Yet it must be confessed that our hero felt just a bit strange as he settled back in the cushioned seat, with his valise beside him. He was going over two hundred miles from home and among total strangers.
“I suppose it will be different from knocking around Lakeview, Rockpoint or even Long Lake,” he mused. “I’ll have to brace up and watch myself, or they’ll take me for a regular greeny.”
As the train moved on, Jerry revolved the situation in his mind. He knew he would arrive in the metropolis late in the afternoon, and determined to seek a boarding-house first of all, knowing it would be useless to hunt for any trace of Alexander Slocum after office hours.
At last the run through green fields and small towns and cities came to an end, and the train ran into the Grand Central Depot at Forty-second Street, and Jerry alighted in a crowd and made his way to the street.
“Cab! coupe! This way for the Central Hotel! Evening paper! Sun or World!”
A hundred cries seemed to start up all in an instant, making Jerry’s ears ring. The rattle of the carts and trucks on the pavement was also new, and for the moment, the Lakeview boy did not know which way to turn.
“Carry yer baggage?” queried a bare-foot boy, and almost caught his valise from his hand. But the young oarsman pulled it back and shook his head, and got out of the crowd as quickly as he could, starting eastward for he had heard that the cheaper boarding houses lay in that direction.
It was not long before the boy came to several places which displayed the sign, Boarding. But the first two were too elegant, and Jerry passed them without stopping. Then came a third, and ascending the steps Jerry rang the bell.
An elderly lady answered the summons, a sharp-faced woman with powdered hair.
“You take boarders here?” queried Jerry.