ler fry.
Just then he was playing a deep and cleverly thought-out game.

He pocketed the cheque Hawtrey gave him, and then discussed other
subjects for half an hour or so until he rose.

"You might ask them to get my team out. I've some business at Lander's
and have ordered a room there," he said. "I'll send you a line when
there's any change in the market."

CHAPTER XXI.

GREGORY MAKES UP HIS MIND

Wheat was still being flung on to a lifeless market when Hawtrey walked
out of the mortgage jobber's place of business in the railroad
settlement one bitter afternoon. He had a big roll of paper money in
his pocket, and was feeling particularly pleased with himself, for
prices had steadily fallen since he had joined in the bear operation
Edmonds had suggested, and the result of it had proved eminently
satisfactory. This was why he had just given the latter a further
draft on Wyllard's bank, with instructions to sell wheat down on a
considerably more extensive scale. He meant to operate in earnest now,
which was exactly what the broker had anticipated, but in this case he
had decided to let Hawtrey operate alone. Indeed, being an astute and
far-seeing man he had gone so far as to hint that caution might be
advisable, though he had at the same time been careful to show Hawtrey
only those market reports which had a distinctly pessimistic tone.
Edmonds was rather disposed to agree with the men who looked forward to
a reaction before very long.

Hawtrey glanced about him as he strode down the street. It was wholly
unpaved, and rutted deep, but the drifted snow had partly filled the
hollows up, and it did not look very much rougher than it would have
done if somebody had recently driven a plough through it. A rude plank
sidewalk ran along both sides of it, raised a foot or two above the
ground that foot-passengers might escape the mire of the thaw in
spring, and immediately behind the sidewalk squat, weatherbeaten, frame
houses, all of much the same pattern, rose abruptly. In some of them,
however, the fronts were carried up as high as the ridge of the
shingled roof, giving them an unpleasantly square appearance. Here and
there a dilapidated waggon stood with lowered pole before a store, but
it was a particularly bitter afternoon, and there was nobody in the
street. The place looked desolate and forlorn, with a leaden sky
hanging over it and an icy wind sweeping through the streets.

Hawtrey, however, was