"I'll have a boy look for him," returned the clerk, and called up a bell-boy, who took Dick's card and went off with it to the smoking room and the dining hall, calling softly as he passed one man and another, "Number 144! Number 144!"
Presently the bell-boy came back, followed by a tall, thin, and pleasant-faced man of sixty, wearing a light-checked suit and a broad-brimmed slouch hat.
"This is the gentleman, sir," he said to Dick.
"Are you Mr. Jack Wumble?" asked Dick curiously.
"That's my handle, lad," was the answer, in a broad, musical voice.
"And I see your card reads Richard Rover. Any relation to Andy
Rover, as used to be a mining expert?"
"I am his son."
"Well, well! His son, eh? Glad to know you, downright glad!" And Jack Wumble nearly wrung Dick's hand off. Then Tom and Dick were introduced, and more handshaking followed, and the boys felt that they had found a true friend beyond a doubt.
CHAPTER XIX
THE BURLY STRANGER'S LITTLE GAME
"I'm more than glad to have met you as we did," said Dick, a little later, after Jack Wumble had asked the boys about their father. "I think it has saved us from getting into a lot of trouble."