ood at his elbow, saying:

"Your breakfast is served, Mr. Jadwin."

He had no appetite. He could eat nothing but a few mouthfuls of toast,
and long before the appointed hour he sat in Gretry's office, waiting
for the broker to appear, drumming on the arm of his chair, plucking at
the buttons of his coat, and wondering why it was that every now and
then all the objects in his range of vision seemed to move slowly back
and stand upon the same plane.

By degrees he lapsed into a sort of lethargy, a wretched counterfeit of
sleep, his eyes half closed, his breath irregular. But, such as it was,
it was infinitely grateful. The little, over-driven cogs and wheels of
the mind, at least, moved more slowly. Perhaps by and by this might
actually develop into genuine, blessed oblivion.

But there was a quick step outside the door. Gretry came in.

"Oh, J.! Here already, are you? Well, Crookes will begin to sell at the
very tap of the bell."

"He will, hey?" Jadwin was on his feet. Instantly the jaded nerves
braced taut again; instantly the tiny machinery of the brain spun again
at its fullest limit. "He's going to try to sell us out, is he? All
right. We'll sell, too. We'll see who can sell the most--Crookes or
Jadwin."

"Sell! You mean buy, of course."

"No, I don't. I've been thinking it over since you left last night.
Wheat is worth exactly what it is selling for this blessed day. I've
not inflated it up one single eighth yet; Crookes thinks I have. Good
Lord, I can read him like a book! He thinks I've boosted the stuff
above what it's worth, and that a little shove will send it down. He
can send it down to ten cents if he likes, but it'll jump back like a
rubber ball. I'll sell bushel for bushel with him as long as he wants
to keep it up."

"Heavens and earth, J.," exclaimed Gretry, with a long breath, "the
risk is about as big as holding up the Bank of England. You are
depreciating the value of about forty million dollars' worth of your
property with every cent she breaks."

"You do as I tell you--you'll see I'm right," answered Jadwin. "Get
your boys in here, and we'll give 'em the day's orders."

The "Crookes affair"--as among themselves the group of men who centred
about Jadwin spoke of it--was one of the sharpest fights known on the
Board of Trade for many a long day. It developed with amazing
unexpectedness and was watched with breathless interest from every
produce exchange between the oceans.

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