Loe raamatut: «The Boy Scouts at the Panama-Pacific Exposition», lehekülg 8
CHAPTER XV
TUBBY IS OUT OF HIS ELEMENT
If there had arisen any doubt in Hiram’s mind as to the deep interest those chums were taking in his enterprise, it must have been quickly dispelled when he made this announcement, and saw the looks of delight spreading over their faces.
“Bully!” cried Andy.
“Best wishes, Hiram!” added Tubby, genially, as he patted the other fondly on the shoulder.
Rob did not say anything, but if looks could speak Hiram might easily see that he had the sincere sympathy of the scout leader; though he knew that much before.
“While I’ve been hovering around here,” continued Hiram, “making myself useful whenever a flier was going up by running with the machine to give it a good start, I’ve kept my eyes and ears wide open, let me tell you.”
“So as to learn all you could about the Golden Gate Company, of course?” remarked Andy.
“Yes,” Hiram told him, frankly enough, “and soak in any sort of knowledge that might be useful to a feller that’s got the aviation bee abuzzin’ in his bonnet. And I’ve learned a heap, let me tell you, boys. Why, it’s paid me already for my long and arduous trip across country. I c’n start on as many as three schemes I’ve been hatchin’ in my fertile brain this long time. I was up agin’ a blank wall, you see; but now I’ve got ideas worth a hull lot to me.”
“That sounds all right, Hiram,” Rob told him; “only I hope you go slow about this business. Don’t overdo it, or we may have to take you home in a strait-jacket yet.”
“Nixey, not for me,” jeered the other; “my head’s as clear as a bell. Fact is, I never felt half as bright as I do now. The clouds have been scattered, and seems like the sun was shinin’ all the time. Once I get this stabilizer business well off my hands, and have some coin to go to work with, you’ll see the dust fly.”
“And he belongs to the Eagles, too!” said Tubby, in wrapt admiration. “Seems as if you just can’t suppress ’em, no way you try. There never was a patrol of scouts organized that had as many bright minds on the roster roll as ours contains.”
Andy immediately took off his campaign hat and made Tubby a low bow.
“That’s nice of you, Tubby, to say such sweet things of your chums,” he remarked, just as if it sprang straight from his heart. “And we want you to know that with the other seven the name of Tubby Hopkins will go ringing down the ages in Boy Scout history as one who always made his mark. And I can testify to that from my own personal knowledge.”
From the way in which Hiram and Rob tittered when Andy said this it could be inferred that they knew very well to what those last few words referred. The fact of the matter was that once upon a time Andy had had the misfortune to be under a tree when Tubby was knocking down nuts; and the fat scout, losing his grip on a limb, came down with tremendous force directly on Andy, who was flattened out on the ground like a pancake.
He carried the bruises he received on that occasion for quite some time; but no one could bear malice against Tubby, who, scrambling to his knees, had immediately expressed great solicitude for his unfortunate comrade, saying:
“Oh, excuse me, Andy, I didn’t know you were right under me, or I might have chosen some other place to land.”
“You don’t wonder at me being chained to this place, do you,” asked Hiram, “when there’s so much happening all the time, with pilots going up and coming down, agents explaining the use of new designs of aëroplanes they are putting on the market, and everybody ‘talking shop’? They reckon I’ve been employed in some place where they make these fliers, because I know somethin’ about them. So they let me help in a lot of ways. It’s fun, I tell you, the best fun I ever knew.”
Anyone could see that Hiram was right in his element. His freckled Yankee face seemed to glow with enthusiasm, and his little eyes shone in a way Rob had never noticed before. Indeed, if the scout leader had been inclined sometimes to fear Hiram would develop into a harmless crank, with only vague unreasonable ideas rattling about in his loose brain, that suspicion was rapidly vanishing.
Perhaps it had commenced to have an effect upon Rob’s opinion when he read that letter from the Golden Gate people. They were hard-headed business men, and not visionary dreamers; and surely they would never have advanced all that money to a strange inventor unless they believed in him, and meant to attach his genius to the fortunes of their company.
“I own up, Hiram,” said Andy, as they stood there and watched the many things that were going on all the time around them, “that there must be a sort of fascination about this thing to fellows who have a leaning that way. But as for me you never could tempt me to climb up thousands and thousands of feet like the air-pilot in the monoplane that looks like a swallow against the sky.”
“It takes some nerve, I’ll admit, Andy,” said Hiram, modestly.
“Huh! plenty of people may have nerve enough,” objected Andy, “but all the same they’d be laboring under physical disabilities.”
“As how, Andy?” asked the other.
“Oh, well, take our chum Tubby here; you never could expect him to make a flier, and bore up into the clouds. In the first place, it wouldn’t be fair to the people down below. He nearly killed me once by dropping just ten feet; think what would happen to the poor chap who happened to get in the way if Tubby came down from where that aviator is now?”
Even Tubby had to laugh at that highly colored supposition.
“Well, one thing sure!” he exclaimed, “I wouldn’t have to beg pardon for squashing him.”
“But think of the mess,” chuckled Andy.
“Watch that man who has just gone up in a monoplane. He’s the best there is on the Coast, next to Beachey himself, who is a native of California. You’ll see him turn flip-flaps to beat the band presently. Why, I’ve watched him go around twice, and as neat as a circus tumbler would do it off a springboard over the backs of three elephants. There he goes! What d’ye think of that?”
“Whew! he’s a corker, for a fact!” ejaculated Tubby, as he stood with open mouth, gaping at the wonderful exploits which the reckless air-pilot was engineering far up above the earth.
Rob, chancing to turn toward the stout boy, saw to his amusement that there was something of a wistful expression on his rosy face. Tubby could at least feel the charm that this hazardous sort of life might possess for venturesome boys, even though he knew he could never hope to attain any standing in the ranks, owing to what Andy had well called “physical disabilities.”
Athletes alone make good air-pilots, and a fellow who had the shape of a tub would only be useful as an anchor, or something like that.
Poor Tubby! It did seem that Fate was cruel to him, since he was debarred from taking an active part in so many sports such as boys enjoy. But Nature had at least given him a cheerful disposition, so that no matter how keenly disappointed he might be, he never allowed this to sour his temper.
They stood there and watched the trick aviator doing what Hiram called “stunts.” Sometimes the boys fairly gasped with sudden fear lest the man aloft had made a miscalculation, and would come plunging down like a stone to his death; but his agility and quick wit always served him faithfully.
“Some of these fine days something will happen that he doesn’t count on,” Rob said, soberly, “a flaw may develop in some part of his machine, just where it counts the most; and then – well, it will be his finish.”
“That depends,” remarked Hiram, quietly.
“On how high he happens to be at the time, you mean?” asked Andy. “Oh! just a few hundred feet will be enough to put him out of business for keeps.”
“Not if he is a wise man, and has a patent Nelson self-acting parachute fastened to him all the time!” declared the other, proudly. “It’ll open and allow him to drift slowly down, like you see hot-air balloon performers come to the earth after they’ve cut loose above.”
“Good for you, Hiram!” exclaimed Tubby; “I reckon folks have got to sit up and take notice, now that you’ve come to town! Young blood will tell every time. Oh, but I’m glad I met my chums! It was getting mighty lonesome for me, in a crowd all the time, but with not a solitary fellow to speak to. And Hiram, I’m glad you coaxed us to come over here. I’m getting interested in flying; p’r’aps if I cut down my feed, and knock off a hundred or so pounds I might have a show in this business yet.”
As they did not know whether Tubby was joking or really meant it, no one laughed at his strange remark; for they did not want to hurt his feelings. But when they glanced from the corners of their eyes at his girth the absurdity of his hope was manifest. Perhaps they may even have remembered a remark once made by Joe Digby to the effect that Tubby would have to have an extra big pair of wings given to him if ever he became an angel.
“There’s another exhibition pilot going to start up, boys,” said Hiram just then. “Suppose we walk over closer, and you can watch me lend a hand to shove him off on a good start.”
“That’s right, let’s get closer and see how things are done,” added Tubby, as he bent over, and, picking up a stick of clear pine that had caught his eye, he took out his penknife and commenced to whittle away just as though he might be the representative Yankee of fiction.
But whittling had always been a favorite occupation with Tubby; somehow it seemed to soothe him and cause his thoughts to flow more smoothly. He never could resist an extra fine bit of wood, though besides shavings he had never been known to produce any especial result from the use of his keen-edged knife-blade.
There were quite a number of people around, and they seemed to be more or less interested in the claims made by the representatives of the different aëroplanes that were being displayed, and in the practical demonstrations.
Tubby listened with rapt attention as some of the men talked, explaining what improvements had been made in the working construction of the machine just then about to be put to the test.
Hiram was doubtless dreaming of the hour of his triumph when one of these aëroplanes would be equipped with his wonderful stabilizer, and he might stand there listening to the fulsome praise of the Golden Gate Company’s demonstrator, before a practical test was made, to show how impossible it would be for a flying machine that carried such a life-saving device to be upset by flaws of wind, or the sudden movements of the pilot.
When all was ready for the flight, Hiram was one of those who laid hands on the aëroplane with the intention of running a score or two of feet, so as to assist in the start. Unnoticed by Rob, Tubby, too, had copied Hiram’s example, urged on by some irresistible impulse approaching madness, perhaps.
When the word was given, and with propeller whirling, the aëroplane started along on its bicycle wheels, with a dozen pushers to assist, there was Tubby in the midst.
Suddenly there arose a series of shouts of alarm.
All of the other willing helpers had dropped off, only Tubby was sprinting furiously after the aëroplane, which was bumping along over the ground with ever increasing momentum. Rob felt a thrill of real alarm when he believed he saw that the left arm of the stout boy was drawn out, as though in some unfortunate way it had become caught in a trailing cord, so that he was compelled to keep on, no matter how much he wanted to break away!
CHAPTER XVI
THE ILLUMINATED FAIRYLAND
“Oh! Tubby!” Andy was heard to cry out above the clamor.
It was all over in a few seconds. Rob believed he saw the fat boy manage to get his other hand out; and it flashed through the scout leader’s mind that the last he had noticed Tubby was gripping his open knife in that hand.
They saw the stout boy roll over and over like a big rubber ball. At the same time it became evident that the shouts of sudden alarm and horror bursting forth from the crowd must have warned the aviator that something was wrong, for he instantly shut off the power, and the monoplane was now slowing up instead of increasing its speed over the level ground.
Rob, Andy and Hiram joined in the forward rush, everybody fearing the worst with regard to poor Tubby. But when they arrived on the spot they were more than pleased to see him calmly brushing off his clothes.
“Did you get hurt, Tubby?” demanded Andy, anxiously.
“Never a bit,” replied the grinning Tubby. “That’s the good of being encased in fat, you see. If it had been you, Andy, you would have gotten a broken rib, or something like that. Oh! thank you for my hat, mister. Did anybody see my knife; it slipped out of my hand just as I cut the cord that was holdin’ me to the machine?”
“Good for you, Tubby, if you had the presence of mind to do that!” cried Hiram.
“And here’s your knife, my boy,” said an air-pilot, advancing. “You had a narrow escape, and if I were you I would let it be the last time I ever tried to run with a machine. If you had fallen over you might have been dragged and killed.”
“Not by that cord, I should think, mister,” declared Tubby, holding up the piece that still dangled from his left arm, where a loop had accidentally become fast. “It would have broke short on me; but all the same I’m through trying games like that. I’m not built for it, I guess.”
They were pushing the monoplane back for another start. The aviator stopped to survey Tubby from head to foot.
“So, it was you holding me back, was it? Didn’t get hurt any, I hope? But looky here, young fellow, when I want an anchor I’ll get a real one, and not just a tub of jelly; understand that, do you?”
It was pretty rough on Tubby, for the crowd laughed uproariously, but he disarmed the anger of the air-pilot by joining in the mirth.
“I meant all right, mister,” he told the aviator, “and it would have been easy only for that cord that was hanging out. It got caught around my arm, and I couldn’t break away. Thank you for letting me off so easy.”
After that the boys walked away. It had threatened to be a serious matter at the time, but now that everything was over Andy and Hiram were secretly exchanging nods, and chuckling over the remembrance of their fat chum sprinting after the swift monoplane, going faster no doubt than he had ever done before in all his life.
“I see the finish of the rest of the boys in Hampton when the foot races are on next fall,” Andy complained, in what he meant to be a serious tone, “if you take to doing your practicing that way, Tubby.”
“Yes,” added Hiram, “when it comes to the point that Tubby can keep along with a racing aëroplane, or a speeding motorcar, the rest of us might as well throw up the sponge and quit. He’d make circles around us like Rob’s boat the Tramp could with the old Sea Gull.”
“Make your minds easy, boys,” Tubby told them pleasantly. “I’m going out of training. Once is enough for me. You can have the field to yourself, Hiram; only if I were you I’d quit that running business. An inventor has no right to take chances; and what’s happened once may happen again.”
“Well, now, I never thought of that, Tubby,” admitted the other, shaking his head seriously. “Just as you say, an inventor has no right to expose himself like an ordinary person. No telling what he might not think up some day for the uplift of the civilized world. He sorter belongs to science, don’t he? Yep, I’ll stop chasing after aëroplanes; but of course I’ll have to go up once in a while in order to keep in touch with things.”
“We’re about ready to start for the hotel, Hiram,” announced Rob; “and if you’ve decided not to introduce yourself to the Golden Gate people to-day, you might just as well come back with us.”
Hiram sighed, and allowed his glance to rove over to where the crowd still gathered around the demonstration station.
“I s’pose I’d better,” he replied with an effort. “I don’t want to be greedy, and overdo things; but it’s giving me a jolt to have to break away from here. How about you, Tubby; coming along and have dinner with us to-night?”
“Of course he is,” said Rob immediately. “To-morrow he must change hotels, so he can be one of our party.”
“Why, you took the words right out of my mouth, Rob,” declared Andy.
“That makes it unanimous,” added Hiram, vigorously; “so you see there’s no way for you to back fire, and break away from your moorings from the same old crowd, Tubby.”
Tubby smiled, and looked pleased.
“It’s nice to know you’re appreciated, let me tell you, boys,” he observed. “I’ll be only too glad to join you at dinner. Yes, and in the morning I’ll pack my grip so as to change base. I can leave a letter for Uncle Mark that he’ll get as soon as he comes back from Oregon.”
So that much was settled, and somehow all of them seemed to feel pleased over the addition to their ranks. Tubby Hopkins was always like a breath of Spring and a welcome guest at every camp fire. Gloom and Tubby never agreed; in fact he radiated good cheer as the sun does light and heat.
“What’s the use of going to the city, and eating an ordinary dinner at some hotel or restaurant, when we can get such a corking fine spread at the place where we had our lunch?” asked Andy.
“Well, there’s a whole lot of sense in that,” admitted Rob. “We can sit around and get rested, then go to our dinner before the evening rush starts in; and by the time we’re through, the illumination of the Exposition will have gotten fully under way. And that’s a sight we’re wanting to see, you know.”
Hiram fell in with the idea at once, and Tubby declared it suited him perfectly. So once more they headed toward that section of the Zone where the giant Aëroscope lifted up its cage of sight-seers hundreds of feet every few minutes, for the eating-place had been close to this spot.
Since they were looking forward to several weeks at the Fair, no wonder the boys felt very satisfied and happy. There was so much to see that they believed they could put in all the time to advantage without duplicating anything.
When they were seated at the table, Tubby kept his chums in a constant roar of laughter by his many quaint remarks. Sometimes these were called forth by some queer type of foreigner chancing to pass by; and then again it might be Tubby would revive some ludicrous memory of past events in which he had figured.
They certainly seemed to enjoy their “feed,” as Tubby called it; it was not unlike a camp supper, when eaten under such odd surroundings. Andy openly declared that with so many swarthy turbaned Arabs strolling by, not to mention Egyptians, Hindoos, Algerians, Moors, and the like, he could easily imagine himself away off on a sandy desert, with camels as the only means of transportation.
“Makes me so thirsty just to think of it that I have to keep on drinking all the time; so please get me another cup of coffee, waiter,” he said.
“A poor excuse is better than none,” remarked Hiram. “Now, I’m going to have a second helping of that ambrosia nectar just because I want it. I don’t have to ring in all that taffy about hot deserts, camels and such stuff.”
By the time they were through with dinner the illumination of the Exposition grounds was in full blast. It certainly looked like fairyland to Rob, Andy and Hiram; though the last named seemed to be more interested in figuring how an improvement might be made in the wonderful electrical display than in admiring the amazing effect of the myriads of colored lights.
The roofs of buildings, the domes, the turrets and the towers, as well as the Triumphal Arch of the Setting Sun were all aglow. It made a spectacle not easily forgotten, and which the boys were never weary of gazing at.
As all of them felt pretty stiff and tired from having been on their feet so much that day, and not being used to it after sitting so long on the train, it was determined that they would not linger any longer.
“We’ll be here on plenty of nights up to the closing hour,” said Rob, “and I think it would be poor policy to overdo things in the beginning.”
“Yes,” added Tubby with the air of an oracle, “I never forget what I was once told, that it’s very unwise to press your horse in the start of a long journey. Let him generally get used to going, and by degrees he’ll be able to do better work right along – and finish strong.”
“Same way,” added Andy, “the jockeys hold back racers till they reach the last lap. The one that’s the freshest on the home stretch is the one that’s going to win, nine times out of ten.”
“I’m going with you, boys, and see all I can of my chums,” announced Tubby, who undoubtedly hated to spend even one more night alone. “I can engage a room near yours for to-morrow, p’r’aps; and besides, Rob has something he promised to show me, which won’t keep over the night.”
What he referred to happened to be some photographs Rob had taken on the way to California, and which would have looked just as good on the next day; but then Tubby was hunting for even a poor excuse to hang on to the party as long as he could.
They took a carriage at the exit. At the office of the hotel they waited until Tubby had interviewed the clerk, with Rob at his elbow to vouch for him.
“Great luck, fellows!” announced Tubby, as he rejoined Andy and Hiram. “I got my room all right, which in itself is a wonder with all the crowds in the city right now; but would you believe it I’m next door to you!”
“It’s some more of that everlasting Hopkins’ luck,” Andy told him. “You can’t be kept down, Tubby, no matter how they try it. We’ve seen you bob up on top before now. And look at you chancing to have that open knife in your hand this afternoon, when that cord held you! One chance in ten thousand of such a thing happening, and yet it did with you. Sometimes I wish my name wasn’t Bowles; if I couldn’t have it that I think I’d choose Hopkins. Sounds lucky to me!”
Chattering as they went, the four chums sought the elevator, and were soon on the fifth floor where the boys’ connecting rooms were located.
Rob had secured only the one key at the desk. With this he opened the door, and stepping inside reached out his hand to switch on the electric light. As this flashed up the boys stared about them.
“Wrong room, Rob, I bet you!” exclaimed Andy. “We never left things scattered around on the floor like this.”
“But that looks like your suitcase, Andy; and this open steamer trunk is mighty similar to the one we fetched along to hold our extra clothes!” exclaimed Rob.
“Looks like somebody had been in here looting!” remarked Tubby, whose eyes seemed as round as saucers as he turned from one object to another.
“Well, what d’ye think of that?” cried Hiram, bitterly; “here’s my bag turned inside out, just like some sneak thief had been looking for money or jewelry. There’s been an attempt at robbery here, fellows, as plain as the nose on my face!”
