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 pa.s.s 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!"
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 aeroplane, 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."