nine o'clock
The `` Crookes affair '' -- as among themselves the group of men who centred about Jadwin spoke of it -- was one of the sharpest fights known on the Board of Trade for many a long day . It developed with amazing unexpectedness and was watched with breathless interest from every produce exchange between the oceans . It occupied every moment of each morning 's session of the Board of Trade for four furious , never-to-be-forgotten days . Promptly at half-past nine o'clock on Tuesday morning Crookes began to sell May wheat short , and instantly , to the surprise of every Pit trader on the floor , the price broke with his very first attack . In twenty minutes it was down half a cent . Then came the really big surprise of the day . Landry Court , the known representative of the firm which all along had fostered and encouraged the rise in the price , appeared in the Pit , and instead of buying , upset all precedent and all calculation by selling as freely as the Crookes men themselves .