ing distinctness.

Before Gretry's desk the two men leaned over the litter of papers. The
broker's pencil was in his hand and from time to time he figured
rapidly on a sheet of note paper.

"And," observed Jadwin after a while, "and you see how the millers up
here in the Northwest have been grinding up all the grain in sight. Do
you see that?"

"Yes," said Gretry, then he added, "navigation will be open in another
month up there in the straits."

"That's so, too," exclaimed Jadwin, "and what wheat there is here will
be moving out. I'd forgotten that point. Ain't you glad you aren't
short of wheat these days?"

"There's plenty of fellows that are, though," returned Gretry. "I've
got a lot of short wheat on my books--a lot of it."

All at once as Gretry spoke Jadwin started, and looked at him with a
curious glance.

"You have, hey?" he said. "There are a lot of fellows who have sold
short?"

"Oh, yes, some of Crookes' followers--yes, quite a lot of them."

Jadwin was silent a moment, tugging at his mustache. Then suddenly he
leaned forward, his finger almost in Gretry's face.

"Why, look here," he cried. "Don't you see? Don't you see?"

"See what?" demanded the broker, puzzled at the other's vehemence.

Jadwin loosened his collar with a forefinger.

"Great Scott! I'll choke in a minute. See what? Why, I own ten million
bushels of this wheat already, and Europe will take eighty million out
of the country. Why, there ain't going to be any wheat left in Chicago
by May! If I get in now and buy a long line of cash wheat, where are
all these fellows who've sold short going to get it to deliver to me?
Say, where are they going to get it? Come on now, tell me, where are
they going to get it?"

Gretry laid down his pencil and stared at Jadwin, looked long at the
papers on his desk, consulted his pencilled memoranda, then thrust his
hands deep into his pockets, with a long breath. Bewildered, and as if
stupefied, he gazed again into Jadwin's face.

"My God!" he murmured at last.

"Well, where are they going to get it?" Jadwin cried once more, his
face suddenly scarlet.

"J.," faltered the broker, "J., I--I'm damned if I know."

And then, all in the same moment, the two men were on their feet. The
event which all those past eleven months had been preparing was
suddenly consummated, suddenly stood revealed, as though a veil had
been ripped asunder, as though an explosion had crashed through the air
upon them,