You 're hoping.

That's what they all do; they come in here with their eyes blazing like a grate fire and their faces all lighted up as bright as an Italian cathedral.

And they tell me they 've got the world by the tail.

Then I take their specimens and I put 'em over the hurdles,--and half the time they go out wishing there was n't any such person in the world as an assayer.

Boy," and he pursed his lips, "I 've buried more fortunes than you could shake a stick at.