“All right.” Talbot turned toward the door. “Where’s that ’Lijah with the towels? He hasn’t given me a clean one for two days.”
A sober-faced negro with close-cut side whiskers appeared round the corner.
“Aren’t you going to give me a clean towel, Lije?”
“Not ontil you pay me,” returned Elijah. “I ain’t trustin’ nobody this year.”
“You old Shylock!” grumbled Talbot. “I’ve only got five cents, and I want that for car-fare.”
“I’ll lend you a quarter,” proposed Hardie, eagerly.
“Thanks. He’s more generous than you are, ’Lijah. He’ll lend me a quarter, and you won’t trust me for a towel.”
“He’s new here,” answered Elijah, solemnly, as he handed over the clean towel and pocketed the quarter. “If he’d lost as much by you fellows as I have, he wouldn’t lend you a cent.”
“That pays for a week, now, Lije,” urged Talbot. “Don’t forget!”
“I never forgets. It’s you that forgets;” and the janitor went forth to seek other business opportunities.
“A good fellow Lije is, but he’s too avaricious,” commented Talbot, hurrying for the shower.
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HALF an hour later, Roger Hardie was giving the last tug to his necktie before a square of looking-glass that still adhered to the end of the locker tier near the window, and Talbot, swinging a couple of books by a strap, lounged near. Eaton was getting into his clothes a few feet distant, bravely chanting away on a ragtime song in the face of derisive comments from Wilmot, the manager, who sat on the bench nursing a couple of footballs. Farther down, Dunn’s tongue was running wild before an audience of worthies of uncertain intent, whose grins might denote either innocent amusement or guile. Harrison was minding his own business in his usual quiet fashion.
“That’s the second time my socks have disappeared!” sputtered Dunn. “This is the worst gang of thieves I ever got into. You couldn’t keep a thing here if you had a steel vault and a watchman.”
“You’ve probably got ’em on,” suggested Wilmot.
As Dunn had very little on, and was notably bare as to feet, this suggestion could not have been serious. He glanced down, none the less, and earned thereby a unanimous jeer.
“I don’t see how you could lose them,” observed Sumner. “They’re the most conspicuous things in school. I recognized you by ’em this morning a block away, before I could see your face.”