204 DEEP FURROWS 



their backs to the wall, the focus of pointing fingers 

 and gleeful grins. 



The fact that a salaried employee, not an officer of 

 the Company, had acted on his own initiative without 

 the consent of the directors was no excuse for a reliable 

 business concern to tender as such. The first question 

 flung back at them naturally would be : " Then your 

 ' Board of Control ' doesn't control, eh ?" For although 

 the Board of Control did not know what their Manager 

 was doing until it was too late to prevent it, they should 

 have known. That is what they were there for to 

 protect the shareholders from managerial mistakes. 



However, there they were. The only thing they could 

 do was to fight it out to a finish in the Pit and, if they 

 survived, to see that no similar mistakes occurred in 

 the future. 



All sorts of rumors were flying about the corridors 

 of the Exchange, gathering momentum as they passed 

 from lip to lip, swelling with the heat of the excitement 

 until it was a general guess that the Grain Growers 

 must be loaded with anywhere between five and eight 

 million bushels of oats more than they had been able to 

 sell. 



It was only a guess, though, and a wild one. Many 

 traders would have given a good round sum to know 

 exactly how the farmers' company stood on the books 

 of the Clearing House. Only the Clearing House and 

 the Company itself knew the true figures and the 

 Clearing House officials were men of the highest 

 integrity who dare not be approached for secret tips. 



Thanks to the splendid export connection which had 

 been built up in the Old Country and to the equally 

 solid financial relations with the Home Bank, the 

 farmers' agency was selling oats for export very 



