e expression to me of her regard for Jim.

So the Trescott estate matter was arranged. In a few days the boom was
strengthened by newspaper stories of the purchase, by heavy financial
interests, of the entire list of assets in the hands of the
administrator.

"This immense deal," said the _Herald_, "is new proof of the
desirability of Lattimore property. The Acme Investment Company, which
will handle the properties, has bought for investment, and will hold for
increased prices. It may be taken as certain that in no other city in
the country could so large and varied a list of holdings be so quickly
and advantageously realized upon."

This was cheering--to the masses. But to us it was like praise for the
high color of a fever patient. Even while the rehabilitated Giddings
thus lifted his voice in paeans of rejoicing, the lurid signals of danger
appeared in our sky.

CHAPTER XXI.

Of Conflicts, Within and Without.

I have often wished that some sort of a business weather-chart might be
periodically got out, showing conditions all over the world. It seems to
me that with such a map one could forecast financial storms and squalls
with an accuracy quite up to the weather-bureau standard.

Had we at Lattimore been provided with such a chart, and been reminded
of the wisdom of referring to it occasionally, we might have saved
ourselves some surprises. We should have known of certain areas of
speculative high pressure in Australasia, Argentina, and South Africa,
which existed even prior to my meeting with Jim that day in the Pullman
smoking-room coming out of Chicago. These we should have seen changing
month by month, until at the time when we were most gloriously carrying
things before us in Lattimore, each of these spots on the other side of
the little old world showed financial disturbances--pronounced "lows."
We should have seen symptoms of storm on the European bourses; and we
should have thought of the natural progress of the moving areas, and
derived much benefit from such consideration. We should certainly have
paid some attention to it, if we could have seen the black isobars
drawn about London, when the great banking house of Fleischmann Brothers
went down in the wreck of their South African and Argentine investments.
But having no such chart, and being much engrossed in the game against
the World and Destiny, we glanced for a moment at the dispatches, seeing
nothing in them of interest to us, congratu