“Only three of us, Tubby,” Rob told him. “We consider ourselves the luckiest scouts in the whole U. S. A. to get a chance to make this side of the slope. Of course we knew you were out here somewhere, but you might as well hunt for a needle in a haystack as to think to find anyone in this mob.”
“But tell me, won’t you, please, how did you make it?” asked Tubby, whose round, rosy face seemed redder than ever under all this excitement.
“Wait till we get down out of this high box,” said Hiram. “We came up here on purpose to get the grand view, you know. Besides, there are too many ears around for my private business to be talked over.”
“Whew!” said Tubby, surveying the speaker with more respect than he had ever before felt toward Hiram, whose many attempts to invent wonderful things had never been taken seriously by his companions.
“But Hiram is right,” said Rob. “We’ll only be up here a short while, so let’s use our eyes the best we can. It’s well worth coming a long way just to get such a panoramic view of the City, Bay and Fair.”
“Panoramic—whew!” whistled Andy; “but I guess that covers the ground as well as any word you could scare up, Rob; for it is a panorama a whole lot better’n any I ever saw painted on canvas, like the Battle of Gettysburg and such.”
They remained at their several posts drinking in the wonderful features of the magnificent view until finally the machinery was set in motion again, and they found themselves being gradually lowered toward the ground. The buildings lost their squatty appearance, the moving throngs of human beings ceased resembling crawling flies, and finally the four boys issued from the cage satisfied that they had experienced a sensation worth while.
“Now, let’s sit down here in the shade for a little while, where we can talk,” suggested Tubby Hopkins, who had been one of the scouts with Rob over in Belgium and France on the previous late summer and fall when the war was going on, and consequently could be looked on as having passed through some lively experiences.
“Just a little while,” agreed Andy; and Hiram, after looking longingly away, no doubt in the direction of the quarter given up wholly to recent remarkable inventions, seemed to resign himself to martyrdom for a spell, for he, too, found a seat close by.
“Now tell it all to me,” demanded Tubby, “because I’m just sure it must be a story worth hearing. What happened to bring you three fellows out here? Did some one die and leave you his fortune? It takes a pretty hefty wad of money to pay all the expenses of a jaunt across the continent.”
“A poor guess that time, Tubby,” said Rob. “We’ll have pity on you, and give you the details before you lose weight trying to hit on the true explanation. To begin with, Hiram won the trip his own way, while Andy and myself just happened by a stroke of good luck to run upon our chance.”
“Tell that to the marines, will you, please?” scoffed Tubby. “Things don’t just happen to you that way, Mr. Assistant Scoutmaster Blake. Every time I’ve known you to get a thing you earned it by the sweat of your brow. I’d rather believe it was the other way, and that Hiram had dropped on a piece of good luck.”
“Well, mebbe I did, Tubby; but then I showed perseverance and grit such as a true scout should allers possess, they say; and so I claim I earned my right to be out here at the Exposition. Go on and tell him the hull story, Rob.”
Seeing that he was expected to undertake the job of being spokesman for the entire party, Rob started in. He was not the one to embellish facts, or try to make things seems of more importance than they really were. Indeed, if anything, Rob was apt to go to the other extreme, especially if he figured at all in a leading rôle in the narrative.
In this way Tubby was finally put in possession of all the needful information connected with their coming. He heard about the smart way in which Hiram had conducted his negotiations by mail with the company that made a specialty of aviation goods, and which apparently had so much faith in his patent stabilizer that they had advanced sufficient funds to enable the inventor to come out and visit them at their headquarters in San Francisco.
Then followed the account of how Rob and Andy had been of such signal service to Captain Jerry and his famous scientific passenger at the time the old naphtha launch took fire while crossing the bay to Collins’ Point; together with what resulted from that rescue.
It was all very interesting to Tubby, who asked many questions when he thought Rob was holding back certain facts that had a direct bearing on the narrative.
“You see, my uncle has gone up to Portland for a week or more on business,” Tubby told them. “He left me to enjoy myself at the Exposition as I pleased. I’m not going around in my scout clothes, but I’ve got the khaki suit at the hotel; and now that I’ve met you fellows, of course, I mean to wear it right along, even if I astonish the natives.”
“Oh, boys wearing khaki are such a common sight these days!” Rob told him in a consoling way, “that you’d not be apt to attract any person’s attention, even if you are stouter than any other scout going.”
“Yes, I’ve met quite a few of the boys and chatted with them, too,” admitted Tubby. “You see, I always make it a point to wear my badges under my coat even if I am in mufti—is that what they call it, Rob, when a military officer dresses in civilian garb? Yes, the scouts are everywhere, and it doesn’t surprise you one bit when you see a couple of them taking part in a camel race, as I did.”
Having finished their explanations, and urged on by the impatient Andy, the little party began to make the rounds of the amusement zone. It was laid out on such an extensive scale that one could hardly expect to do it justice in one afternoon; indeed, Andy announced that he anticipated putting in a full week there, taking in the sights, and feasting his eyes on the wonders that had been collected from the four corners of the earth for this special occasion.
“Here’s where we can see in miniature what some of us have actually looked on before when building—the working of the great Panama Canal,” announced Tubby, as they arrived at the panorama section. “Shall we pay and take chairs on the moving platform for a trip around?”
Of course there was not a dissenting voice, for they were boys, and had plenty of spare change and wanted to see all the sights, at least once.
After that nothing would do for Andy but that they must embark on the train for a trip through the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, which was well executed with regard to color effects so as to excite their ardent admiration.
“I was sorely tempted to take that side trip on the way here,” Rob confessed. “We could have done it easily enough, but you see I didn’t know what to do with that priceless stuff we had charge of for Professor McEwen. I couldn’t carry it on mule back, and didn’t dare leave it behind at the hotel. Besides, we promised him we wouldn’t linger on the way going, but do all our sight-seeing coming back.”
“I’m going to fix it with uncle,” asserted Tubby eagerly, “so that I can hold on with you fellows if he has to return sooner, or by another route. I believe I’d enjoy seeing the Selkirks up in Canada first-rate, ’cause I’ve heard a lot about that wonderful scenery.”
“We’ll be glad to have you along, Tubby,” said Andy.
“That goes without saying,” added Hiram; while Rob smiled, and nodded in a way that Tubby knew meant “those are my sentiments, too, every time.”
The next thing on the program was seeing Yellowstone Park, another scenic trip so realistic that Andy declared he would always have trouble convincing himself he had not actually been through the National Reservation where the hot springs and geysers flowed, some of the latter rising a hundred and fifty feet into the air, with steam and vapor forming a dense canopy around.
It was just after they had come out from this that the absence of Hiram was discovered. Tubby professed to be somewhat alarmed, and feared their old chum might have fallen from the observation car; but Rob set his mind straight when he admitted that he had seen Hiram sneaking away.
“He’d reached his limit of endurance,” he told Andy when the latter expressed his opinion of one who cared so little for amusement; “and we’ve got to remember that our chum is a queer fish at best. Besides, his heart is wrapped up in things along a certain line. Let him go his way; and later on, perhaps, when some of us have grown a little tired of all this clatter in the Zone, we’ll hunt up the aviation field and see what Hiram is doing.”
Andy had many more things on his list, but Rob told him not to try and rush it all into one afternoon.
“Take it easy, Andy,” he advised. “‘Rome wasn’t built in a day,’ you remember. We’re going to be around these haunts for a good long while, and one by one we can see all the shows that are gathered here—that is, all worth seeing. These odd people from the wilds interest me considerably, too, so that I wouldn’t miss looking in on their villages, where they’re genuine, as most of them are, because the management stand for that fact.”
It may have been nearer four o’clock than three, when, being more or less tired with their first day at the Exposition, the three chums turned their faces in a quarter that up to then none of them had visited save Tubby, and he only casually.
“We’ll take a look in at the aëroplane boys first,” said Rob; “and if we don’t run across Hiram there, we will go over to the building where he says many of the latest inventions are on exhibition.”
It was not difficult to discover which way to go, for overhead several aëroplanes were whizzing this way and that. Far up in the heavens they could see a small speck which was no doubt some daring pilot trying for an altitude record.
“Makes me think of those days over in Belgium and France, eh, Rob?” remarked Tubby Hopkins, “where we saw German and French and British and Belgian fliers; yes, and even a big Zeppelin that was meaning to bombard some city.”
“Well,” Andy told them, “here we are on the field, and like as not we’ll find our aviation mad chum over in that crowd around the machines on the ground, where the starts are made.”
“I rather think those must be the various models of new machines,” observed Rob, and immediately adding, “There’s Hiram now; he’s sighted us, and is heading this way.”
“Yes, with a grin as big as a house on his face,” asserted Tubby; “which I take it must mean he’s struck something that tickles him just fierce.”
Hiram joined his three comrades a minute later.
“Well,” he said, in a mysterious fashion, addressing himself particularly to Rob, “the Golden Gate Aëroplane Manufacturing Company has a contraption on one of their machines, intended to equalize shifting weights; but shucks! it isn’t in the same class with my dandy little stabilizer. I guess they mean business in my case, with a big B.”
CHAPTER XV.
TUBBY IS OUT OF HIS ELEMENT.
If there had arisen any doubt in Hiram’s mind as to the deep interest those chums were taking in his enterprise, it must have been quickly dispelled when he made this announcement, and saw the looks of delight spreading over their faces.
“Bully!” cried Andy.
“Best wishes, Hiram!” added Tubby, genially, as he patted the other fondly on the shoulder.
Rob did not say anything, but if looks could speak Hiram might easily see that he had the sincere sympathy of the scout leader; though he knew that much before.
“While I’ve been hovering around here,” continued Hiram, “making myself useful whenever a flier was going up by running with the machine to give it a good start, I’ve kept my eyes and ears wide open, let me tell you.”
“So as to learn all you could about the Golden Gate Company, of course?” remarked Andy.
“Yes,” Hiram told him, frankly enough, “and soak in any sort of knowledge that might be useful to a feller that’s got the aviation bee abuzzin’ in his bonnet. And I’ve learned a heap, let me tell you, boys. Why, it’s paid me already for my long and arduous trip across country. I c’n start on as many as three schemes I’ve been hatchin’ in my fertile brain this long time. I was up agin’ a blank wall, you see; but now I’ve got ideas worth a hull lot to me.”
“That sounds all right, Hiram,” Rob told him; “only I hope you go slow about this business. Don’t overdo it, or we may have to take you home in a strait-jacket yet.”
“Nixey, not for me,” jeered the other; “my head’s as clear as a bell. Fact is, I never felt half as bright as I do now. The clouds have been scattered, and seems like the sun was shinin’ all the time. Once I get this stabilizer business well off my hands, and have some coin to go to work with, you’ll see the dust fly.”
“And he belongs to the Eagles, too!” said Tubby, in wrapt admiration. “Seems as if you just can’t suppress ’em, no way you try. There never was a patrol of scouts organized that had as many bright minds on the roster roll as ours contains.”
Andy immediately took off his campaign hat and made Tubby a low bow.
“That’s nice of you, Tubby, to say such sweet things of your chums,” he remarked, just as if it sprang straight from his heart. “And we want you to know that with the other seven the name of Tubby Hopkins will go ringing down the ages in Boy Scout history as one who always made his mark. And I can testify to that from my own personal knowledge.”
From the way in which Hiram and Rob tittered when Andy said this it could be inferred that they knew very well to what those last few words referred. The fact of the matter was that once upon a time Andy had had the misfortune to be under a tree when Tubby was knocking down nuts; and the fat scout, losing his grip on a limb, came down with tremendous force directly on Andy, who was flattened out on the ground like a pancake.
He carried the bruises he received on that occasion for quite some time; but no one could bear malice against Tubby, who, scrambling to his knees, had immediately expressed great solicitude for his unfortunate comrade, saying:
“Oh, excuse me, Andy, I didn’t know you were right under me, or I might have chosen some other place to land.”
“You don’t wonder at me being chained to this place, do you,” asked Hiram, “when there’s so much happening all the time, with pilots going up and coming down, agents explaining the use of new designs of aëroplanes they are putting on the market, and everybody ‘talking shop’? They reckon I’ve been employed in some place where they make these fliers, because I know somethin’ about them. So they let me help in a lot of ways. It’s fun, I tell you, the best fun I ever knew.”
Anyone could see that Hiram was right in his element. His freckled Yankee face seemed to glow with enthusiasm, and his little eyes shone in a way Rob had never noticed before. Indeed, if the scout leader had been inclined sometimes to fear Hiram would develop into a harmless crank, with only vague unreasonable ideas rattling about in his loose brain, that suspicion was rapidly vanishing.
Perhaps it had commenced to have an effect upon Rob’s opinion when he read that letter from the Golden Gate people. They were hard-headed business men, and not visionary dreamers; and surely they would never have advanced all that money to a strange inventor unless they believed in him, and meant to attach his genius to the fortunes of their company.
“I own up, Hiram,” said Andy, as they stood there and watched the many things that were going on all the time around them, “that there must be a sort of fascination about this thing to fellows who have a leaning that way. But as for me you never could tempt me to climb up thousands and thousands of feet like the air-pilot in the monoplane that looks like a swallow against the sky.”
“It takes some nerve, I’ll admit, Andy,” said Hiram, modestly.
“Huh! plenty of people may have nerve enough,” objected Andy, “but all the same they’d be laboring under physical disabilities.”
“As how, Andy?” asked the other.
“Oh, well, take our chum Tubby here; you never could expect him to make a flier, and bore up into the clouds. In the first place, it wouldn’t be fair to the people down below. He nearly killed me once by dropping just ten feet; think what would happen to the poor chap who happened to get in the way if Tubby came down from where that aviator is now?”
Even Tubby had to laugh at that highly colored supposition.
“Well, one thing sure!” he exclaimed, “I wouldn’t have to beg pardon for squashing him.”
“But think of the mess,” chuckled Andy.
“Watch that man who has just gone up in a monoplane. He’s the best there is on the Coast, next to Beachey himself, who is a native of California. You’ll see him turn flip-flaps to beat the band presently. Why, I’ve watched him go around twice, and as neat as a circus tumbler would do it off a springboard over the backs of three elephants. There he goes! What d’ye think of that?”
“Whew! he’s a corker, for a fact!” ejaculated Tubby, as he stood with open mouth, gaping at the wonderful exploits which the reckless air-pilot was engineering far up above the earth.
Rob, chancing to turn toward the stout boy, saw to his amusement that there was something of a wistful expression on his rosy face. Tubby could at least feel the charm that this hazardous sort of life might possess for venturesome boys, even though he knew he could never hope to attain any standing in the ranks, owing to what Andy had well called “physical disabilities.”
Athletes alone make good air-pilots, and a fellow who had the shape of a tub would only be useful as an anchor, or something like that.
Poor Tubby! It did seem that Fate was cruel to him, since he was debarred from taking an active part in so many sports such as boys enjoy. But Nature had at least given him a cheerful disposition, so that no matter how keenly disappointed he might be, he never allowed this to sour his temper.
They stood there and watched the trick aviator doing what Hiram called “stunts.” Sometimes the boys fairly gasped with sudden fear lest the man aloft had made a miscalculation, and would come plunging down like a stone to his death; but his agility and quick wit always served him faithfully.
“Some of these fine days something will happen that he doesn’t count on,” Rob said, soberly, “a flaw may develop in some part of his machine, just where it counts the most; and then—well, it will be his finish.”
“That depends,” remarked Hiram, quietly.
“On how high he happens to be at the time, you mean?” asked Andy. “Oh! just a few hundred feet will be enough to put him out of business for keeps.”
“Not if he is a wise man, and has a patent Nelson self-acting parachute fastened to him all the time!” declared the other, proudly. “It’ll open and allow him to drift slowly down, like you see hot-air balloon performers come to the earth after they’ve cut loose above.”
“Good for you, Hiram!” exclaimed Tubby; “I reckon folks have got to sit up and take notice, now that you’ve come to town! Young blood will tell every time. Oh, but I’m glad I met my chums! It was getting mighty lonesome for me, in a crowd all the time, but with not a solitary fellow to speak to. And Hiram, I’m glad you coaxed us to come over here. I’m getting interested in flying; p’r’aps if I cut down my feed, and knock off a hundred or so pounds I might have a show in this business yet.”
As they did not know whether Tubby was joking or really meant it, no one laughed at his strange remark; for they did not want to hurt his feelings. But when they glanced from the corners of their eyes at his girth the absurdity of his hope was manifest. Perhaps they may even have remembered a remark once made by Joe Digby to the effect that Tubby would have to have an extra big pair of wings given to him if ever he became an angel.
“There’s another exhibition pilot going to start up, boys,” said Hiram just then. “Suppose we walk over closer, and you can watch me lend a hand to shove him off on a good start.”
“That’s right, let’s get closer and see how things are done,” added Tubby, as he bent over, and, picking up a stick of clear pine that had caught his eye, he took out his penknife and commenced to whittle away just as though he might be the representative Yankee of fiction.
But whittling had always been a favorite occupation with Tubby; somehow it seemed to soothe him and cause his thoughts to flow more smoothly. He never could resist an extra fine bit of wood, though besides shavings he had never been known to produce any especial result from the use of his keen-edged knife-blade.
There were quite a number of people around, and they seemed to be more or less interested in the claims made by the representatives of the different aëroplanes that were being displayed, and in the practical demonstrations.
Tubby listened with rapt attention as some of the men talked, explaining what improvements had been made in the working construction of the machine just then about to be put to the test.
Hiram was doubtless dreaming of the hour of his triumph when one of these aëroplanes would be equipped with his wonderful stabilizer, and he might stand there listening to the fulsome praise of the Golden Gate Company’s demonstrator, before a practical test was made, to show how impossible it would be for a flying machine that carried such a life-saving device to be upset by flaws of wind, or the sudden movements of the pilot.
When all was ready for the flight, Hiram was one of those who laid hands on the aëroplane with the intention of running a score or two of feet, so as to assist in the start. Unnoticed by Rob, Tubby, too, had copied Hiram’s example, urged on by some irresistible impulse approaching madness, perhaps.
When the word was given, and with propeller whirling, the aëroplane started along on its bicycle wheels, with a dozen pushers to assist, there was Tubby in the midst.
Suddenly there arose a series of shouts of alarm.
All of the other willing helpers had dropped off, only Tubby was sprinting furiously after the aëroplane, which was bumping along over the ground with ever increasing momentum. Rob felt a thrill of real alarm when he believed he saw that the left arm of the stout boy was drawn out, as though in some unfortunate way it had become caught in a trailing cord, so that he was compelled to keep on, no matter how much he wanted to break away!
CHAPTER XVI.
THE ILLUMINATED FAIRYLAND.
“Oh! Tubby!” Andy was heard to cry out above the clamor.
It was all over in a few seconds. Rob believed he saw the fat boy manage to get his other hand out; and it flashed through the scout leader’s mind that the last he had noticed Tubby was gripping his open knife in that hand.
They saw the stout boy roll over and over like a big rubber ball. At the same time it became evident that the shouts of sudden alarm and horror bursting forth from the crowd must have warned the aviator that something was wrong, for he instantly shut off the power, and the monoplane was now slowing up instead of increasing its speed over the level ground.
Rob, Andy and Hiram joined in the forward rush, everybody fearing the worst with regard to poor Tubby. But when they arrived on the spot they were more than pleased to see him calmly brushing off his clothes.
“Did you get hurt, Tubby?” demanded Andy, anxiously.
“Never a bit,” replied the grinning Tubby. “That’s the good of being encased in fat, you see. If it had been you, Andy, you would have gotten a broken rib, or something like that. Oh! thank you for my hat, mister. Did anybody see my knife; it slipped out of my hand just as I cut the cord that was holdin’ me to the machine?”
“Good for you, Tubby, if you had the presence of mind to do that!” cried Hiram.
“And here’s your knife, my boy,” said an air-pilot, advancing. “You had a narrow escape, and if I were you I would let it be the last time I ever tried to run with a machine. If you had fallen over you might have been dragged and killed.”
“Not by that cord, I should think, mister,” declared Tubby, holding up the piece that still dangled from his left arm, where a loop had accidentally become fast. “It would have broke short on me; but all the same I’m through trying games like that. I’m not built for it, I guess.”
They were pushing the monoplane back for another start. The aviator stopped to survey Tubby from head to foot.
“So, it was you holding me back, was it? Didn’t get hurt any, I hope? But looky here, young fellow, when I want an anchor I’ll get a real one, and not just a tub of jelly; understand that, do you?”
It was pretty rough on Tubby, for the crowd laughed uproariously, but he disarmed the anger of the air-pilot by joining in the mirth.
“I meant all right, mister,” he told the aviator, “and it would have been easy only for that cord that was hanging out. It got caught around my arm, and I couldn’t break away. Thank you for letting me off so easy.”
After that the boys walked away. It had threatened to be a serious matter at the time, but now that everything was over Andy and Hiram were secretly exchanging nods, and chuckling over the remembrance of their fat chum sprinting after the swift monoplane, going faster no doubt than he had ever done before in all his life.
“I see the finish of the rest of the boys in Hampton when the foot races are on next fall,” Andy complained, in what he meant to be a serious tone, “if you take to doing your practicing that way, Tubby.”
“Yes,” added Hiram, “when it comes to the point that Tubby can keep along with a racing aëroplane, or a speeding motorcar, the rest of us might as well throw up the sponge and quit. He’d make circles around us like Rob’s boat the Tramp could with the old Sea Gull.”
“Make your minds easy, boys,” Tubby told them pleasantly. “I’m going out of training. Once is enough for me. You can have the field to yourself, Hiram; only if I were you I’d quit that running business. An inventor has no right to take chances; and what’s happened once may happen again.”
“Well, now, I never thought of that, Tubby,” admitted the other, shaking his head seriously. “Just as you say, an inventor has no right to expose himself like an ordinary person. No telling what he might not think up some day for the uplift of the civilized world. He sorter belongs to science, don’t he? Yep, I’ll stop chasing after aëroplanes; but of course I’ll have to go up once in a while in order to keep in touch with things.”
“We’re about ready to start for the hotel, Hiram,” announced Rob; “and if you’ve decided not to introduce yourself to the Golden Gate people to-day, you might just as well come back with us.”
Hiram sighed, and allowed his glance to rove over to where the crowd still gathered around the demonstration station.
“I s’pose I’d better,” he replied with an effort. “I don’t want to be greedy, and overdo things; but it’s giving me a jolt to have to break away from here. How about you, Tubby; coming along and have dinner with us to-night?”
“Of course he is,” said Rob immediately. “To-morrow he must change hotels, so he can be one of our party.”
“Why, you took the words right out of my mouth, Rob,” declared Andy.
“That makes it unanimous,” added Hiram, vigorously; “so you see there’s no way for you to back fire, and break away from your moorings from the same old crowd, Tubby.”
Tubby smiled, and looked pleased.
“It’s nice to know you’re appreciated, let me tell you, boys,” he observed. “I’ll be only too glad to join you at dinner. Yes, and in the morning I’ll pack my grip so as to change base. I can leave a letter for Uncle Mark that he’ll get as soon as he comes back from Oregon.”
So that much was settled, and somehow all of them seemed to feel pleased over the addition to their ranks. Tubby Hopkins was always like a breath of Spring and a welcome guest at every camp fire. Gloom and Tubby never agreed; in fact he radiated good cheer as the sun does light and heat.
“What’s the use of going to the city, and eating an ordinary dinner at some hotel or restaurant, when we can get such a corking fine spread at the place where we had our lunch?” asked Andy.
“Well, there’s a whole lot of sense in that,” admitted Rob. “We can sit around and get rested, then go to our dinner before the evening rush starts in; and by the time we’re through, the illumination of the Exposition will have gotten fully under way. And that’s a sight we’re wanting to see, you know.”
Hiram fell in with the idea at once, and Tubby declared it suited him perfectly. So once more they headed toward that section of the Zone where the giant Aëroscope lifted up its cage of sight-seers hundreds of feet every few minutes, for the eating-place had been close to this spot.
Since they were looking forward to several weeks at the Fair, no wonder the boys felt very satisfied and happy. There was so much to see that they believed they could put in all the time to advantage without duplicating anything.
When they were seated at the table, Tubby kept his chums in a constant roar of laughter by his many quaint remarks. Sometimes these were called forth by some queer type of foreigner chancing to pass by; and then again it might be Tubby would revive some ludicrous memory of past events in which he had figured.
They certainly seemed to enjoy their “feed,” as Tubby called it; it was not unlike a camp supper, when eaten under such odd surroundings. Andy openly declared that with so many swarthy turbaned Arabs strolling by, not to mention Egyptians, Hindoos, Algerians, Moors, and the like, he could easily imagine himself away off on a sandy desert, with camels as the only means of transportation.
“Makes me so thirsty just to think of it that I have to keep on drinking all the time; so please get me another cup of coffee, waiter,” he said.
“A poor excuse is better than none,” remarked Hiram. “Now, I’m going to have a second helping of that ambrosia nectar just because I want it. I don’t have to ring in all that taffy about hot deserts, camels and such stuff.”
By the time they were through with dinner the illumination of the Exposition grounds was in full blast. It certainly looked like fairyland to Rob, Andy and Hiram; though the last named seemed to be more interested in figuring how an improvement might be made in the wonderful electrical display than in admiring the amazing effect of the myriads of colored lights.
The roofs of buildings, the domes, the turrets and the towers, as well as the Triumphal Arch of the Setting Sun were all aglow. It made a spectacle not easily forgotten, and which the boys were never weary of gazing at.
As all of them felt pretty stiff and tired from having been on their feet so much that day, and not being used to it after sitting so long on the train, it was determined that they would not linger any longer.
“We’ll be here on plenty of nights up to the closing hour,” said Rob, “and I think it would be poor policy to overdo things in the beginning.”
“Yes,” added Tubby with the air of an oracle, “I never forget what I was once told, that it’s very unwise to press your horse in the start of a long journey. Let him generally get used to going, and by degrees he’ll be able to do better work right along—and finish strong.”
“Same way,” added Andy, “the jockeys hold back racers till they reach the last lap. The one that’s the freshest on the home stretch is the one that’s going to win, nine times out of ten.”
“I’m going with you, boys, and see all I can of my chums,” announced Tubby, who undoubtedly hated to spend even one more night alone. “I can engage a room near yours for to-morrow, p’r’aps; and besides, Rob has something he promised to show me, which won’t keep over the night.”
What he referred to happened to be some photographs Rob had taken on the way to California, and which would have looked just as good on the next day; but then Tubby was hunting for even a poor excuse to hang on to the party as long as he could.
They took a carriage at the exit. At the office of the hotel they waited until Tubby had interviewed the clerk, with Rob at his elbow to vouch for him.
“Great luck, fellows!” announced Tubby, as he rejoined Andy and Hiram. “I got my room all right, which in itself is a wonder with all the crowds in the city right now; but would you believe it I’m next door to you!”
“It’s some more of that everlasting Hopkins’ luck,” Andy told him. “You can’t be kept down, Tubby, no matter how they try it. We’ve seen you bob up on top before now. And look at you chancing to have that open knife in your hand this afternoon, when that cord held you! One chance in ten thousand of such a thing happening, and yet it did with you. Sometimes I wish my name wasn’t Bowles; if I couldn’t have it that I think I’d choose Hopkins. Sounds lucky to me!”
Chattering as they went, the four chums sought the elevator, and were soon on the fifth floor where the boys’ connecting rooms were located.
Rob had secured only the one key at the desk. With this he opened the door, and stepping inside reached out his hand to switch on the electric light. As this flashed up the boys stared about them.
“Wrong room, Rob, I bet you!” exclaimed Andy. “We never left things scattered around on the floor like this.”
“But that looks like your suitcase, Andy; and this open steamer trunk is mighty similar to the one we fetched along to hold our extra clothes!” exclaimed Rob.
“Looks like somebody had been in here looting!” remarked Tubby, whose eyes seemed as round as saucers as he turned from one object to another.
“Well, what d’ye think of that?” cried Hiram, bitterly; “here’s my bag turned inside out, just like some sneak thief had been looking for money or jewelry. There’s been an attempt at robbery here, fellows, as plain as the nose on my face!”
CHAPTER XVII.
PRYING FINGERS.
“Let’s see if there’s anything missing!”
As Andy made this remark he started to gather up some of his possessions that strewed the floor close to his suitcase, where they had been hastily thrown when the leather receptacle was emptied.
“Wait a minute,” said Rob, halting him in the work; “let’s take a general look around first. It seems to me as if they hadn’t gotten more than half-way through our trunk. That would indicate something had alarmed the thief, and caused him to leave in a hurry.”
“Oh, mebbe I’m not tickled nearly to death!” exclaimed Hiram, suddenly, beaming on the others as though he felt like shaking hands with himself over something.
“What about?” asked Tubby.
“I can give a guess,” said Rob. “It’s about the papers we left in the safe downstairs, eh, Hiram?”
“Just what it is, Rob,” admitted the other, continuing to show his pleasure. “Only for your smartness in getting me to deposit the packet with the clerk under a seal, it might have been in my bag right here. Say, I wonder now, if that was what the thief wanted?”
“But no one out here would suspect that you carried valuable papers, Hiram,” objected Rob.
“How do we know that?” asked the other, who had seized upon that explanation of the mystery, and saw no reason as yet to abandon his theory. “Didn’t I tell you how several companies I approached had men in their employ who tried to play smart games on me, so as to steal the fruits of my labor? Rob, you haven’t forgotten that unscrupulous Marsters, have you?”
“Why, no, but there’s a whole lot that would have to be explained about him before I could believe he had anything to do with this game,” Rob told him.
“Then you’re of the opinion it’s just an ordinary everyday hotel sneak thief who’s been looking through our stuff in hopes of finding some spare money hidden away in one of our grips, is that it, Rob?” and Andy started in once more to gathering up his scattered property, rubbing at the bosom of a shirt where it seemed to be marked with dirty fingers.
“I don’t believe he found anything worth taking,” said Hiram, “because we made it a point never to keep valuables in our bags, outside of those rolls belonging to your Professor McEwen.”
“If anything worth a considerable amount had been stolen,” ventured Rob, “I’d have stopped Andy before now from destroying one of the finest clues that could ever be found. I mean that finger-print so plainly marked on the bosom of your white shirt. With the modern methods used by the police to fix a crime on a criminal, that dark impression of his fingers would prove the fellow guilty in case they could use a drag net and round-up a bunch of suspects.”
Tubby stood and watched the others work, gathering their belongings together. Both Hiram and Andy growled occasionally because the thief in his haste to look through everything had jumbled things considerably.
“What did he want to waste his precious time for trying to find anything worth while in the belongings of three boys?” Andy asked, as though he had a personal grievance against the rogue who had entered their rooms with a duplicate key, since they had certainly found the door locked.
Struck with an idea, Rob stepped over to one of the windows and looked out.
“Think he may have climbed in from some fire-escape, don’t you, Rob?” demanded Tubby, who had noted this move on the part of the scout leader.
“The idea struck me,” admitted Rob, “but it only took one look to tell me such a thing is quite impossible, and out of the question. No, he must have come in by the door.”
“And went out the same way?” continued Tubby.
“Yes, after upsetting our things in the way he did,” pursued Rob.
“I s’pose he found out that the owners of the trunk and bags were only three boys,” Tubby went on to say in his logical way, “and then he threw up the game; no use expecting to run across jewelry or any extra cash in baggage belonging to boys seeing the Fair.”
“Seems like it’s the old story over again,” Hiram remarked, “and there’s no end to the queer things we run up against. I’m getting so nowadays I expect some surprise to break in on me any minute, day or night. If it isn’t one thing then it’s another. And when all else fails why we c’n depend on Tubby here to keep the wheels spinning with some of his antics.”
“Antics!” echoed Tubby, indignantly. “I object to you giving my adventure of this afternoon such a name as that. You must think I would purposely tie myself to a speeding aëroplane, and then have to run after it just for the fun of the thing. Antics nothing. Misfortunes, you’d better call my troubles after this.”
“Oh, never mind, Tubby! After all, you didn’t get hurt,” said Andy. “In this case it looks like the thief had had his troubles for nothing.”