“Why, no, not that I remember,” replied the other slowly; “but now that you mention him acting as though he wanted to see us so badly, I remember that Hiram has been talking to me several times lately about some wonderful secret he was carrying around with him. He said he hoped to be in a position soon to open up and take me into his confidence; and that he might have a proposition to make that would give me a great, though a pleasant shock.”
“You don’t say?” chuckled the happy Andy. “Well, seems to me the shoe is on the other foot just now, and that we’ve got something to tell Hiram that will take his breath away for a minute. Look at him dancing around, Rob! I suppose now he’s gone and invented some sort of contraption that never can be made to work, and he wants to tell you he’s saved up enough hard cash to get a patent on the same. But chances are it’ll be money wasted, because, so far as I know, nothing Hiram has done so far has proved much of a success.”
“I’m a little afraid it’s as you say,” added Rob, in a low tone, for they were now fast nearing the dock where the other boy waited for them, his face wreathed in such broad smiles that they could easily see his news was of a pleasant nature. “Three times Hiram has tried to go up in that aëroplane of his and failed. I hope he’s switched his genius off on some safer track than this sky traveling. But we’ll soon know, for here we are at the dock.”
Andy stood by with the boathook to fend off, and old Captain Jerry got in readiness to take charge of his launch and pole it along the border of the bay to the mouth of the creek, up which he had his mooring place.
When Rob had made the motorboat fast to a cleat on the dock, he joined his chum, and the two of them advanced toward the spot where Hiram awaited their coming, his face still betraying the great excitement under which he seemed to be laboring.
CHAPTER IV.
A STUNNING SURPRISE.
“He certainly looks all worked up, doesn’t he, Rob?” Andy remarked, as he and his companion found themselves drawing closer to the other scout.
“Hiram is a queer stick, you remember,” the patrol leader told him, speaking in a soft tone, as he did not wish the other to catch what he said. “Everybody just knows that he’s gone daffy over this craze to invent something worth while. But unless I miss my guess we’re going to hear some news shortly.”
There was no chance to exchange further remarks, because they had reached a point close to Hiram. The latter was a rangy sort of chap. He could talk as well as the next one when he felt disposed that way, but it had always been a sort of fad with Hiram Nelson to pretend that he was a real countryman, and many a time had he amused his chums with his broad accent and his wondering stare, as of a “yahoo” seeing city sights for the first time.
Now, however, Hiram apparently was not bothering his head about having any fun with his fellow scouts. There was an eager expression on his face, as though he were bursting with the desire to communicate his great secret to a chosen few of his chums, especially to the patrol leader, Rob Blake.