e minutes he stood, with sinking spirits, and then passed
on.

"I'll be at this auction," he thought, "and maybe bid in my old office
chair for a keepsake. Besides, it will make an item."

He was there on time and found that a considerable crowd had gathered.

Most of them were brokers or their clerks who had been in business touch
with this defunct firm, and now came to witness its obsequies. Nearly
all had been losers in Rockhaven but, as stock gamblers are wont to do,
took it good-naturedly and joked one another about being "easy marks"
and "good things," and looked at this auction as an excellent object
lesson.

The auctioneer, quick to catch the spirit of his audience, saw his
opening, and with ready wit made the most of it. The office
fittings--chairs, desks, tables, etc.--were put up first, and Winn
bought his old chair for fifty cents. Then came the pictures; and a
framed photograph of Weston, holding the reins over a fine pair of
horses, brought a quarter; another of Simmons's steam yacht, a dollar;
and then a crayon portrait of Weston, in massive gilt frame, was handed
to the auctioneer.

"Here we have," he said, "a costly painting of J. Malcolm Weston
himself, and how much am I offered? It is, as you observe, an excellent
picture of this Napoleon of finance, and certainly cost a hundred
dollars. How much for it?"

An offer of thirty cents was heard.

"Thirty cents, did I hear?" he continued, in a disgusted tone, "thirty
cents for this magnificent portrait! You can't mean it! Thirty cents for
a picture of one who cost some of you many thousands! Thirty cents! Ye
gods, how have the mighty fallen! Look at his winning smile, his
Websterian brow, his eagle eye that saw Rockhaven afar! And his
whiskers! And I am offered but thirty cents! Why, gentlemen, the frame
cost as many dollars, and think what an awful warning this picture will
be to most of you. Think of the beautiful tales he told, the great
industry he started, the money he spent--your money, gentlemen, and I am
offered but thirty cents! Why, it's worth a thousand dollars as an
object lesson in finance. Come, don't let this master of the stock
exchange be sold for thirty cents! It's a shame! Thirty cents, thirty
cents once, thirty cents twice, thirty cents three times, and sold for
thirty cents!" And the broker who bought it didn't want it at that.

The safe, with all the books it contained, was sold next, and then the
auctioneer, holding aloft a