ance she flashed at him.

"That's quite a smart team you were driving, Miss Creighton," he said.

Sally, who disregarded this, turned to Hawtrey.

"What's he doing here?" she asked.

"He came over on a little matter of business," said Hawtrey.

"You have been selling wheat again?"

Hawtrey looked embarrassed, for her manner was not conciliatory.
"Well," he admitted, "I have sold some."

"Wheat you haven't got?"

Hawtrey did not answer, and Sally sat down. Her manner suggested that
she meant to thoroughly investigate the matter, and Edmonds, who would
have greatly preferred to get rid of her, decided that as this appeared
impossible he would appeal to her cupidity. The Creightons were
somewhat grasping folks, and he had heard of her engagement to Hawtrey.

"If you will permit me I'll try to explain," he said. "We'll say that
you have reason for believing that wheat will go down and you tell a
broker to sell it forward at a price a little below the actual one. If
other people do the same it drops faster, and before you have to
deliver you can buy it in at less than you sold it at. A good many
dollars can be picked up that way."

"It looks easy," Sally admitted, with something in her manner which led
him to fancy he might win her over. "Of course, prices have been
falling. Gregory has been selling down?"

"He has. In fact, there's already a big margin to his credit," said
Edmonds unsuspectingly.

"That is, if he bought in now he'd have cleared--several thousand
dollars?"

Edmonds told her exactly how much, and then started in sudden
consternation with rage in his heart, for she turned to Hawtrey
imperiously.

"Then you'll write your broker to buy in right away," she said.

There was an awkward silence, during which the two men looked at one
another until Edmonds spoke.

"Are you wise in suggesting this, Miss Creighton?" he asked.

Sally laughed harshly. "Oh yes," she said, "it's a sure thing. And I
don't suggest. I tell him to get it done."

She turned again to Hawtrey, who sat very still looking at her with a
flush in his face. "Take your pen and give him that letter to the
broker now."

There was this in her favour that Hawtrey was to some extent relieved
by her persistence. He had not the nerve to make a successful
speculator, and he had already felt uneasy about the hazard he would
incur by waiting. Besides, although prices had slightly advanced, he
could still secure a reasonable