That same morning Landry Court found himself in the corridor on the ground floor of the Board of Trade about nine o’clock. He had just come out of the office of Gretry, Converse & Co. , where he and the other Pit traders for the house had been receiving their orders for the day.

As he was buying a couple of apples at the news stand at the end of the corridor, Semple and a young Jew named Hirsch, Pit traders for small firms in La Salle Street, joined him.

“Hello, Court, what do you know?”

“Hello, Barry Semple! Hello, Hirsch!” Landry offered the halves of his second apple, and the three stood there a moment, near the foot of the stairs, talking and eating their apples from the points of their penknives.