anished.

An hour passed and he gave orders that no one should be admitted until
further notice.

"N.O. & G. is stationary around 59," he said, offering a cigar. "The
directors meet at noon. They will pass the dividend. They think to shake
out your 45,000 shares and a lot more in small holdings. In all I own
35,000 shares, so that together we control 80,000 out of 200,000. I now
propose to show these honourable gentlemen a trick which will give them
something to think about for several weeks to come. I know a _gentleman_
who owns outright 25,000 shares. He is one of the heads of which you
term "the conspiracy". It is not a conspiracy, Smith; it is business. He
tried to sell me out and has failed as he will learn in a few minutes.
He will then sell out the men who implicitly trust him, as they would
sell him out if they could see a chance to make money out of it. Do not
talk of conspiracies, Smith! These honourable business _gentlemen_ down
here are extremely sensitive, and you should be careful not to hurt
their feelings."

We quickly came to an agreement by which our holdings were pooled. It
was stipulated that he should have entire control of the operations from
that time on, and after settling important details I suggested that I go
to my broker's office and await developments.

"There's nothing you can do here," he said, as I arose. "Yes, there is,
too," he added. "The folks are going to drop in here at about two
o'clock. I'm going to be too busy to bother with them, and I foolishly
promised to take them to the gallery of the Stock Exchange. You'll be
worth more money then than you are now," he said with a grim smile.
"Take them over and show them how a real sheep-killing looks when the
ewes are fat and the knives sharp."

I promised to call for them at two o'clock, and then went to the office
of my brokers.

Carelessly glancing at the quotation opposite the letters N.O. & G., I
saw that it had dropped to 56. The head of the firm approached me and
asked me to step into his private office.

[Illustration: "Business is business"]

"The rumour is strong that the dividend will be passed," he said.

"Which is preparatory to saying that you would like me to put up more
margins, I presume?"

"Business is business, you know, Mr. Smith," he said, softly rubbing his
hands.

"I have, anticipated your caution," I remarked. Mr. Harding had warned
me that an unwarranted demand for margins would be made, but confiden