"Well, maybe
you don't understand that, either!" And he tossed me a bit of paper.
I felt sure that I did not. My ignorance grew into amazement as I read.
The slip bore the words:
"I have bought Crown Diamond. What's the limit?
Wilton."
"I certainly don't understand," I said. "What does it mean?"
"The man who wrote it ought to know," growled Doddridge Knapp, with his
eyes flashing and the yellow-gray mustache standing out like bristles.
The fangs of the Wolf were in sight.
"Well, you'll have to look somewhere else for him," I said firmly. "I
never saw the note, and never bought a share of Crown Diamond."
Doddridge Knapp bent forward, and looked for an instant as though he
would leap upon me. His eye was the eye of a wild beast in anger. If I
had written that note I should have gone through the window without
stopping for explanations. As I had not written it I sat there coolly
and looked him in the face with an easy conscience.
"Well, well," he said at last, relaxing his gaze, "I almost believe
you."
"There's no use going any further, Mr. Knapp, unless you believe me
altogether."
"I see you understand what I was going to say," he said quietly. "But
if you didn't send that, who did?"
"Well, if I were to make a guess, I should say it was the man who wrote
this."
I tossed him in turn the note I had received in the afternoon, bidding
me sell everything.
The King of the Street looked at it carefully, and his brows drew lower
and lower as its import dawned on him.
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