out:

"Mr. Gretry, what are we to do? We've had no orders."

But no one listened to him. Of the group that gathered around Gretry's
desk, no one so much as turned a head.

Jadwin stood there in the centre of the others, hatless, his face pale,
his eyes congested with blood. Gretry fronted him, one hand upon his
arm. In the remainder of the group Landry recognised the senior clerk
of the office, one of the heads of a great banking house, and a couple
of other men--confidential agents, who had helped to manipulate the
great corner.

"But you can't," Gretry was exclaiming. "You can't; don't you see we
can't meet our margin calls? It's the end of the game. You've got no
more money."

"It's a lie!" Never so long as he lived did Landry forget the voice in
which Jadwin cried the words: "It's a lie! Keep on buying, I tell you.
Take all they'll offer. I tell you we'll touch the two dollar mark
before noon."

"Not another order goes up to that floor," retorted Gretry. "Why, J.,
ask any of these gentlemen here. They'll tell you."

"It's useless, Mr. Jadwin," said the banker, quietly. "You were
practically beaten two days ago."

"Mr. Jadwin," pleaded the senior clerk, "for God's sake listen to
reason. Our firm--"

But Jadwin was beyond all appeal. He threw off Gretry's hand.

"Your firm, your firm--you've been cowards from the start. I know you,
I know you. You have sold me out. Crookes has bought you. Get out of my
way!" he shouted. "Get out of my way! Do you hear? I'll play my hand
alone from now on."

"J., old man--why--see here, man," Gretry implored, still holding him
by the arm; "here, where are you going?"

Jadwin's voice rang like a trumpet call:

_"Into the Pit."_

"Look here--wait--here. Hold him back, gentlemen. He don't know what
he's about."

"If you won't execute my orders, I'll act myself. I'm going into the
Pit, I tell you."

"J., you're mad, old fellow. You're ruined--don't you
understand?--you're ruined."

"Then God curse you, Sam Gretry, for the man who failed me in a
crisis." And as he spoke Curtis Jadwin struck the broker full in the
face.

Gretry staggered back from the blow, catching at the edge of his desk.
His pale face flashed to crimson for an instant, his fists clinched;
then his hands fell to his sides.

"No," he said, "let him go, let him go. The man is merely mad."

But, Jadwin, struggling for a second in the midst of the group that
tried to hold him, suddenly flung off t