The Market-Place

ughtful pull at the bee

ive stranger, so to speak. I've got to get acquainted with myself, all over again. You can't imagine what an extraordinary feeling it is-this being hit every few minutes with the recollection tha

going to tell me how-how 'the big thing' happened. You

rebuke's justification, he pl

ere that Lord Plowden that I told you about-the man that came over on the ship with me-came in. I went to him. I-God! I was desperate-but I hadn't much of an idea he'd consent. But he did! He listened to me, and I told him how I'd been robbed, and how the Syndicate would have cut my throat if I hadn't pulled away,-and he said, 'Why, yes, I'll go on your

HIM five hundred pounds

to belong to a big firm in Dundee, but gets along the best way he can on a very dicky business here in London, now. And then there's General Kervick, awfully well-connected old chap, they say, but I guess he needs all he can get. He's started wearing his fur-coat already. Well, that's my Board. I could

a year," she repe

wasn't so stiff about his figure. He agreed to take 500 pounds cash, and 2,000 in shares. It was God's luck that I hit on him, for he turned out, at the pinch, to be the one man in a million for me. But I'll tell you about him later. He's the Broker, mind; you mustn't forget him. Well, then, he and I got a Solicitor-he took 200 pounds cash, but he had to have 2,000 shares-and the firm of Auditors-they were 1

t pull of all. There was

no other papers in London

ellow-he's not behaved so badly, all things considered-who had some sporting blood in his veins, and he was willing to do the whole thing for 5,000 pounds, if I could pay 1,500 pounds down, and the rest in shares. But that was just what I couldn't do, you see, so finally he took 1,000 pounds down and 5,000 in shares-and as I say he's done it tolerably well. There was one editor that I had to square personally-that is to say, 100 pounds cash-it had to be in sovereigns, for notes could be traced-and a call of 2,000 share

er. "Oh, I've heard the expression as

ng's papers, and in the weeklies. The list was to be kept open, it said, till Wednesday morn

rding to your account," th

a momentary quizzical gleam in his eye. Then he became serious again. Th

and has his jobber shout out that he'll buy 'Rubber Consols'-that's what our shares are called on the street-at an eighth premium; that is to say, he offered to buy for twenty-two-and-six what we were offering to the public for twenty shillings. Of course, you see, the object of that was to create the impression that there was a regular God-almighty rush for our shares. As I say, I don't know whether that ever fooled anybody-but at least there was the chance that it might start up som

alertness in her face. "You call him 'Broker'-and that doe

erian minister. He's a little, insignificant runt of a chap to look at-but I lea

ell about Tuesday af

had been raining on and off all day-a miserable, rotten sort of a day, with greasy mud everywhere, and everybody poking umbrellas into you. I was out walking because I'd 'a' cut my throat if I'd tried to stay in the office another ten minutes. All that day I hadn't eate

d refused to be bled by, and there it was in big letters: 'The Rubber Bubble Burst!' 'Thorpe's Audacity Punished!' Those were the words. I can see them with my eyes shut. I stood there, looking at the fellow, and I suppose there was something in the way I looked, for he stopped too. Of course, he didn't know me fr

," said his sister, "but I never

ou know, until closing time-this day it happened to be four o'clock-and then they come out and deal in the street with one another, with the kerb-stone mob, who are not allowed inside, standing round to watch the thing. I came along into the thick of th

t seven-eighths! Sell five hundred at three-quarters! At three-quar

f those Kaffir scoundrels. I wish I was better at remembering names-but I knew his face. There were some of the others around him, and they laughed at

of the dramatic climax drew her forward in her ch

But when I got to the door, I didn't have the courage to go in. I'd furnished it better, I suppose, than any other office in Austin Friars, and I had a ki

g I don't understand. How many people had ap

usand. We offered a hundred thousand, you know.-But let me go on with my story. I stood there, in front of our street-door, in a kind of trance. The words of that Jew-'Sell Rubber Consols at three-quarters!'-buzzed inside my head as if they would burst it open. I turned-and I

ve you bought?' I asked him,

in his mind. 'I'm afraid it's eight thousand five hundre

about it to deliver their goods-that

ed for a minute. Then he put out his lip. Then he shot me a gla

ut to me at three-quarters,

ng. 'Wait for me in the office,' h

is mind was on nothing but second-hand books. I watched him out of sight-and then I went back, and up to the offices. The furniture didn't scare me a bit this

ed to be a significant look. She shrank from the confession that its

and of our shares. Some they paid fifteen shillings for, some they got at twelve-and-six and even ten. That doesn't matter; it's of no more importance than the coppers you give

course, you know the property is so good that you'll make a profit on the

ye. "Why, you dummy, you haven't got the faintest glimmer of a notion of what it's all about. The value of the property's got nothing

earts' content. What-you don't understand now? Why, see here! These fellows who've sold twenty-six thousand of our shares-they haven't got them to sell, and they can't get them. That is the point-they can't get them for love nor money-they must pay me

en eyes. It seemed to her that she u

day he went and saw the advertising agent and the solicitor and the auditors-and got them to pool the shares that I've promised to give them. A pool? That means they agree to transfer their shares to me as trustee, and let me deal with them as I like-of course to their advantage. In any case, their shares are vendor's shares, and couldn't be dealt with in this transaction. So you see the thing is hermetically se

guid indecision as to whether half a million was going to be enough,

sed 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

be bought-and yet as I understand it, there are those five

n't sell. The bigger the price they were offered, the more mulish they would be about holding. That's always the way with them. But even if they did all sell, their five thousand would be a mere drop in the bucket. There would be over twenty thousand others to be accounted for. That would be quite enough for my purposes. Oh, I figured all that out very carefully. My own first notion was to have the dummies apply for the whole hundred thousand, and even a little over. Then, you see, we might have allotted everything to the dummi

should think you'd lie awake more than ever now-now that you've built

n the Bank of England. Oh, that reminds me," he went on in a slightly altered tone-"it's damned comical, but I've got to ask you for a little money. I've only got about seven pounds at my bank,

e. "You're quite sure, Joel?"-she began-"and you haven't told

eavens, yes! there'll be a hundred ways of touching some ready. But if you've got twenty or thirty pounds handy just now-I tell you what I'll do, Lou. I'll gi

"If you're sure I can have it back before Christmas, I think I

"that all this gold is to rain down, and none of it hit you? Interest? Why

her voice. "Of course if you like to do things for the children, it won't be me

dy," he affirmed roundly. "

-and Julia is fourteen

amily. But Alfred is more of a Thorpe. I'm sorry you missed seeing them last summer-but of course they didn't stop long with me. This was no place for them-and they had a good many invitations

"He won't start with his nose held down to the grindstone by an old fat

hension. "You mustn't encourage him to build too high hopes, Joel. It's speculation, you

ind. A slow smile stole into the little wrinkles about his eyes

d casting an eye about for his coat and hat. "I'll be round