"Yum-yum!" said Bob. "Wish my girl was here," and he wiped his mouth and laughed.
"Say, pard," said Fred, "we are going to hitch in two weeks."
"Great Scott! Why such haste?"
"Old age is coming on and we want all there is in life for us, eh, Callie?"
"You are doing all the talking, Fred," Callie replied.
Bob and Fred laughed, and Callie joined in finally. She was a very happy girl.
"How about my position at Barron"s, Fred?" she asked.
"Give it up, of course. Do you know a poor girl who wants the place?"
"I do," said Bob.
"Who is she?"
"A friend of Gertie"s. She"s a good one, too."
"Well, let"s see her before Callie steps down and out."
"I"ll tell Gertie about it to-night."
"Yes."
"Oh, I must see Gertie myself. Let me tell her all about it," said Callie.
Bob was with Gertie in her home that evening when Callie and Fred called. The two girls were soon planning for a double wedding, and ere they parted it was arranged that both should marry on the same evening.
The young inventor of the gas-saving machine was now a frequent caller at the Halsey residence, for Adah was a beautiful girl, who was fast developing into a splendid woman. She was the magnet that drew him to the house. As he was studious, industrious, and withal a genius, Fred was glad to see an attachment growing up between them. Callie resigned her place as stenographer and typewriter for Banker Barron, and succeeded in getting Gertie"s friend employed in her place. She and Gertie then proceeded to make preparations to marry the young bankers and speculators.
In the meantime Fred was busy in the Stock Exchange, trying to find out what Broker Bryant was doing. He kept his eyes wide open all the time to see if he was working on any particular stock. But the burly broker seemed to have nothing at all to do. Fred noticed that he and old Bowles no longer spoke as they pa.s.sed by.
By that he knew Callie had got the story right, and that Bryant had escaped the old man"s clutches only by paying up the last penny he owed him. He went to the old man and said he wanted to buy futures on P. & K.
"How much and how long?" the old man asked.
"Five thousand shares for ten days."
The trade was made, and Fred then went quietly to work buying up the 7,000 shares that were on the market. He bought at 67, in a few days he met Bryant on the street and said to him:
"I want to see you privately if you feel like doing any business with me."
Bryant was quite astonished, and asked:
"Is there any money in it?"
"I think there is."
"Then I am at your service."
Fred had a confidential talk with him, during which the broker admitted that Bowles had ruined him financially by getting a technical grip on him.
"Well, I have got a grip on him, I think," Fred explained, "and if you want your revenge, you can have it."
CHAPTER XV.--Conclusion.
Fred sold him five hundred shares to give him a starter, the shares being for himself. In two hours the price went up to 70, and Fred saw old Bowles growing fidgety. The next day Fred sold five hundred shares more at 72, they going to himself. Then the brokers began to hustle for the stock, and found they could not get it. It went up to 82 before the day closed. Bowles was desperate.
"See here, Halsey," he said to Fred, the day before the ten days were up on his 5,000 shares, "I want to settle that thing now. I can"t get the stock at all."
"Wait till it is due," Fred suggested.
"To tell you the truth, Mr. Bowles, I haven"t got that option. I sold it to another man."
"To whom did you sell it?"
"To Bryant."
The next day the stock wont up to 90, and at that figure Bryant called Bowles for 5,000 shares of the stock. It is a rule of the Stock Exchange that where the stock sold cannot be delivered on demand the difference between the purchase and delivery prices shall be paid in cash. At 90, the difference was $23 per share, on 5.000 shares, making $115,000. When the settlement was made, Fred generously allowed Bryant one-half the profits. It put him on his feet again. The day after the settlement was made Mrs. Bryant and Eva Gaines called at the office and asked for Fred.
"I have come to pay my note," she said to him.
"It is not yet due," he replied.
"No, but I have the money and want to pay it," and she laid down a big roll of bills as she spoke. Fred took the money and gave her the note she had signed.
"Now, Mr. Halsey," she said, as she tore up the note, "I want to say to you that as long as I live I shall always have a feeling of lively grat.i.tude toward you for your kindness to me in this matter. You are the one in all New York who would have loaned me that money."
"I am not sure of that," he replied, shaking his head.
"I am glad to know that you and Mr. Bryant are friends again," said Mrs.
Bryant. "He said you helped him out in a deal against that odious Mr.
Bowles the other day."
"Yes, we did manage to give the old man the headache, I believe."
"I was so glad when I heard it, for he is the meanest man in New York."
"That"s a pretty hard thing to say of any one," Fred remarked, laughing.
They left the bank and Fred was smiling all over as he returned to his private office.
"What will they think when they hear of the double wedding, I wonder?"
said he to himself. "I ought to have told them all, but it won"t make any difference, I guess. Hanged if I don"t believe Eva Gaines would like to have me call on her. I wouldn"t give Callie for a dozen of her. She is pretty enough, sweet enough and all that. But I think Callie has the best head of the two, and knows how to take care of money."