“I suppose so. Unhappily, I am a child in these matters. I honestly believe that my little Millicent would have avoided this trap which I blundered into so easily.”
“Um-m,” said Schwartz.
“But surely your inquiries have not led you to expect the price to go higher?” demanded the Guv’nor, growing almost white with misery.
“My dear fellow,” cried the other man blandly, “when you are in the hands of unscrupulous rascals you never know when they will be satisfied. The thing is beautifully simple. You and others have sold a bear. You are called on to deliver your shares, which you cannot do, for the very good reason that the market is controlled by the people who bought all the shares offered. You have fallen among thieves. There is no telling what price they may force things up to before they let go.”
“Then the issue is quite plain,” said the Guv’nor, rising with the air of a man who has no more to say. “It will cripple, indeed, almost ruin me to raise five thousand pounds. Any material advance on that amount means bankruptcy, with goodness knows what evil results to my wife and daughters. If there is any law in the land it should not be possible for men to crush others in this barefaced way.”
“The law cannot help you. But sit down, Grosvenor. Let us hammer this thing out. I have tried to ascertain the identity of the promoters, and I have failed. Here is the letter my brokers wrote me yesterday. You see they say that the company is registered in Jersey, and the nominal directors are mere figure-heads. The real manipulators of the stock do not appear on the surface—”
“Surely you, who are so well acquainted with West Africa, can make a tolerably accurate guess as to the people behind the scenes?”
“If I had the slightest grounds for naming any one I should not only tell you, Grosvenor, but I would gladly lend my personal assistance in arranging matters.”
The Old Man read the typewritten letter which Schwartz gave him. Of course, I did not know then what was in it, but it seemed to substantiate Schwartz’s statements.
“Amazing thing!” he murmured. “And that I should be such a fool! I only wanted to earn an extra hundred or so, for the sake of the girls, to give them some little luxuries which diminishing dividends hardly permit of, and this is the result—I find myself on the very brink of ruin. Ah, well! Let me apologize again for—”