The envelope had been completely filled with clippings from magazines and newspapers; some of these were pictures; he found it hard to learn anything where there was so much to be deciphered. The telephone rang and the other boy, answering it, received some instruction and set about fulfilling it.
Peewee bent over the clippings in absorption. "Jeffrey Markyn," he read, "came to Chicago from Connecticut in 1858. First of the name in this locality, he was a dealer in grains." He put this aside; he was not interested in Jeffrey Markyn, but in someone named Walter.
He picked up another. "The Markyn-Beman Wheat Corner." What did that mean? "In the late 80's, Markyn and his partner, Matthew Beman, made an attempt to corner the Chicago wheat market, which ended in temporary ruin for the Markyn family. This was the origin of the feud between them and the Bemans following which, Markyn and Beman never spoke again." What was feud?
"Associated with Beman, with whom he had put over a hundred business deals in the twenty
