upright position upon his embossed leather throne. Then
Zabriskie began stealthily to cover his appallingly long line of
"shorts" by making purchases at the lowest obtainable prices--one
hundred and four--one hundred and three--one hundred and
one--ninety-nine--one hundred and six!

The price rebounded so rapidly and so high that Zabriskie was forced to
stop his retreat. Dumont, noting the celerity with which the enemy
were escaping under cover of the demoralization, had decided no longer
to delay the move for which he had saved himself. He had suddenly
exploded under the falling price mine after mine of buying orders that
blew it skyward. Zabriskie's retreat was cut off.

But before he had time to reason out this savage renewal of the assault
by that mysterious foe whom he thought he had routed, he saw a new and
more dreadful peril. Brackett, his firm's secret broker, rushed to him
and, to make himself heard through the hurly-burly, shouted into his
ear:

"Look what's doing in Woolens!"

Dumont had ordered a general assault upon his enemies, front, rear and
both flanks. His forces were now attacking not only through Great
Lakes but also through Woolens. Two apparently opposing sets of his
brokers were trading in Woolens, were hammering the price down, down, a
point, an eighth, a half, a quarter, at a time. The sweat burst out
all over Zabriskie's body and his eyes rolled wildly. He was caught
among four fires:

To continue to sell Great Lakes in face of its rising price--that was
ruin. To cease to sell it and so let its price go up to where he could
not buy when settlement time came--that was ruin. To sell Woolens, to
help batter down its price, to shrink the value of his enormous
investment in it--ruin again. To buy Woolens in order to hold up its
price, to do it when he would need all obtainable cash to extricate him
from the Great Lakes entanglement--ruin, certain ruin.

His judgment was gone; his brute instinct of fighting was dominant; he
began to strike out wildly, his blows falling either nowhere or upon
himself.

At the Woolens post he was buying in the effort to sustain its price,
buying stock that might be worthless when he got it--and that he might
not be able to pay for. At the Great Lakes post he was selling in the
effort to force the price down, selling more and more of a stock he did
not have and---- At last the thought flashed into his befuddled brain:
"There may be a corner in Gre