“Bully for you, Rob!” cried the delighted inventor, whose dejected countenance immediately lighted up. “I was mighty afraid you meant to leave me out of the excursion party. Stand by me, and I’ll do everything I can to help you. Three ought to be even better than just two, when it comes to counting noses.”
“You made a remark just now that struck me as queer,” said Rob.
“Tell me what it was, then, and I’ll try to explain,” Hiram ventured.
“Well, you spoke of wanting a companion along to keep you from being caught napping, or robbed of valuable papers on the way; what did you mean by the last part of that sentence? Have you any idea anyone covets your papers, and might make an attempt to rob you when you were far away from home?”
“Rob, p’raps I’m silly to think that way, but I can’t help it,” Hiram confessed. “You see, one of the companies I corresponded with was in New York. They even sent an agent down here to interview me, and see what I had got. I never liked that man the least bit. He struck me as a sneak, and I made up my mind the company was what you might call a snide one—wanting to steal ideas if they could. I declined to have any dealings with them, and their agent went away as mad as a hornet, even threatening that he’d get the better of me by hook or crook.”
“You don’t say!” ejaculated Andy. “Then, you must have squeezed his toes, Hiram; you made him squeal, and show his true colors. I give you credit for that.”
“Have you heard anything from the company since?” asked Rob, hardly knowing whether to treat the implied threat seriously, or only as the ugly remark of a disappointed man who had found that Hiram was too smart for him.
“Why, every week I get a few lines from this Marsters, the man who came to see me, asking if I’m ready to do business with him. There’s no threat in the letter, but there’s always something to imply that he’s keeping track of what I’m doing, and expects sooner or later I’ll be glad to turn to him for a sale.”
“And you are afraid that he even knows of your dealings with this Golden Gate Company out on the Coast, is that it, Hiram?” continued the scout leader.
“I don’t know what to think,” admitted Hiram. “One letter came that I know had been tampered with. It may be he’s got somebody in our postoffice in his pay.”