e great interests known to act with or to be
actually controlled by the Colossus had been desperately combating the
effects of the sudden arrest of Lucas Hahn, and the exposure of his
plundering of the Hahn banks. This bombshell, in its turn, had fallen at
a time when the market had been "boosted" beyond its real strength. In
the language of the place, a slump was due. Reports from the corn-lands
had not been good, and there had been two or three railway statements
which had been expected to be much better than they were. But at
whatever point in the vast area of speculation the shudder of the
threatened break had been felt, "the Manderson crowd" had stepped in and
held the market up. All through the week the speculator's mind, as
shallow as it is quick-witted, as sentimental as greedy, had seen in
this the hand of the giant stretched out in protection from afar.
Manderson, said the newspapers in chorus, was in hourly communication
with his lieutenants in the Street. One journal was able to give, in
round figures, the sum spent on cabling between New York and Marlstone
in the past twenty-four hours; it told how a small staff of expert
operators had been sent down by the Post Office authorities to Marlstone
to deal with the flood of messages. Another revealed that Manderson, on
the first news of the Hahn crash, had arranged to abandon his holiday
and return home by the _Lusitania_; but that he soon had the situation
so well in hand that he had determined to remain where he was.

All this was falsehood, more or less consciously elaborated by the
"finance editors," consciously initiated and encouraged by the shrewd
business men of the Manderson group, who knew that nothing could better
help their plans than this illusion of hero-worship--knew also that no
word had come from Manderson in answer to their messages, and that
Howard B. Jeffrey, of Steel and Iron fame, was the true organizer of
victory. So they fought down apprehension through four feverish days,
and minds grew calmer. On Saturday, though the ground beneath the feet
of Mr. Jeffrey yet rumbled now and then with AEtna-mutterings of
disquiet, he deemed his task almost done. The market was firm and slowly
advancing. Wall Street turned to its sleep of Sunday, worn out but
thankfully at peace.

In the first trading hour of Monday a hideous rumor flew round the sixty
acres of the financial district. It came into being as the lightning
comes, a blink that seems to begi