Part 26 (2/2)
”I think Mr. Collier is with Dr. Crafts now.”
On the instant Colin detected that the secretary knew something about the matter and wanted to rea.s.sure him, so he smiled back, saying:
”Thank you. I hope it will be all right, then.”
The two men were chatting earnestly, and the wait seemed long to Colin, but after a while the Deputy Commissioner called him in.
”This is the boy, Robert,” he said. ”Colin,” he continued, ”let me present you to Mr. Collier.”
”So you're coming along with me to Bermuda and Florida, I hear,” the museum curator said, shaking hands.
Colin looked up at the tall, gaunt figure and caught a twinkle of good-humor in the deeply-sunk gray eyes.
”I was hoping to before, sir,” he answered, ”and I'm hoping to, even more now.”
”That's the way to talk, never lose a chance for a happy phrase,” was the reply. ”Well, Dr. Crafts here seems willing to go bail for you--although I understand he never saw you before to-day--and I think we could get along all right, so if you're satisfied, I guess we'll call it a deal. There's one difficulty, though.”
”What's that, sir?” asked the boy.
”I shall probably need to go to Florida as well, and I should like to have my a.s.sistant stay with me clear through.”
”So much the better,” the boy responded.
”But I understand you're going to start your freshman year in college?”
”Yes, sir,” the boy answered, ”I'm going to Brown.”
”That's what I thought. But you see I don't expect to get back much before the tenth of October, and college will have started by then. I don't want,” he continued, his eyes twinkling with fun, ”to rob the other fellows of the fun of hazing you.”
”I don't think there's much hazing at Brown, sir, and perhaps I shall miss some of the fun of the opening of the year,” Colin replied, after thinking for a minute or two; ”but I'd much rather take the trip with you, sir, and I can soon catch up with my cla.s.s in any subject the first few lectures of which I may have missed.”
”But aren't you supposed to be in attendance on a certain day?”
”Yes, Mr. Collier,” the boy replied, ”I believe I should be. But Father can fix that all right.”
”You think your father can arrange anything, Colin,” said the Deputy Commissioner, smiling.
”Well, he always has!” the boy declared.
”If the Florida trip is no barrier,” the curator said, ”I think that we can call the matter settled. Dr. Crafts told you that you would have to pay your own pa.s.sage?”
”Yes, sir.”
”You'll like Bermuda, I think. Everything there's so much worth while.”
”There you go again, Robert,” said the Deputy Commissioner; ”always in superlatives.”
”Of course! Who would want to be otherwise?” said the curator. He turned to Colin. ”Come and take dinner with me to-night, and we'll talk over the details. Here's my card,” and he penciled his address on the pasteboard. ”I'll give you some seaweed pudding, carrageen, you know.”
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