The great Horatio’s only acknowledgment of the greeting was a nod.  He did not even remove his cap.  He was looking at the little man in the chair at the foot of the table and he seemed quite oblivious of any one else.  And Galusha, for that matter, seemed quite as oblivious of him.

The Pulcifer mouth opened and the Pulcifer finger pointed.

“Say,” commanded Raish.  “Say—­you!” And as this seemed to have little or no effect upon the individual toward whom the finger pointed, he added:  “Say, you—­er—­ What’s-your-name—­Bangs.”

Galusha, who had been absently playing with his napkin, twisting it into folds and then untwisting it, looked up.

“Eh?” he queried.  “Oh, yes—­yes, of course.  How do you do, Mr. Pulcifer?”

This placidity seemed to shut off Raish’s breath for the moment, but it returned in full supply.

“How do I do!” he repeated.  “Well, I ain’t what you’d call fust-rate, I’d say.  I’m pretty darn sick, if anybody should ask you.  I’ve had enough to make me sick.  Say, look here, Bangs!  What kind of a game is this you’ve been puttin’ over on me—­hey? . . .  Hey?”

“Game? . . .  I—­ah—­pardon me, I don’t know that I quite understand, Mr. Pulcifer.”

“Don’t you?  Well, I don’t understand neither.  But I cal’late to pretty quick.  What did Jeth Hallett mean last night by sayin’ that he’d sold his four hundred Development a couple of months ago?  What did he mean by it?”

Martha Phipps was about to speak.  Cabot, too, leaned forward.  But Galusha raised a protesting hand.

“Please,” he said.  “Mr. Pulcifer has a perfect right to ask.  I have—­ah—­been expecting him to do so.  Well, Mr. Pulcifer, I presume Captain Hallet meant that he had—­ah—­sold the stock.”

“He did?  I want to know!  And what did he mean by sayin’ he’d sold it to you?”

Again Miss Phipps and Cousin Gussie seemed about to take a hand and again Galusha silenced them.

“If you please,” he begged.  “It is quite all right, really. . . .  I suppose, Mr. Pulcifer, he meant that he had done just that.  He did.  I—­ah—­bought his stock.”

“You did!  You did?  Say, what kind of a—­ Say, am I crazy or are you?”

“Oh, I am.  Dear me, yes, Mr. Pulcifer.  At all events, I purchased the stock from Captain Hallett.  I bought Miss Phipps’ shares at the same time.”

It took more than a trifle to “stump” Raish Pulcifer.  He was accustomed to boast that it did.  But he had never been nearer to being stumped than at that moment.

“You—­bought—­” He puffed the words as a locomotive puffs smoke when leaving a station.

“Yes,” said Galusha, calmly, “I bought both his and hers.”

“You did! . . .  You did! . . .  Well, by cripes!  But—­but why?”

“Because, I—­ah—­ For reasons of my own, Mr. Pulcifer.  Please pardon me if I do not go into that.  I do not wish to appear rude, but the reasons are quite personal, really.”