At the same time he received a letter from the secretary of the company explaining that the additional stock was pool stock and not to be marketed at the present time.

It was in the nature of a bonus to which he was entitled as one of the early shareholders.

The letter was full of verbiage and technical details of which the judge understood nothing, but he thought it very liberal of the company, and putting the stock away in his safe soon forgot all about it.

Had he been a business man he would have scented peril.

He would have realized that he had now in his possession $50,000 worth of stock for which he had not paid a cent, and furthermore had deposited it when a reorganization came.
But the judge was sincerely grateful for Ryder's apparently disinterested advice and wrote two letters to him, one in which he thanked him for the trouble he had taken, and another in which he asked him if he was sure the company was financially sound, as the investment he contemplated making represented all his savings.