CHAPTER XXII. TAKING IN THE SIGHTS OF THE FAIR.
"Well, he's gone, Rob!" said Andy, as they were coming out after an hourspent in the wonderful Transportation Building.
"Oh, you mean Hiram?" remarked the scout leader, after taking acomprehensive glance around. "Well, I've been expecting him to give usthe slip for some time. He held on longer than I thought he would."
"No trouble guessing where he's bound for," laughed Andy. "That hallwhere the latest modern inventions are on exhibition draws him like sugaror molasses does the pesky flies in summer time. He sticks there nearlyas hard as--well, as Tubby did in that skimpy chair at the Panama show."
"Bring it nearer home, can't you, Andy, and say about as well as you_want_ to stick to that Zone of freaks and flimsies and Coney Islandshows," ventured Tubby, with singular quickness, for him.
"I arranged it with Hiram to stay with us just as long as he could standfor it," explained Rob; "and that when he did feel he had to go, to callat the little booth of the tobacconist where we've arranged to meet, notlater than four this afternoon."
"Remember that, you Andy," warned Tubby, shaking a fat finger in thedirection of the other, "in case we _happen_ to get separated! Accidentswill come along sometimes, you know; and you're likely to feel that callto the wild again any old time."
Andy only laughed. Apparently he had a tough hide when it came toresisting such harmless blunt-nosed shafts as Tubby could launch againsthim.
"I'll keep it in mind, Tubby, I promise you," he remarked; "but afterwe've had something to eat, you won't try to keep me any longer. We'reall here to enjoy ourselves according to our bent, you must remember."
"And your bent runs along the line of the spectacular display of gaudytinsel and all sorts of make-believe frauds!" continued Tubby, pretendingto curl his short upper lip in disdain, though truth to tell he ratherenjoyed a little of the same pleasures himself.
"Have it as you please, Tubby," Andy told him. "To me they're all real,and when I find myself surrounded by that wonderful foreign atmosphere,it's just like I'd taken wings and flown over there to Africa, or Asia,or the islands of the Far East. Rob, make him stop trying to interferewith my pleasure. Just because one fortune-teller riled him, Tubby sneersat everything that wears a Turkish fez, a Bedouin bournoose or a Persiancaftan. I guess I know how to sift the chaff from the wheat. And a fellowwho means to be a world traveler some day ought to rub up against thesesort of people all he can."
Tubby gave it up. He knew nothing he could say would alter Andy'sdeep-rooted convictions. Indeed, it was more to get even with him thatthe stout scout spoke as he did.
Later on they hunted up a dining-place where they could secure a fairmeal for their money, at least as good as was to be expected under thecircumstances.
"Now laugh if you want to, Tubby," said Andy, boldly, after they hadissued forth from the restaurant. "I'm going to break away, and you knowwhere I'll be heading. You keep Rob company the rest of the day. He's gota list of things he's fairly itching to see, and it's as long as my arm,at that. Good luck to you!"
He hurried off without waiting to hear what Tubby might have to say; butthe latter only shook his head as he caught the amused look in Rob'seyes, and shrugged his fat shoulders as though ready to give Andy up asbeyond redemption.
"Let him go and enjoy himself as he feels like," commented Rob. "That'severybody's privilege when they come to a show as tremendous as this oneis. And, Tubby, I think you're too hard on Andy. I happen to know thathe's been devouring every book on travel and exploration he can findanywhere. The subject fills his mind."
"Then he really does mean to make that his life work, Rob? I thought itwas just a sort of cloak, as you might say, to cover his wanting to seethese Oriental humbugs carry on. Fortune-tellers ought to be suppressedby law; they do lots of harm, I understand, especially where silly peoplebelieve in 'em."
Rob came very near remarking that, for one who scorned their class, Tubbyhimself seemed to be bothered considerably over a certain foolishprophecy; but on second thought he concluded not to add to the color inthe fat boy's cheeks by embarrassing him.
Being now free from the two chums who had such peculiar and strongnotions as to what they wanted to devote all their time to, Rob and Tubbystarted in to spend several hours to the best possible advantage.
They were not merely seeking amusement, but instruction as well; andthere were copious fountains to be tapped within the borders of thoseextensive grounds of the wonderful Exposition that would repay thelaborer manyfold for his trouble.
"I tell you I'm mighty glad I happened to run across you, Rob," Tubbyremarked, for perhaps the tenth time, as they watched the process of theGovernment fish hatchery, where millions of eggs were transformed intotiny objects that looked like animated specks in the water, but whichunder proper care would some day be placed in certain lakes or rivers orin the sea, to add to the prosperity of the nation that was fast learninghow to conserve its food supplies.
"And I'm just as pleased on my own account," the scout leader told him."You see how my two chums are bound to desert me, each crazy along hisown particular line, and bound to follow his pet whim through thick andthin."
"Haw! then I'm the only _sensible_ one of the lot, seems like!" gruntedTubby, with beaming face. "Thank you for intimating as much, Rob. I doseem to fancy many of the same things that strike you as worth seeing.'Course I sort of enjoy the humbug of the Zone, but a little goes a greatway. My better nature craves educational value for the time spent incoming away out here!"
When Tubby said this so grandly he tried very hard to keep a straightface; but discovering the gleam of merriment in Rob's eyes, he burst intoa laugh.
"Well, it's part way true, anyhow, Rob," he declared. "I am having a realgood time keeping up with you, even if we're walking miles and miles, andmy shoes are getting to pinch me something fierce."
"Let's get somewhere and sit down for a spell," Rob suggested, for heawoke to the fact that poor Tubby was not built for getting over acresand acres of ground with all that flesh to carry along.
"Now, isn't that queer, Rob; but d'ye know I was just going to dare youto go me a plate of that ice cream over there. We can sit at a table andget rested while we partake of the stuff. Excuse me for calling it that,but the chances are against getting anything first-class when you'redealing with a man who put up an enormous sum to pay for his concession,and has to get it back somehow out of the public."
They spent almost half an hour there, watching the crowds and resting.Then as Tubby declared he felt capable again of almost any exertion, theyresumed their sight-seeing walk.
"I notice, Rob, that you're working around so as to come on ourmeeting-place after a while," suggested Tubby.
"I was waiting to see if you'd pay attention to that," the other toldhim. "I'm glad to find you did. A scout must have his eyes on the alertall the while if he wants to keep up with the procession, Tubby."
"Oh! I'm improving right along, Rob; my folks at home tell me that, too.Time was when my favorite occupation used to be to stretch and yawn. Allthat's changed now, for I yawn and stretch, you see. This scout businessdoes work wonders, doesn't it?"
But then everyone knew that Tubby had changed wonderfully since he joinedthe troop. Considering the handicap under which he labored on account ofhis size, and the difficulty he had in doing things that were easy forhis chums, he managed to get along tip-top. Rob always gave him morecredit than the rest when an object they had been laboring to accomplishhad been attained; because the one who overcomes the most strenuousbarriers deserves greater praise than those who have not been compelledto draw upon their reserve powers.
They stood there looking up at the vast Triumphal Arch of the SettingSun, which, it seemed to Tubby, was the most beautiful thing in the wholeExposition. It appealed to him in a way he could hardly explain, exceptthat something seemed to draw him back there again and again.
"Why, before you came,
Rob," he remarked, "I used to just haunt thisplace, together with the vicinity of the Column of Progress looking outon the Marino. I'll see them in my dreams long after all the othereffects of the Fair have faded away. And I reckon now every visitor willsomehow have a certain thing stay with him through all time, as a memoryof the greatest Exposition that ever was given."
"Step back here, Tubby!" said Rob, as he took hold of the other's sleeveand drew him swiftly around a corner.
"Why, what's all this mean?" gasped the stout boy, looking startled.
"Oh! I saw that hustling newspaper man again," explained Rob, "and I wasafraid he'd corner us and try to worm out something of our past."
"Shucks! is that all?" said Tubby, in disgust. "Why, Rob, honest togoodness now, if I didn't think it might be another mad dog scare we wereup against."
"Well, it was something I dislike almost as much," vowed Rob. "And if heever got _you_ cornered I'm pretty sure you'd give him all the detailsabout that other little happening that would make me look silly in thepaper. Now he's gone, and it's safe for us to step out."
Tubby shook his head, and sighed.
"You sure are the queerest fish ever, Rob," he observed, with adisappointed air. "I never yet ran across the fellow who wouldn't be onlytoo glad to see a write-up about him in the paper where he was called ahero, and all that. Why, they'd hurry off to buy a dozen copies, and mailthe same to all the girls they knew. But say, whenever you do a thingworth mentioning you try to sneak away as if it was something to beashamed of."
"I don't like it, and that's the only explanation I can give you, Tubby.Come, let's go into this building, and then half an hour from now it'llbe time to make for our meeting-place so as to pick up the otherfellows."
"I hope Hiram has made up his mind it's about due to spring his surpriseon the company he's come all the way out here to see and talk with,"Tubby said, as they started into the building mentioned by Rob.
"I've got a hunch that he will, after to-day, Tubby. I mean to speak withhim about it this very night, and see if it can't be settled to-morrow.Hiram looks so anxious every little while it's too bad he doesn't takethe bull by the horns and settle the matter once for all."
When the half-hour was up the two boys issued forth, and headed in thedirection of the tobacconist's booth, which was not a great way off.Tubby was again feeling tired, and seemed pretty well used up.
"We'll go home as we did last night, right after eating," suggested Rob."Then to-morrow we needn't hurry around, for we'll stay until the gatesclose at ten, so as to see the illumination, and the play of the electricfountains."
"That suits me first-rate, though I've seen all those things already, andmore than once," the other told the scout leader.
A few minutes later and Tubby burst forth again.
"There's the booth we're aiming for, Rob," he declared; "and isn't thatour chum Andy walking up and down like a tiger in its cage? There, hesees us now, seems like, and he's beckoning. Let's hurry on," and Tubbyactually forgot that he was tired in his eagerness to learn why the otherwas showing such signs of excitement.
"A note from Hiram that he left here for us, fellows," Andy hastened tosay as the others reached his side; "and he wants us to chase aroundthere hot-footed, because there's something big on the bills."