“But Henderson looks out for his friends?”

“Yes—­when it doesn’t cost too much.  Times may come when a man has to look out for himself.  Wealth isn’t made out of nothing.  There must be streams into the reservoir.  These great accumulations of one—­you can see that—­must be made up of countless other men’s small savings.  There’s Uncle Jerry.  He operates a good deal with Henderson, and they’d incline to help each other out.  But Uncle Jerry says he’s got a small pond of his own, and he’s careful not to connect it with Henderson’s reservoir.”

“What do you think of Missouri?”

“What do I think of the Milky Way?  It doesn’t much matter to me what becomes of Missouri, unless Henderson should happen to get smashed in it, and that isn’t what he is there for.  But when you look at the combinations, and the dropping-off of roads that have been drained, and the scaling down in refunding, and the rearranging, and the strikes, how much chance do you think the small fry stand?  I don’t doubt that Henderson will make a big thing out of it, and there will be lots of howling by those who were not so smart, and the newspapers will say that Henderson was too strong for them.  What we respect nowadays are adroitness and strength.”

“It’s an exciting game,” Mavick continued, after a moment’s pause.  “Let me know if you get uneasy.  But I’ll tell you what it is, Jack; if I had a comfortable income, I wouldn’t risk it in any speculation.  There is a good deal that is interesting going on in this world, and I like to be in it; but the best plan for a man who has anything is, as Uncle Jerry says, to sail close and salt down.”

The fact was that Mavick’s connection with Henderson was an appreciable addition to his income, and it was not a bad thing for Henderson.  Mavick’s reputation for knowing the inside of everything and being close-mouthed actually brought him confidences; that which at first was a clever assumption became a reality, and his reputation was so established for being behind the scenes that he was not believed when he honestly professed ignorance of anything.  His modest disclaimer merely increased the impression that he was deep.  Henderson himself had something of the Bismarck trait of brutal, contemptuous frankness.  Mavick was never brutal and never contemptuous, but he had a cynical sort of frankness, which is a good deal more effectual in a business way than the oily, plausible manner which on ’Change, as well as in politics, is distrusted as hypocrisy.  Now Uncle Jerry Hollowell was neither oily nor frank; he was long-headed and cautious, and had a reputation for shrewdness and just enough of plasticity of conscience to remove him out of the list of the impracticable and over-scrupulous.  This reputation that business men and politicians acquire would be a very curious study.  The world is very complacent, and apparently worships success and votes for smartness, but it would surprise some of our most successful men to know what a real respect there is in the community, after all, for downright integrity.