Evening star., 1920-03-14
WHEN THE CURB GOT GYPPED


Rock Of Gibraltar. there was Mr. Rohart
~Hu f1adie and me. Some aggrega ton, I'll
say. And 1t didn't need any jiggly mes
sage from the ouija board to tell that
something important In the affairs OF the
CorrusAted Trust might happen within
ene next few minutes. You could al
most feel It In the air. Piddie did. You
could see that by the nervous way h.
was twitchin' his lips.
Course 1t was natural tho big boss
should turn first to me- "Torchy." he
growis. shut that door"
ANA as l steps around to close tho
only exit from the private ofiics I could
watch Piddie's face turn the color Of a
ptscs Of cheese. MFR. Robert looks kind
OF serious. too.
"Gsntlemen." goes on Old Hickory,
tossin the last three inches Of double
Corona reckless into a copper bowl.
there's leak somewhere in this Of
nce"
That gets muffled gasp out of Piddis
which puts him under the spotlight at
once. and when he finds we're all lookin'
at him he goes through all the motions
OF cabaret patron 'tryin' to sneak past
one Of Mr.. Palmer's agents with some
thing on the hip. If he'd been caught in
the act Of borin' into the bond safe he
couldn't have looked any guiltier.
"1-er-I assure you, Mr.. Ellins." he
begins spluttery, that I-ah-I-"
Bah" snorts Old Hickory. impatient.
"Who is implying that you do? II you
were under suspicion in the least you
wouldn't have been called In here, Mr.
Piddfs. So your panic is quite unneces-
sary."
"Of course" puts in Mr.. Robert.
Don't be absurd, Piddie. Anything
new this morning. Governor"
Rather" says Old Hickory. pointin'
to . Wall Street daily that has broke
loose on its front page with q three
column headline. See what the Curb
crowd did to G. l.. T. common yester-
Day? Traded nearly one hundred thou
sand shares and hammered the open
ing quotations for a twenty-point
loss. All on q rumer Of q passed divi-
dend. Well. you know that at &
o'clock the day before We tabled q
motion to pass that dividend and that
An hour later. with = fun board pres
ent. We decided to pay the regular 4
Per cent semi annual But the an
nouncement was not to be made until
next Monday. Yet during that hour
some one from this ofiice nllst have
True. 1t was q false tip: but pro.
pose. gentlemen, to find out where
thst leak came from"
There's only one bet I'd be willin' to
make on a proposition Of that kind
II Old Hickory had set himself to trail
down anything he'd do it, And wed
have to help.
Course. this Great Lakes Transpor-
tation is only ono OF our side lines
that We carry on a separate set OF
books just to please the Attorney
General. And compared to other sub
merged subsidiaries, as Mr.. Robert
calls 'em. it don't amount to much.
But why its outstanding stock should
be booted around Broad Street was
an interesting question. Also who the
party was that was handin' out adj
vance dope on such confidential de-
tails as board meetin' motions Well
that was more SO. Next time it might
be tip on something important. Mr..
Robert suggests this:
There is to be no next time" says
Old Hickory, settin' his jaw
So we starts the drag-net. First we
went over the directors who had been
present. Only five. includin' Old Hick-
ory and Mr.. Robert. And OF the other
three there was two that 1t would
have been foolish to ask Close
mouthed as sea clans after being
shipped to Kansas City. The third
was Oggie Kendall. a club friend Of
Mr. Roberts. who'd been dragged
down from luncheon to make up .
quorum.
Oggie might have chattered some-
thing through sheer carelessness."
says Mr.. Robert. "ill see il can get
him on the phone.
He could. But it takes Mr.. Robert
nearly five minutes to explain to Og-
gle what he's being queried about.
Finally he gives 1t up.
"Oh. never mind" says ne. hangin'
up. Then. turnin' to us. he shrugs his
shoulders. 'It wasn't Oggie. Why, he
doesn't even know which board he
was acting on, and says he doesn't
remember what we were talking
about. Thought it was some sort Of
committee meeting
thof olip>tnotar oil huf gamma