A SHOCK AT LOS ANGELES.
The time passed, and when one of the waiters passed through to announce
supper, the boys had laid out their program. As before, Rob and Hiram
were to go first, while Andy held the fort for them.
“Remember and don’t leave the seat under any condition while we’re gone,”
was what the scout leader told Andy.
“Do you suspect that they might even try to get away with our hand
baggage?” asked the other. “I thought it was only Hiram’s pockets they
wanted to explore.”
“If they are thieves nothing is safe from them,” explained Rob. “‘An
ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure.’ Keep your foot on my
bag as you sit here. If anybody tries to tempt you to change seats just
say you’ve got a bone in your leg, and don’t care to move around more
than you can help.”
“Sure thing!” chuckled Andy; “it hurts terribly, too; and the only thing
that is able to make me use it is the walk to the dinner—the cake-walk I
call it. Leave it all to me, Rob; I’m frozen to this seat.”
Accordingly, the pair passed along the aisle and headed for the
dining-car. Again the two men did their best to be civil, even nodding
and smiling genially as the two boys passed them.
“Rob, they’re chasing after us!” muttered Hiram, in some little anxiety,
just as he and his chum had entered the next car and were passing along
the narrow corridor.
“All right, there’s no law to prevent them from getting hungry at the
same time we do,” replied Rob over his shoulder.
“But they may choose to sit down with us at the same table, and make
themselves chummy,” objected the other.
“I guess not if we know it,” Rob told him.
“How can we help it without making some sort of scene?” asked Hiram.
“That’s easy enough, if we can pick a table that only accommodates two,”
explained the scout leader, “and as we’re in the advance, we have our
choice.”
“Oh!”
Evidently, Hiram was considerably relieved by what his comrade had said.
He once more realized that Rob promised to be equal to the occasion.
Indeed, the record of past achievements should have told Hiram this long
ago; but in the presence of new dangers he was apt to forget what
splendid things Rob had accomplished on other occasions when the tide
seemed adverse.
Upon entering the dining-car Rob smiled to see that there was just one
table seating two that did not have some one at it.
“There’s our chance, Rob, down at the further end of the car!” said Hiram
hastily, as though he feared the other might not see the table.
Rob took the chair that placed his back against the partition. This
allowed him to survey the rest of the car. Nothing could have suited his
plans better, for there was a small mirror that he could use to spy upon
the two men who were now sitting facing him, halfway up the car.
As the meal progressed and evening drew on, the electric lights in the
diner were turned on. Hiram somehow seemed to lack his voracious
appetite.
“Don’t just know what’s the cause, Rob,” he remarked, when the other
accused him of not disposing of much of the food he had ordered, “it may
be the rocking of the car, which is fierce just now; or else it comes of
my riding backward. I’ve been told that some people never can stand for
that. But I guess I won’t starve to death between now and morning.”
The two men talked a good deal, but then there was nothing suspicious in
that. Rob also noticed that they watched him and companion from time to
time, as if their interest kept on growing.
When Hiram happened to think of his instructions, and occasionally raised
a hand to feel for his coat in the region of that inner pocket, Rob kept
a close watch on the men. He could plainly see the shorter one nudge his
companion in the side, and say something, for his lips moved. Undoubtedly
he was calling the other’s attention to Hiram’s suggestive movement, and
while not a lip-reader, Rob could easily imagine him saying half under
his breath:
“See, there he goes at it again! Just as we decided, he must have
something rich hidden away there. And we’re fools if we don’t make a big
bid for it!”
Rob was by this time fully satisfied that the men had evil designs on his
comrade’s inside pocket. He was determined to be unusually careful about
riding in a public conveyance while in Los Angeles, since that would give
the rascals a chance to accomplish their purpose.
“If you’re satisfied, Hiram, let’s be getting out of here,” said Rob, who
had seen the two men getting an extra portion of food, believing that
this might be a good chance to leave them in the lurch, since they would
hardly jump up and accompany the boys, for fear of attracting attention.
The two scouts quickly arose, seized their hats, and passed along between
the tables, which were pretty generally occupied by that time. Rob took
occasion to keep his eyes on the two men, for several reasons. He even
returned their nods as though no such thing as a suspicion regarding
their honesty had come into his head.
“They missed that chance, anyhow!” Hiram remarked, as with some
difficulty they threaded their way through the next car, for the train
was making fast time, and things rolled more or less.
“We’ve got to keep on the alert all the time if we expect to leave those
smart chaps in the lurch,” Rob told him. “You know the old saying,
‘eternal vigilance is the price of liberty,’ and it applies to us right
now.”
“Then you don’t think they’ve given up all hope yet, Rob?”
“That kind of men never do until they’ve exhausted every plan,” the scout
leader replied. “I expect that right now they’ve got some scheme in mind
they mean to spring on us if they get but half a chance.”
Reaching their section in the sleeper, they sent Andy ahead to get his
supper. He told them he was as hungry as a wolf, and would make up for
what Hiram failed to dispose of, so that the company should not get too
rich off what they paid into its coffers.
After a while the men came in and took their seats. Rob was a little
afraid one of them might be bold enough to push himself upon them. He had
prepared for this during their absence by having Hiram sit alongside of
him next the window, while the other seat was piled high with some of
their luggage, thus offering no chance for a third party to find room.
But it proved a false alarm. Neither of the men made any advance
whatever, and Rob believed they had figured that action on their part
while on the train might get them into trouble.
“The time will come when we are in the station at Los Angeles,” he told
Hiram.
“Do you really think so?” asked the other curiously; and it might be
noticed that he did not seem to be trembling any longer; for since his
packet was safe in the possession of Rob Blake, Hiram did not see any
necessity for further worrying over the matter.
“We must be careful every minute of the time until we reach the hotel,”
the scout leader explained.
“Huh! do you know, Rob, what I’ve got a good notion to do?”
“Be reckless, perhaps,” chuckled the other, guessing this, perhaps, from
the little boastful strain he detected in the language Hiram used.
“Why, to be frank with you, Rob, I really feel sorry for those chumps.
They’ve taken a whole lot of interest in a poor country chap like me, and
it seems a shame they should be bitterly disappointed.”
“Oh! that’s the way things set, do they?” continued Rob. “You feel so bad
on their account that you’re tempted to give them a chance to steal that
dummy packet you have fastened inside your pocket?”
“I’ve gone so far as to take the pin out, you see,” chuckled Hiram. “If
they do get busy they needn’t have the worry of that to keep them back.
And when you look at it in the right light, Rob, wouldn’t that be just
the quickest way to get rid of the slick rascals?”
“Well, the chances are that if they did manage to lay hands on your
packet, they’d disappear in a big hurry, Hiram.”
“All right, then. Let them make the opportunity, and I’ll try to be as
accommodating as possible. You know, Rob, that I’m said to be an easy
mark among the boys of Hampton. I hate to disappoint anybody in the worst
way.”
“Here comes Andy, and he looks as if he has enjoyed his supper
first-rate, too,” Rob remarked. “I hope he doesn’t let them get him into
conversation for an entering wedge. I forgot to warn him about that.”
Apparently Andy was wise enough on his own account to know the folly of
such a move, as he pushed past the two men, paying no attention even when
one of them plucked at his sleeve.
“One more hour and we’ll be there, the conductor told me,” he announced.
“Then we must be about on time, according to the schedule,” said Hiram,
who had worn his time-table almost to shreds by consulting it so often on
the long journey from New York City.
They proceeded to get all their belongings in shape, so there would be
nothing to delay them, once the station was reached. Rob had decided to
take a carriage to the Hotel Alexandria, and thus avoid all possible
contact with strangers.
When the porter announced that they were entering Los Angeles there was
considerable confusion, as passengers caught up such of their hand
luggage as had not been already piled near the door by the porter.
Rob had resolutely declined to let the negro touch his suitcase, though
his liberal tip to the man made him eager to be of some assistance. The
boy knew that at this point there was apt to crop up a crisis; and also
that the good record held up to that time might be shattered through any
carelessness on his part.
Consequently, he held fast to his grip as he followed Hiram out of the
car, this mode of procedure having all been settled upon beforehand. It
gave Rob a chance to keep his eagle eye on the figure of Hiram; and so
long as he was able to do that he did not believe the other could be
spirited away, or his pocket picked.
“Look out for getting in a crush, Hiram,” Rob whispered in the other’s
ear as they passed along the narrow corridor.
“They went out ahead of us, Rob,” Hiram informed him, as he turned his
head.
“Yes, I know that, but we’re going to run up against those men again
before we are out of this scrape,” the scout leader prophesied.
“Well, I’m awful glad we’re in at last. That was a long trip, and I’m
tired of the old car,” said the one in the lead. “Thank goodness we’ll
soon be landed in San Francisco, where my business can be settled, one
way or the other.”
“I see them, Rob!” announced Andy, just then.
“Yes, and they’re waiting for us, just as I thought,” ventured Rob.
“We’ll push straight on to where we can get a carriage, and then leave
them in the lurch. Above all, nobody must stop to talk; keep walking, and
stick together!”
“That’s understood, Rob!” came from Hiram; while Andy in the rear gave a
grunt as if to signify that he had it all fixed in his mind.
There was a lively scene as friends rushed this way and that to find
those for whom they were waiting; and as the three scouts walked steadily
along in line, headed for the exit where the carriages were to be found,
the two men suddenly appeared alongside them.
“Sorry to bother you young fellows,” said the tall man, in a low but
commanding voice, “but we are United States marshals, and you must
consider yourselves bound to come with us, for you are under arrest!”