"It will go there of itself, I tell you."
"If you run it up to two dollars it will be that top-heavy that the littlest kick in the world will knock it over. Be satisfied now with what you've, got. Suppose the price does break a little, you'd still make your pile. But swing this deal over into July, and it's ruin. The farmers all over the country are planting wheat as they've never planted it before. Great Scott, 'J,' you're fighting against the earth itself."
"Well, we'll fight it then."
"Here's another point," went on Gretry. "You ought to be in bed this very minute. You haven't got any nerves left at all. You acknowledge you don't sleep. You ought to see a doctor."
"Fiddlesticks!" exclaimed Jadwin. "I'm all right. Haven't time to see a doctor."
So the month of May drew to its close, and as Jadwin beheld more and more the broken speculators, with their abject humility, a vast contempt for human nature grew within him. The business hardened his heart, and he took his profits as if by right of birth.
His wife he saw but seldom. Occasionally they breakfasted together; more often they met at dinner. But that was all.
And now by June 11 the position was critical.
"The price broke to a dollar and twenty yesterday," said Gretry. "Just think, we were at a dollar and a half a little while ago."
"And we'll be at two dollars in another ten days, I tell you."