第101章

Crazy! For God's sake, Sam, what--Look here, don't use that word to me.I--it don't suit.What I've done isn't exactly the work of--of--takes brains, let me tell you.And look here, look here, I say, I'm going to swing this deal right over into July.Think I'm going to let go now, when I've just begun to get a real grip on things? A pretty fool I'd look like to get out now--even if I could.Get out? How are we going to unload our big line of wheat without breaking the price on us? No, sir, not much.This market is going up to two dollars." He smote a knee with his clinched fist, his face going abruptly crimson."I say two dollars,"he cried."Two dollars, do you hear? It will go there, you'll see, you'll see.""Reports on the new crop will begin to come in in June." Gretry's warning was almost a cry."The price of wheat is so high now, that God knows how many farmers will plant it this spring.You may have to take care of a record harvest.""I know better," retorted Jadwin."I'm watching this thing.You can't tell me anything about it.I've got it all figured out, your 'new crop.'""Well, then you're the Lord Almighty himself.""I don't like that kind of joke.I don't like that kind of joke.It's blasphemous," exclaimed Jadwin.

"Go, get it off on Crookes.He'd appreciate it, but Idon't.But this new crop now--look here."And for upwards of two hours Jadwin argued and figured, and showed to Gretry endless tables of statistics to prove that he was right.

But at the end Gretry shook his head.Calmly and deliberately he spoke his mind.

"J., listen to me.You've done a big thing.I know it, and I know, too, that there've been lots of times in the last year or so when I've been wrong and you've been right.But now, J., so help me God, we've reached our limit.Wheat is worth a dollar and a half to-day, and not one cent more.Every eighth over that figure is inflation.If you run it up to two dollars----""It will go there of itself, I tell you.""--if you run it up to two dollars, it will be that top-heavy, that the littlest kick in the world will knock it over.Be satisfied now with what you got.

J., it's common sense.Close out your long line of May, and then stop.Suppose the price does break a little, you'd still make your pile.But swing this deal over into July, and it's ruin, ruin.I may have been mistaken before, but I know I'm right now.And do you realise, J., that yesterday in the Pit there were some short sales? There's some of them dared to go short of wheat against you--even at the very top of your corner--and there was more selling this morning.

You've always got to buy, you know.If they all began to sell to you at once they'd bust you.It's only because you've got 'em so scared--I believe--that keeps 'em from it.But it looks to me as though this selling proved that they were picking up heart.They think they can get the wheat from the farmers when harvesting begins.And I tell you, J., you've put the price of wheat so high, that the wheat areas are extending all over the country.""You're scared," cried Jadwin."That's the trouble with you, Sam.You've been scared from the start.

Can't you see, man, can't you see that this market is a regular tornado?""I see that the farmers all over the country are planting wheat as they've never planted it before.

Great Scott, J., you're fighting against the earth itself.""Well, we'll fight it, then.I'll stop those hayseeds.

What do I own all these newspapers and trade journals for? We'll begin sending out reports to-morrow that'll discourage any big wheat planting.""And then, too," went on Gretry, "here's another point.

Do you know, you ought to be in bed this very minute.

You haven't got any nerves left at all.You acknowledge yourself that you don't sleep any more.

And, good Lord, the moment any one of us contradicts you, or opposes you, you go off the handle to beat the Dutch.I know it's a strain, old man, but you want to keep yourself in hand if you go on with this thing.If you should break down now--well, I don't like to think of what would happen.You ought to see a doctor.""Oh-h, fiddlesticks," exclaimed Jadwin, "I'm all right.

I don't need a doctor, haven't time to see one anyhow.

Don't you bother about me.I'm all right."Was he? That same night, the first he had spent under his own roof for four days, Jadwin lay awake till the clocks struck four, asking himself the same question.

No, he was not all right.Something was very wrong with him, and whatever it might be, it was growing worse.The sensation of the iron clamp about his head was almost permanent by now, and just the walk between his room at the Grand Pacific and Gretry's office left him panting and exhausted.Then had come vertigoes and strange, inexplicable qualms, as if he were in an elevator that sank under him with terrifying rapidity.

Going to and fro in La Salle Street, or sitting in Gretry's office, where the roar of the Pit dinned forever in his ears, he could forget these strange symptoms.It was the night he dreaded--the long hours he must spend alone.The instant the strain was relaxed, the gallop of hoofs, or as the beat of ungovernable torrents began in his brain.Always the beat dropped to the same cadence, always the pulse spelled out the same words:

"Wheat-wheat-wheat, wheat-wheat-wheat."

And of late, during the long and still watches of the night, while he stared at the ceiling, or counted the hours that must pass before his next dose of bromide of potassium, a new turn had been given to the screw.