“I don’t yet know whether I’ve dropped it,” replied Reggie. “But I’ve invested that much, and the way the bally thing looks now I’m not likely to get any of it back.”
“Tell me all about it,” urged Joe.
“Well,” said Reggie, his usually placid face creased with lines of anxiety, “you know perhaps that I had quite a bunch of stocks left to me by a relative in trust that became mine when I came of age. I’ve always had a hankerin’ to try my luck in the market—so many fellahs pickin’ up fortunes there you know—an’ so I put some of these stocks in the hands of a broker who told me he could double the money for me in a little while. Oh, I know jolly well what you’re thinkin’—a fool and his money are soon parted and all that, a sucker born every minute and sometimes they’re twins—but it looked good, and I took the chance. He seemed to have lots of experience——”
“No doubt,” put in Joe. “In other words, you had the stock and he had the experience. Now he has the stocks and you have the experience. Is that it?”
“I’m afraid so,” confessed Reggie.
“What is the name of the broker?” asked Joe.
“A fellow named Harrish——”
“Harrish!” interrupted Joe and Jim in one breath.
“Yes,” said Reggie in some surprise. “Do you know him? He’s in Wall Street near Nassau.”
“I know him all right,” said Joe grimly. “Know him only too well. It was only a little while ago that I came within an ace of giving him the thrashing of his life.”