said the broker gravely. "Do you know
how we stand--financially? It's taken pretty nearly every cent of our
ready money to support this July market. Oh, we can figure out our
paper profits into the millions. We've got thirty, forty, fifty million
bushels of wheat that's worth over a dollar a bushel, but if we can't
sell it, we're none the better off--and that wheat is costing us six
thousand dollars a day. Hell, old man, where's the money going to come
from? You don't seem to realise that we are in a precarious condition."
He raised an arm, and pointed above him in the direction of the floor
of the Board of Trade.

"The moment we can't give our boys--Landry Court, and the rest of
'em--the moment we can't give them buying orders, that Pit will suck us
down like a chip. The moment we admit that we can't buy all the wheat
that's offered, there's the moment we bust."

"Well, we'll buy it," cried Jadwin, through his set teeth. "I'll show
those brutes. Look here, is it money we want? You cable to Paris and
offer two million, at--oh, at eight cents below the market; and to
Liverpool, and let 'em have twopence off on the same amount. They'll
snap it up as quick as look at it. That will bring in one lot of money,
and as for the rest, I guess I've got some real estate in this town
that's pretty good security."

"What--you going to mortgage part of that?"

"No," cried Jadwin, jumping up with a quick impatient gesture, "no, I'm
going to mortgage all of it, and I'm going to do it to-day--this
morning. If you say we're in a precarious condition, it's no time for
half measures. I'll have more money than you'll know what to do with in
the Illinois Trust by three o'clock this afternoon, and when the Board
opens to-morrow morning, I'm going to light into those cattle in the
Pit there, so as they'll think a locomotive has struck 'em. They'd
stand me off, would they? They'd try to sell me down; they won't cover
when I turn the screw! I'll show 'em, Sam Gretry. I'll run wheat up so
high before the next two days, that the Bank of England can't pull it
down, and before the Pit can catch its breath, I'll sell our long line,
and with the profits of that, by God! I'll run it up again. Two
dollars! Why, it will be two fifty here so quick you won't know how
it's happened. I've just been fooling with this crowd until now. Now,
I'm really going to get down to business."

Gretry did not answer. He twirled his pencil between his fingers, and
sta