With the rails came cattle, herded northward in epic drives to railheads by Texans who could make fast fortunes getting them to Chicago markets.

(Many dismissed the weekend driving ban as a way for policemen to make a fast fortune in bribes.)

Now, as the Japanese threaten to plant their flag atop the hill of global competition, and the opportunities to make fast fortunes diminish, the people of the Valley are for the first time unsure.

Even video games, once famous for whisking their creators from makeshift workshops to fast fortunes and expensive cars, are mostly made today by corporate teams of designers and programmers in sprawling office parks.

"You mean you were only trying to reap a fast fortune, Milichus," said Scaevinus.

The killing last week of a noted Brazilian environmentalist has focused attention on a turbulent struggle between rubber tappers trying to protect the Amazon rain forest and speculators and ranchers seeking fast fortunes by clearing the land.

Some teen-agers end up drifting into the drug trade, lured by the elusive promise of a fast fortune that more often than not results in shortened lives and broken families.

By flatlander standards she was lovely enough to make a fast fortune on tridee.

Russians expanded into Siberia rapidly, driven by the promise of fast fortunes through the fur trade.

Shaeffer considered her lovely enough (by flatlander standards) to make a fast fortune on tridee if she wanted to.