"So you are the Rover boys, eh?" he said, his face lighting up with pleasure. "I am certainly very glad to meet you. Of course you know that your fathers and myself were schoolmates for many years?"

"Yes, Colonel Colby, we know that," replied Jack. "That is one reason why they sent us here."

"So I understand. I am proud to know that my old friends think so much of me," and the master of Colby Hall smiled broadly. "I am sure we are going to get along famously."

"It certainly looks like a nice school," remarked Andy, frankly. "I like it first rate."

"And so do I," added his twin.

"We hope to have some great times here," came from Fred.

Then one after another the boys were required to sign the register and answer a number of questions regarding their age and previous instruction, and the state of their health.

"I'll have Professor Brice a.s.sign you to your rooms," said Colonel Colby, after the questioning had come to an end. "He has charge of that matter so far as it concerns the older boys. The younger boys are under the charge of Mrs. Crews, the matron."

The master of the Hall touched a bell, and when a servant appeared requested that Professor Brice be summoned. The latter soon appeared, a young man evidently just from college. He was introduced to the boys, and then took them off to a.s.sign them their rooms.

"Hadn't we better get our suitcases?" suggested Jack.

"Yes; you might as well bring them along," answered Professor Paul Brice. "That will save another trip downstairs. You can give your trunk checks to me, and I will see that the trunks are brought up from the station and placed in your rooms to be unpacked. After you've unpacked them, they will be marked with your names and placed in the trunk room."

It took the boys but a minute to reach the end of the hallway where their suitcases had been left. Those of the twins were still there, and also that belonging to Jack; but Fred's was missing.

"h.e.l.lo! what's become of my suitcase?" questioned the youngest Rover, anxiously.

"Maybe somebody carried it upstairs for you," suggested Jack.

All looked around the hallway and in the nearby rooms, but the suitcase could not be found.

"Well, I don't think you need to worry," said Professor Brice lightly.

"There is no danger of thieves around here. Probably some boy picked up the suitcase by mistake."

"Maybe," returned Fred; but then he looked at his cousins and shook his head slowly.

"I guess you suspect Nappy Martell and his cronies," whispered Randy on the way upstairs.

"I do!" answered Fred. "I think they took that suitcase to play a trick on me."

CHAPTER IX

THE MISSING SUITCASE

In the letters sent to Colby Hall the Rover boys had requested that they be placed in rooms close to those occupied by Spouter Powell, Gif Garrison and their chums, and Colonel Colby had replied that he would do what he could for them in the matter, although many of the choicest rooms at the Hall had already been a.s.signed to the old cadets.

"I can give you a choice of several rooms," said Professor Brice, as he led the way to the second floor of the school. "Come this way, please."

He took them down a long corridor and into a wing of the building.

"This is our hallway," whispered Spouter to Jack. "I guess you'll get pretty close to Gif and me after all."

Spouter and Gif had rooms numbered 19 and 21. Across the hall, Fatty had number 16. 18, 20 and 22 were as yet una.s.signed.

"I can give you these three rooms," announced Paul Brice.

"But what about the fourth?" queried Jack. "There are four of us, you see, and all these are single rooms."

"For a fourth room you might take the one next to that occupied by Powell on the other side of the hallway," answered the teacher.

"That might do," returned Fred. "But we would prefer to be together--especially as these rooms all connect."

"I think I can help you out if you want me to," came from Fatty, good-naturedly. "If Professor Brice is willing, I'll move over to number twenty-three, and that will give you four fellows numbers sixteen, eighteen, twenty, and twenty-two."

"Oh, we don't want to disturb you, although it's very kind of you to make the offer," remonstrated Jack.

"That's all right," answered Fatty. "I'd just as lief be next to Spouter. The room is just as good, and I know you four cousins would like to keep together." And so, after a little more talk, the matter was arranged.

"Now the question is: How are we going to a.s.sign these rooms?" came from Randy.

"I've got an idea," returned his twin.

"All right; out with it!" came from Fred. "I'd like to get settled so that I can make another hunt for my missing suitcase."

"Why not live here just as we live on Riverside Drive?" answered Andy.

"Jack can take one of the middle rooms, with Fred on one side of him and Randy and myself on the other."

"You've solved it, Andy!" exclaimed Jack, and so without further ado the matter was settled.

"Now I'll inst.i.tute a hunt for that missing suitcase," said Professor Brice after he had made a note of the room a.s.signments. "Most likely some boy picked it up by mistake."

"If he did that, why didn't he leave his own suitcase behind?" queried Fred.

"I'll look it up. Don't worry," said the professor, and then hurried away, for there were many other matters demanding his attention.

The boys found the rooms small but pleasant. Each contained a single bed, a desk, and a chiffonier, and also a small clothing closet. In one corner was a bowl with running water, and each room contained two electric lights. All of the rooms had connecting doors, but these, for the most part, were kept closed, some of the pupils having their beds or chiffoniers in front of them.

"You see, you are permitted to arrange your room to suit yourselves,"

explained Spouter, "so some of the boys have them one way and some another. Some of the boys are even permitted to double up--that is, put two of the beds in one room and use the other room exclusively for dressing and studying."

"That's an idea," answered Randy. "Maybe Andy and I will do that." This plan was followed out by the twins, who used the last room of the four for a sleeping apartment and made of the other room a sort of general meeting place for all of the Rovers.

"Where does that Nappy Martell hold forth?" questioned Fred of Fatty, while he was helping the stout youth transfer his belongings across the hallway.

"He and Slugger Brown and Codfish and that gang are all around the corner, on the main corridor," was the reply. "That is, Nappy was there last season. I don't know whether somebody else used his room after he left or not."

"It was room sixty," put in Spouter. "Slugger has sixty-two. I don't believe anyone went into sixty after Nappy left. You see, it was almost the end of the term and all the cadets were settled."