eem unable ever to make a clear connection, varying this
annoyance by a habit of either dropping dead or visiting the nearest
cafe at those crucial moments when they did not interrupt a tense
interchange by polite inquiries as to whether msieu had been connected.

I must say that in this crisis Stuart Thario displayed all his soldierly
qualities to the full. Sweeping aside his domestic concerns as he would
at the order of mobilization, he became swift, decisive, vigorous. The
first call he put through was to the Kristian IV Hotel, engaging every
available empty room so that we might preempt as much of the switchboard
as possible. Pressing Constance and Winifred into service as secretaries
until his own officestaff could be summoned and leaving Pauline to deal
with Mama, he had us established in the hotel less than threequarters of
an hour from the time Preblesham phoned.

Even as the earliest calls were being put through a barely perceptible
signal passed from the general to Winifred and presently large parts of
the Kristian IV bar were being arranged on a long table at the general's
elbow. I had little time for observation since I had to exert all my
powers of salesmanship on unseen financiers to persuade them by
indirection that I was facing a financial crisis and they had a chance
to snap up my South American holdings at fractions of their values; but
out of the corner of my eye I admired the way Stuart Thario continuously
sipped from his constantly refilled glass without hesitating in his
duplicating endeavors.

I expected the news to break and end our efforts at any moment, but the
quickness with which I had seized upon Preblesham's information
confirmed the proverb about the early bird; the threehour reprieve
stretched to five and by the time Havas flashed the news I had liquefied
almost all of my now worthless assets--and to potential financial
rivals. Needless to say I had not trusted solely to the honor of the men
with whom I had conversed, but had the sale confirmed in each case by an
agent on the spot who accepted a check, draft, or cash from the buyer.
Only on paper did I suffer the slightest loss; in actuality my position
became three times as strong as before.

_74._ The world took the extension of the Grass to South America with a
philosophic calm which can only be described as amazing. Even the Latins
themselves seemed more concerned with how the Grass had jumped the gap
than with the impending fate