The San Francisco call., 1910-01-02

see the first steps of his way, however IN
trioate it might thereafter become, toward
his ambition. He started up from his littl,
iron bedstead and paced the strip of bare
straw mating between the one window and the door
He stopped suddenly before the square of defective
mirror under the whisting gas jet and took intensive
counsel with his own reflection
Beyond and about echoed the grim roar of the
city, bound stupidly increasingly, to its drudging
tasks Out there the dull thousands toiled their
wearying round in hopeless monotony of unremitting
effort The hum OF their activities had not hushed
with this late winter evening-would not hush for
many hours They angered him these patient, dogged
workers-angered him and amused him They were
gals these city folk toers and iders alike in fusdan
or purple-au gulls, fouted and exploited at every
turn by men with little wit Whether beggar or
millionaire, each could be overreached, made to con-
tribute 10 the and support of the who knew
how 70 use him.
Why should he not swim the golden tide? Others
had done IL doing it. with half the buoyancy
that his through native shrewdness of intellec;
and keenness OF perception. But the chance, the
chznoe-perhaps It lay 20 his hand and he blind
70 just the one thing essential in launching him.
Robert Carter, in spite OF the disfguring glass
found himself good 10 look upon according to all
outward qualifications, with the immense inward con-
fdence ne felt IN his ability. He young, tall
well formed strongly featured, with rather full lips
fresh skin, light brown eyes and wavy black hair
There was no flaw upon him He took note Of
himself approvingly, remarking how well the new,
fashionably tailored suit that had been Of his
first extravagances set 10 his figure, how gracefully
he bore himself
A month before Robert Carter had left his native
town in Prince William county. Virginia join issue
with the city-a country boy. faced determnedly
toward wealth and position But his purpose held
no thought OF aborious ascent upon the commercial
plane He had not ventured the metropolitan field
10 make his way through humble, painful pro-
cess He had fixed idea, and IT not wrapped
about himself in the role OF errand boy, rising through
traditional degrees OF clerk and book keeper.
Robert Carter had developed degree of cynicisrn
that would have fitted city bred a twist OF
nature and double twist OF circumstance had aided
him He had penetrated the sham and artihciality OF
the gilded show upon New YorHs upper strata
through instinct and the schooling OF broken society
idol who had passed summer near his home. And
IN penetrating he had learned admire. These pup
pets and the lives they led had gripped him He felt
himself TO be man OF ceverness, of superior men
taty, TOO wise 10 himself upon actual labor OF
any kind He would make himself place on those
heights He would live and in those chosen fields
Here was the place for any man whose wits could
work for him and maintain him in scented ease Here
were the real Rubes" and Robert Carter the man
who could use them.
SETTING HIS STAGE
He had taken modest room in an unpretentious
quarter on reaching the city HIS original capital
had been $780, carefully laid by during his months OF
planning. He found himself now. having purchased
the necessary outfit OF Clothes uncomfortably near
the apparent end And he still lacked the chance
the chance.
Robert Carter turned from retrospect to action,
Time for his regular campaign had arrived He
dressed himself II evening clothes, his habiliments
Of war, which he had grown fairly we'll accustomed
during his first weeks Of apprenticeship. He threw
on light black coat took his silk hat and cane and
set out for the present field of combat the lobbies of
the big hotels where night after night high and low
he sought his opening.
He found the porphyry and gold cafe of the
Empress nearly empty when he strolled in and
ordered drink. While slipping at a table he ran
over the evening papers, for he alive to the
possibilities that they might hold for him and they
served him daily as textbooks As he read the
place began FIJI. Groups clustered about the
columns and low buzz of conversation sounded
pleasantly He gave ear to it subconsciously as he
ran over the sheets Then, from little way back
OF him. he caught the trailing fragment of ocund
exclamation
"Not with Jimmy Hope you can't mean it,"
The words ran into a cackle of mirth. the laugh
Of callow youth They fell softly upon the listeners
auditory nerve Jimmy Hope as he knew and as
any reader Of the dailies would have known. was
very much before the public just then The scion of
family OF first prominence, he had recently
pished the frittering of enormous grandparental
fortune finishing dispersal we'll begun by his
father before him during the brief years when that
gentleman had held it. His blazes of
gance and scandal had been the talk of all those
thoroughfares that have acquired kind of person
ality from Fourteenth to upper Fifth
Carter cast casual backward glance. Three
table from him sat two young men, instantly dis