“Hi, Sax!” the red-headed boy greeted his leader. “You look hot. Just in time for a dip.”
The long-faced young man gave him a mournful look. Sax always looked gloomy, even when he was saying his funniest things.
“I’m a little sunbeam,” he announced. “I can keep smiling even after piloting twenty little greenhorns up from Elmville. Dusty but smiling. Say, who made my bed so nicely?”
“Me and Lefty.”
“Good lads.” Sax sank on his bunk and began stripping off his dust-laden garments. “I met two of the new fellows who’ll be with us this section. Nig Jackson was one—you remember him from last year. Another is a new kid, Eddie Scolter, who claims he can play a clarinet. But one fellow didn’t come after all, I guess. The Chief said his name was Van Horn.”
“Oh!” grinned Brick, “you mean the Millionaire Baby! Well, don’t worry about him. He got here this mornin’, and has been around all day, big as life and twice as natural.”
“Millionaire Baby?”
Brick pointed to the scattered array of suitcases, clothes, and other possessions that Joey Fellowes had given up trying to sort out and arrange. Sax McNulty whistled as he looked at Dirk’s heaped outfit.
“This all belong to Van Horn?”
“Junk enough for ten guys. Wait till you get a look at him.”