Pay a certain sum in hand, and agree to give me the balance to-morrow, and I'll sign the paper you speak of, handing over the patent rights transferred to you when the balance is put in my hands."

"That's strictly business ac.u.men, Mr. Nelson," said the gentleman, now smiling broadly, for there was no longer any danger of a backdown, and the wonderful little invention could not be taken away from them by some rival and wealthy company; "and with your permission, then, here is an agreement, in duplicate, with the amount left blank, which I will fill in according to your proposition; and if everything is agreeable, we will both sign it in proper form."

A few minutes later the agreement, filled out as settled upon, was handed to Hiram to look over before signing. He immediately backed over to where his three comrades stood.

"I want you to go over it word for word with me, Rob, and if there's any sort of hitch or trap, tell me; though I don't expect to find that sort of thing, because I guess Mr. Curley is too straight a gentleman to try and take advantage of a boy."

They weighed every sentence, and fortunately the agreement was very simple, so it was easily understood.

"How about it, Rob?" asked Hiram, trying to control himself as best he could, for he knew curious eyes were upon him, and he did not want any of the men to believe this was his first venture in the realm of finance, which in fact was the actual truth.

"It seems to be all right, Hiram, and I wouldn't hesitate to sign it,"

the scout leader advised him. "If you want a witness allow me to put my signature on it. I'll be proud to know that I've had something to do with your first real success."

"Something to do!" echoed Hiram, with considerable emotion, "why, Rob, you've been my backbone up to now. Only for you I'd have made a botch of the hull thing. I owe you more'n I c'n ever tell."

He went back to where Mr. Curley was waiting, a little anxiously Rob saw, as if he feared Hiram might be overcome with greed, and attempt to boost the price he had already named.

"I see you agree to give me a check for five hundred dollars right now, Mr. Curley," Hiram commenced, "to bind the bargain with. Well, I would be tempted to say I didn't want you to do that, but I know it's a poor thing to refuse money in hand, and also that it fixes it so neither of us can back out. So I'll accept the sum, sir, and sign the agreement."

This he hastened to do, and Rob was called on to add his name as a witness; then other names were placed upon the agreement, as well as the duplicate which was to be given into the possession of Hiram as the other party.

When that check for five hundred dollars was placed in Hiram's hand he smiled, and then coolly doubling it up, placed it carefully away in his pocketbook.

"That, for a beginning, isn't so bad, Mr. Curley," he said, as the gentleman was shaking hands cordially with him. "I'm meaning to use every cent of this money to advance several little schemes I've got started.

Only for my need of cash to push them along mebbe you mightn't have got that stabilizer without a few bids from other companies; but you sure treated me white, Mr. Curley, and I wanted you to know I appreciate it."

Possibly Mr. Curley may have thought that Hiram had worked a pretty sharp trick on them in hanging around, and learning what they thought about his invention before disclosing his ident.i.ty; but then certain things are allowable in business, and at least he had shown himself capable of looking after his own interests.

"If any of your later ideas happen to be in line with our work, Mr.

Nelson," the head of the firm said, "I hope you will give us a look at them before you approach any rival company. In one way it is a good thing for an inventor to keep advancing with the firm who first patronized him, of course, granting that they will meet any price he may be offered elsewhere."

"I guess I c'n promise you that, sir," said Hiram, who was very happy, and at that moment felt drawn toward the fine-looking gentleman who had treated him so splendidly.

So the four boys wended their way toward the gates of the Exposition.

Hiram hardly knew whether he was walking on air or on ground. It seemed to him that his heels must be made of some magical rubber that kept pace with his ecstasy of mind, for he came near dancing at times, much to the amus.e.m.e.nt of Rob.

"First thing for me to do, fellows," Hiram said, as they reached the hotel, "is to send a night letter to my folks telling 'em that I've got the coin. My maw she believed in me right along, but dad he's allers been kinder skeptical, you know, and used to say I was spendin' heaps of money on foolishness. Guess he's due to change his tune after this, hey?"

Rob found that there had been a telegram for him that morning which somehow he had failed to receive before leaving for the Exposition grounds. It was a night letter from Professor McEwen in answer to the one he had sent, signed by the name of Professor Marsh, who was in charge of the exhibit.

In this communication, limited to fifty words, the Edinburgh scientist tried to express the deep satisfaction he felt because Rob and Andy had successfully filled his place, and handed over that precious packet to the gentleman in charge, without any accident. He declared that he would remain until their return home, and that he hoped to be able to thank them again most heartily.

The boys were a happy lot that evening. They attended a theater where there was an instructive show well worth seeing by all scouts. Indeed, Hiram seemed to have actually grown two inches since morning.

Of course his chums gloried in his success; so that the rest of their stay at the City of the Great Exposition was likely to be one long picnic, with not a single hovering cloud to mar their pleasure.

CHAPTER XXV.

HOMEWARD BOUND.

On the following day, at the appointed hour, Hiram and his three chums turned up at the offices of the Golden Gate Aviation Supply Company, where the final exchanges were made. Hiram handed over his papers to the new owners of his invention, and received their check for the balance of the purchase price.

At Rob's solicitation he proceeded to the city and opened an account at a bank, against which he could check from time to time as he needed cash in pursuing his work.

Then, having now relieved themselves of all source of worry and anxiety, the four Eagle Patrol members gave themselves up to the full enjoyment of their holiday.

What wonders they continued to see as they daily visited the great Fair, would take volumes to describe. New and amazing things were constantly cropping up as they prowled hither and thither through devious ways that up to then they possibly did not know existed. There was a constant succession of surprises awaiting them with each new day.

"Why, I honestly believe," Tubby declared many times as they discovered some display that up to then had eluded them, "everything that was thought of in the whole world must be included in the exhibits inside this enclosure. I'll never get over being thankful to Uncle Mark for fetching me here. And to think that I was given a chance to be with the dearest chums any scout ever had-that's a whole lot the best thing of it all. Oh, it was certainly my lucky day when I decided to go up on that Aeroscope, because only for that we never might have met at all; and just think what I would have missed."

"The sight of Hiram here winning his prize for one thing; that was a spectacle for sore eyes, let me tell you!" remarked Andy. "We're all proud of him, and we want him to know it too."

"Then there was that fire scare," said Hiram, "when Rob got the blaze smothered with that little extinguisher before the regular department arrived on the spot-don't forget to count that as something, Tubby."

"And the mad dog chase, with our leader again demonstrating what a scout should be able to do when an emergency arises," Andy added. "The poor dog got shot, but there was no human being injured in the panic, which there might have been only for the handsome way Rob coaxed the cur to slip inside that inclosure."

"Yes," added Tubby, anxious to display his view, "and we don't want to forget about Jared Applegate, either. He gave us something of a racket, you remember, by sneaking into that room at the hotel, and hiding under your bed when he heard us coming along the hall."

"It makes me laugh when I remember how he almost licked Rob's hand, and promised to be good if only he was let go," said Hiram, rather disdainfully.

"That sounds as if you didn't have much faith in Jared's promises to reform?" said Rob, smilingly.

"He never meant a word of it, and I know it!" declared Hiram. "I could see the nasty snap in his eyes just like they used to be. Haven't we known him to crawl and make all sorts of big promises before, but always to break the same the first chance he had? Huh! that money in his pocket was never earned honestly, I'd like to wager; and it won't be used either to carry him back home."

"Oh, well, he's left the hotel, which is one good thing," said Rob. "I thought it was my business to find out this morning, for as we knew him to be a thief it hardly seemed fair to keep quiet, and not put a flea in the ear of the management here."

"He saved you the trouble then by skipping out?" remarked Andy.

"Yes, I suppose he imagined we might tell on him as a duty, and thought he had better leave between two days," Rob explained. "Of course, when I learned he had thrown up his job, been paid off, and was gone, I concluded it was no use saying anything more about it."

"Like as not Jared's been doing more than one shady job since he came here," suggested Hiram, shrewdly, "and he was afraid they'd take him to task for the same, p'r'aps shut him up in a cell; so he concluded to get away while the going was good. Well, here's hoping we may never run across the snake again."

"I don't know," ventured Tubby. "Seems like there's some queer fatality about it, but we do come on that scamp in the most re_mark_able ways.

There he was down in Mexico, and before that at Panama. To think that he'd be out here where the Big Show's going on, and of all places acting as a porter in the very hotel where we took up our quarters."

"'The pitcher that goes once too often to the well comes to grief,' they say," mentioned Rob. "If Jared keeps on bobbing up as he has been doing, and getting in our way, he'll rue it some time or other."

As the days came and went, Rob and his three chums certainly managed to have the time of their lives. If there was one part of that mammoth Exposition that they failed to investigate it was not because they wasted any of their time; at least this could be said for Rob and Tubby, who were most energetic in making the grand rounds.

As was to be expected, the other two were so wedded to their idols that it was not an easy task to tear them away; and at times Rob had to insist on their accompanying himself and Tubby to other parts of the inclosure.

Andy never tired of watching the quaint scenes in the Zone, where the tides of humanity from all over the world ebbed and flowed through all the hours of the day and evening. He dearly loved to just imagine himself in far-distant lands, close in touch with these brown or yellow people.

And the resolution to become a world traveler when he grew to manhood seized hold of Andy with renewed vigor.

As for Hiram, he could not be blamed for haunting that section where his heart found the greatest charm of the entire Exposition. Here he pored over the various ingenious inventions fashioned in the clever brains of the foremost among the nation's talented men and women, from Edison down to the most humble.