"You know what Barker said?
Van Loo, either through stupidity, fright, or the wish to get the lowest prices, was too late to buy up the market.

If he had, we might have openly declared the forgery, and if it was known that he or his friends had profited by it, even if we could not have proven his actual complicity, we could at least have made it too hot for him in California.

But," said Stacy, looking intently at his friend, "do you know how the case stands now ?" "Well," said Demorest, a little uneasily under his friend's keen eyes, "we've lost that chance, but we've kept control of the stock." "You think so?
Well, let me tell you how the case stands and the price we pay for it," said Stacy deliberately, as he folded his arms and gazed at Demorest.

"You and I, well known as old friends and former partners, for no apparent reason--for we cannot prove the forgery now--have thrown upon the market all our stock, with the usual effect of depreciating it.
Another old friend and former partner has bought it in and sent up the price.

A common trick, a vulgar trick, but not a trick worthy of James Stacy or Stacy's Bank!" "But why not simply declare the forgery without making any specific charge against Van Loo ?" "Do you imagine, Phil, that any man would believe it, and the story of a providentially appointed friend like Barker who saved us from loss?
Why, all California, from Cape Mendocino to Los Angeles, would roar with laughter over it! No! We must swallow it and the reputation of 'jockeying' with the Wheat Trust, too.