scarcely estimate.
Our arrangements are made. We have plenty of capital ourselves, and
yet we want more. Also, there is too much Ward Valley out to suit our
present plans. Thus we kill both birds with one stone--"

"And I am the stone," Daylight broke in with a smile.

"Yes, just that. Not only will you bull Ward Valley, but you will at
the same time gather Ward Valley in. This will be of inestimable
advantage to us, while you and all of us will profit by it as well.
And as Mr. Letton has pointed out, the thing is legitimate and square.
On the eighteenth the directors meet, and, instead of the customary
dividend, a double dividend will be declared."

"And where will the shorts be then?" Leon Guggenhammer cried excitedly.

"The shorts will be the speculators," Nathaniel Letton explained, "the
gamblers, the froth of Wall Street--you understand. The genuine
investors will not be hurt. Furthermore, they will have learned for
the thousandth time to have confidence in Ward Valley. And with their
confidence we can carry through the large developments we have outlined
to you."

"There will be all sorts of rumors on the street," Dowsett warned
Daylight, "but do not let them frighten you. These rumors may even
originate with us. You can see how and why clearly. But rumors are to
be no concern of yours. You are on the inside. All you have to do is
buy, buy, buy, and keep on buying to the last stroke, when the
directors declare the double dividend. Ward Valley will jump so that it
won't be feasible to buy after that."

"What we want," Letton took up the strain, pausing significantly to sip
his mineral water, "what we want is to take large blocks of Ward Valley
off the hands of the public. We could do this easily enough by
depressing the market and frightening the holders. And we could do it
more cheaply in such fashion. But we are absolute masters of the
situation, and we are fair enough to buy Ward Valley on a rising
market. Not that we are philanthropists, but that we need the
investors in our big development scheme. Nor do we lose directly by
the transaction. The instant the action of the directors becomes known,
Ward Valley will rush heavenward. In addition, and outside the
legitimate field of the transaction, we will pinch the shorts for a
very large sum. But that is only incidental, you understand, and in a
way, unavoidable. On the other hand, we shall not turn up our noses at
that phase of it. The