" said the visitor. "By the Eternal, that man Sharon would stake
his immortal soul on a four-card flush and never bat an eye. Time and
time again I've seen it."

Ralston leaned back comfortably, his folded hands across his middle. His
speculative stare was on a marble statue. At length he spoke. "Does
Sharon win or lose?"

"Well," the other man admitted, "I must say he wins...."

"Then he's just the man I want," Ralston spoke with emphasis. He rose,
held out his hand toward the flustered visitor. "Thanks for telling
me.... And now we'll all go for a drink together."

* * * * *

"That's Bill Ralston!" said Benito to his wife. They laughed about the
anecdote which Windham had related at the dinner table. Robert, in his
new letter-carrier's uniform, spoke up. "I saw him at the bank this
afternoon.... There was a letter from Virginia City and he kept me
waiting till he opened it. Then he slapped me on the shoulder. 'If the
contents of that letter had been known to certain people, son,' he told
me, 'they'd have cleaned up a fortune on the information.' Then he
handed me a gold-piece. But I wouldn't take it. 'Don't be proud,' he
said and poked me in the ribs. 'And don't forget that Bill Ralston's
your friend.'"

"Everybody calls him 'Bill,'" his mother added. "Washerwomen,
teamsters, beggars, millionaires. If ever there was a friend of the
people it is he."

"Some day, though, he'll overplay his game," Benito prophesied.

Ralston had been euchered out of a railroad to Eureka, planned by
Harpending and himself and opposed by the Big Four; "Montgomery to the
Bay" was meeting with a host of difficulties; the Grand Hotel was
building and Kearny street, where he owned property, was being widened.
Ralston's genial countenance showed sometimes a little strained pucker
between the eyes.

* * * * *

Now and then Benito met a man named Adolph Sutro. They called him "The
Man With a Dream." Stocky, under average height, intensely businesslike,
he was--a German Burgomeister type, with Burnside whiskers and a
purpose. He proposed to drive a tunnel four miles long from Carson
valley, and strike the Comstock levels 1800 feet below the surface.

An English syndicate was backing him. The work was going on.

Much of Sutro's time was spent in Virginia City, superintending the work
on his tunnel. But he fell into the habit of finding Benito whenever he
came to town--drag