f we hadn't obtained the
Judge's signature to the injunction by four o'clock that afternoon. They
not only laid two miles of track inside of eighteen hours, and came
within four blocks of crossing our main line, but they sold our stock on
the market, thousands and thousands of shares--poured it in from ten
o'clock till three, pounding and hammering every supporting bid we made,
and the only thing that saved us was the Exchange closing at three
o'clock. As it was, our Board man, Reynolds, became hysterical as the
gong struck, and he's never been up to much since.

Well, it was a shrewd, ably-planned move, and, executed earlier, would
have succeeded in wrecking us. But it cost them, as we figured it, two
millions, and sent them higher than a kite. I didn't know they were so
big--employed three thousand men, they say.

III.

The name on a passing ambulance directed my steps to Roosevelt
Hospital at the close of business, a few nights later. I don't think
I wanted to nail that very poor lie of Sandy's but I knew Waldron, the
Superintendent, and thought I'd invite him to dinner and joke him a bit
about his new whisky ward.

Waldron was in, but could not go to dinner. Worst time in the day for
him to get off, he said.

"By the way," he continued, "too bad you couldn't give Sandy McWhiffle a
job--he would have it you'd take him, so we let him go, with a dose of
whisky to carry him through. But you lazy devils get down so late it
didn't last him, and he fainted in the street on the way back. Queer
fellow, but I liked him--his sense of humour hasn't disappeared as it
has with most of his class."

Perhaps my sense of humour had disappeared, but I saw no fun in my
rehearsed jokes of a few minutes previous.

"Is he here now?" I asked.

"No, we discharged him yesterday.--Hope he'll get a job, but there's
an awful lot of men looking for work."

It was probably because I was out of temper with myself, but the city
seemed hideously cruel to me as I walked down Broadway from the
Hospital. The clang of the car gongs sounded like fierce commands--the
electric lights snapped and glittered like cunning, wicked eyes--the hot
air from the shops offended like venomous breath--the rattle of the
carts and cabs sounded reckless--the crowds seemed to jostle and
grapple. The gaily-lighted windows mocked me with their glitter, and the
darkened ones had a menace in their black indifference. In every elbow
touching me I seemed to feel