The Boy Scouts at the Panama-Pacific Exposition

CHAPTER XVII
PRYING FINGERS

“Let’s see if there’s anything missing!”

As Andy made this remark he started to gather up some of his possessions that strewed the floor close to his suitcase, where they had been hastily thrown when the leather receptacle was emptied.

“Wait a minute,” said Rob, halting him in the work; “let’s take a general look around first. It seems to me as if they hadn’t gotten more than half-way through our trunk. That would indicate something had alarmed the thief, and caused him to leave in a hurry.”

“Oh, mebbe I’m not tickled nearly to death!” exclaimed Hiram, suddenly, beaming on the others as though he felt like shaking hands with himself over something.

“What about?” asked Tubby.

“I can give a guess,” said Rob. “It’s about the papers we left in the safe downstairs, eh, Hiram?”

“Just what it is, Rob,” admitted the other, continuing to show his pleasure. “Only for your smartness in getting me to deposit the packet with the clerk under a seal, it might have been in my bag right here. Say, I wonder now, if that was what the thief wanted?”

“But no one out here would suspect that you carried valuable papers, Hiram,” objected Rob.

“How do we know that?” asked the other, who had seized upon that explanation of the mystery, and saw no reason as yet to abandon his theory. “Didn’t I tell you how several companies I approached had men in their employ who tried to play smart games on me, so as to steal the fruits of my labor? Rob, you haven’t forgotten that unscrupulous Marsters, have you?”

“Why, no, but there’s a whole lot that would have to be explained about him before I could believe he had anything to do with this game,” Rob told him.

“Then you’re of the opinion it’s just an ordinary everyday hotel sneak thief who’s been looking through our stuff in hopes of finding some spare money hidden away in one of our grips, is that it, Rob?” and Andy started in once more to gathering up his scattered property, rubbing at the bosom of a shirt where it seemed to be marked with dirty fingers.

“I don’t believe he found anything worth taking,” said Hiram, “because we made it a point never to keep valuables in our bags, outside of those rolls belonging to your Professor McEwen.”

“If anything worth a considerable amount had been stolen,” ventured Rob, “I’d have stopped Andy before now from destroying one of the finest clues that could ever be found. I mean that finger-print so plainly marked on the bosom of your white shirt. With the modern methods used by the police to fix a crime on a criminal, that dark impression of his fingers would prove the fellow guilty in case they could use a drag net and round-up a bunch of suspects.”

Tubby stood and watched the others work, gathering their belongings together. Both Hiram and Andy growled occasionally because the thief in his haste to look through everything had jumbled things considerably.

“What did he want to waste his precious time for trying to find anything worth while in the belongings of three boys?” Andy asked, as though he had a personal grievance against the rogue who had entered their rooms with a duplicate key, since they had certainly found the door locked.

Struck with an idea, Rob stepped over to one of the windows and looked out.

“Think he may have climbed in from some fire-escape, don’t you, Rob?” demanded Tubby, who had noted this move on the part of the scout leader.

“The idea struck me,” admitted Rob, “but it only took one look to tell me such a thing is quite impossible, and out of the question. No, he must have come in by the door.”

“And went out the same way?” continued Tubby.

“Yes, after upsetting our things in the way he did,” pursued Rob.

“I s’pose he found out that the owners of the trunk and bags were only three boys,” Tubby went on to say in his logical way, “and then he threw up the game; no use expecting to run across jewelry or any extra cash in baggage belonging to boys seeing the Fair.”

“Seems like it’s the old story over again,” Hiram remarked, “and there’s no end to the queer things we run up against. I’m getting so nowadays I expect some surprise to break in on me any minute, day or night. If it isn’t one thing then it’s another. And when all else fails why we c’n depend on Tubby here to keep the wheels spinning with some of his antics.”

“Antics!” echoed Tubby, indignantly. “I object to you giving my adventure of this afternoon such a name as that. You must think I would purposely tie myself to a speeding aëroplane, and then have to run after it just for the fun of the thing. Antics nothing. Misfortunes, you’d better call my troubles after this.”

“Oh, never mind, Tubby! After all, you didn’t get hurt,” said Andy. “In this case it looks like the thief had had his troubles for nothing.”

“I’ve got a theory,” said Rob, “but of course there’s no way of proving it. It’s connected with those two fellows who tried to play a smart game on Hiram here at Los Angeles, and got left for their pains.”

“Hello! I haven’t heard anything about that up to now,” exclaimed Tubby. “Who and what were they, Rob? Ten to one you engineered a scheme to block them, because it would be just like Rob Blake to do that.”

So Andy, having a glib tongue, took it upon himself to relate the adventure of the through train, and how the two clever rogues had tried to get them to enter a carriage as prisoners, meaning, of course, to rob Hiram as soon as the chance came.

Tubby laughed when he heard how their plan was brought to naught. His merriment grew even more boisterous after he learned that Rob had taken Hiram’s papers to secrete them on his person, while the other hid some old letters in an inside pocket, which were deftly “lifted” during the short time the boys happened to be in close touch with the pair of rogues.

“Just to think of the bitter disappointment they met with,” said Tubby between his gasps. “I’m sure they’ll remember you fellows with anything but pleasure. Every time they glimpse a boy in khaki they’ll be apt to utter some hard words.”

“Well,” continued Rob, “it was on what they must feel that I based my theory. You see, they must have been coming to one of the expositions, probably the big Panama-Pacific show, to ply their trade. That would take them here to San Francisco. By some chance or other they may have seen us, and found out where we are stopping; and this raid was carried out more with a desire to have revenge on us than anything else. If some one hadn’t alarmed the fellows they might have amused themselves destroying everything in our bags and trunk.”

“A mean revenge, but I wouldn’t put it past a thief who was boiling mad because three Boy Scouts had managed to get the better of him,” Andy declared, with considerable emphasis, which looked as though he rather favored the theory advanced by the scout leader.

“Whee! I hope this thing isn’t as catching as the measles,” ventured Tubby. “You know, I’ve gone and paid out some good money for several things that caught my eye in the booths at the Exposition; and I’d hate to have some one get away with them during my absence.”

“Oh, small chance of that happening, Tubby! And if you’re afraid to stay alone to-night, why, I’ll go over with you to get your bag, and come on here,” Andy told the anxious one.

Perhaps Tubby was at first sorely tempted to accept that offer; but then he chanced to catch a gleam of amusement on Hiram’s face. That settled the matter. Pride stepped in and took the reins.

“Oh, never mind about that, Andy!” he hastened to say. “It’s very kind of you to offer me help, but I think I had better wait until morning. I’ll be around early and take breakfast with the bunch, remember. What time do you eat?”

Hiram and Andy allowed Rob to settle that for them.

“Call it eight o’clock, then. We’ll wait that long for you, Tubby,” the scout leader said.

“I’ll be on the move by seven, and as I expect to pack my bag to-night before turning in, it isn’t going to take me long to finish.”

Tubby got up as though he knew he ought to be going; but apparently he hated to part from his chums. They had been together so much of recent years that they were as thick as peas in a pod.

Rob somehow did not seem to be altogether satisfied with the result of his first examination of the room; he was heard moving around in the second apartment. When he joined the rest again, Andy, who must have guessed what he had been about, began to question Rob.

“Find anything to give the game away in there, Rob?” he asked.

“Well, no, not that I could see,” the scout leader replied. “The door, as you may remember, is locked, and the key at the office, where we haven’t bothered taking it out. Besides, when we left this morning I shot the bolt home, so that no thief could have entered by that door; and certainly no one left the room that way, or the bolt would not be in the socket as it is.”

“Oh, well, what’s the use of bothering about it? We don’t as a rule believe in crying over spilled milk. If that’s the case, why should we fret when there’s been no damage done at all, except my white shirt being soiled by finger prints?”

“Send that to the hotel laundry and forget it,” advised Tubby. “Where did I leave my hat? Oh, here it is! By the way, don’t be surprised when you see me in the morning, because I expect to be togged out in my khaki uniform, which Uncle had me fetch along in my big collapsible grip.”

“We’ll try and stand the wonderful sight the best way we can,” Hiram told him; “but break it to us by inches, please, Tubby, so as to avoid as much risk as possible. I’ve got a weak heart, you know, and a sudden shock might be serious.”

“Too bad you made your bargain with the hotel clerk before you donned your khaki, Tubby,” ventured Andy. “He might have given you the room at half the price you expect to pay for it now on the European plan. Your presence here would be a standing advertisement for the place. They could afford to let you stay for nothing if only you’d agree to stand outside the restaurant door an hour each day, and pick your teeth.”

All this kind of “joshing” had no effect on Tubby, who really seemed rather to enjoy being a target for these shafts of sarcasm leveled by his comrades, for his smile was as bright and cheery as ever.

“I’ll tie my shoe first, and then skip out. Must be going on nine o’clock now, and I’ve got some lost sleep to make up.”

Saying which he dropped down on one knee and set to work. The others accommodated themselves to the several easy-chairs, Hiram swinging one of his long legs over the arm of his seat in real Yankee fashion.

Rob yawned, and then taking out his little notebook – in which he was particular to jot down every daily event of any consequence on the trip – he felt in his pocket for a pencil.

“By the way, Hiram, you borrowed my pencil this afternoon, and didn’t return it,” he remarked, stretching out his hand toward the other scout, who, with a sheepish shrug of his shoulders, fished the article in question out of his vest pocket and handed it over.

It was just then that Tubby fairly scrambled to his feet. Rob looked up in some surprise, when to his further astonishment the fat boy tiptoed over, bent down, and said:

“Please don’t give me the grand laugh, Rob, when I tell you I saw something moving under that bed there – a pair of shoes!”

CHAPTER XVIII
THE THIEF UNDER THE BED

“Hey, what’s that, Tubby?”

It was Hiram who whispered this in a rather hoarse and strained voice. He had managed to just barely overhear what the fat scout was telling Rob, and could hardly believe his ears.

Rob instantly held up a warning finger. His face looked serious for, while after all it might prove that Tubby’s imagination was playing tricks with him, there were circumstances that gave the matter a suspicious look.

Some one had certainly been in their rooms turning things upside-down, as though searching for articles of value, or with the intention of creating as much havoc and confusion as possible.

Besides this, had they not already concluded that this person must have been disturbed in his vandal work? They believed he had fled, but after all it was possible that, hearing them at the door, he had made the utmost haste to conceal himself in the first hiding place available, which was under one of the beds.

Rob had to think quickly.

The man must be a desperate rascal or he would never have taken the chances he did in entering their apartments bent on such work. Consequently he would, of course, be armed, and if given half a chance, might make things exceedingly disagreeable for the four scouts.

What should be done?

Hiram was already pointing toward the house telephone, as though suggesting the use of it to bring help from below. Rob shook his head to indicate that the plan did not seem to appeal to him when there might be a better one to adopt.

They were four in number, and pretty husky fellows in the bargain, who in times past had accomplished quite a few feats worth mentioning. It would be too bad if a squad of scouts of their caliber and experience could not manage in some way to smother a single concealed thief.

Of course, by this time, Andy had come to realize that there was something very exciting and mysterious going on. He wanted to burst out with a plain question, and ask Rob what it was all about; but reading the signification of that upraised finger, and the frown on the scout leader’s face, he simply put out a hand and rested it on Rob’s sleeve while a pleading expression gripped his face.

Taking pity on Andy, and believing that they must all work together if they expected to accomplish anything, Rob bent over and whispered in his ear.

“Somebody’s hiding under the bed, Tubby says. Now laugh out loud as though we were having a joke; that is to keep him quiet a while longer.”

Fortunately Andy Bowles was quick-witted enough to grasp the peculiar situation. He understood just why Rob wanted him to make it appear as though things were moving along as usual, and that no suspicion had been aroused.

So Andy laughed. If there was a queer, husky touch to the sounds he emitted to order surely Andy could hardly be blamed, for he must have been quivering all over just then from hysterical excitement.

Rob drew the heads of Tubby and Andy down close to his mouth. They knew he meant to issue instructions, and hence eagerly strained their hearing so that not a single syllable might be lost. Meanwhile Hiram was standing near by, and busily engaged in taking off his khaki coat which, being quite new, he evidently did not mean to have mussed in any rough and tumble work.

At another time Rob would have smiled to see Hiram carefully folding his coat and then softly depositing it on the bed that was held under suspicion; but it did not cause a ripple of amusement to cross his serious face now.

“You and Tubby pass around to the other side of the bed, and try to act as if you were cutting up,” Rob whispered. “Keep your eyes on me, and when I give the word lay hold of his legs and yank him out. Tubby, we depend on you to keep him from getting to his feet; squash him if necessary. Get that, both of you?”

Both heads eagerly nodded an affirmative reply. The plan was so extremely simple that there did not seem to be any possibility of confusion.

Tubby’s face was not quite so rosy as usual, perhaps, but no one could say he looked frightened in the least. He immediately started some “horse-play” with Andy, laughing as he pushed the other around the foot of the bed so that they could presently bring up on the other side.

Taking advantage of the very first opportunity, Tubby, even while continuing to pretend to wrestle with Andy, pointed a finger downward. Knowing what this was meant for, Andy ducked his head in order to also get a glimpse of the object the fat boy considered so suspicious.

Meanwhile Rob and Hiram were holding themselves in readiness to jump around to any point where they could make their presence count. The former was keeping an anxious eye on Tubby and Andy. When he saw the latter make that quick movement, Rob knew what it meant, and understood that considerable would depend on how Andy came to decide.

So Rob fairly held his breath awaiting the verdict. If after all Tubby had allowed his imagination to get the better of him, and had mistaken some simple object for a pair of shoes under the bed, Andy’s keen eyes would quickly detect the illusion, and they might expect to hear him give a roar of amusement.

Nothing of the kind happened, it turned out. Instead of this, when Andy once more straightened up he nodded his head toward Rob in a way that could have only one meaning – he was ready to risk his reputation for veracity along with Tubby in admitting that the facts looked suspicious.

That settled the matter with Rob. They must combine to make a sudden assault on the concealed thief and try to overpower him before he could place himself in a condition to do them harm.

Like a wise general, the scout leader took one last look around in order to see that his forces were all in their respective positions before he gave the signal that would precipitate action.

Andy, impatient to get busy, made a significant gesture, opening and shutting both hands rapidly, while a faint grin could be seen on his face. This was intended to convey the intelligence that he was eager to lay hold on the lower extremities of the sneak thief cowering under the bed, and start to drag him out from his place of concealment.

There was no need of any further delay, and so Rob made a quick movement with his hand, at the same time exclaiming:

“Now’s your time; get him!”

Before the last word had been uttered Andy was bending down and hurling himself part-way under the bed. He immediately began to back out, tugging with all his strength at something upon which he had pounced.

Tubby also took hold and united his power with that of the other scout. They made short work of it, once that combination got started. Out from under the bed they dragged a struggling figure that was scratching, clawing and trying in every possible way to swing around so that he would not be taken at such a terrible disadvantage.

By that time Rob and Hiram had managed to arrive, the latter scrambling directly across the bed in his hurry to get into action.

There was a lively little scene for a brief interval, with all of them trying to keep those kicking legs and violently driven arms pinned down.

A few blows were given in the struggle, and not all on one side, since Andy had a thrust in the eye that made the tears come, and Tubby received a kick which forced a grunt from his lungs.

Whoever the fellow might be he evidently was convinced that his condition was desperate, judging from the wild way he fought, to break away, with the intention of bolting from the room.

In the midst of the mêlée Tubby settled the affair in a unique way all his own, and which none of the others could have imitated even though they sought to do so.

He simply allowed himself to sit down squarely on the squirming figure with which they had been battling so fiercely. When that heavyweight settled down, it was like a stone wagon dropping into a hole in the road. They heard a gasp from the unfortunate wretch underneath, whose struggles immediately began to lose much of their former vigor.

It happened that at the time the thief was lying on his stomach, so that Tubby perched on his back, which might have been broken had the fellow been less sturdily built.

After that there was really nothing more for the others to do; Tubby was equal to the task of keeping his victim pinned there in spite of anything the wretched fellow might try to do.

It was then they heard him wheezing as though short of breath, and saw his hand moving as if in abject appeal.

“I give up! I’m all in! Please don’t kill me, Rob and Andy! Won’t you let Tubby get up off my back; he’s smashing my ribs, I tell you!”

Rob, Andy and Hiram stared at each other as though they hardly knew whether they could be awake or dreaming. Why, the squirming wretch whom they found hidden under the bed, and who had undoubtedly been searching their effects with robbery in view, had actually mentioned the name of Rob and that of Andy. Yes, he had even begged that Tubby be restrained before he utterly crushed his back and sides!

It gave them one of the greatest surprises in all their experience; for how a common hotel sneak thief should know who they were, and address them so familiarly, was past their comprehension.

Tubby, too, looked astounded, though he made no move to get up in response to the pitiful wheeze of the wretch he was pinning to the floor. Perhaps it filtered through the slow-moving brain of the fat scout that this might be only one of those clever tricks known to sharpers, and entered into simply to gain some advantage.

Rob knew differently. There seemed to be something about that whine on the part of the prisoner that was familiar, though on the spur of the moment Rob could not have told where he had last heard it.

Accustomed to prompt action, the scout leader motioned to Andy and Hiram to hold themselves in readiness to seize upon the fellow’s arms, and in this manner keep him from taking advantage of his newly acquired freedom when Tubby arose.

“Now you can get up, Tubby!” said Rob.

Tubby thereupon gave one of his satisfied grunts and commenced to roll off his human cushion for, as a rule, when he wished to gain his feet, like the elephant he resembled in many ways, the fat boy had to get upon his knees first of all, and then make a further effort.

“Turn him over, Andy, Hiram; and if he tries any funny business he’ll wish he hadn’t, that’s all!” Rob told the others, who immediately started to obey.

“Oh, believe me, I’ve had enough as it is, Rob! I hope you won’t be too hard on me this time! I was wild to get back home, and that’s the truth,” the fellow was crying as Andy and Hiram turned him on his back.

The former bent down to stare into the thief’s face. Rob fairly held his breath, awaiting the explosion something told him was due. Nor was he mistaken, for Andy drew back, uttering exclamations of wonder.

“Why, who d’ye believe it is,” he burst out, “but that sneak of a Jared Applegate who had to skip out of Hampton when things got too hot for him, and who you last ran across when you were down in Mexico? Rob, he’s up to his old tricks of trying to steal what belongs to others. Say, this is one of the biggest surprises that ever came our way. Old Hiram Applegate’s bad boy, and a common hotel thief!”