CHAPTER VII. ACROSS THE CONTINENT.
"We ought to be in Los Angeles inside of five hours, boys."
Hiram had kept his face glued against the window so much of the timeduring the long journey, when it happened to be closed, that Andy toldhim he was getting a distinct curve to his classic Roman nose. He turnedon hearing Rob make this assertion, after consulting the time-table.
"Well, for one, I must say I won't be sorry," he admitted, with a sigh.
"But see here, I thought you were having the time of your life with allthis traveling, and seeing so many wonderful sights?" expostulated Andy.
"That's all right, I am," admitted Hiram. "Still, a feller can get toomuch of a good thing, can't he? Haven't you stuffed yourself more'n oncebecause you liked the food first-class, and then wished afterward you hadgone slow? Fact is, I just can't sleep while we're ding-donging alonglike hot cakes. I want to be on a steady footing for a while, and go tobed like a civilized human being."
"But it's been a great trip," said Andy. "Those Injuns at the stations inArizona were real true-blood Zunis, all right. I'm mighty glad, though,we've made up our minds to go back by way of the Canadian Pacific road,so as to see what the picturesque Selkirks look like."
"Yes," added Rob, "I've read so much about the Rockies up in BritishAmerica I want to see them with my own eyes. The weather will be a wholelot better than in the southern zone, where it's terrible in summer."
"Oh! don't let's talk about coming back before we've even got there,"expostulated Hiram, looking unhappy. "I've got an awful lot to do beforeI turn my face homeward. I hope it all comes out right, and that theGolden Gate Company acts square with me."
"If you get some money, Hiram, I suppose it's all laid out before now inexperiments that you've wanted to start and couldn't?" Andy hinted.
"Well, what would you have me do with the stuff?" demanded the inventorindignantly. "I expect to devote my hull life to science. Hoarding moneyand discoveries in the realm of science don't go hand in hand. You'llnotice that all the big bugs of professors don't seem to care a lickin'thing about the cash they gain. What they're after is fame and glory.Some day--but never mind that now."
"You were going to tell us we might live to see you famous, eh, Hiram?"Andy chuckled. "Well, stranger things have happened. Men have becomepresident of these United States, and those who played with the same asboys never dreamed such a thing would ever come about. There's alwaysroom at the top."
"Five hours will soon pass," Hiram went on to say, without paying anyattention to the little slur there seemed to be in this remark on thepart of the other.
"There's one thing I want to speak to you about," said Rob, his faceassuming a look of gravity that impressed Hiram very much.
"What, me, do you mean, Rob?" he asked hurriedly.
"Yes," Rob told him. "Here's what it is. I've noticed that you keep onputting up your hand every little while, and feeling to see that yourpapers are safe inside your coat. It's become second nature with you, thehabit's grown so strong."
"Well, you told me to keep my mind on that matter, and never to forgetit; and so every time it crops up I guess I feel to make doubly sure.What is there wrong about that, Rob, tell me?"
"Only this, Hiram; you're getting so careless that you do it openly, andin such a way as to attract attention. If a person happened to see you doit once and then later on saw the movement repeated, his curiosity mightbe aroused, so that he would fall into the way of watching how often youdid it."
"He might, that's so," muttered the disturbed Hiram uneasily.
"And then the idea would become a conviction that you must be carryingsomething very valuable in that inner pocket. You see, if the partieschanced to be crooked, that would make them figure how they could gethold of your property. So the very movement which you meant to be asafeguard would prove your undoing."
"Rob, I'll try and quit that, if you think it best," promised the other,apparently more or less impressed with the logic the scout leader hadbrought to bear on the subject.
"That's all very well, Hiram, but I'm afraid your repentance comes toolate to do much good," Rob told him, at which the inventor gave a start,and into his eyes there crept a look of concern.
"Whatever can you mean by saying that, Rob?" he asked in a troubledvoice.
"I'll tell you," said Rob. "I'm afraid that you've already attracted theattention you wanted to avoid."
"What! here on this train, in this sleeper?" whispered Hiram, appalled.
"Don't look up now, when I mention the matter, because they might seeyou, for I expect they're watching us. Both of you have undoubtedlynoticed two men who sit back of you, and at the end of the car, one ofthem small and stout, the other tall and slim?"
"Yes," Andy admitted, "the tall one nodded when he passed, and acted likehe wanted to open up a talk with me, but I turned to the window again asif I was too much taken up with the scenery here to bother."
"And the stout one nodded to me when he caught my eye," said Hiram."'Course I nodded back, but made out not to look that way again."
"Well, they've been holding considerable conversation in low tones,"explained Rob. "I could manage to glimpse them in the glass at our end ofthe car, though they didn't suspect me of spying. Every time either ofyou thought to get up, or even turn your heads they made out to be halfasleep, with their eyes shut; but I could see they were talking aboutyou."
"Then mebbe that Marsters did send emissaries along with me to try andsteal the product of my brains!" complained Hiram, with compressed lipsand stern demeanor.
"Oh! that doesn't follow at all," Rob assured him. "These fellows mayjust happen to be a pair of hard cases always on the lookout for signs ofa paying haul. When they noticed how you kept feeling of your insidepocket they guessed from the signs you must have something worth whilehidden away there. Men who make their living from the world by sharptricks get to read character wonderfully well."
"Yes," Andy put in just then, "they say that old and experienced customsinspectors can tell from a person's looks in nine cases out of tenwhether he or she is trying to smuggle things into the country withoutdeclaring them."
"What can I do about it then, Rob?" asked Hiram.
"I've got a plan that would fill the bill," he was told.
"Yes, go on and tell me, Rob."
"You come with me into the car ahead. We'll sit in the smokingcompartment for a few minutes if it happens to be empty. There you cangive me your packet, and I'll fasten it inside my coat, handing over someworthless papers for you to do up as if they were priceless in value, topin in your pocket instead. Do you get what I'm telling you, Hiram?"
"Rob, count me in," the other replied hastily. "It's a good thing, foreven if they did happen to rob me they'd be having their pains fornothing. When you're ready, give me the tip and I'll follow after you."
"Andy," Rob continued impressively, "as we pass out you change your seatso that you're facing the two men. In that way you can seem to bewatching, and they're not so apt to follow after us."
"All right," muttered Andy; "any time you see fit I'm ready."
Rob first of all made a little packet with some old letters taken fromhis pocket, and which he had been thinking of discarding for some time.This he could do without exposing his hands above the shelter afforded bythe back of the seat.
"All ready, Hiram; get up, and seem to be coaxing me to go with you.Finally, lay hold of my sleeve and pull me. I'll act as if I didn't muchcare to accompany you. That will serve to divert attention; and as youpass the men turn your eyes the other way. If you can be saying somethingabout some one being glad to see me, it would make them believe we knew apassenger in one of the forward cars."
How Rob did look to the small details of everything he undertook! He knewfrom past experiences that after all these are what bring success in thelong run.
Although Rob had told Hiram to turn his head the other way while nearingthe two suspic
ious men, he himself gave them a nod in passing, just thesalutation one traveler is apt to bestow upon another when they have beenfellow passengers in the same car for hours, perhaps days.
Rob did that purposely; he knew it would serve to allay any suspicionthat may have been bred in the minds of the men to the effect that theiractions had been observed.
Once in the car ahead, they found that for a wonder the smokingcompartment happened to be empty. Taking advantage of this chance, Hiramhurriedly unpinned the packet he had guarded so closely, and gave it intothe possession of his chum. In its stead he secured the dummy in hispocket.
All this had consumed hardly two minutes of time. Rob was careful tonotice that not a single soul had passed the door of the compartment; andas soon as the exchange had been effected he stepped out in order to takea survey of the car, to find that neither of the two suspicious men hadactually followed them from the other sleeper.
"That job's finished, and I feel a whole lot easier in my mind," admittedHiram.
"No matter whether I was right or not, there's no harm been done," Robtold him; "and now, Hiram, see that every five minutes or so you keep onfeeling your coat as you were doing it before. I'm more than curious toknow whether they'll try it or not."
"Well," chuckled the other, as if amused, "if they don't it isn't goin'to be for want of chances, I tell you that, Rob."
"Let's get back to our places," the scout leader added, "because I don'tfeel altogether safe away from my suitcase, with all that wonderful stuffin it the professor said represented so much research and effort thatmade it priceless."
The two men were there as they had left them. Rob again nodded carelesslywhen he found that the short man was eagerly watching to catch his eyes;but he did not stop to enter into any conversation when the other madesome casual remark, only replying over his shoulder as he passed on.
"They kept talking like a blue streak while you were gone," said Andy,after the other two had seated themselves. "Twice the tall man steppedoff as if he meant to follow you, but he must have thought better of it,for he turned back before getting out of the car, and shook his head atthe other one. They are up to something evil, Rob, take my word for it."
"We only have one more meal aboard the train, and then comes the hotel atLos Angeles," said Hiram. "I guess we can hold 'em off that much longer."
"You see how you can overdo things by being too much on your guard,Hiram," Rob explained. "Only for the way you kept on feeling your pocketthey would never have suspected that Boy Scouts traveling alone could ownanything worth stealing. The best way to do is to make things secure, andthen appear to forget all about them."
"I will at another time, Rob; but between the way that Marsters acted,and the caution these people on the Coast impressed on me, it all got onmy nerves. You see, I thought it was only business to tell the GoldenGate people how Eastern concerns had men buzzing me continually to sellto them. That made them warn me not to take anyone into my confidencewhile traveling. They know some unscrupulous firms would steal an idea asbig as my invention, if they could get away with it. But it's all rightnow, and they can whistle for their prize for all I care."