Runs had begun on the savings banks also; over on the East Side the alarm had reached the ignorant foreign population.  It had spread with the speed of lightning all over the country; already there were reports of runs in other cities, and from thousands and tens of thousands of banks in East and South and West came demands upon the Metropolis for money.  And there was no money anywhere.

And so the masters of the Banking Trust realised to their annoyance that the monster which they had turned loose might get beyond their control.  Runs were beginning upon institutions in which they themselves were concerned.  In the face of madness such as this, even the twenty-five per cent reserves of the national banks would not be sufficient.  The moving of the cotton and grain crops had taken hundreds of millions from New York; and there was no money to be got by any chance from abroad.  Everywhere they turned, they faced this appalling scarcity of money; nothing could be sold, no money could be borrowed.  The few who had succeeded in getting their cash were renting safe-deposit boxes and hiding the actual coin.

And so, all their purposes having been accomplished, the bankers set to work to stem the tide.  Frantic telegrams were sent to Washington, and the Secretary of the Treasury deposited six million dollars in the national banks of the Metropolis, and then came on himself to consult.

Men turned to Dan Waterman, who was everywhere recognised as the master of the banking world.  The rivalry of the different factions ceased in the presence of this peril; and Waterman became suddenly a king, with practically absolute control of the resources of every bank in the city.  Even the Government placed itself in his hands; the Secretary of the Treasury became one of his clerks, and bank presidents and financiers came crowding into his office like panic-stricken children.  Even the proudest and most defiant men, like Wyman and Hegan, took his orders and listened humbly to his tirades.

All these events were public history, and one might follow them day by day in the newspapers.  Waterman’s earlier acts had been planned and carried out in darkness.  No one knew, no one had the faintest suspicion.  But now newspaper reporters attended the conferences and trailed Waterman about wherever he went, and the public was invited to the wonderful spectacle of this battle-worn veteran, rousing himself for one last desperate campaign and saving the honour and credit of the country.

The public hung upon his lightest word, praying for his success.  The Secretary of the Treasury sat in the Sub-Treasury building near his office, and poured out the funds of the Government under his direction.  Thirty-two million dollars in all were thus placed with the national banks; and from all these institutions Waterman drew the funds which he poured into the vaults of the imperilled banks and trust companies.  It was a time when one man’s peril was every