🚀 go-pugleaf

I'm new to writing programs for IBM PC's with Turbo C++, so please bear with
me.  I'm in the initial stages of writing a program.  So far, I've only made a
a main function that calls this other function which is in another file.  What
The main module doesn't do anything but call the other.  It's got like all of
5 lines of source code so far.  The module it calls, though, uses stdio.h,
string.h, and conio.h for a bunch of gets() operations to input some things.
That's basically all these do.

My question is, how come it only works when I compile with the compact or
larger models?  For example, for this code:
	char *s;
	gets(s);
	printf("S is: %s\n",s);
The last time a gets() is run, it'll print that:
	S is: (null)
no matter what you type in.  BTW, the code is EXACTLY this way.  The stuff
typed in gets lost by the gets() by the time the next line is run. ???
UNLESS, I compile with the compact or larger model in TC++, in which case the
problem disappears, WITHOUT touching the code.  Now, I know all
this probably has to do with the amount of memory set aside to allocate
all the variables and other stuff, but it's a relatively simple program.
Sheesh!  Does it take all this memory and stuff?

Could someone knowledgable please respond?