"You don't mean that you've got the whole of your three months' rent? If you have, break it to me gently, Adams, or I'll faint."
"Better than three months' rent," the cashier whispered nervously. "I've a big tip on the stock market."
The older man grunted contemptuously.
"Yes, that's what ails you, I know. You've been getting them for some time. That's why you owe me for your rooms. That's why there's something the matter with your accounts."
"I swear to you, Doctor, my accounts are clean. My expenses have been so big the past year, with the doctor's bills I've had to pay, I simply couldn't live. The price of everything on earth has gone up fifty per cent. except my wages. I've bought a few stocks. I've made a little and lost a little. I've got the chance now I've been waiting for. I've a real piece of information from the big insiders who are going to make the market to-morrow."
The doctor shook his head and looked at the cashier with humourous pity. The man was trembling from excitement he could not control.
"So you've really got it straight, this time?"
"Beyond the shadow of doubt!" he cried excitedly. "I want you to share with me the fortune I'm going to make."
He paused and breathed heavily, his eyes widening into an unnatural stare, as he continued:
"My God, if I only had ten thousand dollars to-morrow I could be worth a hundred thousand before night!"