lang of
the Street which he habitually avoided. And he went away, closing the
door behind him.

After half an hour Dumont roused himself--out of a stupor into a
half-delirious dream.

"Must get cash," he mumbled, "and look after the time loans." He lifted
his head and pushed back his hair from his hot forehead. "I'll stamp
on those curs yet!"

He took another drink--his hands were so unsteady that he had to use
both of them in lifting it to his lips. He put the flask in his pocket
instead of returning it to the drawer. No one spoke to him, all
pretended not to see him as he passed through the offices on his way to
the elevator. With glassy unseeing eyes he fumbled at the dash-board
and side of the hansom; with a groan like a rheumatic old man's he
lifted his heavy body up into the seat, dropped back and fell asleep.
A crowd of clerks and messengers, newsboys and peddlers gathered and
gaped, awed as they looked at the man who had been for five years one
of the heroes of the Street, and thought of his dazzling catastrophe.

"What's the matter?" inquired a new-comer, apparently a tourist, edging
his way into the outskirts of the crowd.

"That's Dumont, the head of the Woolens Trust," the curb-broker he
addressed replied in a low tone. "He was raided yesterday--woke up in
the morning worth a hundred millions, went to bed worth--perhaps five,
maybe nothing at all."

At this exaggeration of the height and depth of the disaster, awe and
sympathy became intense in that cluster of faces. A hundred millions
to nothing at all, or at most a beggarly five millions--what a dizzy
precipice! Great indeed must be he who could fall so far. The driver
peered through the trap, wondering why his distinguished fare endured
this vulgar scrutiny. He saw that Dumont was asleep, thrust down a
hand and shook him. "Where to, sir?" he asked, as Dumont straightened
himself.

"To the National Industrial Bank, you fool," snapped Dumont. "How many
times must I tell you?"

"Thank you, sir," said the driver--without sarcasm, thinking
steadfastly of his pay--and drove swiftly away.

Theretofore, whenever he had gone to the National Industrial Bank he
had been received as one king is received by another. Either eager and
obsequious high officers of King Melville had escorted him directly to
the presence, or King Melville, because he had a caller who could not
be summarily dismissed, had come out apologetically to conduct King
Dumont