d. Nobody can get a share except from me, and at my price. But
these fellows that have sold them--they've got to have them, don't you
see. They had their little temporary joke with me on the street that
afternoon--and now they must walk up to the captain's office and settle.
They've got to pay me at least half a million pounds for that few
minutes' fun of theirs. I may make it a good deal more; I don't know
yet."

"Oh, Joel!" she groaned at him, in awed stupefaction. His rather
languid indecision as to whether half a million was going to be enough,
impressed her more powerfully than had any detail of his narrative.

In a few comprehensive sentences he finished up for her what there was
to tell. "This afternoon my Board met to allot the shares. They saw the
applications, amounting in all to over ninety thousand shares. It took
their breath away--they had heard that things were going quite the
other way with us. They were so tickled that they asked no questions The
allotment went through like a greased pig. About 5,000 shares went to
those who had actually applied for them, and 88,000 were solemnly given
to the dummy applicants. Of course, there wasn't a whisper about these
dummies. Nobody winked so much as an eyelash. But I've found since that
one of the directors--that Lord Plowden I told you about--was onto
the thing all the while. But he's all right. Everybody's all right. Of
course the dummies' shares still stand in their names--on paper--but in
reality I've got them all in my safe--in my pocket you might say. They
are really mine, you understand. So now there's nothing for us to do
but to apply to the Stock Exchange for a special settlement date, and
meanwhile lie quiet and watch the Jews stew in their own juice. Or fry
in their own fat, eh? That's better."

"But," she commented slowly, "you say there are no shares to be
bought--and yet as I understand it, there are those five thousand that
were sent out to the people who really applied."

"Bravo, Lou!" he answered her jovially. "You actually do understand the
thing. You've put your finger straight on the point. It is true that
those shares are out against us--or might be turned against us if they
could be bought up. But in reality, they don't count at all. In the
first place, you see, they're scattered about among small holders,
country clergymen and old maids on an annuity and so on--all over the
country. Even if these people were all traced, and hunted up, sup