Chapter XIV: Mainly From the Papers

(From the Wall Street _Sun_, Oct. 21, 190-)

Whatever motive impelled Robert H. Norcross to his mysterious
operations in L.D. and M. during the past two days, it looks rather
like stock manipulation than the larger financing which has
hitherto marked his career. When, on Wednesday, the directors of
the L.D. and M. adjourned without declaring a dividend, that stock,
which had advanced somewhat owing to the speculative trading of the
past three weeks, fell from 56 to 50, and closed weak at 49-1/4.
Directly after the close of the exchange, Norcross, as though by
program, reconvened the directors, who declared a dividend of one
and one-half per cent. The news was about by the time the market
opened yesterday, and L.D. and M. made the record jump of the year,
going to 76 and closing strong at 75-1/2. It scarcely went below
that point to-day, and at two o'clock touched its highest
notch--76-3/4. Considerable criticism of Norcross was heard on
the street to-day.

(From the Wall Street _Sun_, Oct. 24, 190-)

BROKERAGE FIRM ASSIGNS

The firm of Bulger and Watson, promoters and Stock Exchange
operators, made an assignment this morning. Liabilities $276,125;
assets $81,300. This failure followed the collapse of the Mongolia
Copper Mine in Montana, news of which reached New York last
Saturday. Bulger and Watson were heavily interested in that
property. An unusual feature of this failure, according to those on
the inside, was the action of Arthur Bulger, senior member of the
firm, in the L.D. and M. flurry of last Wednesday and Thursday.
Bulger, it is said by those who know his affairs best, had
speculated heavily in L.D. and M., playing for a rise. On the eve
of the fluky directors' meeting of last Wednesday--which, it will
be remembered, adjourned without action only to reconvene after
market hours and declare a dividend--Bulger began through his
brokers to unload. It is believed that he was acting upon some
advance inside information of the directors' action. He was sold
clean out of this stock when the market closed Wednesday afternoon.
Had he held on, the firm would doubtless have been able to survive
the Mongolia crash, for L.D. and M., following the unexpected
action of the directors in declaring a dividend, jumped on Thursday
from 50 to the neighborhood of 75. The failure will involve no
other firms, it is thought.

As the curve of Sandy Hook blotted from sight the last, low glimpse of the skyscrapers which point Manhattan, Blake touched Annette's arm. She turned from her reveries; the distance faded from her eyes.

"It's the end of a life for you--that," he said. "We don't see New York again for two years. We're going back over the girlhood you never had--you're going to dance and motor and walk--yes and coquette, too--or as much as you care to with me as a husband. For two years, you're just going to play!"

Then, noticing the expression of the dog who beholds his master with which her sapphirine eyes regarded him, he dropped his hand on hers.

"But most of all, dearest," he added, "you're going to do what you want to do! Not what I or any one else commands, but just as your own sweet will dictates--Light of me!"

End of Project Gutenberg's The House of Mystery, by William Henry Irwin