“Maybe,” he thought, “it’s one of those dens you read about in the newspaper where young fellows are roped in in this way and robbed. If it is they will need more than that red-headed guy to do it. Dick could lick the shoes off of him and Dick never could box. They would not get very much if they succeeded,” he grinned, “the railroads already have most of it.”
When he entered the room indicated he found his new acquaintance already seated in a revolving chair near the table, reading a large poster. Without raising his eyes from the paper Johnson said, “You may have the two lower drawers of the bureau, I already have my stuff in the others, and the right hand side of the closet. Better go back to the registrar’s office and tell them where to bring your trunk; they charge you storage awful quick at the depot.” And he continued to read the poster.
Scott tried to look the room over carelessly as he thought anyone would who was used to renting a new one every week or so. He found that he was still holding his suitcase in his hand. He looked at his roommate to see if he had noticed it, but that indifferent young man was still absorbed in the poster and oblivious to his surroundings. Scott set the suitcase quietly in the corner and took another careless look around the room.
“Well, I guess this will do,” he remarked flippantly. “I’ll go see about the trunk.”
As he was going out the door Johnson called after him, “Hustle back and I’ll take you to our hash house. They are nearly all foresters there and a couple of them are seniors, too.”
Scott hurried to the registrar’s office, left word about the trunk and started back to his newly acquired room and roommate, both of which he had obtained almost before he knew it and was not yet quite certain whether he wanted them or not. However, it was a great relief to feel that he had some place to go, and he rather thought that he liked it. As he was going down the steps a husky, sunburned fellow with a swinging gait and the free air of the woods joined him.
“Getting straightened out?” he asked pleasantly.
“Yes,” Scott answered, with a readiness that surprised himself. “I got a room, a roommate and a boarding house, all this afternoon.” He was beginning to feel a little proud of it.