uck.
Pitch 'em overboard in the morning. The Street is shaky about Argentine.
There'll be h---to pay before half past twelve. I guess you can safely
go ten points. Lower yet, if Mavick's brokers begin to unload. I guess
he will have to unless he can borrow. Rumor is a big thing, especially
in a panic, eh? Keep your eye peeled. And, oh, won't you ask Babcock to
step round here?"

Mr. Babcock came round, and had his instructions when to buy. He had the
reputation of being a reckless broker, and not a safe man to follow.

The panic next day, both in London and New York, was long remembered.
In the unreasoning scare the best stocks were sacrificed. Small country
"investors" lost their stakes. Some operators were ruined. Many men were
poorer at the end of the scrimmage, and a few were richer. Murad Ault
was one of the latter. Mavick pulled through, though at an enormous
cost, and with some diminution of the notion of his solidity. The wise
ones suspected that his resources had been overestimated, or that they
were not so well at his command as had been supposed.

When he went home that night he looked five years older, and was too
worn and jaded to be civil to his family. The dinner passed mostly in
silence. Carmen saw that something serious had happened. Lord Montague
had called.

"Eh, what did he want?" said Mavick, surlily.

Carmen looked up surprised. "What does anybody after a reception call
for?"

"The Lord only knows."

"He is the funniest little man," Evelyn ventured to say.

"That is no way, child, to speak of the son of a duke," said Mavick,
relaxing a little.

Carmen did not like the tone in which this was said, but she prudently
kept silent. And presently Evelyn continued:

"He asked for you, papa, and said he wanted to pay his respects."

"I am glad he wants to pay anything," was the ungracious answer. Still
Evelyn was not to be put down.

"It was such a bright day in the Park. What were you doing all day,
papa?"

"Why, my dear, I was engaged in Research; you will be pleased to know.
Looking after those ten millions."

When the dinner was over, Carmen followed Mr. Mavick to his study.

"What is the matter, Tom?"

"Nothing uncommon. It's a beastly hole down there. The Board used to
be made up of gentlemen. Now there are such fellows as Ault, a
black-hearted scoundrel."

"But he has no influence. He is nothing socially," said Carmen.

"Neither is a wolf or a cyclone. But I don't care to tal