I could see nothing of Doddridge Knapp, and the uneasy feeling that he was at Livermore came over me. What was my duty in case he did not appear? Had he left his fortune at the mercy of the market to follow his lawless schemes? Had he been caught in his own trap, and was he now to be ruined as the result of his own acts? For a moment I felt a vengeful hope that he might have come to grief. But when I remembered that it was Luella who must suffer with him, I determined to make an effort to save the deal, even without authority, if the money or credit for buying the remaining shares was to be had.
I might have spared my worry. The call had not proceeded far, when the ma.s.sive form of Doddridge Knapp appeared at the railing. The strong wolf-marks of the face were stronger than ever as he watched the scene on the floor. I looked in vain for a trace upon him of last night"s work. If he had been at Livermore, he showed no sign of the pa.s.sions or anxieties that had filled the dark hours.
He nodded carelessly for me to come to him as he caught my eye.
"You have the stock?"
"All safe."
"And the proxies?"
"Just as you ordered."
The King of the Street looked at me sharply.
"I told you to keep sober till this deal was over," he growled.
"You are obeyed," I said. "I have not touched a drop."
"Well, you look as though you had taken a romp with the devil," he said.
"I have," I returned with a meaning look.
His eyes fell before my steady gaze, and he turned them on the noisy throng before us.
"Any orders?" I asked at last.
"Be where I can call you the minute I want you," he replied.
"Now, my boy," he continued after a minute, "you are going to see what hasn"t been seen in the Boards for years, and I reckon you"ll never see it again."
"What is it?" I asked politely. I was prepared for almost any kind of fire-works in that arena.
Doddridge Knapp made no reply, but raised his hand as if to command silence, and a moment later the call of Omega was heard. And, for a marvel, a strange stillness did fall on the throng.
At the word of call I saw Doddridge Knapp step down to the floor of the pit, calm, self-possessed, his shoulders squared and his look as proud and forceful as that of a monarch who ruled by the might of his sword, while a grim smile played about his stern mouth.
The silence of the moment that followed was almost painful. In that place it seemed the most unnatural of prodigies. Brokers, speculators and spectators were as surprised as I, and a long-drawn "Ah-h!" followed by a buzzing as of a great swarm of bees greeted his appearance. The stillness and the buzzing seemed to take an hour, but it could not have been as much as a minute when the voice of Doddridge Knapp rang like a trumpet through the Boardroom.
"Five hundred for Omega!"
This was a wild jump from the three hundred and twenty-five that was marked against the stock at the close on Sat.u.r.day, but I supposed the King of the Street knew what he was about.
At the bid of Doddridge Knapp a few cries rose here and there, and he was at once the center of a group of gesticulating brokers. Then I saw Decker, pale, eager, alert, standing by the rail across the room, signaling orders to men who howled bids and plunged wildly into the crowd that surrounded his rival.
The bids and offers came back and forth with shouts and barks, yet they made but a murmur compared to the whirlwind of sound that had arisen from the pit at the former struggles I had witnessed. There seemed but few blocks of the stock on the market. Yet the air was electric with the tense strain of thousands of minds eager to catch the faintest indication of the final result, and I found it more exciting than the wildest days of clamor and struggle.
"This is great," chuckled Wallbridge, taking post before me. "There hasn"t been anything like it since Decker captured Chollar in the election of seventy-three. You don"t remember that, I guess?"
"I wasn"t in the market then," I admitted.
"Lord! Just to hear that!" cried the stout little man, mopping his glistening head frantically and quivering with nervous excitement.
"Doddridge Knapp bids fifteen hundred for the stock and only gets five shares. Oh, why ain"t I a chance to get into this?"
I heard a confused roar, above which rose the fierce tones of Doddridge Knapp.
"How many shares has he got to-day?" I asked.
"Not forty yet."
"And the others?"
"There"s been about two thousand sold."
I gripped the rail in nervous tension. The battle seemed to be going against the King of the Street.
"Oh!" gasped Wallbridge, trembling with excitement. "Did you hear that?
There! It"s seventeen hundred--now it"s seventeen-fifty! Whew!"
I echoed the exclamation.
"Oh, why haven"t I got ten thousand shares?" he groaned.
"Who is getting them?"
"Knapp got the last lot. O-oh, look there! Did you ever see the like of that?"
I looked. Decker, hatless, with hair disheveled, had leaped the rail and was hurrying into the throng that surrounded Doddridge Knapp.
"There was never two of "em on the floor before," cried Wallbridge.
At Decker"s appearance the brokers opened a lane to him, the cries fell, and there was an instant of silence, as the kings of the market thus came face to face.
I shall never forget the sight. Doddridge Knapp, ma.s.sive, calm, forceful, surveyed his opponent with unruffled composure. He was dressed in a light gray-brown suit that made him seem larger than ever. Decker was nervous, disheveled, his dress of black setting off the pallor of his face, till it seemed as white as his shirt bosom, as he fronted the King of the Street.
The foes faced each other, watchful as two wrestlers looking to seize an opening, and the Board-room held its breath. Then the crowd of brokers closed in again and the clamor rose once more.
I could not make out the progress of the contest, but the trained ear of Wallbridge interpreted the explosions of inarticulate sound.
"Phew! listen to that! Two thousand, twenty-one hundred, twenty-one fifty. Great snakes! See her jump!" he cried. "Decker"s getting it."
My heart sank. Doddridge Knapp must have smothered his brain once more in the Black Smoke, and was now paying the price of indulgence. And his plans of wealth were a sacrifice to the wild and criminal scheme into which he had entered in his contest against the Unknown. I saw the wreck of fortune engulf Mrs. Knapp and Luella, and groaned in spirit. Then a flash of hope shot through me. Luella Knapp, the heiress to millions, was beyond my dreams, but Luella Knapp, the daughter of a ruined speculator, would not be too high a prize for a poor man to set his eyes upon.
The clang of the gong recalled me from the reverie that had shut out the details of the scene before me.
"There! Did you hear that?" groaned Wall-bridge. "Omega closes at two thousand six hundred and Decker takes every trick. Oh, why didn"t you have me on the floor out there? By the great horn spoon, I"d "a" had every share of that stock, and wouldn"t "a" paid more than half as much for it, neither."
I sighed and turned, sick at heart, to meet the King of the Street as he shouldered his way from the floor.