fections by Cowperwood, he had scarcely any
interest in the world outside his large financial holdings, which
included profitable investments in a half-hundred companies. But they
must pay, pay, pay heavily in interest--all of them--and the thought
that one of them might become a failure or a drain on his resources was
enough to give him an almost physical sensation of dissatisfaction and
unrest, a sort of spiritual and mental nausea which would cling to him
for days and days or until he had surmounted the difficulty. Mr. Hand
had no least corner in his heart for failure.

As a matter of fact, the situation in regard to American Match had
reached such proportions as to be almost numbing. Aside from the
fifteen thousand shares which Messrs. Hull and Stackpole had originally
set aside for themselves, Hand, Arneel, Schryhart, and Merrill had
purchased five thousand shares each at forty, but had since been
compelled to sustain the market to the extent of over five thousand
shares more each, at prices ranging from one-twenty to two-twenty, the
largest blocks of shares having been bought at the latter figure.
Actually Hand was caught for nearly one million five hundred thousand
dollars, and his soul was as gray as a bat's wing. At fifty-seven
years of age men who are used only to the most successful financial
calculations and the credit that goes with unerring judgment dread to
be made a mark by chance or fate. It opens the way for comment on their
possibly failing vitality or judgment. And so Mr. Hand sat on this hot
August afternoon, ensconced in a large carved mahogany chair in the
inner recesses of his inner offices, and brooded. Only this morning,
in the face of a falling market, he would have sold out openly had he
not been deterred by telephone messages from Arneel and Schryhart
suggesting the advisability of a pool conference before any action was
taken. Come what might on the morrow, he was determined to quit unless
he saw some clear way out--to be shut of the whole thing unless the
ingenuity of Stackpole and Hull should discover a way of sustaining the
market without his aid. While he was meditating on how this was to be
done Mr. Stackpole appeared, pale, gloomy, wet with perspiration.

"Well, Mr. Hand," he exclaimed, wearily, "I've done all I can. Hull and
I have kept the market fairly stable so far. You saw what happened
between ten and eleven this morning. The jig's up. We've borrowed our
last dollar an