"Here are the keys to my boxes in the Colonial Trust. Here also are the
names of fifty New York banks. Please establish a credit of two millions
in each of them--one hundred millions of dollars in all. Use Anaconda
stock. Bring me certified checks for the one hundred millions, with a
statement from each bank showing what Anaconda shares it holds as
security. I think you understand. I want one hundred millions instantly
available. You will go to New York at once and make the arrangements.
Day after to-morrow meet me in Mr. Bayard's rooms, Thirty, Broad, at
three o'clock P. M., with everything as I have outlined."
"Very good, sir; you are very kind, sir," creaked Mr. Gwynn.
CHAPTER XIII
HOW THE SAN REVE GAVE STORRI WARNING
Had you, at the time Richard visited that gentleman, written Mr. Bayard
a letter, you would have addressed it to Mr. Robert Lance Bayard, and
anyone who saw you do it would have gazed in wonder and respect to think
you were upon terms of personal correspondence with that blinding meteor
of speculation. Mr. Bayard sat in his rooms at Thirty, Broad, like an
astrologer in his tower cell; he considered the stars and cast the
horoscopes of companies. That done, he took profitable advantage of his
prescience.
In the kingdom of stocks Mr. Bayard's position was unique. He, like
Napoleon, was without a model and without a shadow. He constructed no
corporations, shoved no companies from shore; he stood at the ticker and
took his money off the tape. Whenever he won a dollar he had risked a
dollar.
In person Mr. Bayard was slim, elegant, thoroughbred, with blood as red
and pure of strain as the blood of a racing horse. To see him was to
realize the silk and steel whereof he was compounded. There was a vanity
about him, too; but it was a regal vanity, as though a king were vain.
His brow was full and grave, his face dignified, his eye thoughtful, and
he knew men in the dark by feel of bark, as woodmen know a tree. He
stepped about with a high carriage of the head, as might one who has
prides well founded. His health was even, his nerves were true; he owned
a military courage that remained cool with victory, steady with defeat.
It was these which rendered Mr. Bayard the Bourse-force men accounted
him, and compelled consideration even from folk most powerful whenever
they would float an enterprise or foray a field of stocks. Did Oil or
Sugar or Steel come into the Street with purpose of revenge or profit,
its first care was a peace-treaty with Mr. Bayard. That was not because
Oil or Steel or Sugar loved, but because it feared him. The King might
not hunt in Sherwood without permission of Robin Hood, nor Montrose walk
in Glenfruin wanting the MacGregor's consent.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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