It was very late in the afternoon of a lugubrious March day when Jadwin and Gretry, in the broker"s private room, sat studying the latest Government reports as to the supply of wheat, and Jadwin observed, "Why, Sam, there"s less than 100,000,000 bushels in the farmers" hands. That"s awfully small."
"It ain"t, as you might say, colossal," admitted Gretry.
"Sam," said Jadwin again, "the shipments have been about 5,000,000 a week; 20,000,000 a month, and it"s four months before a new crop. Europe will take 80,000,000 out of the country. I own 10,000,000 now. Why, there ain"t going to be any wheat left in Chicago by May! If I get in now, and buy a long line of cash wheat, where are all these fellows going to get it to deliver to me? Say, where are they going to get it?
Come on, now, tell me, where are they going to get it?"
Gretry laid down his pencil, and stared at Jadwin.
""J,"" he faltered, ""J," I"m blest if I know."
And then, all in the same moment, the two men were on their feet.
Jadwin sprang forward, gripping the broker by the shoulder.
"Sam," he shouted, "do you know----Great G.o.d! Do you know what this means? Sam, we can corner the market!"
_III.--The Corner Breaks_
The high prices meant a great increase of wheat acreage. In June the preliminary returns showed 4,000,000 more acres under wheat in the two states of Dakota alone, and in spite of all Gretry"s remonstrances, Jadwin still held on, determined to keep up prices to July.
But now it had become vitally necessary for Jadwin to sell out his holdings. His "long line" was a fearful expense; insurance and storage charges were eating rapidly into the profits. He _must_ get rid of the load he was carrying little by little.
A month ago, and the foreign demand was a thing almost insensate. There was no question as to the price. It was, "Give us the wheat, at whatever figure, at whatever expense."
At home in Chicago Jadwin was completely master of the market. His wealth increased with such rapidity that at no time was he able even to approximate the gains that accrued to him because of his corner. It was more than twenty million, and less than fifty million. That was all he knew.
It was then that he told Gretry he was going to buy in the July crops.
"" J," listen to me," said Gretry. "Wheat is worth a dollar and a half to-day, and not one cent more. If you run it up to two dollars--"
"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."
"Do you know how we stand, "J"?" said the broker gravely. "Do you know how we stand financially? It"s taken pretty nearly every cent of our ready money to support this July market. Oh, we can figure out our paper profits into the millions. We"ve got thirty, forty, fifty million bushels of wheat that"s worth over a dollar a bushel; but if we can"t sell it we"re none the better off--and that wheat is costing us six thousand dollars a day. Where"s the money going to come from, old man?
You don"t seem to realise that we are in a precarious condition. The moment we can"t give our boys buying orders, the moment we admit that we can"t buy all the wheat that"s offered, there"s the moment we bust."
"Well, we"ll buy it," cried Jadwin. "I"ll show those brutes. I"ll mortgage all my real estate, and I"ll run up wheat so high before the next two days that the Bank of England can"t pull it down; then I"ll sell our long line, and with the profits of that I"ll run it up again.
Two dollars! Why, it will be two-fifty before you know how it happened."
That day Jadwin placed as heavy a mortgage as the place would stand upon every piece of real estate that he owned. He floated a number of promissory notes, and taxed his credit to its farthest stretch. But sure as he was of winning, Jadwin could, not bring himself to involve his wife"s money in the hazard, though his entire personal fortune swung in the balance.
Jadwin knew the danger. The new harvest was coming in--the new harvest of wheat--huge beyond all possibility of control; so vast that no money could buy it. And from Liverpool and Paris cables had come in to Gretry declining to buy wheat, though he had offered it cheaper than he had ever done before.
On the morning of June 13, Gretry gave his orders to young Landry Court and his other agents in the Pit, to do their best to keep the market up.
"You can buy each of you up to half a million bushels apiece. If that don"t keep the price up--well, I"ll let you know what to do. Look here, keep your heads cool. I guess to-day will decide things."
In the Pit roar succeeded roar. It seemed that a support long thought to be secure was giving way. Not a man knew what he or his neighbour was doing. The bids leaped to and fro, and the price of July wheat could not so much as be approximated.
Landry caught one of the Gretry traders by the arm.
"What shall we do?" he shouted. "I"ve bought up to my limit. No more orders have come in. What"s to be done?"
"I don"t know," the other shouted back--"I don"t know! Looks like a smash; something"s gone wrong."
In Gretry"s office Jadwin stood hatless and pale. Around him were one of the heads of a great banking house and a couple of other men, confidential agents, who had helped to manipulate the great corner.
"It"s the end of the game," Gretry exclaimed, "you"ve got no more money!
Not another order goes up to that floor."
"It"s a lie!" Jadwin cried, "keep on buying, I tell you! Take all they"ll offer. I tell you we"ll touch the two dollar mark before noon."
"It"s useless, Mr. Jadwin," said the banker quietly, "You were practically beaten two days ago."
But Jadwin was beyond all appeal. He threw off Gretry"s hand.
"Get out of my way!" he shouted. "Do you hear? I"ll play my hand alone from now on."
""J," old man--why, see here!" Gretry implored, still holding him by the arm. "Here, where are you going?"
Jadwin"s voice rang like a trumpet-call:
"_Into the Pit!_ If you won"t execute my orders I"ll act myself. I"m going into the Pit, I tell you!"
""J," you"re mad, old fellow! You"re ruined--don"t you understand?--you"re ruined!"
"Then G.o.d curse you, Sam Gretry, for the man who failed me in a crisis!"
And, as he spoke, Curtis Jadwin struck the broker full in the face.