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!”