Fifty-two and a half—51—and then it rallied strongly, and almost touched 53.
Dixon came and stood holding the tape, looking anxious. For some twenty minutes the stock held firm, up an eighth, down an eighth, and then broke half a point, and then another. The broker let out an explosive sound of relief.
“That’s its last dying kick. It had me scared for a minute. But she’s on the toboggan slide now, and she won’t stop till she hits bottom.”
Lang had held his breath while the wheel of fortune had seemed to be turning the wrong way. Triumphant excitement rushed over him again as the downward rush of the stock was resumed. Every point lower meant a win of five hundred dollars. He fixed his eyes on the printing point of the tape, impatient as other stock quotations came out, hardly hearing the racket of the cotton speculators, watching for the letters YU OIL—52—51—50-1/2—49. They had made eight points. They had doubled their money.
Then all at once, as he watched the unrolling paper, a destructive thought came to Lang’s mind. It was not his money. It belonged to the general assets of the Automotive Fuel Company. He could not take his losses out of it. It would be his duty to turn every cent in to the official receivers.
His legal share of these gambling gains would be hardly anything. The golden prospect turned blank. He forgot the game for a moment.
“Sell another thousand. We’ve got enough ahead to margin that much,” said Carroll, poking his side.
“Sure you have. That’s the stuff I like. Make it or lose it!” exclaimed Dixon.
Lang made no objection, though he had a dull sense that he ought not to risk his fellow creditors’ money. But they did not seem to be going to lose it. The order was put in at 48, and within ten minutes it was at 47-1/2, and thence dropped by quarter points.
Lang began to forget again that it was not for himself that he was winning. The fascination of the game took hold on him. He imagined the swirl and flurry at that moment on the New York Exchange, where some manipulation must have culminated, where mighty operators had come out into the open and were devouring their prey as it ran. With their tiny speculation they were jackals on the edge of that killing.