The blow was a
heavy one to the party left in possession. Saddled by the enormous debts
and expenses of the Great Capitalist, with a credit now further injured
by the defection of this lucky magnate, who was admired for his skill in
anticipating a loss, and whose relinquishment of any project meant ruin
to it, the single-handed, impoverished possessor of the mine, whose
title was contested, and whose reputation was yet to be made,--poor
Biggs, first secretary and only remaining officer of the "Blue Mass
Company," looked ruefully over his books and his last transfer, and
sighed. But I have before intimated that he was built of good stuff, and
that he believed in his work,--which was well,--and in himself, which
was better; and so, having faith even as a grain of mustard seed, I
doubt not he would have been able to remove that mountain of
quicksilver beyond the overlapping of fraudulent grants. And, again,
Providence--having disposed of these several scamps--raised up to him
a friend. But that friend is of sufficient importance to this veracious
history to deserve a paragraph to himself.
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