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XXI.--THE CRASH

Around the neck of every great industrial undertaking is hung a chain of
unlovely parasites, who fatten on the interruptions to its progress and
the fluctuations in its success. These men create nothing--contribute
nothing. Playing on the fears and hopes and untempered weakness of the
public, they reap where they do not sow and feed the speculative appetite
of millions. To them it is negligible whether good men go down or honest
effort is rewarded. Predatory by nature and unscrupulous in action, they
prey upon their fellows, and, like the wolf, are strangers to mercy and
compassion. Their wealth is not an asset to the world, because it
represents nothing they have originated, but only that which they have
filched from others less shrewd and unscrupulous. They do not hesitate
to magnify the false or to bring to ruin what they find most profitably
assailable. They have respect for neither genius nor labor, but juggle
with the efforts of both in a fierce game for gold.

As the gong struck on the Philadelphia Exchange next morning, a well
known operator associated with Marsham's firm threw five thousand shares
of Consolidated on the market. It was taken at forty-eight, a loss of
two points, and in that first transaction the value of the entire
enterprise shrank by half a million.

A moment later, Wimperley knew of it and sent for Birch, but Birch, who
had been just as speedily informed, was already on his way. He came in,
a little paler than usual. On his heels arrived Stoughton and Riggs.

They were in the padded seclusion of the president's inner office, while
two blocks away swelled a storm, whose echoes only reached them in the
sharp staccato of the ticker in the corner as it vomited a strip of white
paper. Wimperley stood there, the strip slipping between his fingers,
while selling orders began to pour in to Philadelphia, and the price of
Consolidated crumbled like dust. He could visualize the scene on the
floor of the Exchange, the frenzy of men smitten with sudden fear, and
the deliberate cold-blooded action of others who lent their weight to
this downfall. Marsham was very busy. Greater grew the flood, with
sales of so great quantities of stock that they perceived the market was
going boldly short. Then came an avalanche of small holdings, till the
ticker announced that it had fallen behind the record of transactions and
that Consolidated was now offered at thirty-five wi