[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
have you? We ve known it for six weeks!
Back to the Stock Exchange rushed the
ghouls to sell the Greener stocks not Fed-
eral Telegraph which was really a good prop-
erty, but his reorganized roads, whose
renascence was so recent that they had not
grown into full strength. Down went prices
and up went the whisper: Dittenhoeffer s
got Greener at last!
A thousand brokers rushed to find their
dear friend Dan to congratulate him
184 WALL STREET STORIES
Napoleon s conqueror, the hero of the hour,
the future dispenser of liberal commissions.
But dear Dan could not be found. He was
not on the floor of the Exchange nor at his
office.
Some one had sought Dittenhoeffer be-
fore the brokers thought of congratulating
him some one who was the greatest gam-
bler of all, greater even than Dutch Dan a
little man with furtive brown eyes and a
squeaky voice; also a wonderful forehead:
Mr. John F. Greener.
Mr. Dittenhoeffer, I sent for you to ask
you a question, he squeaked, calmly. He
stood beside a garrulous ticker.
Certainly, Mr. Greener. And Ditten-
hoeffer instantly had a vision of humble
requests to let up. And he almost formu-
lated the very words of a withering refusal.
Would you execute an order from me?
Certainly, Mr. Greener. I ll execute any-
body s orders. I m a broker.
Very well. Sell 50,000 shares of Federal
Telegraph Company for me.
What price? jotting down the figures,
from force of habit, his mind being para-
lyzed.
THE LOST OPPORTUNITY 185
The best you can get. The stock, glanc-
ing at the tape, is 91.
Very well.
The two men looked at one another
Dutch Dan half menacingly, Greener, calmly,
steadily, his furtive eyes almost truthful.
Good-morning, said Dittenhoeffer at
length and the little man s high-browed head
nodded dismissingly.
Dittenhoeffer hastened back to the Ex-
change. At the entrance he met his partner,
Smith the Co. of D. Dittenhoeffer & Co.
Bill, I ve just got an order from Greener
to sell 50,000 shares of Federal Telegraph.
Wh-what? gasped Smith.
Greener sent for me, asked me whether
I d accept an order from him, I said yes, and
he told me to sell 50,000 shares of Telegraph,
and I m
You ve got him, Dan. You ve got him,
exultantly.
I m going to cover my 20,000 shares with
the first half of the order and sell the rest the
best I can.
Man alive, this is your chance! Don t
you see you ve got him? Smilie of the East-
ern National Bank tells me there isn t a bank
186 WALL STREET STORIES
in the city will lend Greener money, and he
needs it badly to pay the last $10,000,000 to
the Indian Pacific bondholders. He s bit
off more than he can chew, damn im!
Well, Bill, we ll treat Mr. Greener as we
do any other customer, said Dittenhoeffer.
But began Smith, with undisguised
consternation; he was an honest man, when
away from the Street.
Oh, I ll get him yet. This won t save
him. I ll get him yet, with a confident
smile.
It would have been very easy for him to
take advantage of Greener s order to make a
fortune. He was short 20,000 shares which
he had put out at an average price of 93.
He could have taken Greener s block of
50,000 shares and hurled it bodily at the
market. Not even a gilt-edge stock could
withstand the impact of such a fearful blow,
and the price of Federal Telegraph doubtless
would have broken 15 points or more, and he
could easily have taken in his shorts at 75
or possibly even at 70 which would have
meant a profit of a half-million of dollars
and a loss of a much needed million to his
THE LOST OPPORTUNITY 187
arch-foe, Greener. And if he allowed his
partner to whisper in strict confidence to
some friend how Dan was selling out a big
line of Telegraph for Greener the Room
would have gone wild and everybody would
have hastened to sell and the decline would
have gone so much further as to cripple the
little Napoleon possibly beyond all hope of
recovery. Had Greener made the most
colossal mistake of his life in giving the order
to his enemy?
Dan went to the Federal Telegraph post
where a score of madmen were shouting at
the top of their voices the prices they were
willing to pay or to accept for varying
amounts of the stock. He gave to twenty
brokers orders to sell 1,000 shares each at
the best obtainable price and he himself,
through another man took an equal amount.
On the next day he in person sold 20,000
shares and on the third day the last 10,000
shares of Greener s order. This selling, the
Street thought, was for his own account. It
was all short stock; that is, his colleagues
thought he was selling stock he didn t own,
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
