“All right,” said Hans, and just then the brakeman called out Boston and in a minute or two the train stopped. Neither had ever been in Boston before except to pass through on his way to the University. They thought they might as well take in a show in the evening and take the twelve o’clock train back to the University, which would land them there about two o’clock in the morning. They were walking up to the platform to go out through the depot when they met Arthur Delvin of the Varsity going through the station.
“Hello, fellows,” said Arthur. “What are you doing in the city? By George, I am glad to see you! Want you to come up to the house for dinner and then we’ll take in a show. Wait for me in the station, will you? I have to go out and find a cousin of mine who is coming in and going right away again, and I have to see that she gets started right. She’s on this train. I’ll see you in about fifteen minutes.” And off he went.
There was nothing to do but wait and the boys decided that if they were going to see some of Boston, Arthur would be as fine a fellow as any to show them around, and they went into the station to wait.
Meantime Hal had been wondering what his watch was really worth and as he walked to the door of the station he saw a sign “Pawnbroker” with three gold balls over the door. This was just like the place he saw at the University town earlier in the day, and looking around for Hans who was sitting on a bench absorbed in a newspaper, he quietly slipped across the street into the pawnbroker’s shop, and pulling out his watch said to the pawnbroker:
[“How much will you loan me on this?”] He wondered if that was the way people generally talked when they tried to pawn things.
[“How much will you loan me on this?”]
The man took the watch and looked at it carefully. He examined the diamonds with a magnifying glass, he opened the case and examined the works, then he laid it down on the counter and said “Four hundred and fifty dollars.”
Hal wondered if he had heard rightly. “How much did you say?” he asked.