enchman, Simmons, in the privacy of their offices, smiled and
congratulated one another, and plotted and planned. They discussed the
items to be paid for in the _Market News_, how long it would be
necessary to continue the farce of quarrying carried on by Winn, and how
much stock was really being tossed back and forth among the gamblers on
'change, and how much held by honest investors. Of the quarried stone
shipped by Winn, enough had been received to build the palatial
residence Simmons had under way and some toward another and smaller
contract, taken at a price below market rates. To these consultations
Hill was seldom invited, for the best of reasons,--he was in the end to
be made the dupe of all. Of this latter and final iniquity not even
Simmons was informed.

CHAPTER XXIII

THE STARTING OF A "CORNER"

There are always two parties in every stock exchange, well known as
bulls and bears. Those who believe in an advance, or what is to the same
end, manipulate a stock to increase its price, are said to be "bulling
it"; while those who honestly think it quoted above its worth and sell
it, or plot to depress its price, are said to "bear it." Like the ever
varying hues of the kaleidoscope, so the opinions and actions of each
individual among those men constantly change, and a bull to-day may be a
bear to-morrow. Then cliques and pools take up one little joker of
values, and seek by force of number and capital to toss it up or down.
To this end they fill the press with columns of false reports,
fictitious statements, and items of apparent news for one purpose--to
deceive. When the wildcat, Rockhaven, started on its career, the bulls
and bears, glad of a fresh toy, began to toss it back and forth. None
believed it of any actual value, but merely one of the many dice in the
speculative box. All united in asserting that it was the _avant courier_
of a scheme; it might be pushed up to a fabulous price and it might any
day go down with a crash. It was this very certainty of being an
uncertainty--the fact that its future was an open gamble, a positive
chance--that made it interesting. None of these astute speculators were
deceived by the early dividend, even for one moment; and when Simmons,
well known as Weston's mouthpiece, openly bid two dollars for five
thousand shares or any part of it, and really obtained one hundred, and
that the identical hundred originally given a prominent man for the use
of his name, all k