" He tapped the paper
with the point of the cigar. "That's what Tarboe has helped do. What
have you got to show?" He pointed to the statue. "I won't say it ain't
good. It's a live man from the river. But what do I want with that,
when I can have the original man himself! My boy, the great game of life
is to fight hard, and never to give in. If you keep your eyes open,
things'll happen that'll bring what you want."
He stood up, striking a match to light his cigar. It was dusk, and the
light of the match gave a curious, fantastic glimmer to his powerful,
weird, haggard face. He was like some remnant of a great life, loose in
a careless world.
"I tell you," he said, the smoke leaking from his mouth like a drift of
snow," the only thing worth doing is making the things that matter in the
commerce and politics of the world."
"I didn't know you were a politician," said Carnac. "Of course I'm a
politician," was the inflammable reply. "What's commerce without
politics? It's politics that makes the commerce possible. There's that
fellow Barouche--Barode Barouche--he's got no money, but he's a Minister,
and he can make you rich or poor by planning legislation at Ottawa
that'll benefit or hamper you. That's the kind of business that's worth
doing--seeing into the future, fashioning laws that make good men happy
and bad men afraid.
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