About this story
A month later your broker Gretry wants you to sell a million bushels of wheat short on a tip too secret to verify, with a ruined speculator named Hargus eating lunch in the next room as an unheeded warning. The chapter ends with a coin spinning over the Board of Trade floor, deciding a fortune you have not yet agreed to risk.
How it opens
At eight, the Auditorium vestibule held opera patrons, winter drafts, and no Cresslers.
Mr. Jadwin, we were all meant to join the same party here tonight.
The tall young woman had crossed the crowd because waiting had begun to cost the overture.
Page DearbornI met you once at the Cresslers, though I did not expect you to remember.
Something might be done, even if the Cresslers neglected a telephone.
Choose
I can search the carriage line while your party waits inside.
We wait three more minutes, then I take responsibility for the tickets.