Louis Joseph Vance

“ Longitude is a trivial thing in a game of chance.
Through Tuesday afternoon and all day Wednesday Carruth sold St. Louis Southern. At the close of Wednesday he had put out the 30,000 shares of management stock, and it was safely in the hands of Pierce's brokers, who had kept the stock as easy to borrow in the loan crowd that no thought had been raised of the accumulation.
Under the manipulator's orders the stock had declined diplomatically on the heavier sales, but in company with the whole market it had held well, closing at 1063⁄4 on Wednesday. ”

“ We'll lead the management of the road into temptation and we'll draw out 35,000 shares from London. where they love a speculation, and from the street, which is joined to it by bonds of unholy wedlock. Investors won't sell on a raise, and we'll have to get the other 70,000 shares for control—"
"You get that and more from Bowman," broke in Barr. "I want to see some stock with his name on the back of it."
The market opened up on Monday. The financial writers told how baseless, really, had been the previous decline, and hinted at a bear raid for quick profits. ”

“ This is Thursday; you sell 50,000 shares of the other three southwest roads and 30,000 of St. Louis. We'll buy back our short stock when St. Louis reaches 93, seven points under its present price. If you have to sell more to break the market down, go ahead, but be careful about raising suspicion."
The broker hurried away, proud of his supposed possession of the "old man's" confidence, and Pierce arranged through other brokers for the purchase of the bulk of the stock Hathaway sold and all the St Louis Southern that frightened holders might throw over on the break. ”

“ Barr continued, handing the memorandum to Pierce, "the figures are approximate, except the nest-egg I've picked up here and there in the last few days.
"How to get what we want of these holdings is, of course, for you to say. I presume you've got to hammer St. Louis down to scare out stock from the investors, and the street and London, but I know you've got to put it up to get that 60,000 shares from the road's maangement. If you put it from $100 a share, where it is now, to $110, it will mean ten dollars a share, or $600,000 in their treasury, if they sell. They'll sell quick. ”

“ The well-planned attack had immediate effect. The grangers, including St Louis Southern, had broken 11⁄2}} points at the close and on Friday, when the bears had joined the movement they broke still further, big stop-loss orders having been reached at 97 in St Louis, which closed at 963⁄4. On Saturday sales of 10,000 shares of St Louis for London account and a bad statement by the banks, whose resources had been depleted through cash withdrawals by Barr's Chicago banking friends, offset dispatches from the maligned west telling of bumper crops. ”

“ They'll sell it before it's listed on the exchange for that takes 30 days.
"You know what that means. They'll have sold something they haven't got until the 30 days are up. In the meantime, they'll borrow, without knowing it, our stock, the stock we've corralled, and when we call on them for it they won't have it to give us and we can make 'em settle for any figure we're kind enough to name."
Pierce nodded appreciation of this mine that was being laid for the unwary management.
"What about Bowman & Co's stock?" he queried. "They've got the control." ”

“ On the following morning Bowman reached his office earlier than usual and sent for Walter Carruth of the stock exchange firm of Carruth & Hendrie, who handled all of Bowman & Co.'s exchange business. The market had just opened and he was at the ticker when Carruth entered.
"Mr. Carruth," Bowman said at once. "I see that the market is very strong, and that St. Louis Southern has opened at 1053⁄8 The directors of the St. Louis have voted to sell 60,000 shares of stock now in the treasury, and this seems a good time to put it out. Do you think the market will take 30,000 shares around 106?" ”

“ The longest-living author of this work died in 1933, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 90 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works. ”