“It is easily calculated,” replied Claybank. “If our plans succeed, we sell one hundred and fifty millions of our own holdings at present prices. In order to bear the market fifty per cent below present prices, we must continue to sell down, diminishing the quantity we sell as prices recede, and when we begin to cover, we must buy all we can at the lowest point, diminishing our purchases as prices advance. Those not familiar with such things would be surprised to know that the ebb and flow of values in the stock market is almost as regular, and can be almost as certainly predicted, as the movement of the tides. Such a movement as we propose is artificial, yet, to an extent, it will be similarly controlled by the influences of human nature. If we sell one hundred and fifty millions of stock at an average of say one hundred, and three hundred millions at an average say of eighty, and buy it all back at an average of sixty, we will gain one hundred and twenty millions, and that, I think, is about all we can calculate upon.” “But have you considered, gentlemen, the other side of the question?” said Gray. “Have you fully considered whether there may not exist influences that will defeat us? Depend upon it, once we inaugurate this raid, our rivals in business will plot to overthrow us. Such great newspapers as are not in our control will denounce us. The Treasury Department at Washington, which is under the control of the Farmers’ Alliance party, will use every effort to break down our combination, and we shall be howled at generally as ghouls and villains. I do not care much about the public or the newspapers, but we must take every possible precaution against failure.” “That is right,” said Claybank. “I have considered all these things and I do not see how our plan can be defeated. The newspapers may denounce us but cannot overthrow our plan, which, at last, is very simple. We produce a panic and depression of prices by locking up the circulating medium, and prices can only be advanced by unlocking the money and restoring it, or other money in its place, to the channels of commerce. The money which we lock up in special deposits must remain in the bank vaults until we release it. No bank officer would for any reason or under any pressure dare to touch a special deposit. It would be a penitentiary offense to tamper with it.” “Are you sure,” said Gray, “that other capitalists may not combine, and provide other money to take the place of that which we lock up?”