expostulated Hiram, looking unhappy. "I"ve got an awful lot to do before I turn my face homeward. I hope it all comes out right, and that the Golden Gate Company acts square with me."
"If you get some money, Hiram, I suppose it"s all laid out before now in experiments that you"ve wanted to start and couldn"t?" Andy hinted.
"Well, what would you have me do with the stuff?" demanded the inventor indignantly. "I expect to devote my hull life to science. h.o.a.rding money and discoveries in the realm of science don"t go hand in hand. You"ll notice that all the big bugs of professors don"t seem to care a lickin"
thing about the cash they gain. What they"re after is fame and glory.
Some day-but never mind that now."
"You were going to tell us we might live to see you famous, eh, Hiram?"
Andy chuckled. "Well, stranger things have happened. Men have become president of these United States, and those who played with the same as boys never dreamed such a thing would ever come about. There"s always room at the top."
"Five hours will soon pa.s.s," Hiram went on to say, without paying any attention to the little slur there seemed to be in this remark on the part of the other.
"There"s one thing I want to speak to you about," said Rob, his face a.s.suming a look of gravity that impressed Hiram very much.
"What, me, do you mean, Rob?" he asked hurriedly.
"Yes," Rob told him. "Here"s what it is. I"ve noticed that you keep on putting up your hand every little while, and feeling to see that your papers are safe inside your coat. It"s become second nature with you, the habit"s grown so strong."
"Well, you told me to keep my mind on that matter, and never to forget it; and so every time it crops up I guess I feel to make doubly sure.
What is there wrong about that, Rob, tell me?"
"Only this, Hiram; you"re getting so careless that you do it openly, and in such a way as to attract attention. If a person happened to see you do it once and then later on saw the movement repeated, his curiosity might be aroused, so that he would fall into the way of watching how often you did it."
"He might, that"s so," muttered the disturbed Hiram uneasily.
"And then the idea would become a conviction that you must be carrying something very valuable in that inner pocket. You see, if the parties chanced to be crooked, that would make them figure how they could get hold of your property. So the very movement which you meant to be a safeguard would prove your undoing."
"Rob, I"ll try and quit that, if you think it best," promised the other, apparently more or less impressed with the logic the scout leader had brought to bear on the subject.
"That"s all very well, Hiram, but I"m afraid your repentance comes too late to do much good," Rob told him, at which the inventor gave a start, and into his eyes there crept a look of concern.
"Whatever can you mean by saying that, Rob?" he asked in a troubled voice.
"I"ll tell you," said Rob. "I"m afraid that you"ve already attracted the attention you wanted to avoid."
"What! here on this train, in this sleeper?" whispered Hiram, appalled.
"Don"t look up now, when I mention the matter, because they might see you, for I expect they"re watching us. Both of you have undoubtedly noticed two men who sit back of you, and at the end of the car, one of them small and stout, the other tall and slim?"
"Yes," Andy admitted, "the tall one nodded when he pa.s.sed, and acted like he wanted to open up a talk with me, but I turned to the window again as if I was too much taken up with the scenery here to bother."
"And the stout one nodded to me when he caught my eye," said Hiram.
""Course I nodded back, but made out not to look that way again."
"Well, they"ve been holding considerable conversation in low tones,"
explained Rob. "I could manage to glimpse them in the gla.s.s at our end of the car, though they didn"t suspect me of spying. Every time either of you thought to get up, or even turn your heads they made out to be half asleep, with their eyes shut; but I could see they were talking about you."
"Then mebbe that Marsters did send emissaries along with me to try and steal the product of my brains!" complained Hiram, with compressed lips and stern demeanor.
"Oh! that doesn"t follow at all," Rob a.s.sured him. "These fellows may just happen to be a pair of hard cases always on the lookout for signs of a paying haul. When they noticed how you kept feeling of your inside pocket they guessed from the signs you must have something worth while hidden away there. Men who make their living from the world by sharp tricks get to read character wonderfully well."
"Yes," Andy put in just then, "they say that old and experienced customs inspectors can tell from a person"s looks in nine cases out of ten whether he or she is trying to smuggle things into the country without declaring them."
"What can I do about it then, Rob?" asked Hiram.
"I"ve got a plan that would fill the bill," he was told.
"Yes, go on and tell me, Rob."
"You come with me into the car ahead. We"ll sit in the smoking compartment for a few minutes if it happens to be empty. There you can give me your packet, and I"ll fasten it inside my coat, handing over some worthless papers for you to do up as if they were priceless in value, to pin in your pocket instead. Do you get what I"m telling you, Hiram?"
"Rob, count me in," the other replied hastily. "It"s a good thing, for even if they did happen to rob me they"d be having their pains for nothing. When you"re ready, give me the tip and I"ll follow after you."
"Andy," Rob continued impressively, "as we pa.s.s out you change your seat so that you"re facing the two men. In that way you can seem to be watching, and they"re not so apt to follow after us."
"All right," muttered Andy; "any time you see fit I"m ready."
Rob first of all made a little packet with some old letters taken from his pocket, and which he had been thinking of discarding for some time.
This he could do without exposing his hands above the shelter afforded by the back of the seat.
"All ready, Hiram; get up, and seem to be coaxing me to go with you.
Finally, lay hold of my sleeve and pull me. I"ll act as if I didn"t much care to accompany you. That will serve to divert attention; and as you pa.s.s the men turn your eyes the other way. If you can be saying something about some one being glad to see me, it would make them believe we knew a pa.s.senger in one of the forward cars."
How Rob did look to the small details of everything he undertook! He knew from past experiences that after all these are what bring success in the long run.
Although Rob had told Hiram to turn his head the other way while nearing the two suspicious men, he himself gave them a nod in pa.s.sing, just the salutation one traveler is apt to bestow upon another when they have been fellow pa.s.sengers in the same car for hours, perhaps days.
Rob did that purposely; he knew it would serve to allay any suspicion that may have been bred in the minds of the men to the effect that their actions had been observed.
Once in the car ahead, they found that for a wonder the smoking compartment happened to be empty. Taking advantage of this chance, Hiram hurriedly unpinned the packet he had guarded so closely, and gave it into the possession of his chum. In its stead he secured the dummy in his pocket.
All this had consumed hardly two minutes of time. Rob was careful to notice that not a single soul had pa.s.sed the door of the compartment; and as soon as the exchange had been effected he stepped out in order to take a survey of the car, to find that neither of the two suspicious men had actually followed them from the other sleeper.
"That job"s finished, and I feel a whole lot easier in my mind," admitted Hiram.
"No matter whether I was right or not, there"s no harm been done," Rob told him; "and now, Hiram, see that every five minutes or so you keep on feeling your coat as you were doing it before. I"m more than curious to know whether they"ll try it or not."
"Well," chuckled the other, as if amused, "if they don"t it isn"t goin"
to be for want of chances, I tell you that, Rob."
"Let"s get back to our places," the scout leader added, "because I don"t feel altogether safe away from my suitcase, with all that wonderful stuff in it the professor said represented so much research and effort that made it priceless."
The two men were there as they had left them. Rob again nodded carelessly when he found that the short man was eagerly watching to catch his eyes; but he did not stop to enter into any conversation when the other made some casual remark, only replying over his shoulder as he pa.s.sed on.
"They kept talking like a blue streak while you were gone," said Andy, after the other two had seated themselves. "Twice the tall man stepped off as if he meant to follow you, but he must have thought better of it, for he turned back before getting out of the car, and shook his head at the other one. They are up to something evil, Rob, take my word for it."
"We only have one more meal aboard the train, and then comes the hotel at Los Angeles," said Hiram. "I guess we can hold "em off that much longer."
"You see how you can overdo things by being too much on your guard, Hiram," Rob explained. "Only for the way you kept on feeling your pocket they would never have suspected that Boy Scouts traveling alone could own anything worth stealing. The best way to do is to make things secure, and then appear to forget all about them."