But once, however, an entire deputation of these wheat growers found their way into the sanctum. They came bearing a presentation cup of silver, and their spokesman, stammering and horribly embarrassed in unwonted broadcloth and varnished boots, delivered a short address. He explained that all through the Middle West, all through the wheat belts, a great wave of prosperity was rolling because of Jadwin’s corner. Mortgages were being paid off, new and improved farming implements were being bought, new areas seeded new live stock acquired. The men were buying buggies again, the women parlor melodeons, houses and homes were going up; in short, the entire farming population of the Middle West was being daily enriched. In a letter that Jadwin received about this time from an old fellow living in Bates Corners, Kansas, occurred the words:
“—and, sir, you must know that not a night passes that my little girl, now going on seven, sir, and the brightest of her class in the county seat grammar school, does not pray to have God bless Mister Jadwin, who helped papa save the farm.”
If there was another side, if the brilliancy of his triumph yet threw a shadow behind it, Jadwin could ignore it. It was far from him, he could not see it. Yet for all this a story came to him about this time that for long would not be quite forgotten. It came through Corthell, but very indirectly, passed on by a dozen mouths before it reached his ears.
It told of an American, an art student, who at the moment was on a tramping tour through the north of Italy. It was an ugly story. Jadwin pished and pshawed, refusing to believe it, condemning it as ridiculous exaggeration, but somehow it appealed to an uncompromising sense of the probable; it rang true.
“And I met this boy,” the student had said, “on the high road, about a kilometre outside of Arezzo. He was a fine fellow of twenty or twenty-two. He knew nothing of the world. England he supposed to be part of the mainland of Europe. For him Cavour and Mazzini were still alive. But when I announced myself American, he roused at once.
“ ‘Ah, American,’ he said. ‘We know of your compatriot, then, here in Italy—this Jadwin of Chicago, who has bought all the wheat. We have no more bread. The loaf is small as the fist, and costly. We cannot buy it, we have no money. For myself, I do not care. I am young. I can eat lentils and cress. But’ and here his voice was a whisper—‘but my mother—my mother!’ ”
“It’s a lie!” Jadwin cried. “Of course it’s a lie. Good God, if I were to believe every damned story the papers print about me these days I’d go insane.”
Yet when he put up the price of wheat to a dollar and twenty cents, the great flour mills of Minnesota and Wisconsin stopped grinding, and finding a greater profit in selling the grain than in milling it, threw their stores upon the market. Though the bakers did not increase the price of their bread as a consequence of this, the loaf—even in Chicago, even in the centre of that great Middle West that weltered in the luxury of production—was smaller, and from all the poorer districts of the city came complaints, protests, and vague grumblings of discontent.
On a certain Monday, about the middle of May, Jadwin sat at Gretry’s desk (long since given over to his use), in the office on the ground floor of the Board of Trade, swinging nervously back and forth in the swivel chair, drumming his fingers upon the arms, and glancing continually at the clock that hung against the opposite wall. It was about eleven in the morning. The Board of Trade vibrated with the vast trepidation of the Pit, that for two hours had spun and sucked, and guttered and disgorged just overhead. The waiting-room of the office was more than usually crowded. Parasites of every description polished the walls with shoulder and elbow. Millionaires and beggars jostled one another about the doorway. The vice-president of a bank watched the door of the private office covertly; the traffic manager of a railroad exchanged yarns with a group of reporters while awaiting his turn.
As Gretry, the great man’s lieutenant, hurried through the anteroom, conversation suddenly ceased, and half a dozen of the more impatient sprang forward. But the broker pushed his way through the crowd, shaking his head, excusing himself as best he might, and entering the office, closed the door behind him.
At the clash of the lock Jadwin started halfway from his chair, then recognising the broker, sank back with a quick breath.
“Why don’t you knock, or something, Sam?” he exclaimed. “Might as well kill a man as scare him to death. Well, how goes it?”
“All right. I’ve fixed the warehouse crowd—and we just about ‘own’ the editorial and news sheets of these papers.” He threw a memorandum down upon the desk. “I’m off again now. Got an appointment with the Northwestern crowd in ten minutes. Has Hargus or Scannel shown up yet?”
“Hargus is always out in your customers’ room,” answered Jadwin. “I can get him whenever I want him. But Scannel has not shown up yet. I thought when we put up the price again Friday we’d bring him in. I thought you’d figured out that he couldn’t stand that rise.”
“He can’t stand it,” answered Gretry. “He’ll be in to see you tomorrow or next day.”
“Tomorrow or next day won’t do,” answered Jadwin. “I want to put the knife into him today. You go up there on the floor and put the price up another cent. That will bring him, or I’ll miss my guess.”
Gretry nodded. “All right,” he said, “it’s your game. Shall I see you at lunch?”
“Lunch! I can’t eat. But I’ll
