扩大（或修光）；（在桶上）钻孔取液体 | |
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45
legitimate
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| adj.合法的，合理的，合乎逻辑的；v.使合法 | |
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investor
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| n.投资者，投资人 | |
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47
copper
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| n.铜；铜币；铜器；adj.铜(制)的；(紫)铜色的 | |
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48
dividend
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| n.红利，股息；回报，效益 | |
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49
investors
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| n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 ) | |
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50
rumors
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| n.传闻( rumor的名词复数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷v.传闻( rumor的第三人称单数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷 | |
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51
sip
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| v.小口地喝，抿，呷；n.一小口的量 | |
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52
holders
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| 支持物( holder的名词复数 )； 持有者； （支票等）持有人； 支托（或握持）…之物 | |
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53
earnings
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| n.工资收人；利润，利益，所得 | |
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54
dividends
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| 红利( dividend的名词复数 )； 股息； 被除数； （足球彩票的）彩金 | |
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55
lesser
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| adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地 | |
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56
deferentially
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| adv.表示敬意地，谦恭地 | |
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57
deference
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| n.尊重，顺从；敬意 | |
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58
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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shears
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| n.大剪刀 | |
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eerie
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| adj.怪诞的；奇异的；可怕的；胆怯的 | |
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stereotyped
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| adj.(指形象、思想、人物等)模式化的 | |
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variant
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| adj.不同的，变异的；n.变体，异体 | |
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clog
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| vt.塞满，阻塞；n.[常pl.]木屐 | |
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64
cumber
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| v.拖累，妨碍；n.妨害；拖累 | |
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65
gambling
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| n.赌博；投机 | |
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66
weird
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| adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的 | |
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obsequious
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| adj.谄媚的，奉承的，顺从的 | |
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genie
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| n.妖怪，神怪 | |
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chauffeurs
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| n.受雇于人的汽车司机( chauffeur的名词复数 ) | |
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loomed
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| v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的过去式和过去分词 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近 | |
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71
inhaled
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| v.吸入( inhale的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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72
shuffled
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| v.洗（纸牌）( shuffle的过去式和过去分词 )；拖着脚步走；粗心地做；摆脱尘世的烦恼 | |
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73
poker
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| n.扑克；vt.烙制 | |
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74
jack
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| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
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75
chuckled
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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inevitably
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| adv.不可避免地；必然发生地 | |
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descend
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| vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降 | |
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