“I say,” cried the latter, “this is luck! Where you going?”
“I was just starting for home,” said Allan.
“I’ll go with you,” said Jim, promptly wheeling into step beside him and locking arms. “That is, if you don’t mind.”
“Mind!” cried Allan. “You know I’m glad to have you.”
“All right then,” said Jim, laughing. “That’s a great load off my mind. What’s that book you’re hugging so lovingly?”
“It’s a book on telegraphy,” and Allan showed him the title.
“Going to study it?”
“Yes; it didn’t take me long to find out that to amount to anything in the offices, one has to understand what all that chatter is about.”
“Right you are,” assented Jim, “but you’ll find it mighty hard work learning it from a book. It’ll be a good deal like learning to eat without any food to practise on. Have you got an instrument?”
“No. But of course I’ll get one.”