"Nonsense," said Joe encouragingly. "We all make mistakes. The fool is not the man who makes a mistake but the one who makes the same mistake twice. The perfectly wise man has never yet been born. At least, if he has I've never met him."

"It's awfully good of you to talk that way," replied Reggie, "and it makes it easier for me to tell you what I've got to say. But before I go any further, let me ask you one question: Have you seen anything of that Talham Tabbs I mentioned in my telegram?"

"Yes," answered Joe nonchalantly. "I saw him for the first time yesterday. Rather unexpected meeting it was, too, for a fact."

"Where did you see him?" asked Reggie eagerly.

"On top of a lumber pile," was the answer.

"On top of a lumber pile?" repeated his friend, with a puzzled air. "What on earth was he doing there?"

"Swinging a baby above his head and threatening to throw it down on the railroad track," replied Joe.

Reggie stared blankly at Joe, as though he thought he was suddenly bereft of reason.

"I never was good at riddles, old chap," he said. "Tell me just what you are driving at."

And then Joe told him all the happenings of the day before, while Reggie looked at him with open-eyed wonder.

"And you brought him down with the first shot," he marveled. "That aim of yours is certainly a pippin. McRae made no mistake when he got you on his staff."

"It was a case of touch and go," remarked Joe. "I simply had to get him on that first try. If I'd missed him then, I'd never have had a chance for a second shot."

"I'm glad the poor beggar wasn't badly hurt," said Reggie. "Are you sure that he's perfectly safe down in the jail?" he added as an afterthought.

"I don't see where he could be much safer," answered Joe. "Old Hank Bailey hasn't any more brains than the law allows, but I guess he'll keep him right and tight. Besides, he was strapped to the bed when I saw him this morning. I gave Hank a special tip to be on the watch, and I guess we don't have to worry about laying our hands on him when we want him."

"That's good!" ejaculated Reggie, with a sigh of relief. "I'm beginning to see daylight now."

"Well, now," said Joe, "that I've told you all I know, suppose you loosen up and tell me just why you're so interested in the doings of Talham Tabbs."

"I will," answered Reggie, "and you'll be the first living soul to know anything about it outside of Tabbs and myself. I haven't even told Mabel about it, though she and I have been close pals ever since we were children. And as for breathing a word of it to the governor--" Here Reggie spread out his hands in a gesture that was more eloquent than words.

Joe thought to himself that he could very readily understand why Reggie might shrink from revealing anything to the stern, gruff father, of whom he had caught an occasional glimpse; but when it came to the womanly sympathy of Mabel it was different.

"You see," went on Reggie, "I've been thinking for some time that I ought to settle down-make something of myself-go into business of some kind or other-what?"

Joe had privately long had a similar feeling about Reggie. What he had seen of his friend had shown him a young man who was seeking the froth of life rather than the substance, chasing the phantom of pleasure rather than facing the sober realities of things as they are. Had he been any one else than the brother of Mabel, Joe would simply have classed him as a social butterfly and let it go at that. As it was, he had excused a lot of things because of his youth, and now he was sincerely glad to learn that Reggie was taking a more sensible view of life.

"That's the way to look at it, old man," he said approvingly. "There's nothing in this society stuff."

"So I went to the governor," continued Reggie, "and told him what I had in mind. The trouble is, dad has been too good to me. Had a pretty rough time of it when he was young-poverty, hard work, and all that-and he had promised himself that his son, if he ever had one, shouldn't have so hard a time of it as he had had. So he gave me everything I wanted-plenty of money, a tour of Europe, motor boat, automobile, and all that sort of thing, don't you know. I suppose later on he expects to take me into business with him, but he hasn't been in any hurry about it. Funny, isn't it, how hard-headed men look at those things sometimes when their children are concerned?"

Joe nodded. He had known of more than one instance where, through some strange blindness, men who had risen to wealth by their own endeavors had been unwilling that their boys should have the same hard but wholesome experience.

"He laughed at me at first," Reggie went on, "and tried to joke the matter off. But when he saw that I was in earnest it set him thinking. Then he looked at me in that quizzical way of his and said:

"'I tell you what I'll do, Son: I'm willing to take a chance just to see what stuff there is in you. Just as one throws a puppy into deep water so that the pup will either have to swim or drown, I'm going to throw you into financial waters and give you a chance to make good or go under.'

"He went to his safe, twirled the combination, and came back to me with a package. He ripped off a rubber band, and I saw that the package was a big bunch of securities.

"'Now, Reggie, my boy,' he said, 'here's where you show me what there is in that noddle of yours. These securities have a value of ten thousand dollars. They're bonds of the A. K. T. Railroad. It's one of the safest and best managed roads in the country, and these are as good as government bonds. I'm going to put these absolutely in your hands to do with precisely as you like. Turn them into cash, pledge them, sell them, invest them-do anything you want to with them. At the end of a year come to me and tell me just what you've done and just what profit you've made, if any, from the use of them. In the meantime, I'll give you a free hand and won't ask you a word about them.

"'Of course,' he went on, 'they're a five-per cent. bond, and you could make five hundred dollars by merely clipping the interest coupons and presenting them when they come due. But that isn't my idea. Any fool could use a pair of scissors. What I want you to do is to use the money, put it to work, mix it with brains, and at the end of a year come to me and show me the results.'

"You can bet that I was well stumped. You could have knocked me down with a feather."

"I should say so!" ejaculated Joe, with a low whistle. "Ten thousand dollars! That's an awful lot of money to have plumped down before you and to be told that it's all yours to do with exactly as you like."

"That's what I told the governor as soon as I could get my breath," said Reggie. "But he only laughed and said that he had earned it and that what he did with it was no one's business but his own. The only condition was that I shouldn't use it for anything except to make more. Said my allowance would go on as usual, so that I wouldn't have to use any of the ten thousand for my living expenses."

"Great Scott, Reggie, that was a wonderful chance for a young fellow!" cried Joe, who had grown hugely interested in the story of this favorite of fortune. "What have you done with the ten thousand?"

"What have I done with it?" echoed Reggie ruefully. "I gave it to Talham Tabbs."

"What!" shouted Joe, jumping to his feet so violently that he overturned his chair. "What's that you say?"

"I gave it to Talham Tabbs," repeated Reggie, averting his eyes from those of his friend as he made the startling confession.

"But why-what--" stammered Joe blankly.

"Just to prove that an old proverb is true," was the answer.

"What proverb?"

"'A fool and his money are soon parted,'" replied Reggie bitterly.

* * *

Chapter 9 A TRUSTING DISPOSITION

You might like