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:
“Please don’t give me the grand laugh, Rob, when I tell you I saw
something moving under that bed there—a pair of shoes!”