"The moment we can't give our boys--Landry Court, and the rest of 'em--the moment we can't give them buying orders, that Pit will suck us down like a chip.The moment we admit that we can't buy all the wheat that's offered, there's the moment we bust.""Well, we'll buy it," cried Jadwin, through his set teeth."I'll show those brutes.Look here, is it money we want? You cable to Paris and offer two million, at--oh, at eight cents below the market; and to Liverpool, and let 'em have twopence off on the same amount.They'll snap it up as quick as look at it.
That will bring in one lot of money, and as for the rest, I guess I've got some real estate in this town that't pretty good security.""What--you going to mortgage part of that?""No," cried Jadwin, jumping up with a quick impatient gesture, "no, I'm going to mortgage all of it, and I'm going to do it to-day--this morning.If you say we're in a precarious condition, it's no time for half measures.I'll have more money than you'll know what to do with in the Illinois Trust by three o'clock this afternoon, and when the Board opens to-morrow morning, I'm going to light into those cattle in the Pit there, so as they'll think a locomotive has struck 'em.
They'd stand me off, would they? They'd try to sell me down; they won't cover when I turn the screw! I'll show 'em, Sam Gretry.I'll run wheat up so high before the next two days, that the Bank of England can't pull it down, and before the Pit can catch its breath, I'll sell our long line, and with the profits of that, by God! I'll run it up again.Two dollars! Why, it will be two fifty here so quick you won't know how it's happened.I've just been fooling with this crowd until now._Now,_ I'm really going to get down to business."Gretry did not answer.He twirled his pencil between his fingers, and stared down at the papers on his desk.
Once he started to speak, but checked himself.Then at last he turned about.
"All right," he said, briskly."We'll see what that will do.""I'm going over to the Illinois Trust now," said Jadwin, putting on his hat."When your boys come in for their orders, tell them for to-day just to support the market.If there's much wheat offered they'd better buy it.Tell them not to let the market go below a dollar twenty.When I come back we'll make out those cables."That day Jadwin carried out his programme so vehemently announced to his broker.Upon every piece of real estate that he owned he placed as heavy a mortgage as the property would stand.Even his old house on Michigan Avenue, even the "homestead" on North State Street were encumbered.The time was come, he felt, for the grand _coup,_ the last huge strategical move, the concentration of every piece of heavy artillery.
Never in all his multitude of operations on the Chicago Board of Trade had he failed.He knew he would not fail now; Luck, the golden goddess, still staid at his shoulder.He did more than mortgage his property; he floated a number of promissory notes.His credit, always unimpeachable, he taxed to its farthest stretch;from every source he gathered in the sinews of the war he was waging.No sum was too great to daunt him, none too small to be overlooked.Reserves, van and rear, battle line and skirmish outposts he summoned together to form one single vast column of attack.
It was on this same day while Jadwin, pressed for money, was leaving no stone unturned to secure ready cash, that he came across old Hargus in his usual place in Gretry's customers' room, reading a two days old newspaper.Of a sudden an idea occurred to Jadwin.He took the old man aside."Hargus," he said, "do you want a good investment for your money, that money Iturned over to you? I can give you a better rate than the bank, and pretty good security.Let me have about a hundred thousand at--oh, ten per cent.""Hey--what?" asked the old fellow querulously.Jadwin repeated his request.
But Hargus cast a suspicious glance at him and drew away.
"I--I don't lend my money," he observed.
"Why--you old fool," exclaimed Jadwin.Here, is it more interest you want? Why, we'll say fifteen per cent., if you like.""I don't lend my money," exclaimed Hargus, shaking his head."I ain't got any to lend," and with the words took himself off."One source of help alone Jadwin left untried.Sorely tempted, he nevertheless kept himself from involving his wife's money in the hazard.Laura, in her own name, was possessed of a little fortune; sure as he was of winning, Jadwin none the less hesitated from seeking an auxiliary here.He felt it was a matter of pride.
He could not bring himself to make use of a woman's succour.
But his entire personal fortune now swung in the balance.It was the last fight, the supreme attempt--the final consummate assault, and the thrill of a victory more brilliant, more conclusive, more decisive than any he had ever known, vibrated in Jadwin's breast, as he went to and fro in Jackson, Adams, and La Salle streets all through that day of the eleventh.
But he knew the danger--knew just how terrible was to be the grapple.Once that same day a certain detail of business took him near to the entrance of the Floor.
Though he did not so much as look inside the doors, he could not but hear the thunder of the Pit; and even in that moment of confidence, his great triumph only a few hours distant, Jadwin, for the instant, stood daunted.
The roar was appalling, the whirlpool was again unchained, the maelstrom was again unleashed.And during the briefest of seconds he could fancy that the familiar bellow of its swirling, had taken on another pitch.Out of that hideous turmoil, he imagined, there issued a strange unwonted note; as it were, the first rasp and grind of a new avalanche just beginning to stir, a diapason more profound than any he had yet known, a hollow distant bourdon as of the slipping and sliding of some almighty and chaotic power.
It was the Wheat, the Wheat! It was on the move again.
