“If you leave it with me to decide, Hiram,” the scout leader remarked, “I’d say no to both your propositions.”
“But what’s to be done with them, then?” cried Hiram, as though puzzled by what the other had just said.
“He means to duplicate our plan down at Los Angeles,” spoke up wideawake Andy.
“Oh! put them in the hotel safe till they’re wanted, is that the idea, Rob?” demanded the owner of the said packet that had been giving them all manner of trouble since the time they left San Antonio in Texas.
“That seems the best scheme, according to my mind,” Hiram was told by the one in whom he felt such abiding faith. “Then, no matter what you find out about those people you’ve come to see, the papers needn’t worry you.”
“Guess you’re right about that, Rob, and it’s a go. Just as like as not I would be doing some fool play, and mebbe losing the precious documents that are to prove my case with the Golden Gate folks. I’ll go to the desk with you any time you’re ready, and see that the clerk gets my property snugged away in his safe.”
When this had been done they set out. Rob, of course, had his suitcase along with him. He had taken out what few things of his own it contained, and now it held only the precious documents and other small exhibits that Professor McEwen had been carrying in person to his scientific colleagues at the Exposition, where they were to be placed with other articles.
What those numerous small rolls and packages contained none of the scouts really knew. From some remarks, let fall by Judge Collins, Rob had an idea they might be papyrus records found in some old ancient tomb or pyramid, and said to have come down from thousands of years back. To the boys these would not have been worth their bulk in sandwiches, possibly, because they could not appreciate their intrinsic value; but in the eyes of such men as the Scotch professor they represented treasures beyond any computation, far too valuable to be intrusted to a common express company that might lose them, or deliver them in a crushed condition.
“There’s a tower I can see; it must be the one that from our window last night seemed as if a million fireflies had lighted on it,” announced Andy, with more or less excitement as they found themselves close to one of the gates where entrance to the Exposition grounds could be had.
“Yes, that must be the Tower of Jewels,” said Rob, “and I should call it pretty well named in the bargain. They’ve certainly chosen a splendid spot for the Fair, fronting, as it does, on the bay, with its wide sweep of water, and with the city rising up on tiers of terraces back of it.”