BOOK IV.
A LOST HEIRESS.--MILLIONS AT STAKE.
CHAPTER XIII.
MOUNT DAVIDSON'S MAGIC MILLIONS.--A CALIFORNIA PLUTOCRACY.--THE
PRICE OF A CRIME.
Philip Hardin's library in San Francisco is a place for quiet labors.
A spider's parlor. September, 1864, hides the enchanted interior
with deeper shades from the idle sight-seer.
Since the stirring days of 1861, after the consecutive failures of
plot, political scheme, and plan of attack, the mysterious "chief
of the Golden Circle" has withdrawn from public practice. A marked
and dangerous man.
It would be an insult to the gallant dead whose blood watered the
fields of the South, for Philip Hardin to take the "iron-clad oath"
required now of practitioners.
Respected for his abilities, feared by his adversaries, shunned
for his pro-secession views, Philip Hardin walks alone. No overt
act can be fastened on him, Otherwise, instead of gazing on Alcatraz
Island from his mansion windows, he might be behind those frowning
walls, where the l5-inch Columbiads spread their radial lines of
fire, to cross those of the works of Black Point, Fort Point, and
Point Blunt. Many more innocent prisoners toil there. He does not
wish to swell their number.
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