“I come from the South,” he said.  “My folks own a large cotton plantation there.  Larry was down there once and we had a lot of fun.  He told me of the sport he had had with you.  You must have had great times at Putnam Hall.”

“We did,” said Sam.

“I thought there were three of you, from what Larry said.”

“So there are,” answered Dick, and told about Tom and the missing dress-suit case.  “Tom ought to be getting back,” he added.

Stanley had been at Brill for two days and had met both Flockley and Koswell.  He did not fancy either of the sophomores.

“That Frank Holden is all right,” he said, “but Flockley and Koswell are very overbearing and dictatorial.  I caught them ordering one of the freshmen around like a servant.  If they had spoken that way to me I’d have knocked them down.”  And the eyes of the Southern lad flashed darkly.

“Where do you room?” asked Dick.  He remembered what the house master had said about Stanley and felt that the youth would make a nice roommate for anybody.

“I’m in No. 27, right next to you fellows.  Mr. Hicks was going to put me in with you first, but afterward said a friend of yours was going to fill the place.”

“Yes,” said Dick.  “But you will be right next door, so it will be almost the same thing.  Who is your roommate?”

“A fellow named Max Spangler.  I don’t know much about him, as he only came this noon.  But he seems all right.  Here he comes now.”

As Stanley spoke he motioned to a short, stout lad who was walking across the campus.  The boy had a distinctly German face and one full of smiles.

“Hello, Friend Browne,” he called out pleasantly and with a German accent.  “Did you find somebody you know?”

“I’ve made myself known,” answered Stanley, and then he introduced the others.  “They bunk next door to us,” he added with a nod toward Dick and Sam.

“Hope you don’t snore,” said Max Spangler.  “I can go anybody but what snores.”

“No, we don’t snore,” answered Sam, laughing.

“Then I’m your friend for life and two days afterward,” answered the German-American lad, and said this so gravely the others had to laugh.  Max put the Rovers in mind of their old friend Hans Mueller, but he spoke much better English than did Hans, getting his words twisted only when he was excited.

Dick suggested that they all walk down the road to meet Tom, and this was done.  The conversation was a lively one, Stanley and Max telling of their former schooldays and the Rovers relating a few of their own adventures.  Thus the four got to be quite friendly by the time the carriage with Tom and Mr. Sanderson came in sight.

“Find it?” sang out Sam to his brother.

“No,” was Tom’s reply.

“You didn’t!” cried Dick.  “How far back did you go?”

“Way back to Rushville.  I know it was in the carriage at that place, for I saw it.”