inate?" demanded a pompous and
elderly gentleman as he tugged at his closely cropped mustache with a
nervousness belying his scepticism. His vis-a-vis shook a dubious head.

"All I get is that Hamilton Burton is out in war paint for a bear
raid--damn him!"

"And why not?" a third broker truculently demanded. "He brought on the
'little panic' of two years ago and mopped up enough to double his
fortune. House after house went to the wall that day, but it was a
glorious victory for him. History repeats, gentlemen."

"Where will he be most likely to hit?" The question came nervously from
a thin man who chewed at a pencil. About his inquiring eyes were the
harassed little crow-feet of anxiety.

"When he smashes us, we'll know all right. There's nothing ambiguous
about his wallops. I hoped the damned pirate was satisfied. He ought to
be."

"Vat you mean, sadisfied?" A passing figure with a strong Teutonic
countenance halted at the edge of the crowd and glared--but his hatred
was for Hamilton Burton. "Sadisfied--not till der American toller and
der sovereign and der louis d'or vear his portrait vill he pe
sadisfied."

"There's one comfort," hazarded a lone optimist, "Hamilton Burton
recognizes no conventions of finance; he heeds no laws. He's the most
brilliant brigand in the Street--and every hand is against him. He's
always just one jump behind a billion dollars--but also he may find
himself just one jump ahead of the wolf."

But for one optimist there were scores of pessimists and disquiet
mounted like a fever. The floor was nervous.

Across from the president's gallery is another balcony like it, for in
all but its processes of business this is a temple of justly balanced
symmetry and proportion.

There sits an operator, controlling an electric switchboard provided
with one button for each floor member. When one of these buttons is
pressed a flap swings down on the great wall blackboards and a white
number flashes into sight. It stands for a while, then twinkles again
into blackness, but in the meantime it has summoned its man to telephone
communication with his office. In periods of stress these imperative
signals register the rise and fall of anxiety's barometer.

Now the quiet boards began to break into a sudden epidemic of appearing
and vanishing numerals and men hurried to the booths where wires linked
the central floor with outlying offices. Each line buzzed to the same
portent.

"Rumor credits Burton