& H. It has thus gone
up seven points since the day before.
"Bob was right," he said. "He knew what he was about. B. & H. is
climbing right up to the top. Hanged if I don't put in another hundred!"
and he ran down and out into the street like a young lunatic. In five
minutes he had put up another hundred dollars with Broker Tabor for
Halsey & Company to buy more B. & H. stock on margin. The stock was
bought immediately at 54 1/2-eighteen shares.
That done, Fred returned to the Exchange and watched proceedings from
the gallery. He kept his eyes on Broker Manson. The big broker was
buying the stock at a tremendous rate, all that was offered him. People
were coming and going all the time. Fred finally turned to look at a
young girl whose voice sounded like music in his ears. She was close by
his side. She was accompanied by an elderly couple, evidently her
parents. He thought her very beautiful and that she had the most musical
voice he had ever heard.
She changed positions several times as though looking for somebody on
the floor below. He noticed a tall, well-dressed man keeping close
behind her, peering over her shoulder at the crowd below. Something in
his movements caused Fred to look at him the second time, and to his
amazement he saw him pick the pockets of both the ladies. The thief then
started to leave, but Fred grabbed his coat-tail, saying:
"Here, I saw that little game. It won't go. Ladies, this man has got
your pocketbooks."
Quick as a flash the thief grabbed him and lifted him above his head.
Fred saw he was going to be hurled headlong among the brokers below, and
to save himself seized his assailant's coat collar. The two ladies
screamed, and the next moment Fred and the pickpocket fell over the
gallery and went down in a heap on the yelling brokers below.
CHAPTER IV.--Fred's First Entrance to the Exchange and Its Results.
The screams of the ladies caused every broker to look up from the floor
of the Stock Exchange. Like a flash they saw a man and boy come tumbling
down upon them from the gallery. There was a party of four brokers
grouped together immediately under them, and, as a matter of
gravitation, they landed on top of them--on their heads and shoulders.
Hats were crushed and a confused mass of humanity scrambled about on the
floor. The yelling ceased when the shrill screams from the gallery were
heard, and brokers ran forward to help those who had fallen. The
pickpocket struck out de
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