I don't believe that anybody slept much Saturday night. You never heard
such a storm in your life. It seemed to Sally and me, who would have
been the chief sufferers if it _had_ blown down, that our comfortable,
brand-new marble house flapped like a flag. Every now and then there
came a tremendous crack from one part of the island or another; and
each time Sally would say, "There goes my favorite elm," or I would say,
"There goes that elm again."
Most of the men came down to breakfast Sunday morning. What with the
storm and the worry about stocks keeping them awake most of the night,
they were without exception nervous and cross, particularly Billoo. He
looked like an owl that had been first stuffed and then boiled. Blenheim
told me later that at various times during the night he had carried four
several pints of champagne to Billoo's room; and at 7 A.M., bicarbonate
of soda and aromatic spirits of ammonia.
"I tell you, Sam," said Billoo crossly, "I've been awake all night
thinking what it would mean to some of us--yes, me!--if this storm
should wreck that ferry-boat of yours."
A lot of wet snow and wind hit the dining-room windows a series of
rattling slaps.
"She's a good boat, Sam, but smallish to ride out such a storm as this."
"What a goat you are, Sam," said Tombs, also crossly, "not to keep two
ferry-boats, so that if one breaks down you have the other."
"When we made up our minds to spend the winter here," I said, "I ordered
another; in fact, two. But they're still building; and besides, what if
the _Hobo_ does break down? There's plenty to eat and drink, I hope.
Nobody would suffer much."
"No," said Billoo, "it would be no suffering for a business man to be
storm-bound here during a probable panic in Wall Street!
"I'm tired," I said, "of hearing you refer to yourself or any of these
gentlemen as business men. You always gamble; and when you're in
good-luck you gambol, and when you aren't, you don't. What makes me
sickest about you all is that you're so nauseatingly conceited and
self-important. You all think that your beastly old Stock Exchange is
the axle about which the wheel of the world revolves, and each of you
thinks, privately, that he's the particular grease that makes it revolve
smoothly."
"Well," said Billoo, "you know that the presence on the floor of one
steady, conservative man may often avert a panic."
"Show me the man," I said. "Has any one here ever caused a panic or
averted one? But you all lose money just as often because you're on the
spot, as make it. Wouldn't you all be the richer for an absence now
and then?"
"Of course," said Randall, "there are times when it doesn't matter one
way or the other. But when--well, when the market's in the state it is
now, it's life or death, almost, to be on the spot."
"I don't understand," I said. "When the market looks fussy, why not
sell out, and wait for better times?"
"We _can't_ sell out," said Billoo. "We're loaded up to the muzzle."
"You look as if you had been," I said courteously; but Billoo brushed
the remark aside as if it had been a fly.
"If we _try_ to unload," he said, "the market begins to collapse. We
_can't_ unload, except a little at a time, and still prices get lower
and lower and margins thinner and thinner. Now, I happen to _know_"--he
looked about him importantly--"that to-morrow will hear the failure of a
_very well-known_ house, and after that's announced--God knows."
"How true that is!" I said. "But tell me: suppose you gentlemen
deliberately absented yourselves for a few days--wouldn't it restore
confidence? Wouldn't the other brokers say: 'Billoo, Randall, Tombs,
Marshall, Bedlo, etc., don't seem to think there's much doing. None of
'em's here--what's the use of _me_ being scared?'"
"It would have the contrary effect, Sam," said Tombs solemnly. "They
would think that we had decamped in a body for Canada."
"I don't know," said I, "but it would be a better thing for the country
if you all did ship to Canada--I don't think there's much doing
out-doors to-day. Hear that wind!"
"If I can get rid of all my holdings," said Billoo, "I'll sit tight.
We'll see lower prices before we see higher."
"Well," said I, "I'll bet you we don't."
"Young man," said Billoo, and he looked almost well and happy, "just
name your sum."
"I'll bet you a thousand," I said.
"Sammy," said Tombs very sweetly, "have you got another thousand up your
sleeve?"
"Sure," I said.
"Done with you," said Tombs.
In about five minutes I had bet with everybody present.
"But mind," I said, "there mustn't be any dirty work. You people mustn't
go to town to-morrow with the idea of forming a strong coalition and
_putting_ prices down."
"It wouldn't be worth while," said Billoo. "As a matter of fact, we'd
like nothing better than to see you win your bet, but as you can't,
possibly--why, a thousand dollars is always a thousand dollars."
"Just the same," said I, "_no_ coalitions."
The wind went on howling till late in the afternoon and then it began to
peter out. We had spent the whole day in the house, and everybody was
tired and bored, and nervous about Monday, and bedtime came earlier
than usual.
"Sam," said Sally, when we were alone, "it's just occurred to me that we
_may_ be causing some of these people to lose a lot of money."
"Why, Sally," I said, "you look scared."
"I am," she said. "Don't _you_ think it would be rather awful?"
"No, I don't," I said; "I think it would be split-tingly funny. But they
won't lose. Their absence will steady the market."
"Who told you that, Sam?" said Sally.
"Sam!" said I.