CHAPTER X.

WITHIN THE GATES OF THE FAIR.

“What about those papers of mine, Rob? Had I better take charge of the same now, or let you continue to keep them?”

Hiram asked this question as they arose after finishing their breakfast, and found themselves facing the business of the first day at the Exposition. The whole city, as far as they could see, was in gala attire. Bunting and flags were everywhere visible; and it was evident that the good people of San Francisco, in spite of many great discouragements, such as the breaking out of the World War abroad, and the failure of the canal to stay dug on account of the slides, were doing all in their power to make the fair a huge success.

“If you leave it with me to decide, Hiram,” the scout leader remarked, “I’d say no to both your propositions.”

“But what’s to be done with them, then?” cried Hiram, as though puzzled by what the other had just said.

“He means to duplicate our plan down at Los Angeles,” spoke up wideawake Andy.

“Oh! put them in the hotel safe till they’re wanted, is that the idea, Rob?” demanded the owner of the said packet that had been giving them all manner of trouble since the time they left San Antonio in Texas.

“That seems the best scheme, according to my mind,” Hiram was told by the one in whom he felt such abiding faith. “Then, no matter what you find out about those people you’ve come to see, the papers needn’t worry you.”

“Guess you’re right about that, Rob, and it’s a go. Just as like as not I would be doing some fool play, and mebbe losing the precious documents that are to prove my case with the Golden Gate folks. I’ll go to the desk with you any time you’re ready, and see that the clerk gets my property snugged away in his safe.”

When this had been done they set out. Rob, of course, had his suitcase along with him. He had taken out what few things of his own it contained, and now it held only the precious documents and other small exhibits that Professor McEwen had been carrying in person to his scientific colleagues at the Exposition, where they were to be placed with other articles.

What those numerous small rolls and packages contained none of the scouts really knew. From some remarks, let fall by Judge Collins, Rob had an idea they might be papyrus records found in some old ancient tomb or pyramid, and said to have come down from thousands of years back. To the boys these would not have been worth their bulk in sandwiches, possibly, because they could not appreciate their intrinsic value; but in the eyes of such men as the Scotch professor they represented treasures beyond any computation, far too valuable to be intrusted to a common express company that might lose them, or deliver them in a crushed condition.

“There’s a tower I can see; it must be the one that from our window last night seemed as if a million fireflies had lighted on it,” announced Andy, with more or less excitement as they found themselves close to one of the gates where entrance to the Exposition grounds could be had.

“Yes, that must be the Tower of Jewels,” said Rob, “and I should call it pretty well named in the bargain. They’ve certainly chosen a splendid spot for the Fair, fronting, as it does, on the bay, with its wide sweep of water, and with the city rising up on tiers of terraces back of it.”

“That must be the Zone over there,” Andy continued, eagerly; “because you can see a monster seesaw, with one arm away up hundreds of feet in the air, and what looks like a car on it full of folks. Yes, I remember it now; it is called the Aëroscope.”

“Just what it is, Andy,” said Rob, “and when we get up there for a look over the harbor, the Exposition grounds and the city, we’ll find ourselves just three hundred and twenty-five feet off the earth—high enough to make you dizzy.”

“Huh! seems like they do things on a big scale out this way,” grunted Hiram.

“I reckon our Coney Island would hardly be in the swim with this show,” Andy declared, as they paid their way at the gate and entered the grounds.

Colossal buildings could be seen on all sides, most of them dazzling in the sunlight. Rob had studied the arrangement of these buildings so well that he appeared to recognize them now as though entirely familiar with his surroundings. It was evident that the little party would not have much use for a guide as long as Rob was along to serve them in that capacity.

“I calculate that this is the Panama-Pacific Court of the Universe,” he told his chums, “and that building over there is the Palace of Agriculture, while this other must be the Palace of Transportation; then there’s the Palace of Horticulture where you can see that huge glass dome. Over there is the Column of Progress, more than a hundred and fifty feet high, and overlooking the Marino.”

The boys surveyed these sights with more or less awe.

“I suppose,” ventured Hiram, “after we’ve nosed around here for a week or two we’ll feel as much to hum with these big buildings as if we were in Hampton, and lookin’ at our Odd Fellows’ Temple. But what a heap of things they must all of ’em hold. It’ll keep us hustlin’ to see the hull lot, workin’ ten hours a day for weeks.”

“Oh! well, none of us expect to see everything that’s on exhibit here,” said Rob. “Our tastes are not wholly alike, either. I may want to spend most of my time in a certain quarter that wouldn’t interest you other fellows to any great extent; and on your part I’ve no doubt there are certain things that will hold you spellbound, yet which we may only care to take one good look at.”

At that Andy started to chuckle.

“I warrant you I can guess where Hiram will be found pretty much all his time at the show,” he remarked, pointedly; and of course the other scout felt impelled to take him up on that positive assertion.

“Say where, then, if you know so much, Mr. Smarty,” he asked Andy.

“Just as soon as he gets the locations down pat,” began the other, “you’ll never see him a great way off from the quarter where the inventions are being exhibited. He’s daffy on mechanics and such things; and he’ll be worse than any sticking plaster you ever saw, once he gets planted in front of the booths, or finds out where the aëroplanes are going up every little while.”

“Oh! well, I own up that’s mostly what I wanted to come all the way out here for,” said Hiram, frankly. “But it’s a toss-up, Andy, that once you get in that amusement park they call the Zone, a place of more’n sixty acres, I read, you’ll spend most of your time watching the Fiji Islanders dance, or riding around on that observation car to view the wonders of Yellowstone Park, or mebbe the Great Colorado Canyon.”

“I can’t get there any too soon, I’m telling you, boys,” Andy confessed. “Both of you have come out here on business as well as sight-seeing; but it’s different in my case. I’m carefree, and bound to enjoy myself to the limit. In good time I’ll wander all over every building in the grounds; but first I want to be amused so as to forget the troubles of our long trip here.”

“It’s very evident,” began Rob, “that we’ll have to settle on some particular place as a sort of general round-up. If each one is going to start off on his own hook, now and then, unless we fix it that way, we might wander all day long through the enormous buildings, and the grounds covered by this Fair, and never meet.”

“Well thought of, Rob!” cried Andy. “Let me suggest that we take this queer-looking tobacconist shop as our rendezvous. We can make an arrangement with the owner for a couple of dollars or so, to take messages, and hold the same for the rest of the bunch.”

“The sooner that’s arranged the better it’ll suit me, I guess,” said Hiram, who was plainly on needles and pins while being kept from hunting up the building in which he would find myriads of remarkable devices illustrating the inventive genius of the world, and particularly of those from the American nation.

“Of course I’m going at once to the exhibit in which Professor McEwen is interested,” said Rob, after they had arranged with the proprietor of the Oriental tobacco booth, “because I’ll not feel easy until I’ve done my part of the contract, and delivered the stuff he intrusted to our charge.”

“H’m, that means me too, I suppose, Rob,” observed Andy, sighing.

“Oh! I could do it alone,” Rob started to say, when Andy braced up, bit his lip, and continued:

“That was the old selfish streak in me speaking then, Rob. You’ll have to overlook it once more. Of course, I’ll not let you finish this business by yourself. It would be a fine way of acting on my part, now, wouldn’t it—taking the goods and then refusing to pay for the same? Here, let me carry the bag a while. I’m going to be your shadow for this one day anyhow; though p’raps, after all, we can manage to drop in at the Zone, and see what’s what in that interesting district.”

Rob laughed.

“I’ll make a special point of it to oblige you, Andy,” he said, clapping the other on the shoulder. “As for Hiram, I can understand why he’s so anxious to find out where the aviation field lies. We’ve got to remember that his business is with parties who are altogether interested in airships and flying.”

“Thanks, Rob,” said Hiram, nodding his head in that quick jerky way he had. “It stands to reason that I want to pick up a few pointers on the sly before I show myself to the Golden Gate people. By hanging around I’m apt to hear some talk, and learn a few facts that may stand me in good later on.”

“You’d better go some slow, Hiram,” cautioned Andy. “Remember that we had it arranged to back you up when the time came to interview your people. So don’t spoil all our plans by being too precipitate.”

“Meaning, I figure,” Hiram answered, wincing under that last word, “that I mustn’t be rash, and put my foot in it. I promise you I’ll fight shy there, Rob; and when we meet here to get a bite of lunch together, p’raps I’ll have some news for you.”

“I hope it will be the right kind of news, then, Hiram,” Rob told him, seriously; “though for that matter it seems to me this company has treated you splendidly already, and that they must be on the square.”

“And after that affair is all settled up,” continued the other, drawing a long breath of anticipation, “think of the great times I’m going to have mousing around the building that houses the inventions. I tell you I’m the luckiest dog that ever lived to get this big chance thrown right at me.”

So Hiram hurried away, having already marked out his course from long study of the little chart each one of the scouts possessed, and which gave what might be called a “bird’s-eye view” of the extensive Exposition grounds, where the most prominent buildings were located, and the shortest way to get from one point to another.

Rob looked after him with a smile on his face. He turned to Andy and laughed.

“Isn’t he the greatest crank in his line you ever saw?” asked Andy.

“Oh! it’s hardly fair to call Hiram that,” expostulated the scout leader; “he’s enthusiastic over inventions, but what of that? Every fellow who’s dead in earnest could be spoken of as a crank. And it’s the cranks, as you call them, who make the wheels of progress go around.”

“Yes,” added Andy dryly, “I’ve noticed that some of them even seem to have wheels in their heads, though they get hopping mad if you mention it, or turn your hand this way,” and he indicated a revolving motion with his finger that could hardly be mistaken by a sensitive person.

“All I know is that Hiram is due to enjoy the greatest feast his soul ever could imagine. But don’t let us waste any more time here, Andy; I’ve got my bearings by now, and can take you straight to the building where the scientists love to gather and gloat over the queer things that are so wonderful to them. Come along!”