“Why,” he cried, “one would think, to hear you talk, as though there was danger of me busting here at any hour.”

Gretry did not answer. There was a moment’s silence Then the broker caught his principal’s eye and held it a second.

“Well,” he answered, “you saw how freely they sold to us in the Pit yesterday. We’ve got to buy, and buy and buy, to keep our price up; and look here, look at these reports from our correspondents⁠—everything points to a banner crop. There’s been an increase of acreage everywhere, because of our high prices. See this from Travers”⁠—he picked up a despatch and read: “ ‘Preliminary returns of spring wheat in two Dakotas, subject to revision, indicate a total area seeded of sixteen million acres, which added to area in winter wheat states, makes total of forty-three million, or nearly four million acres greater than last year.’ ”