He dropped back upon his chair; a thunderous clapping broke forth, and something like a mist flashed across the Yale man’s eyes and blurred his sight.
CHAPTER XIV.
THREE MEN OF MILLIONS.
Marcus Meyer, head of the wealthy firm of jewelers who did business under the name of the Meyer Diamond Company, was pacing restlessly up and down his luxuriously fitted up private office on the third floor of the Commercial Building in Denver.
He was a smooth-shaven, alert Hebrew of about thirty-nine or forty, well groomed and clothed with a fastidious taste, which was almost foppish, in garments of the very latest cut and material. In reality, however, there was nothing of the fop or fool about Marcus Meyer. He was a keen, quick-witted business man of extraordinary cleverness, and had the reputation of knowing more about the inside conditions of the diamond industry than any other individual west of the Alleghenys, save only the great Herman Spreckles, of Chicago.
As he walked restlessly from end to end of the long room, his troubled eyes sought the ornate clock which slowly ticked away the minutes on a mantel of carved marble, and every now and then his slim, well-manicured fingers strayed to his smooth, black hair in an unconscious gesture of impatience.
Presently he stopped at one end of the long mahogany table, which was set around with heavy leather-cushioned chairs, and occupied the centre of the room. Seated in one of these chairs was a man of about fifty-five. Short, stout, and comfortable of build, round-faced and rosy-cheeked, with light-blue eyes in which was a look of almost infantile innocence, one would never have guessed him to be the Philander Morgan who held a controlling interest in so many corporations on the Pacific Coast, and who was reputed to be the wealthiest man in San Francisco.
“I can’t understand why he doesn’t come,” complained Meyer, in his quick, nervous manner. “The train was due at nine-fifteen, and here it is nearly ten.”
He took out a handkerchief and passed it over his moist forehead.
Philander Morgan eyed him quizzically, with a slight pursing of his lips.