hend, and that
is--Success. Have only _that_, Hankes, and the world is with you."

"There's no denying that," said Hankes, solemnly.

"It is the gauge of every man," resumed Dunn,--"from him that presides
over a Railway Board to him that sways an Empire. And justly so, too,"
added he, rapidly. "A man must be a consummate judge of horseflesh that
could pick out the winner of the Oaks in a stable; but the scrubbiest
varlet on the field can _see_ who comes in first on the day of the race!
Have you ever been in America, Hankes?" asked he, suddenly.

"Yes; all over the States. I think I know Cousin Jonathan as well as I
know old John himself."

"You know a very shrewd fellow, then," muttered Dunn; "over-shrewd,
mayhap."

"What led you to think of that country now?" asked the other, curiously.

"I scarcely know," said Dunn, carelessly, as he walked the room in
thoughtfulness; then added, "If no recognition were to come of these
services of mine, I 'd just as soon live there as here. I should, at
least, be on the level of the best above me. Well," cried he, in a
higher tone, "we have some trumps to play out ere it come to that."

Once more they turned to the account books and the papers before them,
for Hankes had many things to explain and various difficulties to
unravel. The vast number of those enterprises in which Dunn engaged had
eventually blended and mingled all their interests together. Estates and
shipping, and banks, mines, railroads, and dock companies had so often
interchanged their securities, each bolstering up the credit of the
other in turn, that the whole resembled some immense fortress, where the
garrison, too weak for a general defence, was always hastening to some
one point or other,--the seat of immediate attack. And thus an Irish
draining-fund was one day called upon to liquidate the demands upon a
sub-Alpine railroad, while a Mexican tin-mine flew to the rescue of a
hosiery scheme in Balbriggan! To have ever a force ready on the point
assailed was Dunn's remarkable talent, and he handled his masses like a
great master of war.

Partly out of that indolent insolence which power begets, he had
latterly been less mindful of the press, less alive to the strictures of
journalism, and attacks were made upon him which, directed as they were
against his solvency, threatened at any moment to assume a dangerous
shape. Roused at last by the peril, he had determined on playing a bold
game for fortune; and th