Part 30 (2/2)
”I sha'n'tin France was a splendid thing to harden one's muscles”
They set off down the one business street of which Columbina boasted
They had to pick their way carefully along the dilapidated boardwalk At one point they came opposite O'Brian's Hotel Downstairs was a saloon, and in this a noisy bunch were talking and singing
”I don't know as I would care to stop there,” reh hole to o to some private house, if I could find one, or else buy a tent and hire a place where we could pitch it”
”Gee, that's an idea!” cried Andy ”I'dthan put up with just any old thing”
At length they ca, three stories in height, with a restaurant occupying one-half of the lower floor Half a dozenchairs on the front piazza, and they eyed the newcomers curiously
”Looks fairly clean, anyway,” whispered Fred to his cousins ”I wouldn't want to get into sos”
The office of the hotel was about twelve feet square, with a sanded floor On one side was a plain wooden settee, and on the other an equally plain counter on which rested a register and a bell Behind the counter was a tall, freckle-faced entlemen,” he said hospitably ”What can I do for you?”
”We want to knoe can be accommodated here,” answered dick Rover
”There are five of us”
”How long do you want to stay?”
”I don't know exactly Several days at least, and maybe a week or two”
”I see” The hotel proprietor scratched his head thoughtfully ”I've got one big room left and one sle bed in it, but the other room has a double bed and I could easily put two cots in there besides that”
”Would youus the quarters?” questioned Jack's father
Experience had taught him when in out-of-the-way places not to accept hotel acco, Brother Just follow me”
The boys waited belohile dick Rover and the hotel man went upstairs
A istered for the entire crowd
”You pay for your et 'em,” announced the hotel man ”The rooms are separate Three dollars each per day”
The rooned were on the third floor of the hotel One was ae for all of the boys, and the other, while ood ventilation and dick Rover said it would suit him very well
”The whole outfit is better than I was afraid it ht be,” he announced ”Some of these boom towns have wretched quarters for newcomers In fact, I've read in the newspapers that in many places the newcomers had to roll themselves in blankets and sleep out in the fields”
”I was reading about one place where they set up cots on the floor of a general store at night and sold the right to sleep on a cot until seven o'clock in thefor one dollar,” said Randy
There was no running water, but each room was supplied with a bowl and pitcher, and after the extra cots were placed in the larger apartht up by a h they did not know it, the Rovers had no sooner disappeared upstairs than two of theon the veranda of the hotel caister