─────────────┬─────────────┬─────────────┬───────────── │ Sales First │ Period of │Actual Sales. │Contemplated.│ Hesitancy. │ ─────────────┼─────────────┼─────────────┼───────────── │ Shares. │ Minutes. │ Shares. Louis Reis │ 1,500│ 3 │ 2,600 Andy Fischel │ 2,000│ 15 │ 5,000 Hugo Zeman │ 1,000│ 0 │ 1,000 Joe Shaffran │ 500│ 1¾ │ 1,800 ─────────────┴─────────────┴─────────────┴───────────── Total breach of faith, 31,400 shares. The market did not take it well. Sharpe, endeavoring to realize on the remainder of his manipulative purchases, found that “some one had been there before him.” An accurate list of the buyers and sellers was sent in every day by his lieutenants, for all but the most skilful operators invariably betray themselves when they attempt to sell a big block of stock. He scanned it very carefully now, and put two and two together; and he made certain inquiries and put four and four together—four names and four other names. He saw through the time-worn device of the fictitious short selling. He knew the only people who would dare sell such a large amount must be his colleagues. He also was convinced that their breach of faith was not a concerted effort, because if they had discussed the matter they would have sold a smaller quantity. He knew where nearly every share of the stock was. It was his business to know everything about it. “Two,” he said to his secretary, “may play at that game.” And he began to play. By seemingly reckless, plunging purchases he started the stock rushing upward with a vengeance-–63, 64, 65, 66, four points in as many minutes. The floor of the Stock Exchange was the scene of the wildest excitement. The market—why, the market was simply Turpentine. Everybody was buying it, and everybody was wondering how high it would go, Greenbaum and the other seven included. It looked as if the stock had resumed its triumphant march to par. Then Sharpe called in all the stock his brokers were loaning to the shorts, and he himself began to borrow it. This, together with the legitimate requirements of the big short interest, created a demand so greatly in excess of the supply that Turpentine loaned at a sixty-fourth, at a thirty-second, at an eighth, and finally at a quarter premium over night. It meant that the shorts had either to cover or to pay $25 per diem for the use of each 100 shares of stock they borrowed. On the 31,400 shares that the syndicate was borrowing it meant an expense of nearly $8,000 a day; and in addition the stock was rising in price. The shorts were losing at the rate of many thousands a minute. There was no telling where the end would be, but it certainly looked stormy for both the real and the fictitious shorts.