and hunted me up to run your boat here--'cause I was about the only chap
who could run it and wa'n't otherwise busy--I'd ought to have charged
you twenty dollars instead of ten.'

"'Sure you had,' he says, grinnin'. 'But you weren't shrewd enough to
grasp the situation and do it. Now the deal's closed and it's too late.'

"He went on talkin' about 'pools' and deals' and such. How prices of
this stock and that was shoved up a-purpose till a lot of folks had
put their money in it and then was smashed flat so's all hands but the
'poolers' would be what he called 'squeezed out,' and the gang would get
their cash. That was legitimate, too--'high finance,' he said.

"'But how about the poor folks that had their savin's in them stocks,'
I asks, 'and don't know high financin'? Where's the law of supply and
demand come in for them?'

"He laughed. 'They supply the suckers and the demand for money,' says
he.

"By eleven we was well out toward the fishin' grounds. 'Twas the bad
season now; the big fish had struck off still further and there wa'n't
another boat in sight. The land was just a yeller and green smooch along
the sky line and the waves was runnin' bigger. The Shootin' Star was
seaworthy, though, and I wa'n't worried about her. The only thing that
troubled me was the fog, and that was pilin' up to wind'ard. I'd called
Fatty's attention to it when we fust started, but he said he didn't care
a red for fog. Well, I didn't much care nuther, for we had a compass
aboard and the engine was runnin' fine. What wind there was was blowin'
offshore.