"I got myself away from that crowd somehow--l think Iwas afraid if I stayed I'd strangle the one who was shouting on the steps--and I went toward my office.
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 kind of feeling that the sight of those carpets, and oak-tables and desks, and brass-railings and so on would make me sick.
I owed for 'em all, bear in mind----"
"But--Joel," the sister interposed. "One thing I don't understand. How many people had applied for shares? You haven't mentioned that."A fleeting smile lighted up the saturnine gloom of his present mood. "It was hardly worth mentioning,"he answered, with bitter mirth. "Between five and six thousand shares were subscribed, all told.
I think the withdrawals by telegraph brought it down to practically five thousand. 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 happened to see my Broker--the Scotchman, Semple, you know--coming along toward me.
Right at that minute, like a flash, something dawned on me.
In less than a second, I saw the whole damned rotten outfit turned upside down, with me on top. I made a jump, and ran to meet Semple.
"'How many shares of ours have you bought?' I asked him, with a grip tight on his arm.
"The little chap was looking mighty sick. He figured up in his mind. 'I'm afraid it's eight thousand five hundred, all told,' he said, in a sort of Presbyterian whimper.
"'Well--how would these gentlemen go about it to deliver their goods--that is, supposing we got a settlement?'
"I asked him this, and kept my eye on his face.
He looked puzzled for a minute. Then he put out his lip.
Then he shot me a glance as sharp as a razor, and we looked into one another's eyes.
"'They were shouting them out to me at three-quarters, a minute ago,' I told him.
"He was onto the game like lightning. 'Wait for me in the office,' he whispered. 'We'll go nap on this!'
"With that he was off like a streak. He stopped running just before he got to the corner, though, and began walking slowly, sauntering along, you know, as if his 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 time. Why, I stopped and felt of the brass-railing just outside the Board Room, and I said to myself--'Pshaw!
We could have you of solid gold, if we wanted to.'"He paused here, and regarded his sister with what she felt was intended to be a significant look. She shrank from the confession that its meaning was Greek to her.
"Well--and what next?" she asked, guardedly.
"Semple came back in twenty minutes or so--and the next morning he was at it again--and what with him and his jobber, by George, on the quiet, they picked up nearly eighteen thousand 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 to crossing-sweepers.
The thing was to get the shares--and by God we've got them! Twenty-six thousand two hundred shares, that's what we've got. Now, do you see what that means?""Why yes," she answered, with a faint-hearted assumption of confidence. "Of course, you know the property is so good that you'll make a profit on the shares you've bought far below their value. But I don't think I quite see----"He interrupted her with an outburst of loud laughter.
"Don't think you quite see?" he gurgled at her, with tears of pleasure in his eye. "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 in the world to do with it. That's neither here nor there. If there wasn't any such property in existence, it would be just the same."He had compassion upon her blank countenance, at this, and explained more gently: "Why, don't you see, Lou, it's this way. This is what has happened. We've got what's called a corner on the bears. They're caught short, and we can squeeze them to our hearts' 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 my own price for them, or be ruined men. The moment they realize the situation, they will begin offering a premium for Rubber Consols.
The price of a one-pound share will be two pounds, then four--six--ten--twenty--thirty--whatever I want to drive it to."Louisa stared up at him with wide open eyes. It seemed to her that she understood now. It was very exciting.
"You see," he went on, taking approving note of the new light of comprehension in her glance, "we did something that Tuesday afternoon beside buy up these shares.
Semple rushed off to his office, and he and his clerks got up a lot of dummy applications for shares, made out in all the different names they could be safe in using, and they put these into the bank with the application money--Semple found that--and next 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 sealed. Nobody can get a share except from me, and at my price. But these fellows that have sold them--they've got to have them, don't you see.
