y's new issues, frightened by
yesterday's exposure, have compelled Mr. Roebuck, Mr. Mowbray Langdon and
Mr. Melville themselves to buy. So, yesterday, those three gentlemen bought
with real money, with their own money, large quantities of stocks which are
worth less than half what they paid for them.

"They will continue to buy these stocks so long as the public holds aloof.
They dare not let the prices slump. They hope that this storm will blow
over, and that then the investing public will forget and will relieve them
of their load."

I had added: "But this storm won't blow over. It will become a cyclone." I
struck that out. "No prophecy," said I to myself. "Your rule, iron-clad,
must be--facts, always facts; only facts."

The gambling section of the public took my hint and rushed into the market;
the burden of protecting the underwriters was doubled, and more and more of
the hoarded loot was disgorged. That must have been a costly day--for, ten
minutes after the Stock Exchange closed, Roebuck sent for me.

"My compliments to him," said I to his messenger, "but I am too busy. I'll
be glad to see him here, however."

"You know he dares not come to you," said the messenger, Schilling,
president of the National Manufactured Food Company, sometimes called the
Poison Trust. "If he did, and it were to get out, there'd be a panic."

"Probably," replied I with a shrug. "That's no affair of mine. I'm not
responsible for the rotten conditions which these so-called financiers have
produced, and I shall not be disturbed by the crash which must come."

Schilling gave me a genuine look of mingled pity and admiration. "I suppose
you know what you're about," said he, "but I think you're making a
mistake."

"Thanks, Ned," said I--he had been my head clerk a few years before, and I
had got him the chance with Roebuck which he had improved so well. "I'm
going to have some fun. Can't live but once."

"I know some people," said he significantly, "who would go to _any_
lengths to get an enemy out of the way." He had lived close enough to
Roebuck to peer into the black shadows of that satanic mind, and dimly to
see the dread shapes that lurked there.

"I'm the safest man on Manhattan Island for the present," said I.

"You remember Woodrow? I've always believed that he was murdered, and that
the pistol they found beside him was a 'plant.'"

"You'd kill me yourself, if you got the orders, wouldn't you?" said I
good-humoredly.

"