all those
shares we bought to-day which we ought to be able to hypothecate with
somebody. It would be something if we could get even a hundred and
twenty on them."

"Very true," replied Hand. "I wish it could be done. I, personally,
cannot sink any more money. But why don't you go and see Schryhart and
Arneel? I've been talking to them, and they seem to be in a position
similar to my own; but if they are willing to confer, I am. I don't
see what's to be done, but it may be that all of us together might
arrange some way of heading off the slaughter of the stock to-morrow.
I don't know. If only we don't have to suffer too great a decline."

Mr. Hand was thinking that Messrs. Hull and Stackpole might be forced
to part with all their remaining holdings at fifty cents on the dollar
or less. Then if it could possibly be taken and carried by the united
banks for them (Schryhart, himself, Arneel) and sold at a profit later,
he and his associates might recoup some of their losses. The local
banks at the behest of the big quadrumvirate might be coerced into
straining their resources still further. But how was this to be done?
How, indeed?

It was Schryhart who, in pumping and digging at Stackpole when he
finally arrived there, managed to extract from him the truth in regard
to his visit to Cowperwood. As a matter of fact, Schryhart himself had
been guilty this very day of having thrown two thousand shares of
American Match on the market unknown to his confreres. Naturally, he
was eager to learn whether Stackpole or any one else had the least
suspicion that he was involved. As a consequence he questioned
Stackpole closely, and the latter, being anxious as to the outcome of
his own interests, was not unwilling to make a clean breast. He had
the justification in his own mind that the quadrumvirate had been ready
to desert him anyhow.

"Why did you go to him?" exclaimed Schryhart, professing to be greatly
astonished and annoyed, as, indeed, in one sense he was. "I thought we
had a distinct understanding in the beginning that under no
circumstances was he to be included in any portion of this. You might
as well go to the devil himself for assistance as go there." At the
same time he was thinking "How fortunate!" Here was not only a loophole
for himself in connection with his own subtle side-plays, but also, if
the quadrumvirate desired, an excuse for deserting the troublesome
fortunes of Hull & Stackpole.

"Well,