Conscience, as in all great climaxes of human feeling, was a factor in the crash; for Simmons, knowing that he had once wronged and robbed Page, intuitively felt that a revenge was coming, and to save what he could out of the wrecked plot, joined the insane selling. For once in his life he played the coward.
After the financial delirium was over, there was a scene between him and Weston, over which it were best to draw the veil.
A more hilarious episode, however, occurred in Page's office, when all met there after the exchange closed.
"I didn't win out as I hoped," Page said to the rest, "for the market broke like an egg-shell. I unloaded the four thousand at an average of twenty, however, and had the pleasure of seeing Simmons gnash his false teeth and shake his fist at me, which was worth as much more." Then turning to Jess he added: "How did you enjoy the pow-wow?"
Jess smiled.
"I've seen a passel o' hungry hogs squealin' an' pawin' over a trough, an' two dogs fightin' over a bone. I've seen a cage o' monkeys all mad an' makin' the fur fly, an' if the whole kit 'n' boodle had been put in a pen 'n' sot a-goin', it wouldn't 'a' ekalled the fracas I've seen to-day. How any on 'em got out 'thout broken bones is more'n I kin see. I'd 'a' gin a hundred to 'a' held the nozzle o' a fire-engine hose 'n' squirted water on 'em."
"How would you have enjoyed being among them?" put in Nickerson, to whom the old man with his grotesque raiment and speech was a source of merriment.
"I wouldn't 'a' sot foot 'mong that crowd o' loony-tics fer a hundred dollars," answered Jess. "I cac'late they'd 'a' turned to 'n' bit me, same ez mad dogs."
"They'd have played foot-ball with your hat," responded Jack, who knew the ways of brokers, "and in two minutes you wouldn't have had a whole garment on you. I've seen them tie a man's legs and drag him around the room with a rope, then toss him in a blanket for a wind-up. They are a tough lot, and a stranger who gets into their hands meets hard usage."
"That's about the idee I had on 'em," said Jess; "they're wuss'n Injuns, an' ain't satisfied with takin' a man's money, they want his hair, hide, 'n' toe nails. If ever one on 'em comes ashore on Rockhaven 'n' I'm around, he'll think he's run into a hornet's nest. We'll use him wuss'n we did Abe Winty. He was a shiftless cuss that got out into the island somehow 'bout ten year ago, an' begun beggin' for a livin'. He 'lowed he had asmer an' heart troubles an' a tech o' liver complaint, 'n' jest couldn't do no liftin' or any sort o' hard work. He fooled us a spell, till we began missin' things 'n' found they were gittin' into the hands o' a low-down fellar who sold rum on the sly, 'n' then we held a sort o' indignation caucus, 'n' Abe wa'n't invited. We had diskivered by this time that Abe's heart 'n' liver was doin' business 'bout ez usual, 'n' the only thing that ailed him was downright laziness. We sorter compared idees at the meetin', an' the upshot on't was we concluded the island wa'n't big 'nuff for him. We'd tried all manner o' talk to shame him, but callin' names an' 'busin' him didn't hev no more 'fect than rain on a duck's back. We'd tried coaxin' an' cussin' to git him to work, but him 'n' work wus mortal enemies, 'n' when he couldn't beg 'nuff to eat he'd steal it. Suthin' had to be did, 'n' we did it. Fust we ketched 'n' shackled him 'n' locked him up in a fish-house fer two days, feedin' him on bread 'n' water,—mostly water at that,—an' when he'd got good 'n' hungry we sarved him a meal cooked with drug stuff, 'nuff in it to turn the stomach o' a Digger Injun. He was that starved he et it middlin' quick, an' then, to make the preceedin's more interestin' to Abe, the man that took the vittles to him told him pizen had been put in 'em 'n' he hadn't more'n an hour to live. Then we gathered round, peekin' in the door 'n' winders ez if cac'latin' to enjie Abe's dyin' agonies. It wa'n't long 'fore the drug stuff began workin', an' Abe, he got more scared than old Bill Atlas was when we sot the sea sarpint up to meet him. He hollered for mercy, an' when his vittles started to worry him he began prayin' an' took on woful, an' we just lookin' at him sober-like, ez if his end was clus to. The perceedin's lasted 'bout two hours, 'n' by that time Abe wus so weak he couldn't hold up his head. Then we straddled him on a rail 'n' carried him to the boat, 'n' Cap'n Roby sot him ashore."