“Well, anyhow, I guess what he said was about so. And I’ll bet there aren’t half a dozen rooms in town for rent now; and what there are are pretty bum.”
“Well, why didn’t Phin rent his, then?”
“I don’t know. Maybe because the fellows didn’t know about it. Last year the house was closed up, you know. Besides, lots and lots of fellows rent their rooms in the spring for the next year.”
“All right. Then you think that Sanger will have to take Mrs. Freer’s room because it will be the only decent one left, eh?”
“Yes.”
“Then where do you come in? And what have I got to do?”
“We’ve got to make sure that it is the best one left.”
“You’ll have to talk in words of one syllable,” sighed Harry hopelessly, “and illustrate copiously with diagrams. Tell me frankly what the dickens it is you propose to do. Anything short of highway robbery that doesn’t require a larger capital than two dollars, you may count me in on.”
“Thanks. I propose to see that when Sanger starts to find a new room he won’t be able to find anything nearly as good as Mrs. Freer’s for any such price. I propose to find out to-morrow just what rooms are for rent. Then I’ll see Sanger—and you’ll go with me—and we’ll tell him about Mrs. Freer’s place and get him to look at the room. If he takes it, why, that’s all right. If he doesn’t, we’ll go and get options on the decent rooms, so that when he tries to rent them he won’t be able to.”