CHAPTER XVII. PRYING FINGERS.
"Let's see if there's anything missing!"
As Andy made this remark he started to gather up some of his possessionsthat strewed the floor close to his suitcase, where they had been hastilythrown when the leather receptacle was emptied.
"Wait a minute," said Rob, halting him in the work; "let's take a generallook around first. It seems to me as if they hadn't gotten more thanhalf-way through our trunk. That would indicate something had alarmed thethief, 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 himselfover something.
"What about?" asked Tubby.
"I can give a guess," said Rob. "It's about the papers we left in thesafe downstairs, eh, Hiram?"
"Just what it is, Rob," admitted the other, continuing to show hispleasure. "Only for your smartness in getting me to deposit the packetwith 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 thatexplanation of the mystery, and saw no reason as yet to abandon histheory. "Didn't I tell you how several companies I approached had men intheir employ who tried to play smart games on me, so as to steal thefruits of my labor? Rob, you haven't forgotten that unscrupulousMarsters, have you?"
"Why, no, but there's a whole lot that would have to be explained abouthim before I could believe he had anything to do with this game," Robtold him.
"Then you're of the opinion it's just an ordinary everyday hotel sneakthief who's been looking through our stuff in hopes of finding some sparemoney hidden away in one of our grips, is that it, Rob?" and Andy startedin once more to gathering up his scattered property, rubbing at the bosomof a shirt where it seemed to be marked with dirty fingers.
"I don't believe he found anything worth taking," said Hiram, "because wemade it a point never to keep valuables in our bags, outside of thoserolls 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 cluesthat could ever be found. I mean that finger-print so plainly marked onthe bosom of your white shirt. With the modern methods used by the policeto fix a crime on a criminal, that dark impression of his fingers wouldprove the fellow guilty in case they could use a drag net and round-up abunch of suspects."
Tubby stood and watched the others work, gathering their belongingstogether. Both Hiram and Andy growled occasionally because the thief inhis haste to look through everything had jumbled things considerably.
"What did he want to waste his precious time for trying to find anythingworth while in the belongings of three boys?" Andy asked, as though hehad a personal grievance against the rogue who had entered their roomswith a duplicate key, since they had certainly found the door locked.
Struck with an idea, Rob stepped over to one of the windows and lookedout.
"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 mesuch a thing is quite impossible, and out of the question. No, he musthave 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 onlythree boys," Tubby went on to say in his logical way, "and then he threwup the game; no use expecting to run across jewelry or any extra cash inbaggage belonging to boys seeing the Fair."
"Seems like it's the old story over again," Hiram remarked, "and there'sno end to the queer things we run up against. I'm getting so nowadays Iexpect some surprise to break in on me any minute, day or night. If itisn't one thing then it's another. And when all else fails why we c'ndepend on Tubby here to keep the wheels spinning with some of hisantics."
"Antics!" echoed Tubby, indignantly. "I object to you giving my adventureof this afternoon such a name as that. You must think I would purposelytie myself to a speeding aeroplane, and then have to run after it justfor the fun of the thing. Antics nothing. Misfortunes, you'd better callmy troubles after this."
"Oh, never mind, Tubby! After all, you didn't get hurt," said Andy. "Inthis 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 provingit. It's connected with those two fellows who tried to play a smart gameon 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 blockthem, because it would be just like Rob Blake to do that."
So Andy, having a glib tongue, took it upon himself to relate theadventure of the through train, and how the two clever rogues had triedto get them to enter a carriage as prisoners, meaning, of course, to robHiram as soon as the chance came.
Tubby laughed when he heard how their plan was brought to naught. Hismerriment grew even more boisterous after he learned that Rob had takenHiram's papers to secrete them on his person, while the other hid someold letters in an inside pocket, which were deftly "lifted" during theshort time the boys happened to be in close touch with the pair ofrogues.
"Just to think of the bitter disappointment they met with," said Tubbybetween his gasps. "I'm sure they'll remember you fellows with anythingbut pleasure. Every time they glimpse a boy in khaki they'll be apt toutter some hard words."
"Well," continued Rob, "it was on what they must feel that I based mytheory. You see, they must have been coming to one of the expositions,probably the big Panama-Pacific show, to ply their trade. That would takethem here to San Francisco. By some chance or other they may have seenus, and found out where we are stopping; and this raid was carried outmore with a desire to have revenge on us than anything else. If some onehadn't alarmed the fellows they might have amused themselves destroyingeverything in our bags and trunk."
"A mean revenge, but I wouldn't put it past a thief who was boiling madbecause three Boy Scouts had managed to get the better of him," Andydeclared, with considerable emphasis, which looked as though he ratherfavored the theory advanced by the scout leader.
"Whee! I hope this thing isn't as catching as the measles," venturedTubby. "You know, I've gone and paid out some good money for severalthings that caught my eye in the booths at the Exposition; and I'd hateto have some one get away with them during my absence."
"Oh, small chance of that happening, Tubby! And if you're afraid to stayalone to-night, why, I'll go over with you to get your bag, and come onhere," Andy told the anxious one.
Perhaps Tubby was at first sorely tempted to accept that offer; but thenhe chanced to catch a gleam of amusement on Hiram's face. That settledthe matter. Pride stepped in and took the reins.
"Oh, never mind about that, Andy!" he hastened to say. "It's very kind ofyou to offer me help, but I think I had better wait until morning. I'llbe around early and take breakfast with the bunch, remember. What time doyou 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," thescout leader said.
"I'll be on the move by seven, and as I expect to pack my bag to-nightbefore 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 hehated to part from his chums. They had been together so much of recentyears that they were as thick as peas in a pod.
Rob somehow did not seem to be altogether satisfied with the result ofhis first examination of the room; he was hear
d moving around in thesecond apartment. When he joined the rest again, Andy, who must haveguessed 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, asyou may remember, is locked, and the key at the office, where we haven'tbothered taking it out. Besides, when we left this morning I shot thebolt home, so that no thief could have entered by that door; andcertainly no one left the room that way, or the bolt would not be in thesocket as it is."
"Oh, well, what's the use of bothering about it? We don't as a rulebelieve in crying over spilled milk. If that's the case, why should wefret when there's been no damage done at all, except my white shirt beingsoiled by finger prints?"
"Send that to the hotel laundry and forget it," advised Tubby. "Where didI leave my hat? Oh, here it is! By the way, don't be surprised when yousee me in the morning, because I expect to be togged out in my khakiuniform, 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 toldhim; "but break it to us by inches, please, Tubby, so as to avoid as muchrisk as possible. I've got a weak heart, you know, and a sudden shockmight be serious."
"Too bad you made your bargain with the hotel clerk before you donnedyour khaki, Tubby," ventured Andy. "He might have given you the room athalf the price you expect to pay for it now on the European plan. Yourpresence here would be a standing advertisement for the place. They couldafford to let you stay for nothing if only you'd agree to stand outsidethe restaurant door an hour each day, and pick your teeth."
All this kind of "joshing" had no effect on Tubby, who really seemedrather to enjoy being a target for these shafts of sarcasm leveled by hiscomrades, 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'clocknow, and I've got some lost sleep to make up."
Saying which he dropped down on one knee and set to work. The othersaccommodated themselves to the several easy-chairs, Hiram swinging one ofhis long legs over the arm of his seat in real Yankee fashion.
Rob yawned, and then taking out his little notebook--in which he wasparticular to jot down every daily event of any consequence on thetrip--he felt in his pocket for a pencil.
"By the way, Hiram, you borrowed my pencil this afternoon, and didn'treturn it," he remarked, stretching out his hand toward the other scout,who, with a sheepish shrug of his shoulders, fished the article inquestion out of his vest pocket and handed it over.
It was just then that Tubby fairly scrambled to his feet. Rob looked upin some surprise, when to his further astonishment the fat boy tiptoedover, bent down, and said:
"Please don't give me the grand laugh, Rob, when I tell you I sawsomething moving under that bed there--a pair of shoes!"