The Boy Scouts at the Panama-Pacific Exposition

“I should be unco’ pleased to hear all you can tell me,” declared the scientist, “for I must confess that from the verra beginning these braw lads ha’e made a most favorable impression with me.”

And so Rob had to sit there, squirming rather uneasily, while the judge told of the perilous trip he and several chums had made to the troubled republic of Mexico, and how they had cleverly managed to accomplish the delicate mission with which they had been entrusted by Tubby Hopkins’ uncle.

Then he took up the subject of the tour abroad, where they had been for days and weeks in the battle zone of the contending armies, managing with consummate skill to avoid complications, and eventually succeeding in attaining the object which had been the cause of their undertaking this perilous mission.

All this while the little Scotch professor sucked away at his pipe as though he found great consolation in burning the weed that originally came from Virginia in the time of Sir Walter Raleigh, and was therefore a strictly American product. Now and then he would let his shrewd eyes roam from the face of the enthusiastic judge to the burning one of Rob Blake, and at such times Andy always noticed that he would nod slightly, as though better pleased than ever.

Andy, by the way, was enduring all manner of torture on account of the suspense; he had had a glorious prospect opened up before him, if only the curtain would not suddenly fall and shut it out.

“That is not nearly all that these gallant boys have done,” declared the narrator, after a time. “I could sit here for an hour and tell you innumerable instances where Rob, and some of his chums into the bargain, did things that would be counted big under ordinary conditions. Why, it has come to that pass in Hampton nowadays that when anything beyond the ordinary is attempted they have to get the scouts interested in it first, and then people begin to believe it must have some merit.”

“What you tell me is indeed wonderful,” declared the professor. “After that recommendation I am strongly disposed to offer them the carrying out of my mission if they could see their way clear to accept the task.”

“It would give them a chance to spend some weeks at the Exposition without incurring any expense, is that the idea, Professor McEwen?” asked the judge, who looked as happy as though he had discovered some wonderful bug which had been eagerly sought after for years and years by all scientists and collectors.

“Yes, a month, if they cared to stay that long,” replied the other, who seemed to have been fully convinced, and ready to throw the load of responsibility from his own shoulders to those of Rob and his chum. “The particulars can be gone over a little later, either to-night, if they care to see me again, or to-morrow. There is no great need o’ haste, though what I am carrying out to California is being eagerly expected by my colleagues there.”

“Let me congratulate you, boys, on your good fortune,” said the kindly judge, as though he wished to settle the matter in such a fashion that there could be no drawing back on the part of the gentleman. He then shook hands first with Rob and then with Andy Bowles.

Rob was looking a little pale from excitement, but there was also a happy glow in his eyes. As for Andy, he could not prevent a wide grin from spreading over his features. His father owned a livery stable in Hampton, but was not considered at all well-to-do, so that the boy had never been able to do more than dream of taking expensive trips. That one down into Mexico had come like a gleam of golden sunshine, for Tubby Hopkins’ old uncle had footed all the bills.

“Do I understand you to make this proposition to us, Professor McEwen?” Rob asked bluntly, not wishing to be laboring under any delusion.

“Aweel, aweel, I dinna ken how I could do better; and I feel that I am indebted to ye baith for my life. After hearing what bonny lads ye are, from my friend Judge Collins here, whose opinion carries great weight wi’ me, I am mair than pleased to offer to stand all the cost of a trip to California and back; as well as the expense which you will necessarily be under while seeing the great Exposition in San Francisco. Do ye think ye can ha’e the permission of the auld folks to take so lang a journey?”

“There will be no trouble on that score, Professor,” urged the judge. “These lads have so amply demonstrated their sterling ability to look out for themselves that I really believe Rob’s parents would not object if he wanted to go to hunt for the South Pole, or explore the unknown regions of tropical Brazil. And so we shall call it settled, I presume, Professor?”

“I ha’e made the offer, and shall tak’ it hard if they turn it down,” said the peculiar little man of science, whose name, Rob afterward learned, was known throughout the whole length and breadth of the world wherever men of intellect gathered to discuss their theories and discoveries.

“So far as we are concerned,” said Rob, after receiving an entreating look from the excited Andy, “we are disposed to accept right on the spot, subject to the reservation that our parents may have the final deciding of the matter. We will run over here by moonlight to-night, Professor, and if everything is satisfactory, we will talk matters over with you, and make all arrangements.”

“That suits me nicely, laddie,” declared the visitor pleasantly; “and I shall ha’e to think mysel’ unco’ lucky to have found competent and trustworthy messengers so soon after the necessity arose. I shall look for ye then this same evening; and I hope that there may be no barrier thrown in the way of your acceptance of my offer. The mair I see of ye the better satisfied I feel that I will ha’e no regrets after entrusting my mission in your hands.”

Soon afterward the two scouts said good-by to the professor, and started down to the dock. Even in his distress of body and mind, the thoughtful scientist had not forgotten Captain Jerry; and the boys were entrusted with a message to him to the effect that ten pounds awaited his acceptance when he was ready to install that new three-horse-power engine in his launch.

The old bayman was glad of the chance to have his wrecked boat towed back home; and when Rob delivered the message of the professor, the look of concern on his weatherbeaten face vanished as the mist does with the coming of the sun.

All the way across the broad bay the two scouts were jabbering to each other in connection with the astonishing streak of good fortune that had just come their way.

“Seems to me I must be dreaming!” Andy declared for the fourth time. “Please give me a pinch, Rob, to let me make sure I’m awake.”

“Oh! you’ll get used to it by degrees,” the other told him, though he felt somewhat uncertain himself at times, and had to convince himself that it had all actually happened, and was not the result of a fevered imagination.

“Talk to me about luck,” continued Andy rapturously, “there never could happen again such a wonderful combination of things. First, that the feed-pipe aboard the Sea Gull should be leaking a trifle; second, that Professor McEwen was aboard the same; then he tossed that lighted match the wrong way, so instead of going overboard it fell down and slipped between the bars of the wooden grating into the oil-covered bilge water, and last of all that we chanced to be close by at the critical moment, ready fixed with a fire extinguisher to put out the blaze, and capable of hauling the ship-wrecked mariners aboard.”

“Everything of that kind is always a combination of minor happenings that seem to dovetail in with each other,” Rob explained. “In this case it worked perfectly. All other boats were so far away that there’s no telling what might not have happened.”

“We’re getting close in now, and, Rob, there’s somebody waving to us from the dock. Why, it looks like our inventor chum and fellow scout, Hiram Nelson, the queerest fellow in the Eagle Patrol. He must want us to stop and take him out for a ride on the bay. You didn’t promise him anything like that, did you, Rob?”

“Why, no, not that I remember,” replied the other slowly; “but now that you mention him acting as though he wanted to see us so badly, I remember that Hiram has been talking to me several times lately about some wonderful secret he was carrying around with him. He said he hoped to be in a position soon to open up and take me into his confidence; and that he might have a proposition to make that would give me a great, though a pleasant shock.”

“You don’t say?” chuckled the happy Andy. “Well, seems to me the shoe is on the other foot just now, and that we’ve got something to tell Hiram that will take his breath away for a minute. Look at him dancing around, Rob! I suppose now he’s gone and invented some sort of contraption that never can be made to work, and he wants to tell you he’s saved up enough hard cash to get a patent on the same. But chances are it’ll be money wasted, because, so far as I know, nothing Hiram has done so far has proved much of a success.”

“I’m a little afraid it’s as you say,” added Rob, in a low tone, for they were now fast nearing the dock where the other boy waited for them, his face wreathed in such broad smiles that they could easily see his news was of a pleasant nature. “Three times Hiram has tried to go up in that aëroplane of his and failed. I hope he’s switched his genius off on some safer track than this sky traveling. But we’ll soon know, for here we are at the dock.”

Andy stood by with the boathook to fend off, and old Captain Jerry got in readiness to take charge of his launch and pole it along the border of the bay to the mouth of the creek, up which he had his mooring place.

When Rob had made the motorboat fast to a cleat on the dock, he joined his chum, and the two of them advanced toward the spot where Hiram awaited their coming, his face still betraying the great excitement under which he seemed to be laboring.

CHAPTER IV

A STUNNING SURPRISE

“He certainly looks all worked up, doesn’t he, Rob?” Andy remarked, as he and his companion found themselves drawing closer to the other scout.

“Hiram is a queer stick, you remember,” the patrol leader told him, speaking in a soft tone, as he did not wish the other to catch what he said. “Everybody just knows that he’s gone daffy over this craze to invent something worth while. But unless I miss my guess we’re going to hear some news shortly.”

There was no chance to exchange further remarks, because they had reached a point close to Hiram. The latter was a rangy sort of chap. He could talk as well as the next one when he felt disposed that way, but it had always been a sort of fad with Hiram Nelson to pretend that he was a real countryman, and many a time had he amused his chums with his broad accent and his wondering stare, as of a “yahoo” seeing city sights for the first time.

Now, however, Hiram apparently was not bothering his head about having any fun with his fellow scouts. There was an eager expression on his face, as though he were bursting with the desire to communicate his great secret to a chosen few of his chums, especially to the patrol leader, Rob Blake.

“Been alookin’ for you all over town, Rob,” he started in to say, as they joined him. “Took me an awful long time to get track of where you’d gone. Then just by accident I ran across Walter Lonsdale, who told me he believed from what Sim Jeffords said, that Joe Digby had seen you and Andy here hitting it up for the dock, and so he reckoned you must have gone off on your little Tramp. And say, Walter was right that time, wasn’t he?”

“He certainly was,” replied Rob, while Andy Bowles chuckled at the roundabout way the other admitted he had received his information.

“Well, Rob,” continued Hiram mysteriously, “’course you remember my telling you that sooner or later I might have somethin’ of vast importance to tell you, something that would give you one of the greatest thrills ever?”

“Sure, I remember that,” asserted the other, “what about it, Hi?”

The other leaned closer to the scout leader, and in a hoarse whisper exclaimed:

“The time has come now, Rob!”

“Good enough,” said Rob. “Fire away then, Hiram!”

Hiram cast a rather dubious glance in the direction of Andy.

“Oh, don’t mind me one little bit, Hi!” sang out that worthy cheerfully. “I’ll promise to seal my lips if you give the word, and even being burned at the stake couldn’t force me to squeal a syllable. Say on, Hiram; you’ve got Rob and me worked up to top-notch with curiosity, and I know I’ll burst pretty soon if you don’t take pity on me.”

“Oh! well, I guess it’s all right,” the other observed slowly. “Everybody’ll be knowing it sooner or later. You just can’t hide a light under a bushel, anyhow. So I might as well take you at your word, Andy.”

“My word’s as good as my bond, Hiram,” said the bugler of the troop, with some show of pride; whereat Hiram laughed softly, as though possibly he had no reason to doubt that same fact, since Andy would find it difficult work to get anybody to accept the latter.

“Let’s sit down here on this pile of lumber,” Hiram went on to say, “while I tell you what wonderful things happened. The greatest chance I’ve ever struck so far, and you can understand that I’m nigh about tickled to death over it.”

“Huh! bet you’ve gone and spent every red cent you could scrape up paying a patent lawyer to put some wildcat scheme through; and that you’ve got the papers in your pocket showing that you’ve parted from your hard cash?”

When Andy recklessly said this Hiram turned and looked reproachfully at him, and then with his accustomed drawl remarked:

“Everything we tackle in this world is a chance and a hazard, don’t you know, Andy Bowles? And if inventors, people who have the big brains, and get up all the wonderful labor-saving devices you read about, didn’t choose to accept risks, why whatever would become of all you ordinary folks, tell me?”

Andy shook his head.

“Give it up, Hiram,” he said blankly. “But please go right along and tell us what you’ve been and gone and done now. Never mind me. My bark is a whole lot worse than my bite, anyhow.”

“That’s so,” Hiram assured him cheerfully. “Well, you guessed right in one way, Andy, for I have secured the advance notice that a patent is pending on a clever invention of mine, which is as good as saying it’s secured. But that’s only the beginning, the foundation, or, as you might say, the advance agent of prosperity. The best is yet to come.”

“You’re exciting us a heap, Hiram, I admit,” muttered Andy, “but I hope it isn’t all going to turn out a big smoke. There’s some fire back of this talk, isn’t there?”

“Wait!” the other told him grimly. “Get ready to soak in this information, boys. The invention for which I have applied for patent rights is, as p’raps you’ve already guessed, in connection with airships!”

He waited at that point, as if expecting some expression of surprise and wonder; so not to disappoint him, and in hopes of hurrying matters along a little faster, the accommodating Andy gave vent to the one expressive word:

“Gee!”

“Yes, I’ve been tackling one of the hardest propositions we inventors have ever run up against,” continued Hiram pompously, “and to tell you the truth it was only through a happy chance that in the end I stumbled on the key that unlocked the secret. You may know that one of the obstacles to making aëroplanes popular among the masses has been the danger attending these air flights. Even the most experienced pilots are subject to risks that they pretend to make light of. You understand all that, Rob, of course?”

“Yes, I know they are delicate affairs at best when used for sailing a mile above the earth,” admitted the patrol leader; “and that a sudden gust of wind, if it takes the voyager unawares, is apt to bring about disaster.”

“That’s just it,” said Hiram triumphantly. “Rob, I’ve discovered a way to prevent all these accidents, and made an aëroplane as safe for a novice to run as it would be for an experienced pilot with a license.”

“If you have done that, Hiram, you’ve got a feather in your cap!” Rob told him. “Some of the biggest inventors have been lying awake nights trying to fix things that way, so as to take away most of the terrible risk of flying; but so far it doesn’t seem they’ve met with much success.”

“Wait till they hear from Hiram Nelson, that’s all,” declared the happy scout, as he smote himself on the chest in rather a vainglorious fashion, which, however, the other two boys hardly noticed, for they knew Hiram’s fondness of boasting, as he had always been afflicted in that way.

“Tell us the rest, Hi,” said Andy, just as if it bored him to hear so much about the “preliminaries,” when as the inventor proclaimed the best was yet to come.

“All right,” said Hiram promptly. “Now you know what the scheme is I can go on and get deeper into my yarn.”

“Wish you would,” muttered Andy, pretending to stifle a yawn back of his hand, but that was only done in order to hurry the long-winded talker.

“I call my wonderful invention a stabilizer, because that’s the use it’s really intended for,” continued Hiram, as though wishing to fully impress that fact upon their minds. “To tell the truth, I’ve had the legal documents showing that a patent had been applied for, quite some time now, though for reasons of my own I kept it all a dead secret from everybody. Mebbe yeou fellers may have noticed that I’ve been looking kinder mysterious the last month or two? Well, guess with such a tremenjous secret on your mind either of you’d a been equally absent minded. But that is past now, and I’ve accomplished my aim.”

“Good!” Andy burst out with. “Let go your bowstring then and shoot, for goodness sake, Hiram.”

“Well, of course I had it all laid out,” continued the other composedly, as if it was beneath him to pay any attention to these pins that Andy was sticking into him, “and my first thought was to get in communication with some enterprising big corporation that manufactured aëroplanes for the market. All inventors have to sell their first few patents, you know, so’s to get money enough to push other ideas; and if I could pick up a few thousand that way, why I’d have to let my stabilizer go.”

“Then you’ve been corresponding with such a company, have you?” asked Rob, knowing that he could tempt the other to hurry his story in this way, just as a witness in court is drawn on by a clever lawyer’s questions.

“Oh! several of them, in fact,” admitted Hiram, as if that were only a minor matter, after all, “but in the end I found that a certain concern meant strictly business, and consequently I dropped all the rest.”

“Have they actually made you a definite offer for your valuable invention?” asked Rob, taking considerable more interest in the matter, now that Hiram’s undoubted though erratic genius seemed to be steadying down with some tangible results.

“Pretty much that way, I should call it,” remarked the inventor, trying hard to appear natural, though trembling all over with excitement. “They went so far as to enclose a check big enough to cover all expenses of myself and a companion – for I was smart enough to say I’d insist on having company for advice along with me – to run out to their main works, and talk the matter over with a view to disposing of my patent rights to the device.”

At that Andy’s face lost the look of sneering incredulity that had been a marked feature of his listening to all this talk.

“Whew! is that a fact, Hiram?” he exclaimed. “Shake hands on it, will you? Didn’t we always say that some fine day you’d be famous, and make the Eagles proud to reckon you as a member? A real check, and not on a sand bank, you mean?”

“Well, I went right away to Rob’s father’s bank and saw the president. He said the check was O. K. and that I could get the hard cash any time I wanted it. Why, he even called it a certified bank draft, which meant the money had been set aside in the San Francisco bank for that purpose, deducted from the account of the Golden Gate Aëroplane Manufacturing Company.”

“What?” almost shrieked Andy Bowles, “say that again, will you, Hiram? Must be my mind’s so filled with that Golden Gate business I just thought I heard you mention something like that. Repeat it, please, Hiram!”

“Why, the check came from a San Francisco bank, because you see the company is a substantial concern in California. They make some of the most famous aëroplanes on the market. If they adopt my stabilizer it’s going to be heard of all over the world. And to think what a magnificent chance we’ve got to run out there and take in the great Panama-Pacific Exposition at the same time, Rob! It’s enough to make you think you’re dreaming, eh?”

“Why do you mention me in the game, Hiram?” demanded the patrol leader, with a smile on his face, and a knowing wink in the direction of Andy Bowles.

“Because, don’t you see, Rob, I knew I didn’t have a business head on me, and might get cheated out of my boots if I ran up against a smart lot of manufacturers; and so I was wise enough to insist that I be allowed to fetch along a companion. They never put up a single kick against the expense of the double bill, Rob; but the check covered railroad fare, sleeper, meals, and hotel bills while there a week, as well as the return trip to boot. That means they fancy my invention is going to be a big thing for their house. And, Rob, don’t you see, I had you in mind all the while when I wrote about fetching a companion. I want you the worst kind to accept my invitation and go to the Fair at my expense. Tell me you will, Rob!”

CHAPTER V

HEADED WEST

When he made this alluring offer Hiram Nelson was astonished to see Rob turn toward Andy, and that the pair of them actually laughed. Quite indignant at such a showing of skepticism, Hiram hastened to say:

“Don’t believe a word of what I’m saying, p’raps now? Well, seeing that your dad reckoned this little paper was worth every cent it called for, suppose you take a squint at the same, Rob. You, too, Andy, and then you’ll laugh on the other side of your mouth, I shouldn’t wonder.”

He flourished the bank draft in front of their eyes, so that both scouts could see the amount it called for in cash, and that it bore all the marks of being genuine.

“Oh! neither of us is doubting anything you say, Hiram,” explained Andy effusively. “The only thing is that Rob here can’t accept your generous offer, that’s all.”

“Can’t accept?” gasped the other, looking terribly disappointed. “Why not, I’d like to know; and me countin’ on having him along to advise me, and keep me from being caught napping, or robbed of my valuable papers on the road.”

“I’ll tell you why he isn’t able to take the trip to California at your expense, Hiram,” said Andy solemnly. “It’s because he’s already pledged himself to go with someone else. Fact is, Hiram, I’m the one who holds Rob’s word.”

“You – agoin’ to California, Andy Bowles?” exclaimed the astonished Hiram; and his incredulous manner told that he doubted the truth of the assertion, for where could the son of the liveryman of Hampton get all the money to cover the double expense of such a lengthy trip; certainly not through any invention his brain had ever conceived; and no boy could ever hope to save enough out of his spending money for that.

“Yes, we’ve just made all arrangements for a month at the Exposition,” said the Bowles boy; “that is, we have to run over to Judge Collins’ place again after supper to-night, and complete the details. We expect to pull out day after to-morrow, and take a through limited train for New Orleans first, then across the plains of Texas, and the deserts of New Mexico and Arizona to Los Angeles.”

Hiram sat there as though changed into stone. He hardly knew whether Andy was trying to hoodwink him or not; for the other had something of a reputation as a joker.

Rob took pity on the poor fellow.

“It’s just as Andy says, Hiram,” he observed seriously. “We’ve had a wonderful experience when out on the bay. A fire happened aboard old Captain Jerry’s Sea Gull on account of a passenger dropping a lighted match, so that it caused something of an explosion. The two men, somewhat scorched, tumbled overboard. We were close at hand, and by using that fire-extinguishing torch of mine managed to put out the flames before they’d done much damage. We also hauled Captain Jerry and his passenger aboard.”