"All right. I've fixed the warehouse crowd--and we just about 'own' the editorial and news sheets of these papers." He threw a memorandum down upon the desk. "I'm off again now. Got an appointment with the Northwestern crowd in ten minutes. Has Hargus or Scannel shown up yet?" "Hargus is always out in your customers' room," answered Jadwin. "I can get him whenever I want him. But Scannel has not shown up yet. I thought when we put up the price again Friday we'd bring him in. I thought you'd figured out that he couldn't stand that rise." "He can't stand it," answered Gretry. "He'll be in to see you to-morrow or next day." "To-morrow or next day won't do," answered Jadwin. "I want to put the knife into him to-day. You go up there on the floor and put the price up another cent. That will bring him, or I'll miss my guess." Gretry nodded. "All right," he said, "it's your game. Shall I see you at lunch?" "Lunch! I can't eat. But I'll drop around and hear what the Northwestern people had to say to you." A few moments after Gretry had gone Jadwin heard the ticker on the other side of the room begin to chatter furiously; and at the same time he could fancy that the distant thunder of the Pit grew suddenly more violent, taking on a sharper, shriller note. He looked at the tape. The one-cent rise had been effected. "You will hold out, will you, you brute?" muttered Jadwin. "See how you like that now." He took out his watch. "You'll be running in to me in just about ten minutes' time." He turned about, and calling a clerk, gave orders to have Hargus found and brought to him. When the old fellow appeared Jadwin jumped up and gave him his hand as he came slowly forward. His rusty top hat was in his hand; from the breast pocket of his faded and dirty frock coat a bundle of ancient newspapers protruded. His shoestring tie straggled over his frayed shirt front, while at his wrist one of his crumpled cuffs, detached from the sleeve, showed the bare, thin wrist between cloth and linen, and encumbered the fingers in which he held the unlit stump of a fetid cigar. Evidently bewildered as to the cause of this summons, he looked up perplexed at Jadwin as he came up, out of his dim, red-lidded eyes. "Sit down, Hargus. Glad to see you," called Jadwin. "Hey?" The voice was faint and a little querulous. "I say, sit down. Have a chair. I want to have a talk with you. You ran a corner in wheat once yourself." "Oh.... Wheat." "Yes, your corner. You remember?" "Yes. Oh, that was long ago. In seventy-eight it was--the September option. And the Board made wheat in the cars 'regular.'" His voice trailed off into silence, and he looked vaguely about on the floor of the room, sucking in his cheeks, and passing the edge of one large, osseous hand across his lips. "Well, you lost all your money that time, I believe. Scannel, your partner, sold out on you."