fought, it was that fatal
New Harvest; it was the Wheat; it was--as Gretry had said--the very
Earth itself. What were those scattered hundreds of farmers of the
Middle West, who because he had put the price so high had planted the
grain as never before? What had they to do with it? Why the Wheat had
grown itself; demand and supply, these were the two great laws the
Wheat obeyed. Almost blasphemous in his effrontery, he had tampered
with these laws, and had roused a Titan. He had laid his puny human
grasp upon Creation and the very earth herself, the great mother,
feeling the touch of the cobweb that the human insect had spun, had
stirred at last in her sleep and sent her omnipotence moving through
the grooves of the world, to find and crush the disturber of her
appointed courses.

The new harvest was coming in; the new harvest of wheat, huge beyond
possibility of control; so vast that no money could buy it, so swift
that no strategy could turn it. But Jadwin hurried away from the sound
of the near roaring of the Pit. No, no. Luck was with him; he had
mastered the current of the Pit many times before--he would master it
again. The day passed and the night, and at nine o'clock the following
morning, he and Gretry once more met in the broker's office.

Gretry turned a pale face upon his principal.

"I've just received," he said, "the answers to our cables to Liverpool
and Paris. I offered wheat at both places, as you know, cheaper than
we've ever offered it there before."

"Yes--well?"

"Well," answered Gretry, looking gravely into Jadwin's eyes,
"well--they won't take it."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

On the morning of her birthday--the thirteenth of the month--when Laura
descended to the breakfast room, she found Page already there. Though
it was barely half-past seven, her sister was dressed for the street.
She wore a smart red hat, and as she stood by the French windows,
looking out, she drew her gloves back and forth between her fingers,
with a nervous, impatient gesture.

"Why," said Laura, as she sat down at her place, "why, Pagie, what is
in the wind to-day?"

"Landry is coming," Page explained, facing about and glancing at the
watch pinned to her waist. "He is going to take me down to see the
Board of Trade--from the visitor's gallery, you know. He said this
would probably be a great day. Did Mr. Jadwin come home last night?"

Laura shook her head, without speech. She did not choose to put into
word