though the very fountain of life had been attacked? Was it the manifestation of the powerful will behind that mask? Or was it terror or anger that was to be read in th

r?" I asked in as calm a

" said the Wolf slowl

that Terrill was his tool, and that he had supposed me dead. It was th

id," I suggested deferentially. "I

e Knapp, pulling himself

as he took a seat at his desk

I believe the doctor called it. Just reach my overcoat pocket

y rose through the room. Then he took a vial from an inside pocke

wondered if he was nerving himself to so

iery liquor, the Wolf turned to me with

But this is a little trouble I've had a touch of in the last two months. Just remember, young man, that I expect you to do your dr

is directions. I was to buy one hundred shares of this stock, sell five hundred of that stock, buy one

a big block of it thrown on the market, and more in the afternoon. Buy it, whatever the price. The

g it up, do I understand tha

t in his tone. "You're to get the stock. You've bought and sold enough to know

here was deep

id. "I think I se

reet looked at me

of this little deal unless you can spare it as well as not. Wel

to fear at my unheralded appearance. Yet why should he trust me with his business? I could not doubt that the buying and selling he had given to my care were important. I knew nothing about the price of stocks but I was sure th

d been seeking for a mislaid document. I looked curiously over them as I replaced them on the shelves. They were law-books, California Reports, and the ordinar

dge Knapp, and had, through misfortune, been forced to sell everything for the mess of pottage to keep life in him. But the

in session. The buyers who traded face to face, and the brokers who carried their offices under their hats, were noisily bargaining, raising as m

he indifference of the clerks to my presence, and the evident contempt with which an order for a hundre

rd. Eppner was short and a little stooped, with a blue-black mustache, snapping blue-black eyes, and strong blue-black dots over his face where h

said Bockstein, looking over my m

mary, you know." He spoke in a high-keyed v

erence better tha

d at each other. "

l secure you

the faintest idea. Possibly this was a trap to throw me into jail as a common swindler attempting to pass worthless checks. B

ner. "Zhust talk it ofer vit Mis

al standing was to be tested by the head of th

A few words of explanation, and he

ore?" It was an interrog

elessly, "but not thr

not. I should hav

pportunity to glean a little informat

od deals in prosp

able opinion he had conceived of my judgment was deepened by thi

r customers," was t

"I don't want advice-merel

never gossip. It

ck up a good bargain now and then," I suggested,

in stocks," was

I, "for those who know

abashed, notwithstanding the tone of haughty indifference I took. I bega

y coming in out of breath, with a brave pretense of hav

e is a card to der Board Room. If orders you haf to gif, Eppner vill dak

h Bockstein's back waddling toward the private room where the part

imself of my solvency. In the rebound from anxiety, I swelle

en me a suggestion that the business of buying and selling stocks was carried on in a somewhat less conve

ce by the bright glow of the white man's fire-water. A confused roar rose from the mob, and whenever it showed signs of flagging a louder cry from some quarter would renew its strength,

a more or less energetic method of bidding for stocks; that the ringing of gongs and the bellow of the big man who smiled on the bear-garden from the high desk were merely the audible sign

gains made, handing me a slip with the figures he had paid for the stocks. He was no longer the impassive engine of business that he had appeared in the back room of his office. He was now the embodiment of the riot I had been observing. Hi

was trembling with excitement and

e the roar about me.

could have read it; but it was gone with a shrug as

?" he ask

d in a moment. He had bought or sold something, but I h

g!" he yell

sed cry from the man at the big

was to the noise that had gone before as is the hurricane to the zephyr. There was a succession of yells, hoots, cries and bellows; men rushed wild

t sixty-five,"

y, "but get all you can, even

p of fat men, gesticulating violently. The r

ack, perspiring, and I f

"Five hundred at sixty-two and one thousand at six

five, and then fi

kers about him, shouting and threatening. One in his eagerness jumped upon

hat was going on, except that

e the price-then by leaps to forty-five and forty. It was a panic. At last the gong sounded, and the scene was over. Men staggered from the

ifty. The total was frightful. There was half a million dollars to pay when the time for settlement came. It was folly to suppose t

orders?"

ll afte

d ruled, fear and gloom now vibrated in electric waves before me. The faces turned to the pitiless, polished granite front of the great gambling-hall were white and drawn, and on them sat Ruin and Despair. The men were for the most part silent, with h