"Beg pardon for being so brusque, old fellow," he remarked, "but really you took the ground from under my feet. What on earth led you to give your money to a man who is as mad as a March hare?"

"I've asked myself that same question many times since the thing happened," answered Reggie drearily, "and the only answer I can find is that I must have been the more insane of the two.

"It's only fair to say, though," he went on, "that at the time I ran across him there wasn't a trace of insanity about him. He seemed to me to be one of the cleverest men I ever met. Others thought so too, so perhaps I'm not so very much to blame after all."

"Where and when did you first meet him?" asked Joe.

"At the Goldsboro Country Club," answered Reggie. "You know that our folks have membership there and I run out very often. I was out there one day watching a tennis tournament when this Tabbs came strolling along and spoke to me. There seemed to be something familiar about his face and yet I couldn't quite place him until he said he had met me one time at Morgan & Company's in New York. Then I remembered him perfectly. I had gone down to the city on a trip with my father, and as he had business with the Morgan people, he took me along with him. Tabbs was holding an important position with the firm at the time, and he seemed to take quite a liking to me. Took me out to lunch with him and then showed me around the city. That was two or three years ago, and I hadn't seen him since until he came to me at the Country Club.

"Of course, it was up to me to give him as good a time as I could, in return for what he had done for me in New York, and I did. Introduced him to lots of the best people in Goldsboro, took him home with me and had him stay with me for a day or two, and whizzed him about the country in my automobile. To tell the truth, it wasn't hard to entertain him, for he was a bright and amusing talker and seemed in every way to be an all-around good fellow."

"How did he happen to be so far away from New York City and right in the busy season, too?" asked Joe.

"That struck me as rather queer," replied Reggie, "but he explained by saying that he was on a secret mission for his firm. Awfully mysterious and all that, don't you know. Of course, the more mysterious he was the more curious I became. I suppose he figured on that. Anyway, after a lot of hinting and fencing about, he came right out one day and said that he was going to take me into his confidence, that I was too good a fellow to leave on the outside when I might get in on the ground floor, and a lot of rot like that, don't you know."

"I know, all right," said Joe, with a smile. "I've had lots of tips about big things that were going to be pulled off and been urged to get aboard while there was time. Ball players are known to get good salaries, and they're deluged with circulars and market tips of all kinds. But I never yet tried to beat Wall Street at its own game. You know what they say of it, that 'it's a crooked street with a graveyard at one end of it and a river at the other.'"

"I guess that description fits it, all right," agreed his friend, "but of course I thought that Tabbs was different from an ordinary market tipster. I had seen him holding down a big job with Morgan & Company, and I naturally thought he had inside information."

Joe had to admit that this was reasonable.

"He put me under a pledge of secrecy," went on Reggie, "and then he opened up. Said that Morgan & Company had a big scheme for combining under one control all the electric light and power companies of the State. Claimed that he already had an agreement with the majority of them to come into the deal. The thing was to be kept under cover until everything was ripe, and then the stock would double and treble in value, and the lucky holders would make a fortune. Now was the time to buy before the big news came out."

"Old stuff," thought Joe to himself, although he did not give utterance to the thought for fear of wounding Reggie, who was sore enough already.

"Of course," went on Reggie, "the first thing I thought of was the ten thousand in stocks that the governor had put in my hands to show what I could do. Here was the chance to make it twenty or thirty thousand or more, if Tabbs was right. And honest, Joe, that fellow could have convinced anybody. He was the most persuasive talker I ever met. Had facts and figures at his tongue's end and reeled them off by the thousand. Showed me a chart of his own on which he had marked all the market fluctuations on leading stocks for ten years back. Had an answer for every objection. He was a perfect encyclopedia on everything that concerned stocks and bonds. If ever any man knew his business, it was Talham Tabbs."

And Joe, recalling the keen face of the madman, could very well understand how Reggie would be putty in his hands.

"The upshot of it all was," blurted out the dudish young man desperately, "that I put the whole ten thousand in his hands to turn into cash and invest for me in the securities of the different light and power companies. He was to do this quietly and secretly as he went from one place to another, and then when he had invested it all he was to turn them over to me to hold them for the rise that would come as soon as the deal was concluded.

"I didn't do this right off the reel. I felt skittish about putting all my eggs in one basket. I wanted to put in part of the money only, but he laughed at me. Opportunity only came once to a man, he said, especially such an opportunity as that. I was dazzled by his figures, and when I thought of the pleasure it would be to prove to my father that I had more brains than he gave me credit for and knew how to double and treble my money in a few months, I gave in and went into the thing, hook, line and sinker."

"Too bad, old fellow," consoled Joe, who was moved to pity by the distress that showed in his friend's face. "What happened then?"

"He went away a few days later," continued Reggie. "Had to go to Raleigh, he said, to see some members of the legislature. He wrote to me every few days and told me he was getting along famously. Then his letters stopped. I didn't think so much of this at first, because I knew he would be tremendously busy putting through the deal. But when three weeks passed without hearing from him I got uneasy. I wrote to him to the address of Morgan & Company, thinking they would of course know his whereabouts and forward his mail to him, and you can imagine how I felt when I got my letter back marked 'Not here.' I wrote then to the firm direct, and asked about Talham Tabbs. They wrote back promptly that Tabbs had once been employed by them and that they had valued him as one of their most competent men, but that a year before he had gone suddenly insane and had to be committed to an asylum. They gave me the name of the asylum so that I could write there if I wished to learn anything further about his condition, although they had been informed that his case was thought to be incurable.

"I tell you what, old man, that knocked me all in a heap. My ten thousand dollars had been put in the care of a crazy man, who, for all I knew, had turned the securities into cash and by this time might be in Canada, or Europe, or South America, or any old place."

"It must have been a knockout blow," said Joe.

"For a little while I thought I would go crazy myself," continued Reggie. "I couldn't eat or sleep, and the folks saw there was something the matter with me. Mabel was worried out of her head, and tried to get me to tell her what was the trouble."

"Just like Mabel," thought Joe to himself, conscious of a sudden warmth in the region of his heart.

"I think the governor rather suspected that something had gone wrong in a money way," continued Reggie. "But he's a thoroughbred, and since he had said he wouldn't ask me about it for a year, he stuck to his promise."

"Couldn't you pick up any clue as to Tabbs' whereabouts?" queried Joe.

"Not a thing for a long while," was the answer. "Of course, I was handicapped because I had to keep everything under cover. The first thing I did was to make a trip to the asylum where he had been confined. The superintendent told me that Tabbs had escaped about two months before. Said he was one of the brightest and ablest men that had ever been confined there. There would be weeks at a time when he would appear to be as sane as any man. Then he would have sudden fits of violence come upon him, when they couldn't do anything with him and had to truss him up in a strait-jacket to keep him from harming the other inmates. I suppose he must have had one of those spells come on him when he carried off the baby."

"I suppose so," said Joe with a shudder, as the thought of the narrow escape came up before him.

"The superintendent told me that they had been hunting for him ever since he got away but hadn't got a trace of him. I told him then that I had met him and that he was still going by his right name. Naturally I didn't tell him what a fool Tabbs had made of me. He was delighted to get the information I gave him and said that he would follow up the clue at once. I didn't rely wholly on that, however, and on the quiet I put the matter in the hands of a detective agency."

"Did that help you out any?" asked Joe.

"Not a bit," replied Reggie disgustedly. "All they sent me was a bill for services rendered, although they kept hinting that they were right on his heels. They must have been a pretty nimble pair of heels, though, because they always got away. Don't talk to me of detectives. 'Defectives' would be a better name for them."

"How did you find out then that he might be at Riverside?" asked Joe with lively curiosity.

"By the merest chance in the world," replied Reggie. "I was in Wilmington and when I went to the hotel and started to register I turned over the leaves to see if any of my friends were there and caught sight of Tabbs' name. Of course I made inquiries in a hurry, and the clerk told me that he had left a week before. I went to the station and found that a man answering to his description had bought a ticket and had his baggage checked through to Riverside. Then I sent the telegram and followed it as soon as I could. Now you know the whole story."

"Well," said Joe, drawing a long breath, "it's pretty bad, but it might have been worse. Now that we have Tabbs where the dogs can't bite him, you have a chance to get your money back."

"Yes," agreed Reggie, "but after all it's only a chance. No knowing what he may have done with it by this time."

"Would he have had any trouble in turning the securities into cash?" asked Joe.

"Not the least in the world," was the answer. "They are as easily handled almost as if they were United States currency. The mere possession of them is regarded as proof of ownership. He could go to any bank or big brokerage house in the country and turn them into cash at five minutes' notice."

"Well, even if he did, he may have all, or nearly all, of the money left," said Joe hopefully. "Sol Cramer, the landlord at the hotel, said that he had a big roll of bills when he paid for his week's board. He can't spend any of it where he is now, at any rate."

They discussed the matter for an hour or more and then Joe insisted that Reggie ought to get to bed.

"You've had a long journey," he remarked, as he rose to show his friend to his room, "and you need a good night's rest so as to be fit when you tackle Talham Tabbs in the morning."

* * *

Chapter 10 REGGIE CONFESSES

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