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!”