So they went up a narrow flight of stairs and knocked on the door of room Number Five. There was no answer. So they pushed open the door and entered a square room bound in sheepskin with red-and-black labels. There was nobody in the room, and Lee exclaimed:
"Nobody even loves us."
"He'll be in the back room," said Renier. "I know. Once I swiped a muskmelon from a lawyer's melon-patch, and had to see him about it. He was in the back room——"
"'Counting out his money'?"
"No; he was drinking whiskey with a judge and a livery-stable keeper, and they were all spitting on a red-hot stove."
"What did he do about the melon?"
"He told me to can the melon and have a drink. I had already canned the melon as well as I could (I wasn't educated along scientific lines) and my grandmother had promised me any watch I wanted if I didn't drink till I was twenty-one."
"Did you?"
"I did not."