“Then of course you follow his example, and do the same thing?”
“Then of course I do nothing of the kind. I don’t know what I may do when I become twenty-one years of age; but I gave him my promise long ago never to smoke even a cigarette until that time. Besides, I’m on a football team, and a fellow who smoked would be fired out of that quick enough, I can tell you. Now, as we are at my hotel, I think I will go in and write some letters.”
Phil said this with the hope of shaking off the companion whose presence was anything but agreeable to him; but the other remarked:
“Oh! you put up at the swell hotel, do you? Well, I guess I’ll go in and write a letter too.”
“I didn’t know you were stopping here. I didn’t see you at breakfast,” said Phil.
“No, nor you won’t see me at dinner, either, unless some of my friends happen to give me an invite. All the same, I write my letters to the firm from here, and send in my expense bills from here. That’s the only way to make money on the road nowadays. Charge up first-class hotel prices, live at restaurants, and pocket the difference. See? That is the reason I’m going West by this route, too,” continued Simon Goldollar, who seemed anxious to show off his smartness before this new and evidently very verdant acquaintance. “The scheme is to charge up the highest possible railroad fares, and travel on scalped tickets. Oh, it’s a great racket! and the sooner you get onto it the better for your pocket-book.”
“Thank you,” answered Phil, in a tone that expressed as much of disgust as he could throw into it. “Whenever I find it necessary to make my living by turning ‘road-agent,’ which is what I suppose you mean by ‘going on the road,’ I will remember your advice; but now you really must excuse me if I leave you for a while.”
With this, and without giving the other a chance to reply, the lad turned and left the hotel. He took a long walk through the city, and when he returned for dinner was thankful to find no trace of his late companion. “I’ve almost a mind to stop over and take to-morrow’s train in order to avoid him,” he said to himself; but reflecting that this would be cowardly as well as extravagant, he decided to adhere to his original plan.