“Dan’s new roommate and protegé. I told you about him, don’t you remember?” Big Brother shook his head and taking one knee into his clasped hands leaned back comfortably against the cushions of the window-seat.
“No, you didn’t, Kid. Who is he? Let’s hear about him.”
“It’s all just like a story in a book,” said Alf, with a grin at Dan. “It happened last Fall. You know who John T. Pennimore is, don’t you?”
“The man they call the Steamship King? He lives around here, doesn’t he?”
“Yes, you can see his place from out front. Sound View he calls it; and it’s a dandy; there’s eight acres of it, with a regular palace of a house, stables, kennels, gardener’s lodge, hot-houses, and all that sort of thing. They say he’s worth a hundred millions.”
“They say a whole lot of rot,” said his brother witheringly. “He probably has ten or fifteen millions.”
“Is that all?” murmured Tom. “Wonder how he lives!”
“Well, anyhow, he’s rich, all right. And he’s done two or three things for the school, they say; given money, I suppose; shouldn’t wonder if he owned some stock in it. Does he, do you think, Dan?”
“I never heard him say anything about it,” Dan replied. Herbert Loring looked across at him with surprise and interest.
“Do you know him?” he asked.