“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.”