The Pit

," said Gretry at last, as he pushed

oth men were in their shirt-sleeves; the table at which they had been sitting was scattered over with papers, telegraph blanks, and at Ja

telegrams, "that's all we can do-until we see what kind of a

I'll go to my room and try to get a little sleep. I wis

sharp movement

p croaking? If you're afraid of this thing, get

oice. "You're terrible touchy sometimes, J., of late. I was only trying to look ahe

"I am touchy these days. There's so many things to think of, and all at the same time. I do get nervous. I ne

," Gretry went on. "I haven't heard you cuss before in twenty years. Look

t was every second of the time. It was all very well for us to whoop about swinging a corner that afternoon in your office. But t

is papers into his breast pocket. "If we bust Crookes, it'll come out-

is, by the Great Horn Spoon, I'll bankrupt him, or my name is not Jadwin! I'll wring him bone-dry. If

el ever done to you?" de

rtiest, damnedest treachery I ever heard of! Scannel made his pile, and what's Hargus now? Why, he's a scarecrow. And he has a little niece that he supports, heaven only knows how. I've seen her, and she's pretty as a picture. Well, that's all right; I'm goi

o say he underst

he remarked. "Well, I must

am. See you in

spatches, and of endless columns of memoranda. Occasionally he murmured fragments of sentences to himself. "H'm ... I must look out for that.... They can't touch us there.... The annex of that Nickel P

hed back from the table, drank a gla

get some sleep

reet in the awakening city invaded the room through the chink of the window he had left open. The noises

wheat, wheat-

h; not a nerve of his body that did not droop and flag. His eyes closed slowly. Then, all at once, his whole body twitched sharply in a s

at was a start-must hav

ut the room, lit by the subdued glow that came in through the transom

It was as though he were struggling with a fog in the interior of his brain; or again it was a numbn

his was not the reason, and as he spoke, there smote across

, and straightened himself, p

" he muttered, "

, looking from wall to wall of the room. He felt a l

a schoolgirl, to have nerves at this late date. High time to

"early call" alarms rang in neighbouring rooms, Curtis Jadwin lay awake, staring at the ceiling, now concentrating his thoughts upon the vast operation in which he found himself engaged, following out ag

bathed, dressed, ordered his breakfast, and, descending to the office of t

chair, the tired shoulders began to droop, the wearied head to nod.

forming. It was menacing, shouting. It stirred, it moved, it was advancing. It came galloping down the street, shouting with insensate fury; now it was at the corner

wheat, wheat-

sun was coming in through the windows; the clock above the hotel

st is served,

fice, waiting for the broker to appear, drumming on the arm of his chair, plucking at the buttons of his coat, and wondering wh

h irregular. But, such as it was, it was infinitely grateful. The little, over-driven cogs and wheels of the m

k step outside the d

Well, Crookes will begin to se

y the tiny machinery of the brain spun again at its fullest limit. "He's going to try to sell

mean buy,

eighth yet; Crookes thinks I have. Good Lord, I can read him like a book! He thinks I've boosted the stuff above what it's worth, and that a little shove will send i

ut as big as holding up the Bank of England. You are depreciating the value of

t," answered Jadwin. "Get your boys in he

e of the sharpest fights known on the Board of Trade for many a long day. It developed with amazing u

a cent. Then came the really big surprise of the day. Landry Court, the known representative of the firm which all along had fostered and encouraged the rise in the price, appeared in the Pit, and instead of buying, upset all precedent and all calculation by selling as freely as the Crookes men themselves. For three days the battle went on. But to the

on bushels, "going short," promising to deliver wheat that they did not own,

is offered till market advances one penny." The other was the general order issued to Landry Court and the four other Pit traders for the Gretry-Converse house, to the effect that in the morning they were to go into the Pit and, making no demonstration, begin to buy back the wheat they had been selling all the week.

ce had stiffened almost of itself. Above the indicator upon the great dial there seemed to be an invisible, in

, who had been wild to sell short during the first days of t

n up all along the line hard. If we start her with a rush

ls. The price under this stimulus went up with the buoyancy of a feather. The little shor

were talking "higher prices." Everybody now was as eager to buy as, a week before, they had been eager to sell. The price went up by convulsive bounds. Crookes dared not buy, dared not purchase the wheat to make good his promises

They bid a dollar two and a half, a dollar two and five-eighths; still no wheat. Frantic, they shook their fingers in the very faces of Landry Court and the Gretry traders, shouting: "A dollar, two and sev

ad miscalculated. So long as he and his associates sold and sold and sold, the price would go down. The instant they t

e five million they had sold. They had not been able to cover one single sale, and the situation wa

the market was hourly growing tighter and more congested, his suspicion was confirmed.

l. Somebody has got all the wheat there is. I guess I know his name. I

the deal. He said nothing to the others, further than that they should "hold on a little longer, in the hopes of a turn," but very quietly he began to cover his own personal sales-his share of the five million sold by his clique. Foreseeing the collapse of his scheme, he got out of th

ning, not half an hour since, and wheat was up again. In the last thirty-six hours it had advanced three cents, and he knew very well that at that very minute the "boys" on the floor were offering nine cents over the dollar for the May option-and not getting it. The market was in a tumult. He fancied he could almost hear the thunder of the Pit a

the person of Calvin Hardy Crookes sat listening to the ticker

ressler?" said the

unjointed, as though some support had been withdrawn. The eyes were deep-sunk, the bones of the fa

pointed to a chair. He himself was impassive, calm. He did

terday, but I put it off. I had hoped that things would come our way. But I can't delay now.... Mr. Crookes,

r changed expression. His small eyes fixed up

when I joined your party I expressly stipulate

w-" bega

st get out of the market. I don't like to go back on you others"-Cressler's fingers were fiddling with his watch chain-"I don't like to-I mean to say you must let me out. You must let me co

ell for you?" demanded Crook

e at a dollar nine now. It's an eleven-cent jump. I-

swering, drew his d

. "Hello! ... Buy five hundred

ceiver and leaned

de in a minute," he sai

d not answer. The seconds passed, then the minutes. Crookes turned to his desk and signed a few lett

ther for this t

ad with a slow, persistent gesture; then as the ticker began to click again, h

teeth, "I hope your men didn't

office messenger entered and put a slip of paper into his hands. C

ade. Five hundred May, at a dollar ten. You

e other, as he

n upon the ledge of the desk, and though Crookes did not look up, he could almost feel how the man braced h

dded, grimly, "it looks as though I were busted. I suppose, though, we must all expect to get

"It's a pewter quarter to Government bonds that Gretry, Converse & C

n heavy buyers-for this Unknown

Jadwin. He's the man we've been fighting all along, and all hell's going

mean J.-Curti

unted an a

me he was out of t

mark called for any useless words. He put hi

"Do you suppose he could have heard

you told h

d up, clearin

an especial favor if you would keep it from the public, from

s chair around a

suppose I'm going

od-morning,

-morn

room. Then he paused in the middle of the floor,

ou, hey? Oh, yes, you'll run a corner in wheat, will you? Well, here's a point for your considerati

d passed a thin and delicate

ou've cornered wheat, have you? All right.... Your own

public. There was no wheat on the Chicago market. He, the great man, the "Napoleon of La Salle Street," had it all. He sold it or hoarded it, as suited his pleasure. He dictated the price to those men

ncounted thousands. "Anecdotes" were circulated concerning him, interviews-concocted for the most part in the editorial rooms-were printed. His picture appeared. He was described as a cool, calm man of steel, with a cold and calculating grey eye, "piercing as an ea

luxury wrung from the toiling millions. The Republican papers spoke solemnly of the new era of prosperity upon which the country was entering, referred to the stimula

e half days to get but a nod and a word from the great man. Promoters, inventors, small financiers, agents, manufacturers, even "cra

of wheat at the prices they once had deemed impossible, shook his han

ned that all through the Middle West, all through the wheat belts, a great wave of prosperity was rolling because of Jadwin's corner. Mortgages were being paid off, new and improved farming implements were being bought, new areas seeded new live stock acquired. The men were buying

on seven, sir, and the brightest of her class in the county seat grammar school

as far from him, he could not see it. Yet for all this a story came to him about this time that for long would not be

Italy. It was an ugly story. Jadwin pished and pshawed, refusing to believe it, condemning it as rid

ne fellow of twenty or twenty-two. He knew nothing of the world. England he supposed to be part of the mainland

wheat. We have no more bread. The loaf is small as the fist, and costly. We cannot buy it, we have no money. For myself,

Good God, if I were to believe every damned story t

an in milling it, threw their stores upon the market. Though the bakers did not increase the price of their bread as a consequence of this, the loaf-even in Chicago, even in the centre of

at hung against the opposite wall. It was about eleven in the morning. The Board of Trade vibrated with the vast trepidation of the Pit, that for two hours had spun and sucked, and guttered and disgorged just overhead. The waiting-room of the office was more than usually crowded. Parasites of ever

half a dozen of the more impatient sprang forward. But the broker pushed his way through the crowd, s

alf-way from his chair, then recognising

he exclaimed. "Might as well kill a man

eets of these papers." He threw a memorandum down upon the desk. "I'm off again now. Got an

I want him. But Scannel has not shown up yet. I thought when we put up the price again

d Gretry. "He'll be in to se

he knife into him to-day. You go up there on the floor and put the

" he said, "it's your game

p around and hear what the Northw

er furiously; and at the same time he could fancy that the distant thunder of the Pit grew suddenly more

. "See how you like that now." He took out his watch. "Yo

clerk, gave orders to have Ha

dwin jumped up and gave him his

d. His shoestring tie straggled over his frayed shirt front, while at his wrist one of his crumpled cuffs, detached from the sleeve

summons, he looked up perplexed at Jadwin a

. Glad to see you

ey

faint and a li

ant to have a talk with you. You ra

.. Wh

corner. You

ight it was-the September option. And the

bout on the floor of the room, sucking in his cheeks, and p

that time, I believe. Scannel,

ard announced our suspension at ten in the morning. If th

ating, word for word, the same phrases he had use

as Scannel your partner, did for you. S

n, there flashed, for one instant, into the pale, blurred eye, a light, a glint, a brief, qui

querulously

ht.... I lost three hu

iece getting on?" at

t"-he drew a thick bundle of dirty papers from his pocket, envelopes, newspa

Jadwin. "I've seen it. You showed

rsisted the old man, fumbling and peering, and

Sca

e had a small, gimlet-like eye, enormous, hairy ears, wore a "sack" suit, a highly polished top hat, a

glancing up u

o!" h

nto a chair, and ret

uttered, "if tha

in his dirty memoranda, but he gave no sign of recognition. There was a moment's silence

od-damned fools that you've managed to catch out shooting snipe. Now what I want to know is, h

o say," remarked Jad

ast thrust a photog

said. "That's it

and as he continued to speak, held it in his fi

"I got a good deal to say, Mr. David

t out!" grow

better. You and he together tried to swing a great big deal

man lo

member Dave Scannel, who was your partner in seventy-eight? Look

blinking and watering, looked

aimed Scannel. "I ain't her

rembling lips. The old man said no word, but he leaned far forward in his chair, his

r hands a long time ago," he continued, turning suddenly upon Scannel, a

e!" cried

arm of his chair. His voice wa

iving off the charity of the boys down here, pinched and hungry and neglected, and getting on, God knows how; yes, and supporting his little niece, too, whi

lf in his chair, his

hat kind of talk from the best man that ever wore

menacing click; aggressive,

nkrupt. You listen to me and take my orders. That's what you're here to-day

d distressfully from one to the other. Then Jadwin, after shuffling among the papers of his desk, fixed

irm two million bushels

cried the other. "It'

of grim humour as he saw how easi

repeated. "I'll let you have six hundred tho

-Scannel spread out his hands nonchalantly-"I sh

d your financial standing computed very carefully, Mr. Scannel. You've got the re

ndful of wheat will cost me th

-cis

ndered. Stony, imperturbable, he d

ble to bearer

adwin took the check and

And now," he added, thrusting it into Hargus's hands, "you se

princ

undred and sixty thousand dollars. And you still owe me nine hundred thousand bushels of wheat." He ciphered a moment on a sheet of note paper. "If I charge you a dollar and forty a bus

is teeth grinding together, then muttering his rag

id Jadwin as he

ed his c

e of the market to-day send delivery slips for a million and a

ld man, reaching out t

watch with a hundred of it, and tell her it's from Curtis Jadwin, with his compliments.... What, going, Sca

he pane of glass almost leaped from its cas

to Hargus, wit

it after al

the two checks in silence. Then he lo

d man. This-this is a great deal of money, sir. I-I ca

't lose

t once in the Illinois Trust

d a clerk

hat I-what I was about to sugge

sing, he guided Hargus to the door, one hand on his should

nois Trust, Kinzie, and introduce

e was suddenly all excitement, as if a great idea had abruptly taken possession of him. Stealthy, furtive, h

You could give me-just a little-just one word. A word would be enough,

ust given you abo

cked Jadwin tremulously by the sleeve-"jus

nough with tho

t 'em down. Yes, in the Illinois Trust. I won't to

a word. Take hi

s of steam and steel." At home, upon the Chicago Board of Trade, Jadwin was as completely master of the market as of his own right hand. Everything stopped when he raised a finger; everything leaped to life with the fury of obsession when he nodded his head. His wealth increased with such stupefying rapidity, that at no time was he able to even approximate the gains that acc

something big, don't they, with this corner. Why, I've only just begun. This is just a feeler. Now I'm going to let 'em kno

e as usual, and as Jadwin spoke, t

are for s

umped to

g to swing this deal right over into July. Think I'm going to let go now, when I've just begun to get a real grip on things? A pretty fool I'd look like to get out now-even if I could. Get out? How are we going to unload our big line of wheat without brea

almost a cry. "The price of wheat is so high now, that God knows how many farm

this thing. You can't tell me anything about i

're the Lord Al

It's blasphemous," exclaimed Jadwin. "Go, get it off on Crookes.

nd figured, and showed to Gretry endless tab

k his head. Calmly and del

r so when I've been wrong and you've been right. But now, J., so help me God, we've reached our limit. Wheat is worth a dol

here of itsel

ave been mistaken before, but I know I'm right now. And do you realise, J., that yesterday in the Pit there were some short sales? There's some of them dared to go short of wheat against you-even at the very top of your corner-and there was more selling this morning. You've always got to buy, you know. If they all began to sell to you at once they'd bust

u, Sam. You've been scared from the start. Can't you see,

ting wheat as they've never planted it before. Great

wn all these newspapers and trade journals for? We'll begin sendin

that you don't sleep any more. And, good Lord, the moment any one of us contradicts you, or opposes you, you go off the handle to beat the Dutch. I know it's a strain, old man

ght. I don't need a doctor, haven't time to see one

ng was very wrong with him, and whatever it might be, it was growing worse. The sensation of the iron clamp about his head was almost permanent by now, and just the walk between his room at the G

strange symptoms. It was the night he dreaded-the long hours he must spend alone. The instant the strain was relaxed, the gallop of hoofs, or as

wheat, wheat-

tared at the ceiling, or counted the hours that must pass before his ne

bly to get himself to sleep-between his knees and ankles, and thence slowly spread to every part of him, creeping upward, from loin to shoulder, in a gradual wave of torture that was not pain, yet infinit

d at times his hands would appear to swell swiftly to the size of mammoth bo

not the time. But the real reason, though he never admitted it, was t

on smote through him like the drive of a javelin. W

wheat, wheat-

business, how control the sluice gates of that torrent he had unchained, w

ar the beat of his horses' hoofs. Dizzy and stupefied, he gained Gretry's office

elf once more, and-how, he himself could not say-the business of the day was despatched, the battle was once more urged. Often he acted upon what he knew to be blind, unreasoned instinct. Judgment, clear reasoning, at times, he felt, forsook him. Decisions that involved what seemed to be the very stronghold of his situation

with him yet. Sorely tried, flouted even she yet remained fa

eemed idle enough. He was too rich, too strong now to fear any issue. Daily the profits of the corner increased. The unfortunate shorts were wrung dry and drier. In Gret

Scannel, a rascal, but none the less keeping his head high. The more the fellows cringed to him, the tighter he wrenched the screw. In a few cases he found a pleasure in relenting entirely, selling his wheat to the unfortunates at a price that left them without loss; but in the end the business hardened his heart to any distress his mercilessness might entail. He took his profits as a Bourbon took his taxes

vic

ner. But that was all. Jadwin's life by now had come to be so irregular, and his few hours of

saw her she appeared to be cheerful. But this very cheerfulness made him uneasy, and at times, through the murk of the chaff of wheat

of Trade, and, for a time at least, to get back to the old life they both had loved-to get back,

orner wheat! It's the wheat that has cornered me. It's like ho

Curtis Jadwin could not see how perilously well ground

vening when Gretry had broken in upon them like a courier from the fron

ountry-to their place at Geneva Lake-but she refused. She saw the change that had of late come over her husband, saw his lean face, the hot, tired ey

activities. She overhauled her wardrobe, planned her summer gowns, paid daily visits to her dressmakers, rode and dro

rities, followed the auctions, and bought right and left, with reckless extravagance. But the taste soon palled upon her. With so much money at her comm

eyond all she had ever imagined, were of no more interest to her than a drawerful of outworn gloves. She bought horses till she could no longer tell them apart; her carriages crowded three supplementary stables in the neighbourhood. Her flowers, mira

de of her own boudoir, did not fling her arms wide in a

stupidity of all

made but few friends. Her "grand manner" had never helped her popularity. She passed her evenings alone in her "upstairs sitting-room," readi

. Every time that he came he had brought her a new book to read, and he had taken her for long walks up towards the hills where the old powder mill stood. Then it was the young lawyer-the "brightest man in Worcester County"-who took her driving in a hired buggy, sent her a multitude of paper novels (which she never read), with every love passage carefully underscor

He murmured soft, 'Oh nothing fearin

had never taken him very seriously but none the less it had been very sweet to know his whole universe depended up

e they were most appropriate. He had never failed her. Whenever she had needed him, or even, when through caprice or impulse she had turned to him, it always had been to find that long since he had carefully prepared for that very contingency. His thoughtfulness of her had been a thing to wonder at. He remembered for months, years even, her most trivial fancies, her unexpre

He stimulated and aroused her, so that she herself talked and thought with a brilliancy that surpri

as ever, silent, watchful, sympathetic, his love for her deeper, stronger than before, and-as al

s time, she very well knew, it was to be forev

her place, adjusting her

A few carriage lamps glimpsed among the trees like fireflies. Along the walks and upon the benches she could see the glow of white dresses and could catch the sound of laughter. Far o

no sound. There was no one upon the same floor as herself. She had read all her books. It was too late to go out-and there was no one to

d Bach, Palestrina, and Stainer for an hour; then suddenly she sta

music?" she exclaimed. She

Jadwin co

telephoned that Mr. Jadwin

s shut to hard fists, her eye flashed. Rigid, erect in the middle of the floor, her a

ned herself suddenly, as one who takes a decision. Then, swiftly, she went out of the art gallery, and, crossing t

wrote a short letter, directing the envelope to Shel

ant who answered her ring, "and have him

of thoughts, impulses, desires, half-formed resolves, half-named regrets, swarmed and spun about her. She felt as though she had all at once taken a leap-a leap which had landed h

ain breathless exhilaration came and went within her breast, and in place of the intolerable ennui of the last days, t

re ridiculously inadequate for the intensity of all that was involved in the

tate, to temporise. If she did not hold to her resolve now, what was there to look forwa

said, putting the envelope and a coin

he thrust into his breast pocket, buttoning

chosen. She had taken the leap. What new life was to begin for her to-morrow? What did i

fore her. Without turning her head, she watched the retreating messenger, fr

eness of the step was all but an a

nging up. "Stop! Come b

on had come, and in that instant a power within her that was herself and not herself, and lai

, abruptly. "You may keep the mone

were unfamiliar; they were not the words of the Laura Jadwin she knew. Why was it that from the very first hours of her acquaintance with this man, an

etuous self of hers. Would she prevail the next time? And in these struggles, was she growing stronger as she overcame, or

er eyes to possibilities of the situation hitherto unguessed. She saw now what she might be capable of doing in a moment of headstrong caprice, she saw depths in her nature she had not plumbed. Wheth

te consideration or reasoned calculation. The reaction had been as powerful a

re. She knew only that she was in trouble, and yet it was to the cause of her distress that she addressed herself. Blindly she turned to her husband; and all the woman in her roused itself, girded itself, called up

a sorely tried love, stood forth like a challenger, against Charybdis, joined battle with the Cloaca, he

a pit-a pit black and without bottom. Once already its grip had seized her, once already she had yielded to the insidious drift. Now

ght. "I want my husband. I will have him; he is mine, he is mine. Ther

er Laura came to him in his smoking-room, as he lay on the leather lounge trying to read. His wife seated herself at a writing-table in a corne

rti

, old

see th

ed over

es that day different-a little-from other days? It's Ju

he shook

o-

the printed figures reserved for memoranda. Then she handed

ht. "So it is, so it is. June thirteenth, of course. And I was beast enoug

ock on you are mine." She crossed the room quickly and took both his hands in hers and knelt beside him. "It is mine," she said, "if you love me. Do you understand, dear? You will come home at six o'clock, and whatever happens-oh, if all La Salle Street should burn to the ground, and all your millions of bushels of wheat with it-whatever happens, you-will-not-leave-me-nor think of anything else but just me, me. That evening is mine, and you will give it to me, just as I have said. I

. "No haven't seen Charlie in over a

him. "I met Mrs. Cressler the other day,

the matter wit

his business. She says she can see him growing thinner every day. He keeps telling her he's all right,

month, as I say. Or telephone them to come up and have dinner. Charlie's about as old a friend as I have. We used to be tog

rest out of the week. You are going to lie down all the rest of

y to get forty winks before they get here. And, Laura," he added, taking her hand as she rose to go, "Laura, this is the last lap. In just another month now-oh, at the outside, six weeks-I'll have closed the corne

, when she stole in to look at him, she found him asleep at last, the tired eyes closed, and the arm, with its broad, strong hand, resting under his head. She

petty incidents; now the delay in the finishing of her new gowns, now by the excessive heat, now by a spell of rain. By Thursday, however, at the b

. "I'm coming over to take luncheon with

ourself at home. I've got to go down town to see about railroad tickets and all. I'm going to pack my old man right off to Oconomowoc before I'm another day older. Made up my mind to it last night, and I don't

she answered. "He gets

aid his corner was the greatest thing ever known on the Chicago Board of Trade. Well, good-by, Laura, come up whenever you're ready. I'll see you at lunch. Charlie is right here. He says to give you his l

nd ran quickly up the front steps. The front entrance was open,

in the hallway drawing off her gloves. "

stairs, on the landing of the second floor, a t

" she said. "She said you was to make you

ed first, were steel engravings of the style of the seventies, "whatnots" crowded with shells, Chinese coins, lacquer boxes, and the inevitable sawfish bill. The mantel was mottled white marble, and its shelf bore the usual bronze and gilt clock, decorated by a f

ed sliding doors, and Laura sat down here and began to play the "Mephisto Walzer," which she had be

closed the piano, and pushed back the folding doors between the room she was in a

sed to see Mr. Cressler there, seated in

e here, Mr. Cressler," she

s Laura touched him the head dropped upon the shoulder and s