“Hello! This is Mr. Davis's office. Is this Mr. Colton? Tell him Mr. Davis says L. and T. is one hundred and fifty now and jumping twenty points at a lick. There is the devil to pay. Scarcely any stock in sight and next door to a panic. Shall we go on buying?”
I was trying to decide upon an answer when some one touched my elbow. Miss Colton was standing beside me. She did not speak, but she looked the question.
I told her what I had just heard.
“One hundred and fifty!” she exclaimed. “That is—Why, that is dreadful! What will you do?”
I shook my head. “That is for you to say,” I answered.
“No, it is for you. You are doing this. I trust you. Do what you think is right—you and Mr. Davis. That is what Father would wish if he knew.”
“Davis will do nothing on his own responsibility.”
“Then you must do it alone. Do it! do it!”
I turned to the 'phone once more. “Buy all you can get,” I ordered. “Keep on bidding. But be sure and spread the news that it is Colton buying to secure control of the road, not to cover his shorts. Be sure that leaks out. Everything depends on that.”
I hung up the receiver. She and I looked at each other.