mover, Weston,
directed; circulated lies galore for three months; and by the occult
process of manipulation had slowly worked the price up from one to ten
dollars per share, and had so colored his lies and so managed the
deal--now selling a thousand shares quietly, then buying them back
ostentatiously--that, as the phrase goes, "the street was kept guessing
all the time."

Some believed it was a good investment; more felt sure it was a
"wildcat," and that soon or late the bubble would burst and the stock go
down to rise no more. Only Simmons and Weston knew what was to be the
outcome, but neither was likely to tell. More than that, they knew how
much stock was in actual circulation or held by the street, and beyond
that, a close approximation of how great a short interest had accrued.
Each day since Rockhaven had been quoted at all, Simmons had made entry
of all recorded sales, and knowing how much had been issued and how much
bought in by himself, endeavored to keep track of it. It was fallacious,
for the same stock might be bought and sold a hundred times, and the
long and short disparity remain the same. One thing he knew,--how much
had actually been sold, and out of this (a matter of thirty thousand)
fully twenty thousand, he believed, would never be heard of on the
street.

But he reckoned without Winn Hardy.

Rockhaven had been jeered and sneered at by the bear party; its backers,
Weston & Hill, were known to be sharpers; their broker, Simmons, bore
the same reputation; prediction that it was a wildcat and they unloading
it on to the street had been repeated a thousand times; the _Market
News_ items were considered unreliable, and on the strength of all this
hotbed of lies the knowing ones had sold the stock all the way up. Some
had covered it at a loss, and smarting from that had sold again at a
higher price, firmly believing it must fall some day; and when poor
duped Winn, unconscious of the situation, was steaming toward the
battleground, a dozen growling bears were selling Rockhaven at every
point advance. Only bears sold to bears, however; for those who held
what was out owned it at a lower price, and so long as it kept up they
parted with none. It had opened that morning at ten and one-half, by
noon rose to twelve and one-quarter, and at the delivery hour of two was
firm at fourteen. Simmons had bought a few hundred when it had dropped a
half point, just to cheer up the game, and knowing those who sold h