“No more’n I could afford. Nowhere near so much as it’s worth to have that extry time with you. My own Steeloid holdin’s are pretty well covered. It won’t be _me_ that goes broke. I own my stock outright; an’ before the winter’s over I’ll get the bill declared unconstitootional. That’ll bring the price up again. I c’n afford to let up on Blacarda for once. I’m dead sure to get him later on the same game, as well as on somethin’ else.” “You say it won’t be _you_ who go broke,” she interposed. “Will anyone? I mean if you don’t go back day after to-morrow.” “Well,” grinned Caleb, “If Blacarda’s bill passes, our Steeloid stock’ll will take a big tumble, of course. For those that owns it outright that’ll be no great loss; ’cause it’ll rocket again as soon as I sick one of my judges onto the bill’s constitootionality. But the fellers I’ve tipped off to buy on margin--d’you understand all this line of talk?--those fellers are plungin’ pretty deep, I hear, an’--” “Will they lose much?” “Some of ’em are li’ble to be ’bout wiped out, I guess. The el’gant Amzi Nicholas Caine, f’r instance, an’ old Reuben Standish. He’ll go to pot, _sure_. An’ Mr.--” “You mean they went into this on your advice, and if you aren’t there to stand by them they will be ruined?” “Just ’bout that, I guess. Don’t blame _me_. They wasn’t ’bliged to take my tips an’ I’m not responsible for ’em. Anyhow, they’ve made enough off me this year to--” “You must go back,” she declared. “I was very wrong. It just shows what harm a fluff-brained girl can do by poking her fingers into business she doesn’t understand. Why, Caleb” she added, with a startled awe: “If you’d done as I asked, who knows how many families might have been made horribly poor? And it would all have been my fault. You must go back.” “But, Dey!” he protested, “You’re all off. It’s no affair of mine what that gold-shirt crowd put their cash on. I don’t owe anything to ’em. An’ if I can give you a good time by stayin’, the whole bunch of ’em can hire a brass band an’ march to the poorhouse, for all I care. If you say ‘stay’, I’ll stay.” “I say you mustn’t,” she insisted, “And it was dear of you to be willing to, for my sake. Anyway, I’ll see you again in three weeks. That won’t be so very long.” “No longer’n three years is gen’rally” grumbled Caleb; and the subject dropped.