There was the same straight glance, the same atmosphere of squareness and mental poise.

Those were qualities which Mason set down as valuable factors in his estimate of the man.

Besides, there were other signs which did not make so pleasant a reading.
Eight years--and a few of them, at least, had been spent wastefully in tearing down what the other years had built; Mason had heard that Ford was "going to the dogs," and that by the short trail men blazed for themselves centuries ago and which those who came after have made a highway--the whisky trail.

Mason had heard, now and then, of ten thousand dollars coming to Ford upon the death of his father and going almost as suddenly as it had come.

That, at least, had been the rumor.
Also he had heard, just lately, that Ford had taken to gambling as a profession and to terrorizing Sunset periodically as a pastime.