“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.