“Delavan! Yes, it’s Delavan!” rose a mighty shout.
Justin Bolton turned at the same time. He fell back, clutching at a seat, gasping, his lower jaw dropping, his eyes protruding. It must be all a wild, disordered trick of the imagination, for wasn’t Francis Delavan a close prisoner in that schooner out at sea?
But as Justin Bolton, horror-stricken and dazed, continued to glare at the calm, smiling face of his foe, it was driven home to him that here, indeed, was Delavan in the flesh.
It came over the scoundrel slowly, but crushingly. Still wildly staring, foam flecking his lips, Justin Bolton sank back in his seat.
And those below saw. While they could not comprehend it all, they knew that Justin Bolton, who was known to be the chief factor behind the “bear” movement in P. & Y. stock, plainly admitted defeat.
At all events, Francis Delavan was neither an absconder nor a defaulter, since he was here in the flesh and dared show himself. Then it was that the report of the accountants, as published in the evening newspapers, was remembered and accepted in good faith. Plainly the “bear” movement had been based on a cruel hoax of some kind.
When the tumult had begun to subside, a broker’s voice was heard announcing:
“I bid 67 for three thousand P. & Y.!”
The upward movement started then and there. Yet there were many cautious ones. Almost at the outset a score of excited operators left the floor to crowd about Francis Delavan.
The two intensely interested motor boat boys extricated themselves from that crush, standing well apart from the crowd.