The chapter opens with the public story: Lawrence Richard Ives made the Ives family rich and may have murdered his business partner. Margaret counters that this focus on what and how misses the core question of why. She insists that lists of ventures and profits do not amount to a true story.

Margaret narrates Lawrence’s beginnings as the eighth child of destitute farmers in Dillon Springs, Pennsylvania, born in 1830. Of ten children, only six survived to adulthood. The death that marked him most was his younger brother Dicky, who froze to death after getting lost in winter. At nine, Lawrence expected blame but instead discovered his exhausted parents were too overburdened to grieve deeply. He concluded that only his younger siblings truly loved and mattered to him, and he became fixated on protecting his remaining sister as she grew increasingly frail.

At nineteen, Lawrence heard from a miner, Thomas Dougherty, about abundant western metals and warm cities where hunger and cold would end. By day he dismissed the tales as fantasy, but at night he dreamed of gold in familiar places and of Dicky offering him a “magic rock,” symbolizing salvation. After a week of such dreams, he left with Thomas for California.

Over eight years, Lawrence and Thomas worked within a fourteen-person crew, then shifted into acquiring and flipping claims, reinvesting profits and buying land. Lawrence sent money home and poured the rest back into mines, but his hunger only grew. The more he had, the more fearful he became of losing it, which intensified his drive.

In Nevada, Lawrence sensed a particular plot contained rich metal, reminiscent of his dreams. He concealed this from Thomas, discouraged him by calling the land worthless, and claimed he was tired and considering retirement. After Thomas departed to seek other prospects, Lawrence bought the mine alone.

Weeks later, Lawrence’s crew struck forty-two tons of silver ore. Anticipating a rush of desperate men, he immediately bought the local inn to capture the incoming trade for lodging and spending. When Thomas later learned of the strike, Margaret notes that Lawrence made yet another decision that would alter the family’s trajectory, leaving the specific choice to be detailed next.