The Boy Scouts at the Panama-Pacific Exposition Part 23

And after that they tried to put the latest incident out of their minds, though Tubby would explode some new idea concerning it every once in a while, as they wandered about the Fair grounds taking in new sights.

CHAPTER XXII.

TAKING IN THE SIGHTS OF THE FAIR.

"Well, he's gone, Rob!" said Andy, as they were coming out after an hour spent in the wonderful Transportation Building.

"Oh, you mean Hiram?" remarked the scout leader, after taking a comprehensive glance around. "Well, I've been expecting him to give us the slip for some time. He held on longer than I thought he would."

"No trouble guessing where he's bound for," laughed Andy. "That hall where the latest modern inventions are on exhibition draws him like sugar or mola.s.ses does the pesky flies in summer time. He sticks there nearly as 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 Island shows," ventured Tubby, with singular quickness, for him.

"I arranged it with Hiram to stay with us just as long as he could stand for it," explained Rob; "and that when he did feel he had to go, to call at the little booth of the tobacconist where we've arranged to meet, not later than four this afternoon."

"Remember that, you Andy," warned Tubby, shaking a fat finger in the direction of the other, "in case we _happen_ to get separated! Accidents will come along sometimes, you know; and you're likely to feel that call to the wild again any old time."

Andy only laughed. Apparently he had a tough hide when it came to resisting such harmless blunt-nosed shafts as Tubby could launch against him.

"I'll keep it in mind, Tubby, I promise you," he remarked; "but after we've had something to eat, you won't try to keep me any longer. We're all here to enjoy ourselves according to our bent, you must remember."

"And your bent runs along the line of the spectacular display of gaudy tinsel and all sorts of make-believe frauds!" continued Tubby, pretending to curl his short upper lip in disdain, though truth to tell he rather enjoyed 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 interfere with my pleasure. Just because one fortune-teller riled him, Tubby sneers at everything that wears a Turkish fez, a Bedouin bournoose or a Persian caftan. I guess I know how to sift the chaff from the wheat. And a fellow who means to be a world traveler some day ought to rub up against these sort of people all he can."

Tubby gave it up. He knew nothing he could say would alter Andy's deep-rooted convictions. Indeed, it was more to get even with him that the stout scout spoke as he did.

Later on they hunted up a dining-place where they could secure a fair meal for their money, at least as good as was to be expected under the circ.u.mstances.

"Now laugh if you want to, Tubby," said Andy, boldly, after they had issued forth from the restaurant. "I'm going to break away, and you know where I'll be heading. You keep Rob company the rest of the day. He's got a 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; but the latter only shook his head as he caught the amused look in Rob's eyes, and shrugged his fat shoulders as though ready to give Andy up as beyond redemption.

"Let him go and enjoy himself as he feels like," commented Rob. "That's everybody's privilege when they come to a show as tremendous as this one is. And, Tubby, I think you're too hard on Andy. I happen to know that he's been devouring every book on travel and exploration he can find anywhere. The subject fills his mind."

"Then he really does mean to make that his life work, Rob? I thought it was just a sort of cloak, as you might say, to cover his wanting to see these Oriental humbugs carry on. Fortune-tellers ought to be suppressed by law; they do lots of harm, I understand, especially where silly people believe in 'em."

Rob came very near remarking that, for one who scorned their cla.s.s, Tubby himself seemed to be bothered considerably over a certain foolish prophecy; but on second thought he concluded not to add to the color in the fat boy's cheeks by embarra.s.sing him.

Being now free from the two chums who had such peculiar and strong notions as to what they wanted to devote all their time to, Rob and Tubby started in to spend several hours to the best possible advantage.

They were not merely seeking amus.e.m.e.nt, but instruction as well; and there were copious fountains to be tapped within the borders of those extensive grounds of the wonderful Exposition that would repay the laborer manyfold for his trouble.

"I tell you I'm mighty glad I happened to run across you, Rob," Tubby remarked, for perhaps the tenth time, as they watched the process of the Government fish hatchery, where millions of eggs were transformed into tiny objects that looked like animated specks in the water, but which under proper care would some day be placed in certain lakes or rivers or in the sea, to add to the prosperity of the nation that was fast learning how 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 his own particular line, and bound to follow his pet whim through thick and thin."

"Haw! then I'm the only _sensible_ one of the lot, seems like!" grunted Tubby, with beaming face. "Thank you for intimating as much, Rob. I do seem 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 great way. My better nature craves educational value for the time spent in coming away out here!"

When Tubby said this so grandly he tried very hard to keep a straight face; but discovering the gleam of merriment in Rob's eyes, he burst into a laugh.

"Well, it's part way true, anyhow, Rob," he declared. "I am having a real good time keeping up with you, even if we're walking miles and miles, and my shoes are getting to pinch me something fierce."

"Let's get somewhere and sit down for a spell," Rob suggested, for he awoke to the fact that poor Tubby was not built for getting over acres and 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 you to go me a plate of that ice cream over there. We can sit at a table and get rested while we partake of the stuff. Excuse me for calling it that, but the chances are against getting anything first-cla.s.s when you're dealing 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, they resumed their sight-seeing walk.

"I notice, Rob, that you're working around so as to come on our meeting-place after a while," suggested Tubby.

"I was waiting to see if you'd pay attention to that," the other told him. "I'm glad to find you did. A scout must have his eyes on the alert all 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. All that's changed now, for I yawn and stretch, you see. This scout business does work wonders, doesn't it?"

But then everyone knew that Tubby had changed wonderfully since he joined the troop. Considering the handicap under which he labored on account of his size, and the difficulty he had in doing things that were easy for his chums, he managed to get along tip-top. Rob always gave him more credit than the rest when an object they had been laboring to accomplish had been attained; because the one who overcomes the most strenuous barriers deserves greater praise than those who have not been compelled to draw upon their reserve powers.

They stood there looking up at the vast Triumphal Arch of the Setting Sun, which, it seemed to Tubby, was the most beautiful thing in the whole Exposition. It appealed to him in a way he could hardly explain, except that something seemed to draw him back there again and again.

"Why, before you came, Rob," he remarked, "I used to just haunt this place, together with the vicinity of the Column of Progress looking out on the Marino. I'll see them in my dreams long after all the other effects of the Fair have faded away. And I reckon now every visitor will somehow have a certain thing stay with him through all time, as a memory of the greatest Exposition that ever was given."

"Step back here, Tubby!" said Rob, as he took hold of the other's sleeve and 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 was afraid he'd corner us and try to worm out something of our past."

"Shucks! is that all?" said Tubby, in disgust. "Why, Rob, honest to goodness now, if I didn't think it might be another mad dog scare we were up against."

"Well, it was something I dislike almost as much," vowed Rob. "And if he ever got _you_ cornered I'm pretty sure you'd give him all the details about that other little happening that would make me look silly in the paper. 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 a disappointed air. "I never yet ran across the fellow who wouldn't be only too glad to see a write-up about him in the paper where he was called a hero, and all that. Why, they'd hurry off to buy a dozen copies, and mail the same to all the girls they knew. But say, whenever you do a thing worth mentioning you try to sneak away as if it was something to be ashamed 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'll be time to make for our meeting-place so as to pick up the other fellows."

"I hope Hiram has made up his mind it's about due to spring his surprise on 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 with him about it this very night, and see if it can't be settled to-morrow.