the last word he drove the ball home and straightened up. Gretry
laid down his cue and looked at him quickly. But he did not speak.
Jadwin sat down on one of the straight-backed chairs upon the raised
platform against the wall and rested his elbows upon his knees.

"Sam," he said, "the time is come for a great big change." He
emphasised the word with a tap of his cue upon the floor. "We can't
play our game the way we've been playing it the last three years. We've
been hammering wheat down and down and down, till we've got it below
the cost of production; and now she won't go any further with all the
hammering in the world. The other fellows, the rest of this Bear crowd,
don't seem to see it, but I see it. Before fall we're going to have
higher prices. Wheat is going up, and when it does I mean to be right
there."

"We're going to have a dull market right up to the beginning of
winter," persisted the other.

"Come and say that to me at the beginning of winter, then," Jadwin
retorted. "Look here, Sam, I'm short of May five hundred thousand
bushels, and to-morrow morning you are going to send your boys on the
floor for me and close that trade."

"You're crazy, J.," protested the broker. "Hold on another month, and I
promise you, you'll thank me."

"Not another day, not another hour. This Bear campaign of ours has come
to an end. That's said and signed."

"Why, it's just in its prime," protested the broker. "Great heavens,
you mustn't get out of the game now, after hanging on for three years."

"I'm not going to get out of it."

"Why, good Lord!" said Gretry, "you don't mean to say that--"

"That I'm going over. That's exactly what I do mean. I'm going to
change over so quick to the other side that I'll be there before you
can take off your hat. I'm done with a Bear game. It was good while it
lasted, but we've worked it for all there was in it. I'm not only going
to cover my May shorts and get out of that trade, but"--Jadwin leaned
forward and struck his hand upon his knee--"but I'm going to buy. I'm
going to buy September wheat, and I'm going to buy it to-morrow, five
hundred thousand bushels of it, and if the market goes as I think it
will later on, I'm going to buy more. I'm no Bear any longer. I'm going
to boost this market right through till the last bell rings; and from
now on Curtis Jadwin spells B-u-double l--Bull."

"They'll slaughter you," said Gretry, "slaughter you in cold blood.
You're just one man