Evening star., 1915-01-03

reporters go into the office, and
if he did couldn't get
the directors Now
I'm going to write piece of paper, What dividend?
put district messenger envelop, address it. and
send it to you by uniformed boy few minutes after
eleven. You instruct the man who guards the door to
bring in any such message to you. Tell him you're
expecting something important
agreed to do this.
Accordingly, when the day of the meeting arrived
the messenger boy to the Leather office about
quarter past eleven and waited the corner block
away for his return. expected the boy to be gone
about half hour, and greatly surprised when
saw him coming up the street within very few min
utes. Either he had failed to get in, thought
had gone back me- they had already acted on the
dividend-whch felt was out of the question, it
only twenty minutes after eleven. AS soon the
messenger caught sight of | lodged into stock
brokers' branch office; for did want the other
porters who were lurking in Railways and windows
nearby to see me. 1 snatched the envelop from the
boy and scrutinzed it. On the back written very
clearly Zone per cent
1t did not take minute to reach the phone and
shoot the over to the Office Then l went back
to the customers and watched the ticker; but
almost before got there the message had begun
ming the news tape. Leather had been stagnant
all the morning while the Street waited the result
of the meeting Now it became furiousy active. Great
blocks of stock coming out and prices jump
ing and nwardly exuted at having beaten
petitors.
But as stood at the ticker 1 remembered that
there word scrawled on the envelop that in my
wild impulse to get the the phone | had
overlooked. l took it from my inside pocket and
looked at it very carefully. There the zone per
cent" enough, big and bold. That all right.
But-and my heart almost stopped beating-the finely
written word that had escaped my notice had become
sinister tried to decipher it; but it too illegbe
folded the zone per cent under, handed it to clerk
and asked him to read the scrawl.
Recommended" said he.
Only recommended! Good God! And had given
it out that the dividend had been declared They
only debating the thing. had sent nothing but
bulletin of what they doing, and had telephoned
it to the office as final result 1t would be hour
and half before the thing could be confirmed de-
MED 1 looked at the ticker. The tumult in Leather
growing fiercer every moment.
stepped out into the biting air, for it mdwinter,
and glanced down Ferry street for sign of my
sistant, whom had posted the office to rush first
results to me. There one in sight. | went to
the saloon and got stiff glass of whisky, then
back again to the No sign of the boy. did
not dare to go into the brokers' office again. for fear
that the ticker would tell too fierce story for my
nerves to stand So 1 continued to walk back and
forth between the of Ferry street and the saloon
until l had consumed eight glasses of whisky. north
wester blowng,-it bitter cold,-but l was
sweating all the time; the liquor had no effect.
1t would be impossible to describe the mental agony
suffered during the hour and quarter that followed
For some felt that had blundered, that
some devil trying to destroy me. And,
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