“Ho for the West and the gold mines!” cried Ned, trying to hug Jerry and Chunky at the same time and finding it was too much of a contract.
There came a knock on the door.
“I guess that’s some one to tell us to stop our noise,” remarked Jerry. “I thought you chaps were cutting up too rough.”
“As if he didn’t make as much of the row as any of us!” exclaimed Ned.
Bob opened the door. A well-dressed man, with iron-gray moustache and hair, entered.
“Here I be!” he announced, “an’ I see you boys are right on deck!”
“I guess you’ve made a mistake,” said Jerry, gently.
“Ain’t this the Grand Hotel, where I was to meet the boys that befriended old Jim Nestor?” the man asked.
Then the boys saw it was their friend, the miner. But he had so changed in appearance, with a new suit of clothes, and with his hair and whiskers trimmed, that they did not recognize him. They greeted him heartily.