To young Randall, then, over the coffee and cigars in a private dining-room at the Federal, Gordon broached the subject.
"Bob," he said abruptly, "do you want to make a barrel of money?"
Randall nodded. "Sure thing," he answered briefly. "How?"
Gordon did not at once reply, and when he did, it was to answer the query with another.
"What do you know about coppers?" he asked.
"Soft," answered the younger man readily, "and going lower, too. There's a big surplus supply of the metal stored somewhere, or at least so everybody says."
Gordon leaned back in his chair, gazing at his companion from beneath half-closed eyelids.
"Just one more question, Bob," he said; "don't think it's an impertinence. About how much are you getting now?"
"Three thou," answered Randall promptly. "And now give me a turn. What in the devil are you driving at, anyway?"
Gordon hesitated the veriest instant, as if choosing which course to pursue. Then he answered, speaking with the utmost earnestness.
"Here's the story, Bob. I've got a great chance; the kind that only comes once in a man's lifetime, and of course I'd be a fool if I didn't want to make the most of it. It's perfectly true that coppers are soft; it's perfectly true that they're going lower, but that there's any accumulation of the metal I know to be absolutely false. And more than that: I can almost name the precise day when there's going to be launched the biggest copper boom this country's ever seen. A boom that's going to last, barring the absolutely unforeseen, for several years, and that's going to provide the speculative opportunity of the century. Now my proposition is just this: Leave Parkman and Brooks at once; get your father to advance you a hundred thousand dollars, and then start in partnership with me. I'll put in a like amount, and this information, which I'll absolutely guarantee, against your ability to bring your father and some of his crowd in as customers, to say nothing of your own following among the younger set. Nothing succeeds like success. We'll do well by our customers, and incidentally we'll make our own reputations and our fortunes beside. Bob, it's an absolute cinch, and I don't mind letting you know that I started with a list of twenty men as possibilities, and eliminated one after the other until you were left as the man I wanted for a partner. Now, what do you say?"