“Yes, sir; that's the rate, sir.”
Adna was going rapidly. He chattered, “Ain't there no police in this town at tall?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Well, I've heard they're the wust robbers of all. We'll see about this.” He went back to his women folk and mumbled, “Come on up-stairs.”
They followed, Mrs. Thropp murmuring to Kedzie: “Looks like poppa was goin' to be sick. I'm afraid he et too much of that rich food.”
The elevator flashed them to their empyrean floor. Adna did not speak till they were in their room and he had lowered himself feebly into a chair. He spoke thickly:
“Do you know what that Judas Iscariot down there is doin' to us? Chargin' us twelve dollars a day for these two cubby-holes—a day! Twelve dollars a day! Eighty-four dollars a week! And that breakfast was 'levum dollars and seventy-five cents! If I'd gave the waiter the quarter I was goin' to, it would have made an even dozen dollars! for breakfast! I don't suppose anybody would ever dast order a dinner here. Why, they'd skin a millionaire and pick his bones in a week. We'd better get out before they slap a mortgage on my house.”
“Well, I just wouldn't pay it,” said Mrs. Thropp. “I'd see the police about such goings-on.”
“The police!” groaned Thropp. “They're in cahoots with the burglars here. This hull town is a den of thieves. I've always heard it, and now I know it.”
He was ashamed of himself for being taken in so. He began to throw into the valises the duds that had been removed.