“The deuce!” thought Charlie to himself; but he held his peace; and by ten o’clock he was back at the office and hard at work. Mr. Tamms did not return; and Charlie had orders to tell everyone that he was temporarily out of Wall Street, taking his well-earned vacation at the seaside.
On that day there began to be a sudden activity in Starbuck Oil. At first the price went up a point or two; and then some thousand shares were thrown upon the market, and it fell more than twenty points. Charlie fancied that the selling came from the good Deacon; but who the buyers were, his sharpest investigations failed to show. On the day after, there were rumors of a coming deficit, and the stock went down with a rush, carrying with it the Terminal bonds. The same afternoon there was an item on the “tape” to the effect that the September coupon would probably have to be funded. The next day was a Sunday; but on Monday poor Charlie was flooded with letters, angry and beseeching, and with irate or troubled customers, who were holders of the bonds in question. He had but one course open to him: to those who paid for the bonds, he regretted that unforeseen expenses had made the Terminal enterprise so unprofitable; and to those who had not paid for their bonds as yet he added a polite request for further “margin.”
Mr. Tamms in person dropped in late that afternoon; and Charlie told him the condition of affairs, though he could have sworn that gentleman was paying no attention to any word he spoke.
“Keep at it,” he said, when Charlie had got through. “You can tell them that we, too, have a large block of bonds, besides owning nearly all the stock, and are heavy losers ourselves. No one could foresee it, of course. Mr. Townley still at Lenox, I suppose?”
Charlie said that he was, and Tamms departed, saying that he would be in again to-morrow. And Charlie went up to the Columbian Club, and read the following item in The Evening Post:
“The late depression in Starbuck Oil securities is believed to have been caused by the fact that the property has failed to earn its fixed charges in the past six months. The selling has come largely from Deacon Remington, through Rawson, Lawson & Co.; and it is regarded as beyond question that the Company will default September 1st upon its mortgage bonds. The banking-house of Messrs. Townley & Tamms are said to have lost largely by the failure, as they hold the bulk of the Company’s stock.”
“By Jove,” said Charlie to himself, “I ought to have telegraphed Flossie Gower, after all.”
But then he re-read the article and began to reconsider it. Charlie was a young man addicted to much reconsideration. It was a very strange thing that a responsible newspaper should go out of its way to print an item like that—an item which might seriously injure the credit of a prominent banking-house. Why (for Charlie had studied law in his youth), it was almost libellous. Tamms had read the paper before leaving the office, and had not seemed particularly disturbed. “Does he want it to be supposed we lost money?—and certainly,” said Charlie to himself, “the Governor is a clever fellow.”
The next day was the first of August, and Charlie had arranged to begin his summer vacation by going to Newport that afternoon. He was early at the office, but found Tamms there already, dictating to a couple of stenographers. He was tearing up little pieces of paper, crumpling them up into balls, and throwing them into one corner of the room. Now, this was a way he had when things were going to his liking; but Charlie did not venture to speak to him about the item in The Evening Post. Moreover, a copy of that journal lay open on his desk.
“Shall I buy any more Allegheny, sir?” said Charlie.