City men, who hear more than they read, knew in a general
way about this "Rubber King." He was an outsider who had
come in, and was obviously filling his pockets; but it
was a comforting rule that outsiders who did this always
got their pockets emptied for them again in the long run.
There seemed nothing about Thorpe to suggest that he
would prove an exception to the rule. He was investing
his winnings with great freedom, so the City understood,
and his office was besieged daily by promoters and touts.
They could clean out his strong-box faster than
the profits of his Rubber corner could fill it.
To know such a man, however, could not but be useful,
and they made furtive notes of his number in Austin Friars
on their cuffs, after conversation had drifted from him
to other topics.
As to the Rubber corner itself, the Stock Exchange
as a whole was apathetic. When some of the sufferers
ventured cautious hints about the possibility of official
intervention on their behalf, they were laughed
at by those who did not turn away in cold silence.
Of the fourteen men who had originally been caught
in the net drawn tight by Thorpe and Semple, all the
conspicuous ones belonged to the class of "wreckers,"
a class which does not endear itself to Capel Court.
Both Rostocker and Aronson, who, it was said, were worst hit,
were men of great wealth, but they had systematically
amassed these fortunes by strangling in their cradles
weak enterprises, and by undermining and toppling
over other enterprises which would not have been weak
if they had been given a legitimate chance to live.
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