Buch lesen: «The Boy Scouts at the Panama-Pacific Exposition», Seite 6
CHAPTER XI
ROB DELIVERS THE GOODS
“What’s that splendid looking arch over there meant to represent, Rob?” asked Andy, as he pointed to the right.
“They call it the Arch of the Setting Sun,” replied the scout leader.
“A mighty good name, considering how we’re at the jumping-off place of the United States. Seems to me, Rob, that the Far West has always gone by the name of the Land of the Setting Sun.”
“That’s why the arch has been built,” Rob told him. “You see, in pioneer days the constant drift was always this way. Men who founded homes in what was then the wilderness along the Ohio kept hearing wonderful stories about the richness of the soil farther west, and what unlimited fur-bearing animals were to be captured by those daring enough to take the risk.”
“And so they kept pushing farther and farther, year in and year out. In this way settlers finally overran the prairies, and crossed the Rockies?” asked Andy, as he surveyed the beautiful arch that had been raised to commemorate the dreams of the men who blazed the way of civilization through the wilderness.
“Yes, and here along the shore of the Pacific lay the end of the dream,” explained the scout leader. “California represented the foot of the rainbow of promise those hardy men had seen painted in the sky. The western sun meant a whole lot in those days; it shone over the Land of Promise; it was the hope and ambition of almost every settler. No one drifted East; it was always into the mysterious and beckoning West that families emigrated.”
Around them were crowds of eager sight-seers. At times they jostled elbows with representatives of numerous foreign nations.
“But there are not near so many foreigners visiting the Panama-Pacific Exposition as there would have been only for the terrible European war that’s raging across the ocean,” Rob happened to remark a little later when the other scout called his attention to a group of dark-featured men wearing the red fezzes of Orientals, and passing along as though viewing the wonders of the exhibition with a lively interest.
“I suppose the building erected by California is reckoned the largest one of all on the grounds, isn’t it, Rob? How much space does it cover, do you know?”
“They say five acres, Andy, which you must own is a shack of some size.”
“We haven’t been in it yet,” said Andy, “but I should imagine it must hold about everything connected with the life of the big State. Why, it would take a whole day to get around there, and see half of the things on exhibition.”
“Plenty of time for all that when we settle down to the business of sight-seeing,” Rob told him. “First of all I want to get this load off my hands,” and he moved the suitcase as he spoke; “not that it’s very heavy, you understand, only it weighs on my mind; but what it holds means sleepless nights for our good friend, Professor McEwen, until he gets my wire that it has been safely delivered.”
“I declare if those two girls over there don’t make me think of Lucy Mainwaring and Sue Clifford away back in Hampton!” exclaimed Andy suddenly. “Oh! excuse me, Rob, I didn’t mean to give you a start by mentioning Lucy’s name. Of course it’s only a chance resemblance, for neither of the girls we’ve left behind us could be here at the Exposition. But I’m a great fellow, you remember, to imagine people look like some I’ve known.”
“Yes, and lots of times that failing has gotten you into a peck of trouble, too, Andy,” Rob remarked, laughingly; “there was that boy in scout uniform this very morning that you rushed up to with outstretched hand, and calling him Sim Jeffords. I nearly took a fit to see the blank look on your face when he drew himself up and gave you the cold stare.”
“Yes, that’s a fact, Rob, he did freeze me. Chances are to this minute that boy thinks I was a fraud, perhaps some new sort of confidence operator. I saw him grab at his watch-chain in a hurry. He backed away, too, and never gave me half a chance to explain.”
“I’m expecting right along,” Rob told him, “to have you discover some of our old enemies hovering around, and waiting for a chance to give us a jolt on account of the grudge they bear us. There’s Jared Applegate, for instance, the last we ever saw of him was at the time he was down in Mexico, having been compelled to run away from home after getting himself into a scrape by using some money that didn’t belong to him.”
Andy, instead of appearing dejected while Rob was “rubbing it into him” after this fashion, really seemed to enter into the joke himself.
“Well,” he went on to say with a snicker, “honest to goodness a little while ago I did see two fellows walking along who made me think of Max Ramsay and his pal, Hodge Berry, the two meanest boys of our home town. Gave me something of a thrill, too, and I even had a sneaking notion to run over and shake hands with them; though back home I would cross the street rather than meet them face to face.”
“Yes,” said Rob, “that’s always the case with people who’re away from home. They get so tired of seeing strange faces that the sight of one they know makes them friendly. But I suppose you’ve noticed that the scouts seem to have quite a share in the running of things at this Big Show?”
“For a fact I’ve seen quite a number of them about, and it strikes me they are a busy lot in the bargain,” Andy admitted.
“I understand they have a permanent camp on the grounds,” Rob explained, “which later on we must visit, and make acquaintances. They seem to be a hustling lot, and a credit to the khaki they wear.”
“But what d’ye suppose they’re doing here?” asked the other.
“Oh! there are dozens of things Boy Scouts can find to do at a monster Fair like this,” said the patrol leader. “I think some of them are acting as guides to parties of women and children. Others run messages for the department heads, because there must be a tremendous lot of that sort of thing that has to be done here. I saw one batch of scouts carrying a man on a litter, and from that I concluded they must have a scout emergency hospital somewhere on the grounds, where those who have been taken suddenly sick or become exhausted from the heat in the machinery buildings could receive first aid to the injured.”
Andy’s face took on a look of pride. He even tenderly stroked the sleeve of his khaki coat and touched the badge on his lapel as though he considered it a great honor to be wearing that insignia of his rank in the troop to which he belonged.
That is one of the finest things about scout membership; it stimulates boys to aspire to emulate those who are striving to help others, or alleviate suffering in some way.
“We ought to be nearing that building you spoke about, Rob,” Andy remarked, after more time had elapsed. “Seems to me we’ve covered miles since we saw Hiram streaking off for the aviation field and the Hall of Inventions.”
“I think that is it on our left; but to make sure I’ll ask this scout hurrying along as though the whole show would have to close its doors unless he managed to do the important errand he’s sent on.”
“I’ll hang back while you do,” suggested Andy jokingly. “Seems like they think I’m a sort of suspicious looking person, though nobody ever told me so in Hampton.”
The messenger condescended to slacken his speed sufficiently to catch the question which Rob asked. After saluting, as became a fellow scout, he nodded his head in the affirmative, being apparently too winded to say even a single word.
Accordingly the two boys entered the building and threading their way among a multitude of exhibits, with a sprinkling of people examining the same, most of them rather sober-looking in appearance, they managed to find where the offices of the director were located.
“We wish to see Professor Marsh, who is in charge of this building,” was what Rob said to an active little man wearing large glasses, and with all the earmarks of a scientist.
“That happens to be my name, son; what can I do for you?” replied the other, as he bent a pair of exceedingly penetrating eyes upon the scouts.
“We have come to you,” Rob explained, “from Professor Andrew McEwen, of Edinburgh University, who met with an accident while visiting an old friend near our home, on Long Island, New York State, and while not seriously injured could not finish his journey across the continent.”
The little man immediately showed signs of tremendous excitement. He glued his eyes on the suitcase Rob was carrying.
“Yes, yes, glad to hear that he is not seriously injured. Professor McEwen is one of the most famous of his class, and the world could ill afford to lose him at this interesting stage of events. But he was to bring with him a collection too precious to trust to ordinary channels. I sincerely trust that it was not harmed when he met with his accident?”
“Oh! no, sir,” exclaimed Rob, hastily, “not in the least, since he did not have it with him at the time. But he grieved to think it might be delayed in reaching you, and so he intrusted it to the keeping of myself and my comrade here, as we happened to be of some assistance to him at the time.”
The scientist seemed to be actually dumfounded. He stared from Rob to Andy, and then looked hard at the suitcase.
“Can it be possible that Professor McEwen intrusted those priceless papyrus relics to the care of two mere boys? I am astounded, and likewise worried. Oh! I hope you have taken great care with them. Give me the bag, and let me see for myself. It would be a shock indeed if anything had happened to destroy the labor of years, and caused such a dreadful loss to science.”
He almost snatched the suitcase from Rob’s hand and vanished like a streak through a door that led to another room, leaving the two boys exchanging amused glances.
“Whew! I’m sorry for you if anything has gone wrong with those rolls, Rob,” said Andy, making a wry face. “We’re apt to go out of this building faster than we came in, I’m afraid.”
“No danger,” Rob told him; “they were prepared to resist ordinary shocks in transit, and we’ve handled them as carefully as Professor McEwen himself could have done. But he did look actually frightened, for a fact.”
“Isn’t it queer what a pile these learned scientists think of things that other people wouldn’t give five cents for?” remarked Andy.
“Oh! well,” said Rob, “that’s because we’re in the dark concerning their real value. Look in through the half-open door and you can see several men like Professor Marsh undoing those same rolls with trembling hands.”
“Yes, and notice the awed look on their faces, will you, Rob? The director is shaking hands all around now, and beaming on his colleagues, so I guess he’s found things O. K. and hunky dory. Here he comes out to tell us so.”
The look of deep anxiety on Professor Marsh’s face had vanished, and there was a trace of a pleased smile there when he again confronted the two scouts.
“The letter inclosed from Professor McEwen speaks in the highest terms of you young gentlemen,” he said, effusively, as he stretched out both hands. “He writes that you were instruments in the hands of Providence of saving his life; and for that let me remark that you deserve the heartfelt thanks of all who are interested in the work that distinguished gentleman is doing for science. I am proud to shake you by the hand. To think that you have come three thousand miles bearing those priceless rolls, and delivered them to us here without the slightest damage. And this very night I shall write to Professor McEwen to that effect.”
“We are instructed to wire him in your name with your permission, professor, that you have received them intact,” ventured Rob.
“I will sign any message you choose to send him, son,” declared the happy director of the building devoted to the interests of science.
“And now, sir,” said Rob, “would you mind returning my suitcase?”
CHAPTER XII
THE PEOPLE OF THE “ZONE.”
When Rob and his chum left the building they carried the empty suitcase; and besides, Professor Marsh had written and signed a long and effusive message to his learned colleague in care of Judge Collins, at Hampton, Long Island, which Rob was empowered to send, at his own expense, by wire as a night letter.
“That job is done,” said Rob, with the air of one who has gotten rid of a load that had been on his mind.
“And just to think how we can enjoy ourselves for weeks if we feel like staying that long,” pursued the happy Andy, fairly bubbling over with enthusiasm and joy.
“Even when we decide to start back home,” laughed Rob, “the fun isn’t over by a huge sight.”
“You mean, Rob, we’ll have the time of our lives traveling across the Canadian Rockies, taking in wonderful scenery that is better, lots of people say, than anything across in Switzerland?”
“Yes,” said the scout leader, “and if we choose to stop over for a day or two to try the trout fishing at a lake we were told about, haven’t we got our rods and other material along in our trunk?”
“It takes a wideawake fellow like you to think of every little detail, for a fact!” declared Andy, with genuine admiration.
“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 substitute 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 assured the scout leader. “What’s the next thing on the program?”
“I know you’re just dying to get into the amusement 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 clustering 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 à 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 assumption 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 assured 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 aëroplanes, 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 fricasseed 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 fashion 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 passing and repassing.
As so many attractions in the amusement 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, Japanese, Servians, Tyrolese mountain climbers and yodlers, and a multitude of others continued to pass, many of them coming from the villages and side shows of the great amusement park.
From time to time the amazing arm of the giant Aëroscope 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 glass 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 glass being able to cover a distance of something like three thousand miles.
