short and long men, lean and stout, dark and blond men, with eyes
and jaws which varied from those of the tiger, lynx, and bear to
those of the fox, the tolerant mastiff, and the surly bulldog.
There were no weaklings in this selected company.

Mr. Arneel and Mr. Addison Cowperwood approved of highly as shrewd,
concentrated men. Another who interested him was Anson Merrill,
a small, polite, recherche soul, suggesting mansions and footmen
and remote luxury generally, who was pointed out by Addison as the
famous dry-goods prince of that name, quite the leading merchant,
in the retail and wholesale sense, in Chicago.

Still another was a Mr. Rambaud, pioneer railroad man, to whom
Addison, smiling jocosely, observed: "Mr. Cowperwood is on from
Philadelphia, Mr. Rambaud, trying to find out whether he wants to
lose any money out here. Can't you sell him some of that bad land
you have up in the Northwest?"

Rambaud--a spare, pale, black-bearded man of much force and
exactness, dressed, as Cowperwood observed, in much better taste
than some of the others--looked at Cowperwood shrewdly but in a
gentlemanly, retiring way, with a gracious, enigmatic smile. He
caught a glance in return which he could not possibly forget. The
eyes of Cowperwood said more than any words ever could. Instead
of jesting faintly Mr. Rambaud decided to explain some things about
the Northwest. Perhaps this Philadelphian might be interested.

To a man who has gone through a great life struggle in one metropolis
and tested all the phases of human duplicity, decency, sympathy,
and chicanery in the controlling group of men that one invariably