rtificate and
pronounced it a forgery, saying:

"No 'Third series' has ever been issued by the company."

"Whoop!" yelled Bob, "I'll bet on my old man every time!"

The crowd roared and Dean was nettled.

"I want to have the statement of the president of the company before I
give up," he said.

"Will the treasurer of the company do?" Holmes asked.

"Yes, of course."

"Well, he is here," and he sent a clerk into another room for a Mr.
Timson, the treasurer of the company.

He came out and very promptly pronounced it a forgery.

"Whoop!" yelled Bob again. "Halsey & Company are bankers and
speculators, and sometimes they bet on a dead sure thing. Say, Fred,
we've got some more fleece to hang up."

The brokers yelled and Dean said to him:

"See here now, boys, none of that. If you get any of my fleece in a deal
you can hang it up on your front door. This is quite a different thing."

"But do you give it up?" Bob asked.

"Oh, yes. You can have the money."

"All right. We can't call it fleece at all. Mr. Allison, one-half is
yours. Shake, old man."

Allison jumped as though he had been shot.

"Do you mean that, Bob?" he asked.

"Of course I do."

"And you--is it all right?" he asked of Fred.

"Of course it is. You saved us $10,000, didn't you?"

"Well, that was my duty. I've been thirty-three years in Wall Street and
never had so much consideration shown me before," and his eyes became
moist and his voice husky.

"I say, boys!" called out another broker, "let's all go and dine
together and have a bottle for each plate. I like these two boys and
think we can learn something from them. Come on, every one of you."

They all laughed, shook hands with Bob, Fred and Allison and went
downstairs and farther down the street to a well-known restaurant. There
they had a royal feast for an hour. Dean became quite merry over his
bottle and admitted that he knew Allison was one of the best posted men
in the street, and was glad that he was to have one-half the amount he
had lost. At that dinner the brokers became acquainted with Halsey &
Company, and found that, though they were boys, they knew a good deal
about taking care of Number One.

CHAPTER X.--Fred Buys a Seat in the Stock Exchange.

The accident in the banking house of Halsey & Company, by which a man
lost his life, created a good deal of excitement in Wall Street. The
prompt discovery of the forgery had the effect of convincing the Street
that th