He had restless, quick eyes, and, before his "ex"
life began and his avoirdupois gained upon him, restless, quick fingers
with steel springs inside of them--good fingers for handling the
particular people he "wanted."
Then there was the "Big Pipe" contractor--a lean man with half-moon
whiskers, a red, weather-beaten, knotted face, bushy gray eyebrows, and
a clean-shaven mouth that looked when shut like a healed scar. On Sunday
this magnate wore a yellow diamond pin and sat in his shirt-sleeves.
There could be found, too, now and then, tilted back on their chairs,
two or three of the light-fingered gentry from the race-course near
by--pale, consumptive-looking men, with field-glasses hung over their
shoulders and looking like bank-clerks, they were so plainly and neatly
dressed; as well as some of the less respectable neighbors, besides a
few intimate personal friends like myself.
While Muffles shaved and the group about him discussed the several
ways--some of them rather shady, I'm afraid--in which they and their
constituents earned their daily bread, the stable-boy--he was a street
waif, picked up to keep him from starving--served the beverages.
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