Page:Ballinger Price--The Happy Venture.djvu/110

94 "Have you baggage?"

"Couple of trunks."

"Are you sending them by the electric freight?"

"No other way to send them," said the man, gloomily. "I've been here before. I've fortiﬁed myself with a well-stocked bag, but I sha'n't have a collar left before the baggage comes. As for my wife—"

"I can get your luggage to Asquam in a bit over an hour," said the businesslike young gentleman.

The somewhat bored group lifted interested heads. They, too, had trunks doomed to a mysterious exile at the hands of the electric freight.

"I'm Sturgis," said the youth, "of the Sturgis Water Line. I have a large power-boat built for capacity, not looks. Your baggage will be safe in a store-room at the other end,"—Captain Sturgis here produced a new and imposing key,—"and will be taken to your hotel or cottage by a reliable man with a team at the usual rate of transfer from the trolley. My charges are a little higher than the trolley rates, but you'll have your baggage before luncheon, instead of next week."