Their system was legal enough, in the eyes alike of the law
and of the Stock Exchange rules. They had an undoubted
right to mark out their prey and pursue it, and bring
it down, and feed to the bone upon it. But the exercise
of this right did not make them beloved by the begetters
and sponsors of their victims. When word first went round,
on the last day of February, that a lamb had unexpectedly
turned upon these two practised and confident wolves,
and had torn an ear from each of them, and driven them
pell-mell into a "corner," it was received on all sides
with a gratified smile.
Later, by fortnightly stages, the story grew at once
more tragic and more satisfactory. Not only Rostocker
and Aronson, but a dozen others were in the cul de sac
guarded by this surprising and bloody-minded lamb.
Most of the names were well-known as those of "wreckers."
In this category belonged Blaustein, Ganz, Rothfoere,
Lewis, Ascher, and Mendel, and if Harding, Carpenter,
and Vesey could not be so confidently classified,
at least their misfortune excited no particular sympathy.
Two other names mentioned, those of Norfell and Pinney,
were practically unknown.
There was some surprise, however, at the statement that
the old and respected and extremely conservative firm of
Fromentin Bros. was entangled in the thing.
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