ring, right, with PLIMPTON and RUTHERFORD.] Any word yet?

PLIM. Nothing yet!

RUTH. Such a night as this has been!

IS. If the thing keeps up today the Exchange will have to close... there
will be no help for it.

PLIM. We are in the hands of a madman!

RUTH. We must have a conference with him... we must find out what he
wants.

IS. Did you speak to him, Plimpton?

PLIM. I tried to. I might as well have butted my head against a stone
wall. "I have money," he said, "and I wish to buy and sell stocks. Isn't
that my right?"

RUTH. He's a fiend! A fiend!

PLIM. He smiled as he shook my hand... and he knows that if coal stocks
go down another ten points I'll be utterly ruined!

IS. Terrible! Terrible!

PLIM. [To RUTHERFORD.] Rutherford, have you learned any more about where
his money comes from?

RUTH. I meant to tell you... I've had another report. The mystery
deepens every hour. It's always the same thing... the man takes a train
and goes out into the country; he gathers all the wagons for miles
around, and goes to some place in the woods... and there is a pile of
gold, fifty tons of it, maybe, covered over with brush. Nobody knows how
it got there, nobody has time to ask. He loads it into the wagons, takes
it aboard the train, and brings it to the Sub-treasury.

IS. The man's an alchemist! He's been manufacturing it and getting
ready.

RUTH. Perhaps. Who can tell? All I know is the Sub-treasury has bought
over two billion dollars' worth of gold bullion in the last four
months... and what can we do in the face of that?

PLIM. No wonder that prices went up to the skies!

RUTH. I had the White House on the 'phone this afternoon. We can
demonetize gold... the government can refuse to buy any more.

IS. But then what would become of credit?

PLIM. [Vehemently.] No, no... that will not help! [Gazes about
nervously.] There's only one thing. [Whispers.] That man must be killed!

RUTH. [Horrified.] Ah!

IS. No.

PLIM. Just that! Nothing else will help! And instantly... or it will be
too late.

IS. Plimpton!

PLIM. He must not be alive when the Exchange opens this morning!

RUTH. But how?

PLIM. I don't know... but we must find a way! We owe it as a public
duty... the man is a menace to society. Rutherford, you are with me?

RUTH. By God! I am!

IS. You're mad!

PLIM. You don't agree with me?

IS. It's not to be thought of! You're forgetting yourself, Plimpton...

PLIM. [Gazing about.] Thi