CHAPTER XIV. FOUR SCOUTS IN THE WHIRL.
"Come on, let's join them," suggested Rob, as he led the way over towhere Andy Bowles and the stout youth had started to shaking hands asthough they never meant to stop, chattering away like a pair of magpies,and utterly unmindful of the fact that others aboard the car wereshrieking aloud with growing fear.
But as it happened just then, whatever may have been the cause for thesudden stoppage of the car suspended in midair, the trouble seemed tohave been rectified; for even as Rob led Hiram over to the other pair ofHampton boys, the upward passage was resumed as smoothly as thoughnothing had occurred.
"Well, well! if this isn't the biggest surprise ever!" Tubby exclaimed ashe seized upon a hand of each of the two newcomers, and then lookedaround just as if he had begun to believe the whole of Hampton Troop ofBoy Scouts must have come on to take in the sights of the big show.
"Only three of us, Tubby," Rob told him. "We consider ourselves theluckiest scouts in the whole U. S. A. to get a chance to make this sideof the slope. Of course we knew you were out here somewhere, but youmight as well hunt for a needle in a haystack as to think to find anyonein this mob."
"But tell me, won't you, please, how did you make it?" asked Tubby, whoseround, rosy face seemed redder than ever under all this excitement.
"Wait till we get down out of this high box," said Hiram. "We came uphere on purpose to get the grand view, you know. Besides, there are toomany ears around for _my_ private business to be talked over."
"Whew!" said Tubby, surveying the speaker with more respect than he hadever before felt toward Hiram, whose many attempts to invent wonderfulthings had never been taken seriously by his companions.
"But Hiram is right," said Rob. "We'll only be up here a short while, solet's use our eyes the best we can. It's well worth coming a long wayjust to get such a panoramic view of the City, Bay and Fair."
"Panoramic--whew!" whistled Andy; "but I guess that covers the ground aswell as any word you could scare up, Rob; for it is a panorama a wholelot better'n any I ever saw painted on canvas, like the Battle ofGettysburg and such."
They remained at their several posts drinking in the wonderful featuresof the magnificent view until finally the machinery was set in motionagain, and they found themselves being gradually lowered toward theground. The buildings lost their squatty appearance, the moving throngsof human beings ceased resembling crawling flies, and finally the fourboys issued from the cage satisfied that they had experienced a sensationworth while.
"Now, let's sit down here in the shade for a little while, where we cantalk," suggested Tubby Hopkins, who had been one of the scouts with Robover in Belgium and France on the previous late summer and fall when thewar was going on, and consequently could be looked on as having passedthrough some lively experiences.
"Just a little while," agreed Andy; and Hiram, after looking longinglyaway, no doubt in the direction of the quarter given up wholly to recentremarkable inventions, seemed to resign himself to martyrdom for a spell,for he, too, found a seat close by.
"Now tell it all to me," demanded Tubby, "because I'm just sure it mustbe a story worth hearing. What happened to bring you three fellows outhere? Did some one die and leave you his fortune? It takes a pretty heftywad of money to pay all the expenses of a jaunt across the continent."
"A poor guess that time, Tubby," said Rob. "We'll have pity on you, andgive you the details before you lose weight trying to hit on the trueexplanation. To begin with, Hiram won the trip his own way, while Andyand myself just happened by a stroke of good luck to run upon ourchance."
"Tell that to the marines, will you, please?" scoffed Tubby. "Thingsdon't just happen to you that way, Mr. Assistant Scoutmaster Blake. Everytime I've known you to get a thing you earned it by the sweat of yourbrow. I'd rather believe it was the other way, and that Hiram had droppedon a piece of good luck."
"Well, mebbe I did, Tubby; but then I showed perseverance and grit suchas a true scout should allers possess, they say; and so I claim I earnedmy right to be out here at the Exposition. Go on and tell him the hullstory, Rob."
Seeing that he was expected to undertake the job of being spokesman forthe entire party, Rob started in. He was not the one to embellish facts,or try to make things seems of more importance than they really were.Indeed, if anything, Rob was apt to go to the other extreme, especiallyif he figured at all in a leading role in the narrative.
In this way Tubby was finally put in possession of all the needfulinformation connected with their coming. He heard about the smart way inwhich Hiram had conducted his negotiations by mail with the company thatmade a specialty of aviation goods, and which apparently had so muchfaith in his patent stabilizer that they had advanced sufficient funds toenable the inventor to come out and visit them at their headquarters inSan Francisco.
Then followed the account of how Rob and Andy had been of such signalservice to Captain Jerry and his famous scientific passenger at the timethe old naphtha launch took fire while crossing the bay to Collins'Point; together with what resulted from that rescue.
It was all very interesting to Tubby, who asked many questions when hethought Rob was holding back certain facts that had a direct bearing onthe narrative.
"You see, my uncle has gone up to Portland for a week or more onbusiness," Tubby told them. "He left me to enjoy myself at the Expositionas I pleased. I'm not going around in my scout clothes, but I've got thekhaki suit at the hotel; and now that I've met you fellows, of course, Imean to wear it right along, even if I astonish the natives."
"Oh, boys wearing khaki are such a common sight these days!" Rob told himin a consoling way, "that you'd not be apt to attract any person'sattention, even if you are stouter than any other scout going."
"Yes, I've met quite a few of the boys and chatted with them, too,"admitted Tubby. "You see, I always make it a point to wear my badgesunder my coat even if I am in mufti--is that what they call it, Rob, whena military officer dresses in civilian garb? Yes, the scouts areeverywhere, and it doesn't surprise you one bit when you see a couple ofthem taking part in a camel race, as I did."
Having finished their explanations, and urged on by the impatient Andy,the little party began to make the rounds of the amusement zone. It waslaid out on such an extensive scale that one could hardly expect to do itjustice in one afternoon; indeed, Andy announced that he anticipatedputting in a full week there, taking in the sights, and feasting his eyeson the wonders that had been collected from the four corners of the earthfor this special occasion.
"Here's where we can see in miniature what some of us have actuallylooked on before when building--the working of the great Panama Canal,"announced Tubby, as they arrived at the panorama section. "Shall we payand take chairs on the moving platform for a trip around?"
Of course there was not a dissenting voice, for they were boys, and hadplenty of spare change and wanted to see all the sights, at least once.
After that nothing would do for Andy but that they must embark on thetrain for a trip through the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, which was wellexecuted with regard to color effects so as to excite their ardentadmiration.
"I was sorely tempted to take that side trip on the way here," Robconfessed. "We could have done it easily enough, but you see I didn'tknow what to do with that priceless stuff we had charge of for ProfessorMcEwen. I couldn't carry it on mule back, and didn't dare leave it behindat the hotel. Besides, we promised him we wouldn't linger on the waygoing, but do all our sight-seeing coming back."
"I'm going to fix it with uncle," asserted Tubby eagerly, "so that I canhold on with you fellows if he has to return sooner, or by another route.I believe I'd enjoy seeing the Selkirks up in Canada first-rate, 'causeI've heard a lot about that wonderful scenery."
"We'll be glad to have you along, Tubby," said Andy.
"That goes without saying," added Hiram; while Rob smiled, and nodded ina way that Tubby knew meant "those are
my sentiments, too, every time."
The next thing on the program was seeing Yellowstone Park, another scenictrip so realistic that Andy declared he would always have troubleconvincing himself he had not actually been through the NationalReservation where the hot springs and geysers flowed, some of the latterrising a hundred and fifty feet into the air, with steam and vaporforming a dense canopy around.
It was just after they had come out from this that the absence of Hiramwas discovered. Tubby professed to be somewhat alarmed, and feared theirold chum might have fallen from the observation car; but Rob set his mindstraight when he admitted that he had seen Hiram sneaking away.
"He'd reached his limit of endurance," he told Andy when the latterexpressed his opinion of one who cared so little for amusement; "andwe've got to remember that our chum is a queer fish at best. Besides, hisheart is wrapped up in things along a certain line. Let him go his way;and later on, perhaps, when some of us have grown a little tired of allthis clatter in the Zone, we'll hunt up the aviation field and see whatHiram is doing."
Andy had many more things on his list, but Rob told him not to try andrush it all into one afternoon.
"Take it easy, Andy," he advised. "'Rome wasn't built in a day,' youremember. We're going to be around these haunts for a good long while,and one by one we can see all the shows that are gathered here--that is,all worth seeing. These odd people from the wilds interest meconsiderably, too, so that I wouldn't miss looking in on their villages,where they're genuine, as most of them are, because the management standfor that fact."
It may have been nearer four o'clock than three, when, being more or lesstired with their first day at the Exposition, the three chums turnedtheir faces in a quarter that up to then none of them had visited saveTubby, and he only casually.
"We'll take a look in at the aeroplane boys first," said Rob; "and if wedon't run across Hiram there, we will go over to the building where hesays many of the latest inventions are on exhibition."
It was not difficult to discover which way to go, for overhead severalaeroplanes were whizzing this way and that. Far up in the heavens theycould see a small speck which was no doubt some daring pilot trying foran altitude record.
"Makes me think of those days over in Belgium and France, eh, Rob?"remarked Tubby Hopkins, "where we saw German and French and British andBelgian fliers; yes, and even a big Zeppelin that was meaning to bombardsome city."
"Well," Andy told them, "here we are on the field, and like as not we'llfind our aviation mad chum over in that crowd around the machines on theground, where the starts are made."
"I rather think those must be the various models of new machines,"observed Rob, and immediately adding, "There's Hiram now; he's sightedus, and is heading this way."
"Yes, with a grin as big as a house on his face," asserted Tubby; "whichI take it must mean he's struck something that tickles him just fierce."
Hiram joined his three comrades a minute later.
"Well," he said, in a mysterious fashion, addressing himself particularlyto Rob, "the Golden Gate Aeroplane Manufacturing Company has acontraption on one of their machines, intended to equalize shiftingweights; but shucks! it isn't in the same class with my dandy littlestabilizer. I guess they mean business in my case, with a big B."