due. Reports from the corn-lands had not been good, and there had been two or
three railway statements which had been expected to be much better than they
were. But at whatever point in the vast area of speculation the shudder of the
threatened break had been felt, 'the Manderson crowd' had stepped in and held
the market up. All through the week the speculator's mind, as shallow as it is
quick- witted, as sentimental as greedy, had seen in this the hand of the
giant stretched out in protection from afar. Manderson, said the newspapers in
chorus, was in hourly communication with his lieutenants in the Street. One
journal was able to give in round figures the sum spent on cabling between New
York and Marlstone in the past twenty-four hours; it told how a small staff of
expert operators had been sent down by the Post Office authorities to
Marlstone to deal with the flood of messages. Another revealed that Manderson,
on the first news of the Hahn crash, had arranged to abandon his holiday and
return home by the Lusitania; but that he soon had the situation so well in
hand that he had determined to remain where he was.

All this was falsehood, more or less consciously elaborated by the 'finance
editors', consciously initiated and encouraged by the shrewd business men of
the Manderson group, who knew that nothing could better help their plans than
this illusion of hero-worship--knew also that no word had come from Manderson
in answer to their messages, and that Howard B. Jeffrey, of Steel and Iron
fame, was the true organizer of victory. So they fought down apprehension
through four feverish days, and minds grew calmer. On Saturday, though the
ground beneath the feet of Mr. Jeffrey yet rumbled now and then with
Etna-mutterings of disquiet, he deemed his task almost done. The market was
firm, and slowly advancing. Wall Street turned to its sleep of Sunday, worn
out but thankfully at peace.

In the first trading hour of Monday a hideous rumour flew round the sixty
acres of the financial district. It came into being as the lightning comes--a