He gave a look that might have been a warning, if I could have read it;
but it was gone with a shrug as though he would say, "Well, it's no
business of mine."

"How much?" he asked. "Wait!"

He started away at a scream from the front, but returned in a moment.
He had bought or sold something, but I had not the least idea what it
was, or which he had done.

"It's coming!" he yelled in my ear.

The gong rang. There was a confused cry from the man at the big desk.
And pandemonium let loose.

I had thought the riot that had gone before as near the climax of noise
as it was possible to get. I was mistaken. The roar that followed the
call was to the noise that had gone before as is the hurricane to the
zephyr. There was a succession of yells, hoots, cries and bellows; men
rushed wildly at each other, swung in a mad dance, jumped up and down;
and the floor became a frantic sea of fists, arms, hats, heads, and all
things movable.

"Omega opens at sixty-five," shouted Eppner.

"Bid sixty," I shouted in reply, "but get all you can, even if you have
to pay sixty-five."

Eppner gave a bellow, and skated into a group of fat men, gesticulating