90 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS 



wave system was touched and every dollar of 

 gold bought under it had been sold and the last 

 short sale covered, it pleasured me much to lay 

 quietly on my partner's desk a slip of paper show- 

 ing the result of the latest campaign. I enjoyed 

 that first look of incredulitv and then — but I have 

 already told what he said. 



As the tide continued to ebb the machine piled 

 up gold in our office, and as the political and 

 financial skies seemed to brighten, the great bears 

 came out of their caves while the most stubborn 

 of the bulls lightened their loads, or even turned 

 bears for the nonce. While the price continued 

 to tumble the wave machine never ceased to pour 

 in its steady stream of profits, but for the moment 

 these were dwarfed by the daily decline in value 

 of the great and increasing burden of gold we 

 were carrying. For the machine added forty 

 thousand dollars to this load on every one per 

 cent decline, and always I believed the sweep of 

 the receding tide had ended days before the real 

 culmination. 



