The Boy Scouts at the Panama-Pacific Exposition Part 12

"Oh! I'm far from perfect, I want you to know," the other told him. "I can remember plenty of times when I've found that, after all, the very thing of most importance was forgotten or neglected. But it pays to try and cover the ground. It saves lots of trouble and disappointment in the long run."

"I believe you, Rob; with me it seems as though I fall into the way of letting some other fellow do my thinking for me. I know it's wrong, but anyhow it's satisfying to have that confidence in your chum."

"You didn't think of letting some other scout do your work for you at the time you were learning the various bugle calls, I noticed, Andy."

"Shucks! that's different," returned the other, hastily. "Now that you mention it, I can't remember ever asking a subst.i.tute to do my _eating_ for me when meal time rolled around. Guess you must be right, though, Rob; some of these days I intend to wake up and even think for myself."

"Believe me you can't make that day any too soon, Andy. If you happened to find yourself cast adrift on a big desert you would be sorry you delayed so long, though, if you pulled through alive, it might be the making of you."

"Oh! I'll buckle down to the job without being forced that way," Andy hurriedly a.s.sured the scout leader. "What's the next thing on the program?"

"I know you're just dying to get into the amus.e.m.e.nt section of the Exposition called the Zone, and which is a good deal like the Streets of Cairo and the Midway of the Chicago Fair. I'll make a bargain with you, Andy."

"All right; let's hear the particulars," exclaimed the other eagerly.

"First of all," began Rob, "I want to get rid of this suitcase, and we'll make for that tobacconist's odd booth, to leave it with him until we're going back to the hotel."

"That's over this way, past the big California building, with the Oregon one that has a colonnade of logs alongside. Well, after we've shunted the bag on the man who runs the tobacco shop, what next?"

"We'll put in the rest of the morning," Rob explained, "in rummaging through some of these places cl.u.s.tering around the Tower of Jewels. I've got a string of things I'm wild to see, and that's as good a place to make a start as anywhere."

"That brings us to noon, when we agreed to meet Hiram, you remember, for lunch?" Andy reminded his chum.

"Yes, and I understand there are dozens and dozens of eating places to be found in the Zone. If you want you can have an Arab dinner, a Chinese chop suey, a French meal _a la carte_, a German one, or anything your taste calls for. So we might as well head that way for our lunch, and pick out a place that seems to promise good things for hungry fellows."

"Huh! after I once get inside the Zone, Rob, nothing can drag me out again for the whole afternoon. So, I hope you've concluded to make a sacrifice, and devote the rest of the day to keeping me company in roaming around among all the queer sights they tell me you can run up against there."

Rob nodded his head and smiled.

"I promise you that, Andy, because I know you too well to believe there could be any peace until you have had your way. Yes, and I admit that I can get a lot of enjoyment out of seeing all those foreign things, as well as the more important exhibits in Machinery Hall and such places."

"Sure thing," said Andy, with an a.s.sumption of great sagacity. "In one case we are shown wonderful development in the world's progress along the lines of science and commerce; while in the Zone you can see man himself as he appears all over this ball, how he lives, what his forefathers have done for ages and ages in the past, and in fact study human nature. To me that is better than gaping at some machine I never could understand in a lifetime."

By this time they had reached the shop where arrangements had been made with the obliging proprietor to act as a medium of exchange between the three scouts during their stay. The empty suitcase was disposed of and once more the boys started out to gaze upon some of the myriad strange sights that were to be met with on every hand.

Doubtless Rob took a considerably greater amount of interest in what they viewed during those several hours than did his companion, though now and then Andy managed to display more or less enthusiasm.

It would be utterly impossible to mention the things they saw as they wandered hither and thither about that section of the grounds. Even a guide-book of the Exposition would have to skim over the details, such were the numberless attractions on every hand.

"Getting on toward noon, Rob!" suggested Andy, finally, as he laid a hand on his stomach, as if to call attention to the fact that it was unusually flat.

"And there's Hiram coming this way, too, as if he was beginning to remember his promise to meet us for lunch. I wonder if we can keep him with us the rest of the day?"

"Not unless you get a rope and tie him," chuckled Andy, "for he's clean gone daffy over the line of exhibits he fancies most, and will haunt that part of the Exposition nearly all the time we're here."

Hiram caught sight of them about that moment, and hurried over.

"Just on the way to the meeting-place," he announced. "Knew it was near grub time and wanted to get it over with. Say, they've got the greatest lot of things worth while on exhibition over there in the building devoted to inventions you ever saw. And the aviation field is a peach. My stars! but they're a busy bunch of willing, hustling workers there."

Rob had been studying the other's face, and it told him something.

"You found your firm represented there, of course, Hiram?" he remarked.

"'Course they are, and cutting some high jinks, too," came the reply.

"They've got some of their finished products working in the field, with air pilots of national renown in charge of the flights. You must get over that way some time and see."

"We will, perhaps before the day is done," Rob a.s.sured him; "but I suppose now, Hiram, you didn't introduce yourself to the Golden Gate people?"

"Naw. I just took it all in, and browsed around everywhere, laughing to myself to think how surprised they were going to be when they found out that the Hiram Nelson, inventor of the wonderful stabilizer for aeroplanes, was only a Boy Scout. But what are we going into the Zone for, tell me?"

"Why, to get something to eat, to be sure," remarked Andy.

"But I'm no cannibal," expostulated Hiram, holding back in pretended alarm; "even if they do have that stripe of people here on exhibition. I don't hanker after trying a roast Fiji Islander, or a frica.s.seed Igorrote from the Philippine Islands-I'm not _that_ hungry."

"Oh!" Andy told him, tugging at his sleeve, "we'll find a thousand places here where they cook meals after the fas.h.i.+on of every nation under the sun. I hope we pick out one that is close to that giant seesaw; because I'm wild to go up in it so as to get a magnificent view of the harbor, the Exposition grounds and the City of San Francisco."

It was found to be an easy matter to accomplish this, and they were soon being served at a table that stood out-of-doors, so that as they enjoyed their lunch they could watch the endless procession of people pa.s.sing and repa.s.sing.

As so many attractions in the amus.e.m.e.nt concession were connected with foreign countries, it was really almost as good as being abroad to see the various representative types that sauntered or hurried by.

"I wonder how many of those Arabs, Turks, Algerians, Persians, Hindoos, Hottentots and others are the real thing, and how many rank fakes,"

suggested Hiram.

"That's more than anybody can tell," laughed Rob. "It's the easiest thing to put stain on the skin of an Irishman, dress him in the Oriental style, clap a red fez on his head, and then call him a Turk. Only he has to keep his tongue tight-locked; because his brogue would give him away. If you listen to them chattering in their own tongue you can tell which are the real thing."

"As for me," spoke up Andy, frankly, "I just don't question any of them, but take it for granted they're what they make out to be. And I want to say, fellows, it's the biggest treat to me to be here, watching the congress of all the nations and people on the globe."

Hiram's lip curled and he snickered, but Andy pretended not to hear. To Hiram's mind any one who could confess to caring for such frivolous things when there was a building not far away just jammed with the most marvelous inventions known to modern science and ingenuity-well, it bordered on silliness. But then "many men, many minds," and perhaps it is just as well that people do not all think alike. There is a deal of truth in that old proverb to the effect that what is "one man's food may be another's poison."

So they sat there for a long time while the procession of Head Hunters from Borneo, natives of the island of Ceylon, South American _vaqueros_ in their picturesque attire, pigmies from the heart of Africa, Mexican bull-fighters, Moros from our island possessions in the Orient, Chinese, j.a.panese, Servians, Tyrolese mountain climbers and yodlers, and a mult.i.tude of others continued to pa.s.s, many of them coming from the villages and side shows of the great amus.e.m.e.nt park.

From time to time the amazing arm of the giant Aeroscope would project up against the heavens, the car filled with those visitors who wished to obtain a view of their surroundings.

Every time it arose, slowly but majestically, Andy would stop talking to gape and watch, as though just then the one longing in his heart was to take that skyward trip.

Rob knew it would be the very first thing Andy would want to do after they left the table; and indeed, he was not feeling at all averse to complying with such a request, for it seemed as if the extensive view to be obtained must be well worth the price charged for the trip aloft.

"Three hundred and sixty-five feet they say in the guide book," Andy gushed; "and all for a small sum in the bargain. I wouldn't miss that sight for ten times fifty cents. Why, only for the Rockies being in the way, with a _real good_ gla.s.s you might get even a peep in at Hampton town, unless one of those nasty sea fogs blocked you off," and then, of course, he had to laugh himself at the idea of any gla.s.s being able to cover a distance of something like three thousand miles.

CHAPTER XIII.

A STRANGE MEETING IN THE AIR.

"Hiram, it's only fair that you stay with us for a while this afternoon,"

Rob mentioned as they were leaving the table.