s want your money back and we're giving it to you. You're letting
up a holler that you were robbed, so come and get it. The faster you
come the better it'll suit us. Scorpion stock will close at a dollar
and a half or better to-morrow night."

"Bluff!" somebody growled.

Stoner finished his signature with a nourish, blotted it, then he
hesitated. He flung down his pen and turned defiantly upon his partner,
crying:

"This ain't fair to these men, Mac. They're customers of ours and we
owe 'em the chance to make a killing. It's up to us to tell 'em the
truth."

McWade was angry. His indignation flamed. Vigorously he denied the
charge of unfairness. A spirited argument ensued, with Stoner asserting
that the firm was morally obligated to protect its clients to a greater
extent than merely by returning their money, and with McWade as stoutly
maintaining that all obligations, moral and legal, were canceled with
the repurchase of the stock.

Meanwhile it became evident that the alarming rumor about Desert
Scorpion was rapidly spreading, for other investors were climbing the
stairs now, and the office was becoming crowded. The later arrivals
were in time to witness McWade finally defer to his partner and to hear
him announce that a rare stroke of fortune had favored purchasers of
this particular issue of stock, for the land which really belonged to
the company had turned out to be much better than that which it owned.
Certain information from the field had arrived that very day which was
bound to send the stock to two dollars. If anybody wanted to sell, the
promoters would be glad to buy, and they would advance their price on
the morrow, as McWade had promised, so here was a chance for those
present to turn a pretty penny by getting busy at once. Frankly,
however, he advised his hearers to hang on and make a real clean-up.
The information, which was not yet public, had nothing to do with the
fact that Doctor Mallow had experted both properties with his
scientific device and pronounced the new acreage much richer than the
old--this latter was merely corroborative evidence, and in view of the
fact that some people put no credence in so-called "doodle bugs," he
merely offered the record of the tester for what it was worth. His
original bet of ten to one still held, by the way, and once again he
repeated that those who wished to sell out would be accommodated with
the greatest alacrity. Only they mustn't return later and squaw