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 ofthe United States. Seems to me, Rob, that the Far West has always gone bythe name of the Land of the Setting Sun."
"That's why the arch has been built," Rob told him. "You see, in pioneerdays the constant drift was always this way. Men who founded homes inwhat was then the wilderness along the Ohio kept hearing wonderfulstories about the richness of the soil farther west, and what unlimitedfur-bearing animals were to be captured by those daring enough to takethe risk."
"And so they kept pushing farther and farther, year in and year out. Inthis way settlers finally overran the prairies, and crossed the Rockies?"asked Andy, as he surveyed the beautiful arch that had been raised tocommemorate the dreams of the men who blazed the way of civilizationthrough 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 therainbow of promise those hardy men had seen painted in the sky. Thewestern sun meant a whole lot in those days; it shone over the Land ofPromise; it was the hope and ambition of almost every settler. No onedrifted East; it was always into the mysterious and beckoning West thatfamilies emigrated."
Around them were crowds of eager sight-seers. At times they jostledelbows with representatives of numerous foreign nations.
"But there are not near so many foreigners visiting the Panama-PacificExposition as there would have been only for the terrible European warthat's raging across the ocean," Rob happened to remark a little laterwhen the other scout called his attention to a group of dark-featured menwearing the red fezzes of Orientals, and passing along as though viewingthe wonders of the exhibition with a lively interest.
"I suppose the building erected by California is reckoned the largest oneof all on the grounds, isn't it, Rob? How much space does it cover, doyou 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 musthold about everything connected with the life of the big State. Why, itwould take a whole day to get around there, and see half of the things onexhibition."
"Plenty of time for all that when we settle down to the business ofsight-seeing," Rob told him. "First of all I want to get this load off myhands," 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 meanssleepless nights for our good friend, Professor McEwen, until he gets mywire that it has been safely delivered."
"I declare if those two girls over there don't make me think of LucyMainwaring and Sue Clifford away back in Hampton!" exclaimed Andysuddenly. "Oh! excuse me, Rob, I didn't mean to give you a start bymentioning Lucy's name. Of course it's only a chance resemblance, forneither of the girls we've left behind us could be here at theExposition. But I'm a great fellow, you remember, to imagine people looklike some I've known."
"Yes, and lots of times that failing has gotten you into a peck oftrouble, too, Andy," Rob remarked, laughingly; "there was that boy inscout uniform this very morning that you rushed up to with outstretchedhand, and calling him Sim Jeffords. I nearly took a fit to see the blanklook 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 minutethat boy thinks I was a fraud, perhaps some new sort of confidenceoperator. 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 ofour old enemies hovering around, and waiting for a chance to give us ajolt on account of the grudge they bear us. There's Jared Applegate, forinstance, the last we ever saw of him was at the time he was down inMexico, having been compelled to run away from home after getting himselfinto 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 littlewhile ago I did see two fellows walking along who made me think of MaxRamsay 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 torun over and shake hands with them; though back home I would cross thestreet rather than meet them face to face."
"Yes," said Rob, "that's always the case with people who're away fromhome. They get so tired of seeing strange faces that the sight of onethey know makes them friendly. But I suppose you've noticed that thescouts seem to have quite a share in the running of things at this BigShow?"
"For a fact I've seen quite a number of them about, and it strikes methey 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 ahustling 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 monsterFair like this," said the patrol leader. "I think some of them are actingas guides to parties of women and children. Others run messages for thedepartment heads, because there must be a tremendous lot of that sort ofthing that has to be done here. I saw one batch of scouts carrying a manon a litter, and from that I concluded they must have a scout emergencyhospital somewhere on the grounds, where those who have been takensuddenly sick or become exhausted from the heat in the machinerybuildings could receive first aid to the injured."
Andy's face took on a look of pride. He even tenderly stroked the sleeveof his khaki coat and touched the badge on his lapel as though heconsidered it a great honor to be wearing that insignia of his rank inthe troop to which he belonged.
That is one of the finest things about scout membership; it stimulatesboys to aspire to emulate those who are striving to help others, oralleviate suffering in some way.
"We ought to be nearing that building you spoke about, Rob," Andyremarked, after more time had elapsed. "Seems to me we've covered milessince we saw Hiram streaking off for the aviation field and the Hall ofInventions."
"I think that is it on our left; but to make sure I'll ask this scouthurrying along as though the whole show would have to close its doorsunless he managed to do the important errand he's sent on."
"I'll hang back while you do," suggested Andy jokingly. "Seems like theythink I'm a sort of suspicious looking person, though nobody ever told meso in Hampton."
The messenger condescended to slacken his speed sufficiently to catch thequestion which Rob asked. After saluting, as became a fellow scout, henodded his head in the affirmative, being apparently too winded to sayeven a single word.
Accordingly the two boys entered the building and threading their wayamong a multitude of exhibits, with a sprinkling of people examining thesame, most of them rather sober-looking in appearance, they managed tofind where the offices of the director were located.
"We wish to see Professor Marsh, who is in charge of this building," waswhat Rob said to an active little man wearing large glasses, and with allthe earmarks of a scientist.
"That happens to be my name, son; what can I do for you?" replied theother, as he bent a pair of exceedingly penetrating eyes upon the scouts.
"We have come to you," Rob explained, "from Professor Andrew McEwen, ofEdinburgh University, who met with an accident while visiting an oldfriend near our home, on Long Island, New York State, and while notseriously 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. ProfessorMcEwen is one of the most famous of his class, and the world could illafford to lose him at this interesting stage of events. But he was tobring with him a collection too precious to trust to ordinary channels. Isincerely trust that it was not harmed when he met with his accident?"
"Oh! no, sir," exclaimed Rob, hastily, "not in the least, since he didnot have it with him at the time. But he grieved to think it might bedelayed in reaching you, and so he intrusted it to the keeping of myselfand my comrade here, as we happened to be of some assistance to him atthe time."
The scientist seemed to be actually dumfounded. He stared from Rob toAndy, and then looked hard at the suitcase.
"Can it be possible that Professor McEwen intrusted those pricelesspapyrus relics to the care of two mere boys? I am astounded, and likewiseworried. 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 hadhappened to destroy the labor of years, and caused such a dreadful lossto science."
He almost snatched the suitcase from Rob's hand and vanished like astreak through a door that led to another room, leaving the two boysexchanging 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 buildingfaster than we came in, I'm afraid."
"No danger," Rob told him; "they were prepared to resist ordinary shocksin transit, and we've handled them as carefully as Professor McEwenhimself could have done. But he did look actually frightened, for afact."
"Isn't it queer what a pile these learned scientists think of things thatother people wouldn't give five cents for?" remarked Andy.
"Oh! well," said Rob, "that's because we're in the dark concerning theirreal value. Look in through the half-open door and you can see severalmen like Professor Marsh undoing those same rolls with trembling hands."
"Yes, and notice the awed look on their faces, will you, Rob? Thedirector 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 totell us so."
The look of deep anxiety on Professor Marsh's face had vanished, andthere was a trace of a pleased smile there when he again confronted thetwo scouts.
"The letter inclosed from Professor McEwen speaks in the highest terms ofyou young gentlemen," he said, effusively, as he stretched out bothhands. "He writes that you were instruments in the hands of Providence ofsaving his life; and for that let me remark that you deserve theheartfelt thanks of all who are interested in the work that distinguishedgentleman is doing for science. I am proud to shake you by the hand. Tothink that you have come three thousand miles bearing those pricelessrolls, and delivered them to us here without the slightest damage. Andthis 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 happydirector of the building devoted to the interests of science.
"And now, sir," said Rob, "would you mind returning my suitcase?"