ell me anything about it. I've got it all figured out, your 'new
crop.'"

"Well, then you're the Lord Almighty himself."

"I don't like that kind of joke. I don't like that kind of joke. It's
blasphemous," exclaimed Jadwin. "Go, get it off on Crookes. He'd
appreciate it, but I don't. But this new crop now--look here."

And for upwards of two hours Jadwin argued and figured, and showed to
Gretry endless tables of statistics to prove that he was right.

But at the end Gretry shook his head. Calmly and deliberately he spoke
his mind.

"J., listen to me. You've done a big thing. I know it, and I know, too,
that there've been lots of times in the last year or so when I've been
wrong and you've been right. But now, J., so help me God, we've reached
our limit. Wheat is worth a dollar and a half to-day, and not one cent
more. Every eighth over that figure is inflation. If you run it up to
two dollars--"

"It will go there of itself, I tell you."

"--if you run it up to two dollars, it will be that top-heavy, that the
littlest kick in the world will knock it over. Be satisfied now with
what you got. J., it's common sense. Close out your long line of May,
and then stop. Suppose the price does break a little, you'd still make
your pile. But swing this deal over into July, and it's ruin, ruin. I
may have been mistaken before, but I know I'm right now. And do you
realise, J., that yesterday in the Pit there were some short sales?
There's some of them dared to go short of wheat against you--even at
the very top of your corner--and there was more selling this morning.
You've always got to buy, you know. If they all began to sell to you at
once they'd bust you. It's only because you've got 'em so scared--I
believe--that keeps 'em from it. But it looks to me as though this
selling proved that they were picking up heart. They think they can get
the wheat from the farmers when harvesting begins. And I tell you, J.,
you've put the price of wheat so high, that the wheat areas are
extending all over the country."

"You're scared," cried Jadwin. "That's the trouble with you, Sam.
You've been scared from the start. Can't you see, man, can't you see
that this market is a regular tornado?"

"I see that the farmers all over the country are planting wheat as
they've never planted it before. Great Scott, J., you're fighting
against the earth itself."

"Well, we'll fight it, then. I'll stop those hayseeds. What do I own
all these newspa