— Yeah but what about all these baskets? Like suppose this here company makes all these baskets which they can’t sell them either?
— Well, we start right off with the old law of supply and demand don’t we, they probably wouldn’t have started making baskets in the first place unless…
— They’re stuck with all these here lousy baskets they made which nobody wants to buy them, so who wants their stock?
— Yes, well, something like that would cause the price of the stock to decline wouldn’t it, and the old law…
— So this old law of supply and decline with all these baskets happens with their stock too so what’s the difference? Like everybody’s buying it and selling it which they all want to get rid of it at once so like how does anybody know how much it’s worth? Like we saw all these guys tearing up all this paper all over the floor which nobody knew what they were doing, so like now we buy this stock of Diamond Cable with our money so what if there’s all this here cable nobody wants like nobody that didn’t buy all those baskets so it just ends up all these guys are running around tearing up paper all over the floor like where does that leave us?
— Hold on now, hold on. First, you’re not going to get stung with Diamond Cable, you can take my word for it. Second, every one of those guys out on the Stock Exchange floor knows what he’s doing, he knows to the penny where the stocks he handles stand. And third, stock prices don’t just fly out of control because a lot of those guys, as you call them, those men out on the floor of the Exchange, a lot of them are what are called specialists…
— Sorry there… Crawley held the door wide for Mrs Joubert before he strode in to pause at eye level with a bighorn and match profiles. — Well, boys and, you little… ladies and gentlemen, getting right down to business, eh? That’s what brings us all together, eh? Business, Dave why don’t you just sit right down over there. That’s what brings people together, eh? Now then… He came crowding the blotter where Davidoff’s hands untangled ducking the reach for a button, — Shirley…?
— Better have her check on that photographer…
— Shirley? Where’s that Diamond Cable certificate? These young people are here on business, let’s not waste their time.
— I’ll bring it right in sir, her boxed voice blurted at the fist doubled on the blotter.
— Yes the, time is money, isn’t it. I guess you’ve, we’ve all heard that haven’t we… hands opening and grasping closed on nothing he glanced up and sought refuge from one blank face in the next till he found Mrs Joubert’s — maybe the ahm, your little people have some questions while we’re waiting…? he drummed off the blotter’s limits.
— I think they’d like to hear what you…
— Did you kill all these animals yourself Mister Crowley?
— Crawley…
— That tv on your desk is it color tv?
— This, this is called a Quotron. Just by pressing a button or two I can ask it for the latest information on any stock, number of shares traded, latest bid and asked prices…
— Is that you in that picture up there with that dead horse you just shot?
— Horse? horse? That’s a, a hunter’s hartebeest, got it in Kenya there’s its head right over there, yes. Now then…
— What are futures?
— Futures? Crawley reared his chin toward the dim recess of dark leather.
— Here where it says the effect on nickel futures of the new government cobalt stockpile requirements which…
— What are you reading there!
— Nothing just, just this here let…
— Mister Beaton returning your call sir, the box blurted as Davidoff rounded the turn with the papers scooped from the low table in the corner to drop them on the desk blotter blinding the oval of burnished gold at Crawley’s cuff with a burst of sapphire, confiding — better let me have a word with him, Monty wants…
— Beaton? Crawley here, what’s… the what…? No still got one certificate down here, this last option he picked up it’s… that’s right… he paced a step away from the desk, two steps back as though chained there before the eyes fixed on him from all directions as his own rose to the door panel abruptly jarring the dismal black on gray pattern backed against it, breaking out with an arm reaching the scrimshaw handed through. — That’s right just call it a blind trust, better than going in there with this public disclosure drag things out for a month and… probably will yes I’ll send it up… and he got the phone down before Davidofif’s lurched — Monty wants… could reach it.
— Now then, you’ve got your certificate all we need is the…
— Excuse me Mister Crawley perhaps they’d all like to hear what it says before we…
— Sure it says, holy, it says two hundred ninety-three thousand shares it says this is to certify that the Emily Cates Moncrieff Founda…
— Here give me that!
— Give me that!
Davidoff rounded one end of the desk, Crawley the other sweeping open the door as he caught the certificate in mid-air, — Shirley!…
— But holy…
— The telephone’s lighting up hey…
— Hello? Davidoff here… He does? He did…? It is? Tell him I’m on my way, he hung up taking both hands to jam the Italian knit constriction at his throat still tighter, — brush fire, the boss wants me to get right up there I’d better take one of the cars, I think you can all fit into the other two they’ll be waiting downstairs, I’ll have everything on deck when you get there. Oh and Shirl…
Crawley got the door closed with his back against it. — Here’s our certificate, now do any of you little, you young people know what it’s worth?
A hand going up caught him in the ribs as he crossed the room. — The closing price of it was twenty-four dollars and sixty-three cents each.
— Twenty-four sixty-three, he muttered with a pencil, — plus the twelve and a half cents odd-lot differential…
— The what?
— The, stocks are usually bought and sold in round lots, a hundred shares. When we deal in less than that we call it an odd lot and there’s a little price differential yes, plus the broker’s commission…
— How much do you get?
— We’ll make it one percent, eh? Plus four cents…
— Mister Crawley, this might be an opportunity to show the boys and girls how your Quotron works, you might just push Diamond and see what’s happening to it?
— Mphh…
— Holy, two hundred eighty thousand that’s dollars?
— No no that’s, number of shares traded so far today yes quite a, quite an active issue.
— What’s that minus sign two and an eighth.
— Yes, off two and an eighth points, isn’t it.
— Dollars?
— Well yes in a, in a manner of speaking…
— So now it’s only twenty-two fifty and a half cents so we saved two dollars and twelve and a half…
— And who are you? said Crawley looking up abruptly as the door cracked slowly. — If you’re here to clean the typewriters they’re out there.
— I’m a, I’m the photographer are you Mister Davidoff?