the main office cashier by telegraph and tell him to come to me at once, here at the house."
There were no telephones in that day, but Captain Will Hallam was accustomed to say that, living, as he did, in the nineteenth century, he made free use of nineteenth century conveniences in his business. He had laced the little city with telegraph wires, connecting his house not only with his office, and many warehouses, but with the houses of all the chief men in his employ, even to the head drayman. And he exacted of every one of his employees a reasonable facility in the use of the Morse telegraph.
Captain Hallam had many rules for the governance of his own conduct. Among them were these:
"Never be a fool – look at the practical side of things.
"Never let anything run away with you – keep cool.
"Never be in a hurry – make the other fellows do the hustling.
"Never let the men you work with know what you are doing – they might talk, or they might do a little business on their own account.
"Never be satisfied with anything as it is – there is always some way of bettering it.
"Never send good money after bad – it doesn't pay.
"Never waste energy in regretting a loss – there's a better use for energy.
"Never hesitate to pay for your education as you get it – use the telegraph freely, and keep in close communication with the men who are likely to know what you want to know.
"When you want a man to keep still, make it worth his while – but don't say anything to him about it. That opens the way to blackmail.
"Never take a drink – it unbalances the judgment.
"Never get angry – that's worse than taking a dozen drinks.
"Never do anything till you are ready to do it all over and clear through."
In obedience to the spirit of these rules, Captain Will Hallam, as soon as he had sent off his telegraphic messages, went out into his garden and hoed a while. Then he called John, his English gardener, and gave him some minute instructions respecting the care of certain plants. John resented the impertinence of course, but he obeyed the instructions, nevertheless. It was the fixed habit of men who worked for Captain Will Hallam to obey his commands.
Presently the cashier presented himself, with check book in hand.
"Draw a check for five thousand dollars," commanded Captain Hallam, "payable 'to the King of Holland or Bearer'. Mind, I say 'bearer,' not 'order.' Then draw another check for one hundred dollars, payable to yourself."
Not another word was said. No explanation of the gift to the cashier was offered or asked. The cashier understood. He drew the checks and his employer signed them. The smaller one he handed to his subordinate. The vastly larger one he thrust into his vest pocket, as he moved around a corner of the piazza to set his little girls swinging in a new contrivance which he had purchased for their use.
Presently he returned to his secretary and said:
"Telegraph Mr. Kingsbury to make out an application in proper form for a military permit to ship five thousand bales of cotton to New York. Tell him to have it ready for me at two o'clock at the main office."
Two hours later Captain Hallam found the application ready for him on his office desk. After looking it over he signed and carefully folded it after the fashion required for military documents, but as he did so he slipped into it the check for five thousand dollars, payable to the "King of Holland or Bearer."
No mention of the check was made in the document. If the proceeding should be resented at headquarters, the enclosure could be excused on the plea of accident.
Then the man of business bade his secretary envelop the package and send it by messenger to military headquarters.
It came back promptly with this endorsement on it:
"Application denied. The proposed shipment is larger than this office regards as proper under existing circumstances."
The last three words were heavily and suggestively underscored. Captain Hallam thought he understood. He was in the habit of understanding quickly. He called the cashier, handed him the check, first tearing it into four pieces, and bade him cancel the stub and draw a new check for ten thousand dollars, payable as before, to "the King of Holland or Bearer."
Then he endorsed the application with the sentence:
"As conditions have somewhat changed since this application was rejected, I venture to ask a reconsideration."
Half an hour later Captain Hallam was duly and officially notified that his application for permission to ship five thousand bales of cotton was granted.
The check – without endorsement – was cashed next day – the bank teller would never say by whom. But in the meanwhile Captain Hallam had said to his secretary:
"Telegraph the general freight agent at Chicago for freight cars, as fast as he can let me have them. Say I have five thousand bales of cotton awaiting shipment, with more to come as fast as I can get permits."
Then Captain Hallam mounted his horse and rode away for a "constitutional."
All this occurred a year or two before the time of Guilford Duncan's arrival in Cairo; but it was peculiarly characteristic of Captain Hallam's methods and the story of it is illustrative of his ideas.
VII
The "Sizing Up" of Guilford Duncan
Captain Will Hallam was quick to make up his mind with regard to a man. He was exceedingly accurate in his human judgments, too, and his confidence in them had been strengthened by experience in successfully acting upon them. As he phrased it, he "knew how to size a man up," and, as the employer of multitudes of men in all parts of the country and in all sorts of capacities, he had daily need of the skill he had acquired in that art. It was as much a part of his equipment for the conduct of his vast and varied enterprises as was his money capital itself.
When young Duncan presented himself in the private office after his night's vigil as a watchman, Captain Hallam asked him to sit. That was a recognition of his social status as something better than his employment of the night before might have suggested. Ordinarily a man employed as a levee watchman would not have been told to come to the private office at all. Nor would such a man have seen anybody higher than a junior clerk in collecting his wages.
But Captain Hallam had been impressed by this newcomer, and he wanted to talk with him.
He broke at once into a catechism.
"Why did you do that little fire-extinguishing act last night?"
He asked the question precisely as he might have done if he had resented the saving of his wealth of cotton.
"Oh, it was simple enough. The fire meant damage, and I was there. So, of course, I put it out."
"But why? The cotton wasn't yours, and you hadn't been hired to watch it."
"No, of course not. But when a gentle – I mean when any decent man sees property afire he doesn't ask whose it is before putting out the blaze."
"You're a Virginian, I should say, from your voice – late of the rebel army. What's your rank?"
"None now. I've put the war completely behind me. I'm beginning life anew."
"Good! I wish everybody, north and south, would do the same. But fools won't, and men are mostly fools, you know. When did you get to Cairo?"
"About five minutes before you saw me putting out the fire. I came down the river on the big tow boat."
"Where's your baggage?"
"On my back. I have no other clothes. I'll buy some when I earn some money."
"Where have you been since the surrender?"
"Making my way West."
"How?"
"On foot to Wheeling. Then on the tow boat."
"What