m.

She touched his hand. It moved heavily away from her hand. The left arm,
released, dropped at his side.

She started back, her eyes round with terror, and screamed.

Instantly the secretary was at her side, and supported her, fainting, to
a seat. Other clerks rushed in at the alarm. Henderson was lifted from
his chair and laid upon a lounge. When the doctor who had been called
arrived, Carmen was in a heap by the low couch, one arm thrown across
the body, and her head buried in the cushion close to his.

The doctor instantly applied restoratives; he sent for an electric
battery; everything was done that science could suggest. But all was
of no avail. There was no sign of life. He must have been dead half an
hour, said the doctor. It was evidently heart-failure.

Before the doctor had pronounced his verdict there was a whisper in the
Stock Exchange.

"Henderson is dead!"

"It is not possible," said one.

"I saw him only yesterday," said another.

"I was in his office this morning," said a third. "I never saw him
looking in better health."

The whisper was confirmed. There was no doubt of it. Henderson's private
secretary had admitted it. Yet it seemed incredible. No provision had
been made for it. Speculation had not discounted it. A panic set in.
No one knew what to do, for no one knew well the state of Henderson's
affairs. In the first thirty minutes there was a tremendous drop in
Henderson stocks. Then some of them rallied, but before the partial
recovery hundreds of men had been ruined. It was a wild hour in the
Exchange. Certain stocks were hopelessly smashed for the time, and some
combinations were destroyed; among them was one that Uncle Jerry had
kept out of; and Jack Delancy was hopelessly ruined.

The event was flashed over the wires of the continent; it was
bulletined; it was cried in the streets; it was the all-absorbing talk
of the town. Already, before the dead man was removed to his own house,
people were beginning to moralize about him and his career. Perhaps the
truest thing was said by the old broker in the board whose reputation
for piety was only equaled by his reputation of always having money to
loan at exorbitant rates in a time of distress. He said to a group of
downcast operators, "In the midst of life we are in death."

XX

The place that Rodney Henderson occupied in the mind of the public was
shown by the attention the newspapers paid to his death. All the great
newsp