nswered the call. Phineas glanced apprehensively out into the
library.

"Say, he ain't no parson, is he?" he chuckled. "Wants to know what in
hell has been the trouble all this time. What'll I tell him?"

"Tell him to send particulars concerning L. and T. at once. All the
particulars."

The message was sent. The receiver rattled a hasty reply.

"He says you know all the particulars already. You must know 'em. Wants
to know if this is Mr. Colton."

"Tell him Mr. Colton is here, in the house. That will be true enough.
And say we wish all particulars, figures and all. We want to know just
where we stand."

The demand for particulars was forwarded. There was more clicking.

"Give me a piece of paper and a pencil, quick," urged Phineas. "This is
a long feller."

While he was writing the "long feller," as the telegraph ticked it off,
Miss Colton and the butler appeared, the latter bearing a loaded tray.
He drew a little table up beside the operator and placed the tray upon
it. Then he went away. The telegraph clicked and clicked and Cahoon
wrote. Miss Colton and I watched him anxiously.

"Say," observed Phineas, between intervals of clicks, "this feller's
in some loony asylum, ain't he. This is pretty nigh as crazy as that
message I fetched down. . . . Here 'tis. Maybe you folks know what it
means, I don't. It's forty fathoms long, ain't it."

It was long enough, surely. It was not all in the code jargon--Davis
trusted the privacy of the wire sufficiently to send a portion of it in
plain English--but he did not trust even that altogether. Miss Colton
and I worked it out as we had the first telegram. As the translation
progressed I could feel my hair tingling at the roots.

Was it to help in such a complication as this that I had been summoned?
I, of all people! These waters were too deep for me.

Boiled down, the "particulars" for which Davis had been asked, and which
he had sent, amounted to this: Colton, it seemed, had sold L. and T.
"short" for a considerable period of time in order, as I had surmised,
to force down the price and buy in at a reasonable figure. He had sold,
in this way, about three-eighths of the common stock. Of this amount he
had in his possession--in his broker's possession, that is--but two
of the eighths. The "other crowd"--the Consolidated Pacific,
presumably--had, as Davis now discovered, three-eighths actual
certificates, in its pocket, had been acquiring them, on the quiet,
while pre