"Yes," said he, "but where in time could I find such a man?”

“I'm the one,” and I spoke up good and prompt. He laughed a great big laugh. (Vanderbilt had a hearty way of laughing, as though he wasn't afraid of anything or anybody. He used to poke fun at me — on the occasions when he and I were on good terms - because I didn't laugh a good loud laugh like he did. “Why in thunder, Dan, don't you laugh when you set out to do it," he used to say, "and quit that hen cackle of yours, which is no nearer a real laugh than one of my old Staten Island periaugers would be to a modern paddle-wheel boat?") He gave one of those laughs of his now.

"That would be a bully good idea!” he said. “You are just the fellow to take in as confidential friend and partner. Drew, you're as crooked as a worm fence. You'd betray me inside of twentyfour hours."

"I wouldn't betray you at all," said I. "I guess I haven't forgotten the time when we used to be friends together in the old steamboat days. Why, back there in that Waterwitch affair -

"Yes, yes," said he. “I remember old steamboat days. We have known each other quite a while, haven't we? I don't know but what I might give you one more trial." He thought for a spell. "Do you really think, Dan, if I took you back, that you could play fair?"

"I don't believe anything about it," said I. “I know I could. And I'm in a position to do you a whole lot of help."

The

"I declare, I believe I'll try it," said he. "But wait. I gave my promise to put you out. Boston crowd wants to get rid of you. And I told them that at this next annual meeting I'd see to it that you were not re-elected."

"Yes," said I; "but you can tell them you have mind."

changed your

"That isn't the way I do things," said he. "A promise is a promise."

Thus you'll be

"Well, if that is the way you feel," I answered, "why not work it this way? We'll go ahead and hold the election. I will be left out. We'll put a dummy in the place instead of me. keeping your promise with the Boston crowd. Then, after the election is over, the dummy can resign and I will be appointed in his place."

"That's certainly a fruitful noddle you've got there, Uncle," said the Commodore. "I don't just take to that way of getting out of the difficulty. But maybe it's as good as any. We'll call it settled."

The election was held. My name didn't appear in the list of those reelected to the Board. It looked as though I was out of Erie for good and all. But the next day the dummy resigned - said that on further thought he was not able to take it and would

have to be relieved. We relieved him. I stepped into his shoes. I was back into my old place.

Now, I was ready for work. I started in. There was no time to be lost. Vanderbilt would soon have complete control of Erie unless I blocked him. Already I had Fisk with me as a partner. I needed another man. This other man I found in Jay Gould.

Jay had been worming his way inside of Erie for some time back. He had given up writing histories — had also sold his tannery business out in Pennsylvania. He had come to New York with a patent rat-trap to sell. Then he got into the Street. First along he dealt in small railroads. But when he saw what a bag of money I was making out of Erie he began to invest in its stock. He got in with some of the stock-holders, and by now had become a director himself and one of the powers in the road. I took him now as a partner. He was at the head of a clique in the Board of Directors that I needed in my fight against Vanderbilt. So he and Jim Fisk and I now stood together like three bloodbrothers against the Commodore, our common foe. Gould was just the criss-cross of Fisk. He was an undersized chap, and quiet as a mouse. I never liked his face. It was dark, and covered all over with whiskers so you could hardly see him. As to Fisk, you couldn't help but like him. Jimmy did me one or two dirty deals before he died. However,

I could take it from him, he was that big and warmhearted in it all. But Jay was so almighty silent. And he wasn't a healthy man, either. He was as lean as a parson's barn. Never seemed to me that he ate enough. Jimmy used to put Jimmy used to put his purse into his belly. Jay put his belly into his purse. So that, though he himself was thin, his purse was fat as a porker. Jimmy used to say:

"The difference between Jay and me is, I have more trouble to get my dinner than to digest it, and Jay has more trouble to digest it than to get it.'

As I said, I couldn't help but like Fisk, no matter how wicked a man he was; and he was wicked. He was very carnal. The way he used to carry on with women was something scandalous. He used to bring them right down to the office. Didn't make any bones about it. He would drive down in a barouche with a darkey coachman and four horses, and have two or three ladies of pleasure in the carriage with him. Sometimes we would be in the middle of a hard day's work. A carriage would drive up; a couple of ballet dancers would get out, bounce into the office where we were, trip up to Fisk and say, "Hello, we've come to spend the day." I'd look up as much as to say: "You're going to put them out, aren't aren't you you ?”

But he would answer my look and say: "Uncle, I've got a previous engagement with my Sweet-lips here, and this railroad matter will have to wait over

until to-morrow. And this other female charmer here - Mr. Drew, allow me to make you acquainted with the prima donna of "Mazeppa" and "The French Spy." Then he would send out for a restaurant man, have victuals brought in, and would serve up a banquet to his ballet dancers right in his private office. He wouldn't care what the expense was; and he didn't mind whether he had known the girls before or not. Sometimes they would bring in another girl, one he had never met, and say:

"We've brought Annie along. You must meet her. They all say she's the sassiest queen in town." "That's fine," he would answer; "and she's a lu-lu, too; she shall enjoy the carousal with us. The more the merrier. The world can never have too many girls of the kind that are toyful and cuddlesome."

woman-proof."

I used to scold Jimmy for these wenching bouts of his; but my scoldings didn't count for much. "That's all right, Uncle," he'd answer. "You're old and dried up. There's no fire in your veins. But for a gay young buck like me, a little spice in the midst of a hard day's work is needed. I never was one of your Josephs So I didn't have much of these partners of mine. and Fisk, the devil's own. handy in a stock-market dicker; and that was what I needed just now. The Erie war was rapidly coming on. I had to have partners that could help.

peace of soul with either Gould, quiet as a clam; But both of them were