“Me! Hoh! Say my boy, the next time I get into a wheat trade you’ll know it. I was one of the merry paretics who believed that Crookes was the Great Lum-tum. I tailed on to his clique. Lord love you! Jadwin put the knife into me to the tune of twelve thousand dollars. But, say, look here; aren’t we ever going to get up to that blame gallery? We ain’t going to see any of this, and I⁠— hark!⁠—by God! there goes the gong. They’ve begun. Say, say, hear ’em, will you! Holy Moses! say⁠—listen to that! Did you ever hear⁠—Lord! I wish we could see⁠—could get somewhere where we could see something.”

His friend turned to him and spoke a sentence that was drowned in the sudden vast volume of sound that all at once shook the building.

“Hey⁠—what?”