A few weeks later, on their first trip back to the site, they learned the hard truth: Not a single diamond or ruby was to be found. It was all a fake. They were ruined. Harpending had unwittingly lured the richest men in the world into the biggest scam of the century.
News of the mine spread like wildfire. Prospectors fanned out across Wyoming. Meanwhile Harpending and group began spending the millions they had collected from their investors, buying equipment, hiring the best men in the business, and furnishing luxurious offices in New York and San Francisco.
Returning to San Francisco a few days later, Ralston, Harpending, and company acted fast to form a $10 million corporation of private investors. First, however, they had to get rid of Arnold and Slack. That meant hiding their excitement they certainly did not want to reveal the field's real value. So they played possum. Who knows if Janin is right, they told the prospectors, the mine may not be as rich as we think. This just made the prospectors angry. Trying a different tactic, the financiers told the two men that if they insisted on having shares in the mine, they would end up being fleeced by the unscrupulous tycoons and investors who would run the corporation; better, they said, to take the $700,000 already offered an enormous sum at the time and put their greed aside. This the prospectors seemed to understand, and they finally agreed to take the money, in return signing the rights to the site over to the financiers, and leaving maps to it.
Several weeks later, a man named Louis Janin, the best mining expert in the country, met the prospectors in San Francisco. Janin was a born skeptic who was determined to make sure that the mine was not a fraud. Accompanying Janin were Harpending, and several other interested financiers. As with the previous expert, the prospectors led the team through a complex series of canyons, completely confusing them as to their where-abouts. Arriving at the site, the financiers watched in amazement as Janin dug the area up, leveling anthills, turning over boulders, and finding emeralds, rubies, sapphires, and most of all diamonds. The dig lasted eight days, and by the end, Janin was convinced: He told the investors that they now possessed the richest field in mining history. "With a hundred men and proper machinery," he told them, "I would guarantee to send out one million dollars in diamonds every thirty days."
When Tiffany announced that the gems were real and worth a fortune, the financiers could barely control their excitement. They wired Rothschild and other tycoons to tell them about the diamond mine and inviting them to share in the investment. At the same time, they also told the prospectors that they wanted one more test: They insisted that a mining expert of their choosing accomapany Slack and Arnold to the site to verify its wealth. The prospectors reluctantly agreed. In the meantime, they said, they had to return to San Francisco. The jewels that Tiffany had examined they left with Harpending for safekeeping.
When Brienne reaches Duskendale, she finds the gates barred for the night. The area surrounding it is littered with corpses of both northmen and men from the Reach.
The gates open at morning, and the captain tells Brienne that his sister can paint over the black bat of Lothston on her shield. After finding and telling the sister what sigil she wants, Brienne heads to the Dun Fort to speak to the lord. Since Lord Rykker is in the field, she meets with the castellan, Ser Rufus Leek, and a maester, who tells her that many came before her asking if Dontos Hollard and Sansa Stark had come to Duskendale. The Dun Fort's maester tells the story of the Defiance of Duskendale, which seems to have been the incident that finally sent King Aerys II over the edge.
Either of his own initiative, or from the urgings of his wife Serala, Denys Darklyn took Aerys hostage. When Tywin Lannister (who was Hand at the time) surrounded the Dun Fort, Lord Darklyn threatened to kill Aerys. When Aerys was captured, Symon Hollard killed one of his Kingsguard, Ser Gwayne Gaunt.
After Barristan the Bold slipped into the Dun Fort and rescued the king, Aerys had nearly every member of the Darklyn and Hollard families killed or attainted. Dontos, who was young at the time, survived because Barristan asked Aerys to stay his hand.
The castellan tells Brienne that Duskendale would have been the last place Dontos would have fled to. Despairing that she will never find Sansa, Brienne bumps into a skinny boy whom she also saw back at Rosby on a piebald rounsey, but he runs away.
Visiting the Seven Swords inn for dinner, Brienne meets a dwarf brother, who tells her that he overheard a man called Nimble Dick in Maidenpool bragging that he had "fooled a fool" seeking passage for three across the narrow sea. That night, Brienne dreams of Renly's death, but when he topples after the shadow killed him, the body is that of Jaime.
The next day, Brienne picks up her shield, painted with the sigil that Tanselle had painted for Ser Duncan the Tall. Proceeding past fishing villages on the way to Maidenpool, Brienne camps by the ruins of the Hollard castle, and hears a rider.
Fearing it may be Ser Shadrich and that a battle might ensue, she discovers the boy who seems to be stalking her. It turns out to be Podrick Payne, who asks to stay with her, hoping that if she finds Sansa, it may lead the boy back to Tyrion.
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2. Swadeshi and Boycott Movements (1905–1911)
The Swadeshi and Boycott movements emerged as a reaction to the partition of Bengal by Lord Curzon in 1905. It marked a shift in modern Indian history, as Indians started to focus on economic self-reliance and boycotted British goods.
Key Leaders: Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai, and Bipin Chandra Pal.
Significance: It laid the foundation for India’s industrial development and fostered unity among Indians across regions.
The little group traveled to New York, where a meeting was held at the mansion of Samuel L. Barlow. The cream of the city's aristocracy was in attendance General George Brinton McClellan, commander of the Union forces in the Civil War; General Benjamin Butler; Horace Greeley, editor of the newspaper the New York Tribune; Harpending; Ralston; and Tiffany. Only Slack and Arnold were missing as tourists in the city, they had decided to go sight-seeing.
Harpending and Ralston now asked Arnold and Slack to accompany them back to New York, where the jeweler Charles Tiffany would verify the original estimates. The prospectors responded uneasily they smelled a trap: How could they trust these city slickers? What if Tiffany and the financiers managed to steal the whole mine out from under them? Ralston tried to allay their fears by giving them $100,000 and placing another $300,000 in escrow for them. If the deal went through, they would be paid an additional $300,000. The miners agreed.
When Harpending reached San Francisco, there was an excitement in the air recalling the Gold Rush days of the late 1840s. Two crusty prospectors named Philip Arnold and John Slack had been the ones to find the diamond mine. They had not divulged its location, in Wyoming, but had led a highly respected mining expert to it several weeks back, taking a circular route so he could not guess his whereabouts. Once there, the expert had watched as the miners dug up diamonds. Back in San Francisco the expert had taken the gems to various jewelers, one of whom had estimated their worth at $1.5 million.
Play A Sucker To Catch A Sucker Seem Dumber Than Your Mark
Observance Of The Law
In the winter of 1872, the U.S. financier Asbury Harpending was visiting London when he received a cable: A diamond mine had been discovered in the American West. The cable came from a reliable source William Ralston, owner of the Bank of California but Harpending nevertheless took it as a practical joke, probably inspired by the recent discovery of huge diamond mines in South Africa. True, when reports had first come in of gold being discovered in the western United States, everyone had been skeptical, and those had turned out to be true. But a diamond mine in the West! Harpending showed the cable to his fellow financier Baron Rothschild (one of the richest men in the world), saying it must be a joke. The baron, however, replied, "Don't be too sure about that. America is a very large country. It has furnished the world with many surprises already. Perhaps it has others in store." Harpending promptly took the first ship back to the States.
Even then, however, the key will be to maintain your inner independence to keep yourself from getting emotionally involved. Preserve the unspoken option of being able to leave at any moment and reclaim your freedom if the side you are allied with starts to collapse. The friends you made while you were being courted will give you plenty of places to go once you jump ship.
Reversal
Both parts of this law will turn against you if you take it too far. The game proposed here is delicate and difficult. If you play too many parties against one another, they will see through the maneuver and will gang up on you. If you keep your growing number of suitors waiting too long, you will inspire not desire but distrust. People will start to lose interest. Eventually you may find it worthwhile to commit to one side if only for appearances' sake, to prove you are capable of attachment.
Authority: Regard it as more courageous not to become involved in an engagement than to win in battle, and where there is already one interfering fool, take care that there shall not be two. (Baltasar Gracian, 1601-1658)
Image: A Thicket of Shrubs. In the forest, one shrub latches on to another, entangling its neighbor with its thorns, the thicket slowly extending its impenetrable domain. Only what keeps its distance and stands apart can grow and rise above the thicket.
Remember: You have only so much energy and so much time. Every moment wasted on the affairs of others subtracts from your strength. You may be afraid that people will condemn you as heartless, but in the end, maintaining your independence and self-reliance will gain you more respect and place you in a position of power from which you can choose to help others on your own initiative.
Finally, there are occasions when it is wisest to drop all pretence of appearing supportive and instead to trumpet your independence and self-reliance. The aristocratic pose of independence is particularly important for those who need to gain respect. George Washington recognized this in his work to establish the young American republic on firm ground. As president, Washington avoided the temptation of making an alliance with France or England, despite the pressure on him to do so. He wanted the country to earn the world's respect through its independence. Although a treaty with France might have helped in the short term, in the long run he knew it would be more effective to establish the nation's autonomy. Europe would have to see the United States as an equal power.
In France's July Revolution of 1830, after three days of riots, the statesman Talleyrand, now elderly, sat by his Paris window, listening to the pealing bells that signaled the riots were over. Turning to an assistant, he said, "Ah, the bells! We're winning." "Who's 'we,' mon prince?" the assistant asked. Gesturing for the man to keep quiet, Talleyrand replied, "Not a word! I'll tell you who we are tomorrow." He well knew that only fools rush into a situation that by committing too quickly you lose your maneuverability. People also respect you less: Perhaps tomorrow, they think, you will commit to another, different cause, since you gave yourself so easily to this one. Good fortune is a fickle god and will often pass from one side to the other. Commitment to one side deprives you of the advantage of time and the luxury of waiting. Let others fall in love with this group or that; for your part don't rush in, don't lose your head.
Oftentimes when a conflict breaks out, you are tempted to side with the stronger party, or the one that offers you apparent advantages in an alliance. This is risky business. First, it is often difficult to foresee which side will prevail in the long run. But even if you guess right and ally yourself with the stronger party, you may find yourself swallowed up and lost, or conveniently forgotten, when they become victors. Side with the weaker, on the other hand, and you are doomed. But play a waiting game and you cannot lose.
