We may add that he finally succeeded in his object, and came very near getting himself into a desperate scrape by it.
When supper was announced, the boys followed the crowd into an adjoining room, and took the seats that were pointed out to them by their host.
It was not just such an apartment as that in which they had been accustomed to take their meals at home. It was almost as dingy as the bar. The rough tables were not very clean, and the dishes and viands were scattered about without the least regard to order.
They looked, Leon told himself, as though the waiter had stood off and thrown them at the table, and left them wherever they landed. But there was plenty to eat, and the boys, being very hungry, made a hearty supper.
When they had satisfied their appetites, they went back to the bar-room and sat down on one of the benches, while the gold-hunters smoked their pipes and told stories of life in the mines.
When eight o'clock came, Leon walked up to the bar and asked the landlord to show him and his cousin to their room.
In compliance with the request the man lighted a tallow candle, and, leading the boys up a narrow, winding stairway, ushered them into the most cheerless bedroom they had ever seen.
There was no carpet on the floor, and there were no chairs on which to deposit their clothing. In fact, the room contained nothing except a couple of beds, which looked as though the person who made them up must have been in a very great hurry.
"You two tumble into this one," said the landlord, placing the candle on the floor and nodding his head toward one of the beds. "You needn't mind locking your door, 'cause there's another fellow belongs up here."