Human nature being what it is, having a silly side to it as well as a mean side, there were not a few who pretended to be indignant on no better authority than a general propensity to believe every evil report; and a good many others who found it simply funny to call Heyst the Spider--behind his back, of course.

He was as serenely unconscious of this as of his several other nicknames.

But soon people found other things to say of Heyst; not long afterwards he came very much to the fore in larger affairs.

He blossomed out into something definite.

He filled the public eye as the manager on the spot of the Tropical Belt Coal Company with offices in London and Amsterdam, and other things about it that sounded and looked grandiose.