"Decker's getting it."
My heart sank. Doddridge Knapp must have smothered his brain once more
in the Black Smoke, and was now paying the price of indulgence. And his
plans of wealth were a sacrifice to the wild and criminal scheme into
which he had entered in his contest against the Unknown. I saw the
wreck of fortune engulf Mrs. Knapp and Luella, and groaned in spirit.
Then a flash of hope shot through me. Luella Knapp, the heiress to
millions, was beyond my dreams, but Luella Knapp, the daughter of a
ruined speculator, would not be too high a prize for a poor man to set
his eyes upon.
The clang of the gong recalled me from the reverie that had shut out
the details of the scene before me.
"There! Did you hear that?" groaned Wall-bridge. "Omega closes at two
thousand six hundred and Decker takes every trick. Oh, why didn't you
have me on the floor out there? By the great horn spoon, I'd 'a' had
every share of that stock, and wouldn't 'a' paid more than half as much
for it, neither."
I sighed and turned, sick at heart, to meet the King of the Street as
he shouldered his way from the floor.
There was not a trace of his misfortune to be read in his face. But
Decker, the victor, moved away like a man oppressed, pale, staggering,
half-fainting, as though the nervous strain had brought him to the edge
of collapse.
Doddridge Knapp made his way to the doors and signed me to follow him,
but spoke no word until we stood beside the columns that guard the
entrance.
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