The Yale expositor., 1906-11-30

measure" But we worked away at
1t, and perhaps my readers may dis
cover even in this narrative, though
1t is necessarily egotistic, evidence of
at least an honest effort not to be
BADLY boastful. Monsoon would have
liked to make of me a self-deprecating
sort OF person-such as he himself,
with the result that the other fellow
always got the prize and he got left
But | would have none OF 1t.
All this time was giving myself
or thought / was giving myself
chiefly to my business, as usual.
know now that the new interest had
in fact crowded the things down town
far into the background, had impaired
my judgment, had suspended my COM
mon sense; but | had NO inkling OF
this then. The most important mat
ter that was occupying me down town
was pushing textile up toward par.
Langdons doubts, little though they
influenced me, still made enough OF an
impression to cause me to test the
market. | sold for him at ninety, as
he had directed; / sold in quantity
every day. But no matter how much
| unloaded, the price showed no ten
dency to break.
This" said to myself, is a testi-
monial TO the skill with which | pre-
pared for my bull campaign" And
that seemed to me-all unsuspiclous
as | then was-a sufficient explanation
of the steadiness of the stock which
| had worked to establish in the public
confidence.
felt that, II my matrimonial plans
should turn out as | confidently ex-
pected, | should need a much larger
fortune than l had-for / was deter
mined that my wife should have an
establishment second to none. Ac-
cordingly, | enlarged my original
plan. l had intended to keep close to
Langdon in that plunge; l believed I
controlled the market, but l hadn't
been in Wall street twenty years with
out learning that the worst thunder
bolts fall from cloudless skies. With
out being in the least suspicious of
Langdon, and simply acting on the
general principle that surprise and
treachery are part of the code of high
finance, | had prepared to guard, first,
against being taken in the rear by a
secret change of plan on Langdon's
part, and second, against being in
volved and overwhelmed by a sudden
secret attack on him from some asso-
ciate Of his who might think he had
laid himself open to successful raid
ing.
The market is especially dangerous
toward Christmas and in the spring
toward Christmas the big fellows Oft
en- juggle the stocks to get the money
for their big Christmas gifts and
aims; toward spring the motive Is, of
course, the extra summer expenses of
their families and the commencement
gifts to colleges. II was now late in
the spring.
/ say, had intended to be cautious.
abandoned caution and rushed in
boldly, feeling that the market was,
in general, safe and that textile was
under my control-and that | was one
of the kings of high finance, with my
lucky star in the zenith. / decided to
continue my bull campaign on my own
account for two weeks after had un-
loaded for Langdon, to continue IL I'M
til the stock was at par. | had no
difficulty in pushing 1t to ninety-seven,
and ] was not alarmed when l found
myself loaded up with 1t, quoted at
ninety-eight for the preferred and
thirty for the common. | assumed
that l was practically its only sup
porter and that it would slowly settle
back as | slowly withdrew my sup
port.
To my surprise, the stock did not
yield Immediately under my efforts to
depress 1t. / sold more heavily; tex
tile continued to show tendency to
rise. sold still more heavily; it
broke point or two, then steadied
and rose again. Instead OF sending
out along my secret lines for inside
information, as | should have done,
and would have done had | not been
in a state of hypnotized Judgment
went to Langdon! / who had been
studying those scoundrels for twenty
odd years, and dealing directly with
and for them for ten years!
He wasn't at his Office; they told
me there that they didn't know
whether he was at his town house or
at his place in the country-"prob-
ably in the country" said his down
town secretary, with elaborate care
lessness. HE wouldn't be likely to
stay away from the Office or not to
send for me, If he we're in town, would
he?"
IL takes an uncommon good liar TO
lie to me when I'm on the alert. AS |
was determined to see Langdon, was
in so far on the alert And felt the
fellow was lying. That's reasonable"
said /. Call me up, IL you hear from
him. want to see him-important,
but not immediate" And l went away,
having left the impression that l
would make no further effort.
went zap to his house. You, no
doubt, have often seen and often adj
mired it's beautiful facade, so simple
a.