The Tipster | Page 7

no trouble with his
brother-in-law. Gilmartin told him it was an inviolable Wall Street
custom and so Griggs paid, with an air of much experience in such
matters. Freeman was more or less grateful. But Smithers met
Gilmartin, and full of his good luck repeated what he had told a dozen
men within the hour: "I did a dandy stroke the other day. Pa. Cent.
looked to me like higher prices and I bought a wad of it. I've cleaned up
a tidy sum," and he looked proud of his own penetration. He really had
forgotten that it was Gilmartin who had given him the tip. But not so
Gilmartin, who retorted, witheringly:
"Well, I've often heard of folks that you put into good things and they
make money and afterward they come to you and tell how damned

smart they were to hit it right. But you can't work that on me. I've got
witnesses."
"Witnesses?" echoed Smithers, looking cheap. He remembered.
"Yes, wit-ness-es," mimicked Gilmartin, scornfully, "I all but had to get
on my knees to make you buy it. And I told you when to sell it, too.
The information came to me straight from headquarters and you got the
use of it, and now the least you can do is to give me twenty-five
hundred dollars."
In the end he accepted eight hundred dollars. He told mutual friends
that Smithers had cheated him.

VI
It seemed as though the regeneration of Gilmartin had been achieved
when he changed his shabby raiment for expensive clothes. He paid his
tradesmen's bills and moved into better quarters. He spent his money as
though he had made millions. One week after he had closed out the
deal his friends would have sworn Gilmartin had always been
prosperous. That was his exterior. His inner self remained the same--a
gambler. He began to speculate again, in the office of Freeman's
brokers.
At the end of the second month he had lost not only the $1,200 he had
deposited with the firm, but an additional $250 he had given his wife
and had been obliged to "borrow" back from her, despite her assurances
that he would lose it. This time the slump was really unexpected by all,
even by the magnates--the mysterious and all-powerful "they" of
Freeman's--so that the loss of the second fortune did not reflect on
Gilmartin's ability as a speculator, but on his luck. As a matter of fact,
he had been too careful and had sinned from over-timidity at first, only
to plunge later and lose all.
As the result of much thought about his losses Gilmartin became a
professional tipster. To let others speculate for him seemed the only

sure way of winning. He began by advising ten victims--he learned in
time to call them clients--to sell Steel Rod preferred, each man 100
shares; and to a second ten he urged the purchase of the same quantity
of the same stock. To all he advised taking four points' profit. Not all
followed his advice, but the seven clients who sold it made between
them nearly $3,000 overnight. His percentage amounted to $287.50.
Six bought, and when they lost he told them confidentially how the
treachery of a leading member of the pool had obliged the pool
managers to withdraw their support from the stock temporarily, whence
the decline. They grumbled; but he assured them that he himself had
lost nearly $1,600 of his own on account of the traitor.
For some months Gilmartin made a fair living, but business became
very dull. People learned to fight shy of his tips. The persuasiveness
was gone from his inside news and from his confidential advice from
Sharpe and from his beholding with his own eyes the signing of
epoch-making documents. Had he been able to make his customers
alternate their winnings and losses he might have kept his trade. But,
for example, "Dave" Rossiter, in Stuart & Stern's office, stupidly
received the wrong tip six times in succession. It wasn't Gilmartin's
fault, but Rossiter's bad luck.
At length, failing to get enough clients in the ticker district itself,
Gilmartin was forced to advertise in an afternoon paper, six times a
week, and in the Sunday edition of one of the leading morning dailies.
They ran like this:
WE MAKE MONEY
for our Investors by the best system ever devised. Deal with genuine
experts. Two methods of operating; one speculative, the other ensures
absolute safety.
NOW
is the time to invest in a certain stock for ten points sure profit Three
points margin will carry it. Remember how correct we have been on
other stocks. Take advantage of this move.

IOWA MIDLAND.
Big movement coming in this stock. If s very near at hand. Am waiting
daily for word. Will get it in