Mr.Weston is one of the men who can't make a compromise." "Isn't that a reasonable attitude?
He presumably wants his rights." "The little man," observed Stirling, "has no rights that he isn't prepared to hold on to in a rather uneven fight.

With Weston it's all or nothing, and just now I don't quite know which he'll get.

He and his partners will have to stake everything they own on a very uncertain game." "Hasn't everybody who goes into business speculations to do that now and then ?" "No," said Stirling, reflectively, "I don't think they have.

Quite often the people who deal with them have to face part of the hazard.
In a general way they've something to fall back on if they're men of position: the money they've settled on their wives, a name that would get them credit on the market, or friends who'd give them a lift if they came down with a bang.

Now, that young man has nothing.