The more optimistic traders on the Stock Exchange expected to-day a change in the market. Stocks had declined for two weeks with appalling5 swiftness and fatality6. Every hour had marked the ruin of men hitherto bulwarks7 of solidity. Experienced men reasoned and reasoned from experience that there must be a turn somewhere. The bottom surely had been reached. The time for a rally had come. Nine men out of every ten in the market at its close the night before expected the rally to begin at the stroke of the gong the next morning. The men who bought stocks in the closing hour were sure of this.
They rose to curse the weather. For the weather always affects speculation8. Wall Street is superstitious9. The proud intellect that struts10 the floor of the Exchange and scorns the powers of his feebler fellow-men carries secretly a horse chestnut11 in his pocket for luck. Without an exception all these great men believe in signs and wonders, in witches, palmists, spells and hoodoos.
Weather always gets on their nerves. Half the fluctuations12 of stocks under normal conditions of trade are purely13 the results of the mental states of the men who buy and sell.
The doctor rose early with a new hope filling his heart which no cloud could obscure. He watched Harriet pour his coffee at breakfast with his old-time smile of good cheer playing about his fine mouth.
Stuart was sleeping late. He was up until one o'clock writing a reply to a peculiarly venomous attack on his integrity which a morning paper had printed. The writer had boldly accused him of being the hired tool of the group of financial cut-throats who were coining millions out of the ruin of others in the destruction of public faith.
His reply was simple and his concluding paragraph was unanswerable, except by an epithet14.
"My business is the enforcement of justice. I am the servant of the people. If Wall Street can not stand the enforcement of law, so much the worse for the Street. It's no affair of mine. I didn't make the laws of the State any more than I made the law of gravitation. Nor did I write the Ten Commandments, but I have an abiding15 faith that they will stand when the last stone in the Stock Exchange building shall have crumbled16 into dust. I refuse to believe that the only way to save Wall Street is by a sworn officer of the law compounding a felony."
The doctor hurried down town to the office of a friend on Pine Street, an old-fashioned banker and broker17 whose name had always stood for honesty and fair dealing18 and conservative business. It was half an hour before the Stock Exchange opened but the dingy19 little office was packed with an excited crowd of customers. They all talked in low tones as if fearing the spirits of the air that hovered20 near. An eager group leaned over the bulletin from the London market. London was up half a point. The credulous21 were pleased. It was a good omen22. The pessimists23 scoffed24.
"Rigged from New York!" sneered25 a fat German the office boy had nicknamed the "Judge."
The doctor was struck with the curiously26 mottled crowd that jostled one another, waiting for the first cry of the opening quotations27. Every walk and profession of life had its representative there—merchants, lawyers, doctors, clerks, clergymen, barbers, boot-blacks, retired28 capitalists and capitalists about to retire permanently29.
The saddest group of all was in the adjoining room reserved for ladies. An opening through the partition wall allowed them to see the quotations as they were placed on the board around which the throng30 of jostling, smoking, perspiring31 men moved and stood. Most of these pale excited women with their hats awry32 and their hair disordered were the wives of solid business and professional men who wouldn't allow their husbands to know of their little venture into stocks for the world. They peeped through the opening occasionally and turned their backs quickly to avoid the gaze of the men.
But the most ominous33 figures were two or three "vultures" who stood grim and silent on the outer fringe of the moving crowd. Only one or two of the older ones recognized them.
The "Judge" saw them first.
"Ach, Gott, look at dem!" he exclaimed. "They never come except for carrion34; they've scented36 the dead. It's all over with us, poys!"
One of the most curious things in the history of Wall Street is the appearance of these vultures in a panic. They scent35 the final death-struggle with unerring accuracy. They never buy stocks except in those awful moments of ruin. They hold them grimly until the next tidal-wave of prosperity, sell out at the top, and wait patiently for the next killing37. They are the only outsiders who ever make a dollar in Wall Street.
The doctor followed old Dugro, the head of the firm, into his private office and asked his advice. He got it—sharp, short and to the point.
"Go home, Doctor, and stay there. This market is no place for an amateur. It's all I can do to keep the wolf from my door in these days."
"But I've received some important information."
"Keep it dark," old Dugro scowled38. "Don't tell it to your worst enemy. If you've got a dollar, nail it up and sleep on the box."
"But I've some information I think I'm going to act on and I want to open a small account with you."
"All right. I've warned you," was the grim answer. "I wish you good luck."
The doctor drew his check for two thousand dollars and smilingly took his place among the crowd before the board. He was never surer of anything in his life than he was of Adam's sincerity39. He prided himself on the fact that he was a judge of character. He was sure the cashier was wrong in his accounts; he was equally sure that the information he had received from Bivens's private secretary was accurate, provided, of course, the little weasel carried out the program he had mapped out.
The ticker would tell the story in the first hour. If stocks should sell off three points before noon, he would know. He determined40 to put this to the test first. He would not sell the market short. He would be content with the big jump the market would make upward when it started.
The ticker began its sharp metallic41 click.
The crowd stirred as if the electric shock had swept every nerve. A moment of breathless silence and the board boy leaning over the ticker shouted:
"Atch—92?!"
A groan42, low, half-stifled, half-articulate came from the room and then a moment of silence followed.
"There, Gott," muttered the "Judge." "I knew London was rigged—I told you so!"
In quick, sharp, startling tones the man at the ticker called out the quotations as the market rapidly sank.
For half an hour the downward movement never paused for a moment. The silence of the crowded room became more and more suffocating43. Men stood in their tracks with staring eyes and dry lips as they watched the last hope of a morning rally fade into despair.
The doctor's breath came quicker and his eyes began to sparkle intense excitement.
Now and then old Dugro's stolid44 face appeared at the door and summoned another man to his inner office—"the chamber45 of horrors"—where the lambs are sheared46. The story was always the same. The customer squirmed and asked for a little more time to watch the market. The old man was adamant47.
"I've got to have more money to margin48 your stock or I'll sell it in five minutes. This firm is sound as a dollar and it's going to stay sound as long as I'm at the helm. If I carry weak accounts I imperil the money of every man who has put his faith in my bank."
If the squirming victim had more money he always put it up. If he had drawn49 his last dollar he just wiped the cold sweat from his brow and gasped50:
"You'll have to sell out."
Quick as a flash the old man's hand was on the telephone and his broker on the floor of the Exchange was executing the order.
As the noon hour drew near the doctor's heart was beating like a sledge51 hammer. Bivens's programme had been carried out to the letter. Stocks had declined for the first hour a point, and in the second hour suddenly smashed down two more points amid the wildest excitement on the Exchange.
There was a momentary52 lull53 and the market hesitated. For ten minutes the sales dragged with only fractional changes—first up, then down.
The moment to buy had come. The doctor was sure of it. Stocks had touched bottom. The big bear pool would turn bull in a moment and the whole market would rise by leaps and bounds.
He called old Dugro.
"Buy for me now, Amalgamated54 Copper55, the market leader, for all I'm worth!"
The broker glared at him.
"Buy! Buy in this market? Man, are you mad?"
"I said buy!" was the firm answer. "What's the limit?"
"Not a share without a stop loss order under it."
"Well, with the stop?"
"I'll buy you 400 shares on a four-point stop."
"And when it goes up five points?" the doctor asked eagerly.
"I'll double your purchase and raise your stop, and every five points up I'll keep on until you are a millionaire!"
The old broker smiled contemptuously, but it was all lost on the doctor.
"Do it quick."
The order was scarcely given before it was executed. Dugro handed the memorandum56 to Woodman with a grunt57.
"It don't take long to get 'em to-day!"
The words had scarcely left his lips when a hoarse58 cry rose from the crowd hanging over the ticker.
Copper had leaped upward a whole point between sales. A wild cheer swept the room. For ten minutes every stock on the list responded and began to climb.
The doctor's face was wreathed in smiles. Men began to talk and laugh and feel human for the first moment in two weeks.
Dugro grasped the doctor's hand and his deep voice rang above the roar:
"You're a mascot59! You've broken the spell! For God's sake stay with us!"
Suddenly another cry came from the crowd at the ticker. The boy at the board sprang to the instrument with a single bound, his eyes blazing with excitement. His cry pierced every ear in the room with horror.
"The hell you say! Down a whole point! No!"
There was a moment's hush60, every breath was held. Only the sharp click of the ticker broke the stillness.
"It was one point," groaned61 the Judge, "now, Gott, it's two—now it's three!"
The last words ended in a scream. Hell had broken loose at last.
The panic had come!
In ten minutes stocks tumbled five points and the doctor's last dollar was swept into space while the whole market plunged62 down, down, down into the abyss of ruin and despair.
Men no longer tried to conceal63 their emotion. Some wept, some cursed, some laughed; but the most pitiful sight of all was the man who could do neither, the man with white lips and the strange hunted expression in his eyes who was looking Death in the face for the first time.
A full quarter of an hour of the panic had spent itself before the dazed crowds in the broker's offices read the startling news that caused the big break. The ticker shrieked64 its message above the storm's din3 like a little laughing demon65:
"The Van Dam Trust Company Has Closed Its Doors and Asked for the Appointment of a Receiver!"
"Impossible!"
"A fake!"
"Hell—it's a joke!"
From all who read it at first came these muttered exclamations66. It was beyond belief.
The "Judge" was particularly emphatic67.
"Dot's a lie, chentlemens! Take my vord for it! Dey haf ninety millions on deposit."
It took the second bulletin with particulars to convince them. Bivens had not kept his solemn pledge. The great bank had stood the run for two hours and closed its doors. And the work of destruction had just begun.
At three o'clock, the doctor walked out of Dugro's office without a dollar. It was utterly68 impossible for a man of his temperament69 to realize it. The crash had come so suddenly, its work was so complete and overwhelming it seemed a sort of foolish prank70 Fate had played on him.
He walked home in a state of strange excitement. He had seen many sights in his eventful life among the people of New York; never had he passed through a scene so weird71, so horrible, so haunting as the five hours he had just spent among those men and women whom the struggle for money had transformed into raving72, jibbering, snivelling maniacs73. It was too absurd to be real. His own loss was appalling but at least he thanked God he was not mad. He yet had two good hands and legs. He could see, hear, smell, taste and feel, and he had a soul with five more senses still turned upward toward the infinite and eternal by which he could see the invisible and hear the inaudible. He felt almost happy by contrast with the fools he had left shuffling74 over the floor of Dugro's office.
His own sense of loss was merely a blur75. The revelation he had just had of the mad lust76 for money which had begun to possess all classes was yet so fresh and startling he could form no adequate conception of his own position.
It was not until he entered his own door, and paused at the sound of Harriet's voice, that he began to realize the enormity of the tragedy that had befallen him.
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1
thaw
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| v.（使）融化，（使）变得友善；n.融化，缓和 | |
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2
impending
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| a.imminent, about to come or happen | |
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din
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| n.喧闹声，嘈杂声 | |
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4
calamity
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| n.灾害，祸患，不幸事件 | |
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5
appalling
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| adj.骇人听闻的，令人震惊的，可怕的 | |
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fatality
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| n.不幸，灾祸，天命 | |
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7
bulwarks
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| n.堡垒( bulwark的名词复数 )；保障；支柱；舷墙 | |
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speculation
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| n.思索，沉思；猜测；投机 | |
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superstitious
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| adj.迷信的 | |
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10
struts
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| （框架的）支杆( strut的名词复数 )； 支柱； 趾高气扬的步态； （尤指跳舞或表演时）卖弄 | |
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11
chestnut
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| n.栗树，栗子 | |
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fluctuations
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| 波动，涨落，起伏( fluctuation的名词复数 ) | |
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13
purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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14
epithet
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| n.（用于褒贬人物等的）表述形容词，修饰语 | |
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15
abiding
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| adj.永久的，持久的，不变的 | |
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16
crumbled
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| （把…）弄碎， （使）碎成细屑( crumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 衰落； 坍塌； 损坏 | |
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17
broker
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| n.中间人，经纪人；v.作为中间人来安排 | |
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18
dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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19
dingy
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| adj.昏暗的，肮脏的 | |
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20
hovered
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| 鸟( hover的过去式和过去分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
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21
credulous
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| adj.轻信的，易信的 | |
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22
omen
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| n.征兆，预兆；vt.预示 | |
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pessimists
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| n.悲观主义者( pessimist的名词复数 ) | |
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24
scoffed
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| 嘲笑，嘲弄( scoff的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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25
sneered
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| 讥笑，冷笑( sneer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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26
curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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quotations
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| n.引用( quotation的名词复数 )；[商业]行情（报告）；（货物或股票的）市价；时价 | |
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28
retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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permanently
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| adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地 | |
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30
throng
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| n.人群，群众；v.拥挤，群集 | |
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31
perspiring
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| v.出汗，流汗( perspire的现在分词 ) | |
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32
awry
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| adj.扭曲的，错的 | |
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33
ominous
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| adj.不祥的，不吉的，预兆的，预示的 | |
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carrion
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| n.腐肉 | |
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35
scent
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| n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉 | |
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36
scented
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| adj.有香味的；洒香水的；有气味的v.嗅到(scent的过去分词) | |
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37
killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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38
scowled
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| 怒视，生气地皱眉( scowl的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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39
sincerity
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| n.真诚，诚意；真实 | |
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40
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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41
metallic
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| adj.金属的；金属制的；含金属的；产金属的；像金属的 | |
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42
groan
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| vi./n.呻吟，抱怨；(发出)呻吟般的声音 | |
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43
suffocating
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| a.使人窒息的 | |
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44
stolid
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| adj.无动于衷的，感情麻木的 | |
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45
chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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46
sheared
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| v.剪羊毛( shear的过去式和过去分词 )；切断；剪切 | |
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47
adamant
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| adj.坚硬的，固执的 | |
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48
margin
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| n.页边空白；差额；余地，余裕；边，边缘 | |
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49
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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50
gasped
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| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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51
sledge
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| n.雪橇，大锤；v.用雪橇搬运，坐雪橇往 | |
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52
momentary
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| adj.片刻的，瞬息的；短暂的 | |
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53
lull
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| v.使安静，使入睡，缓和，哄骗；n.暂停，间歇 | |
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54
amalgamated
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| v.（使）（金属）汞齐化( amalgamate的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）合并；联合；结合 | |
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55
copper
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| n.铜；铜币；铜器；adj.铜(制)的；(紫)铜色的 | |
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56
memorandum
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| n.备忘录，便笺 | |
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57
grunt
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| v.嘟哝；作呼噜声；n.呼噜声，嘟哝 | |
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58
hoarse
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| adj.嘶哑的，沙哑的 | |
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59
mascot
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| n.福神，吉祥的东西 | |
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60
hush
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| int.嘘，别出声；n.沉默，静寂；v.使安静 | |
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61
groaned
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| v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
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62
plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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63
conceal
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
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64
shrieked
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| v.尖叫( shriek的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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65
demon
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| n.魔鬼，恶魔 | |
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66
exclamations
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| n.呼喊( exclamation的名词复数 )；感叹；感叹语；感叹词 | |
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67
emphatic
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| adj.强调的，着重的；无可置疑的，明显的 | |
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68
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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69
temperament
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| n.气质，性格，性情 | |
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70
prank
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| n.开玩笑，恶作剧；v.装饰；打扮；炫耀自己 | |
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71
weird
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| adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的 | |
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72
raving
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| adj.说胡话的；疯狂的，怒吼的；非常漂亮的；令人醉心[痴心]的v.胡言乱语(rave的现在分词)n.胡话；疯话adv.胡言乱语地；疯狂地 | |
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73
maniacs
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| n.疯子（maniac的复数形式） | |
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74
shuffling
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| adj. 慢慢移动的, 滑移的 动词shuffle的现在分词形式 | |
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75
blur
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| n.模糊不清的事物；vt.使模糊，使看不清楚 | |
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76
lust
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| n.性(淫)欲；渴(欲)望；vi.对…有强烈的欲望 | |
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