The Boy Scouts at the Panama-Pacific Exposition

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.”

“I’ve got a theory,” said Rob, “but of course there’s no way of proving it. It’s connected with those two fellows who tried to play a smart game on Hiram here at Los Angeles, and got left for their pains.”

“Hello! I haven’t heard anything about that up to now,” exclaimed Tubby. “Who and what were they, Rob? Ten to one you engineered a scheme to block them, because it would be just like Rob Blake to do that.”

So Andy, having a glib tongue, took it upon himself to relate the adventure of the through train, and how the two clever rogues had tried to get them to enter a carriage as prisoners, meaning, of course, to rob Hiram as soon as the chance came.

Tubby laughed when he heard how their plan was brought to naught. His merriment grew even more boisterous after he learned that Rob had taken Hiram’s papers to secrete them on his person, while the other hid some old letters in an inside pocket, which were deftly “lifted” during the short time the boys happened to be in close touch with the pair of rogues.

“Just to think of the bitter disappointment they met with,” said Tubby between his gasps. “I’m sure they’ll remember you fellows with anything but pleasure. Every time they glimpse a boy in khaki they’ll be apt to utter some hard words.”

“Well,” continued Rob, “it was on what they must feel that I based my theory. You see, they must have been coming to one of the expositions, probably the big Panama-Pacific show, to ply their trade. That would take them here to San Francisco. By some chance or other they may have seen us, and found out where we are stopping; and this raid was carried out more with a desire to have revenge on us than anything else. If some one hadn’t alarmed the fellows they might have amused themselves destroying everything in our bags and trunk.”

“A mean revenge, but I wouldn’t put it past a thief who was boiling mad because three Boy Scouts had managed to get the better of him,” Andy declared, with considerable emphasis, which looked as though he rather favored the theory advanced by the scout leader.

“Whee! I hope this thing isn’t as catching as the measles,” ventured Tubby. “You know, I’ve gone and paid out some good money for several things that caught my eye in the booths at the Exposition; and I’d hate to have some one get away with them during my absence.”

“Oh, small chance of that happening, Tubby! And if you’re afraid to stay alone to-night, why, I’ll go over with you to get your bag, and come on here,” Andy told the anxious one.

Perhaps Tubby was at first sorely tempted to accept that offer; but then he chanced to catch a gleam of amusement on Hiram’s face. That settled the matter. Pride stepped in and took the reins.

“Oh, never mind about that, Andy!” he hastened to say. “It’s very kind of you to offer me help, but I think I had better wait until morning. I’ll be around early and take breakfast with the bunch, remember. What time do you eat?”

Hiram and Andy allowed Rob to settle that for them.

“Call it eight o’clock, then. We’ll wait that long for you, Tubby,” the scout leader said.

“I’ll be on the move by seven, and as I expect to pack my bag to-night before turning in, it isn’t going to take me long to finish.”

Tubby got up as though he knew he ought to be going; but apparently he hated to part from his chums. They had been together so much of recent years that they were as thick as peas in a pod.

Rob somehow did not seem to be altogether satisfied with the result of his first examination of the room; he was heard moving around in the second apartment. When he joined the rest again, Andy, who must have guessed what he had been about, began to question Rob.

“Find anything to give the game away in there, Rob?” he asked.

“Well, no, not that I could see,” the scout leader replied. “The door, as you may remember, is locked, and the key at the office, where we haven’t bothered taking it out. Besides, when we left this morning I shot the bolt home, so that no thief could have entered by that door; and certainly no one left the room that way, or the bolt would not be in the socket as it is.”

“Oh, well, what’s the use of bothering about it? We don’t as a rule believe in crying over spilled milk. If that’s the case, why should we fret when there’s been no damage done at all, except my white shirt being soiled by finger prints?”

“Send that to the hotel laundry and forget it,” advised Tubby. “Where did I leave my hat? Oh, here it is! By the way, don’t be surprised when you see me in the morning, because I expect to be togged out in my khaki uniform, which Uncle had me fetch along in my big collapsible grip.”

“We’ll try and stand the wonderful sight the best way we can,” Hiram told him; “but break it to us by inches, please, Tubby, so as to avoid as much risk as possible. I’ve got a weak heart, you know, and a sudden shock might be serious.”

“Too bad you made your bargain with the hotel clerk before you donned your khaki, Tubby,” ventured Andy. “He might have given you the room at half the price you expect to pay for it now on the European plan. Your presence here would be a standing advertisement for the place. They could afford to let you stay for nothing if only you’d agree to stand outside the restaurant door an hour each day, and pick your teeth.”

All this kind of “joshing” had no effect on Tubby, who really seemed rather to enjoy being a target for these shafts of sarcasm leveled by his comrades, for his smile was as bright and cheery as ever.

“I’ll tie my shoe first, and then skip out. Must be going on nine o’clock now, and I’ve got some lost sleep to make up.”

Saying which he dropped down on one knee and set to work. The others accommodated themselves to the several easy-chairs, Hiram swinging one of his long legs over the arm of his seat in real Yankee fashion.

Rob yawned, and then taking out his little notebook – in which he was particular to jot down every daily event of any consequence on the trip – he felt in his pocket for a pencil.

“By the way, Hiram, you borrowed my pencil this afternoon, and didn’t return it,” he remarked, stretching out his hand toward the other scout, who, with a sheepish shrug of his shoulders, fished the article in question out of his vest pocket and handed it over.

It was just then that Tubby fairly scrambled to his feet. Rob looked up in some surprise, when to his further astonishment the fat boy tiptoed over, bent down, and said: