"One of the kind where 'distance lends enchantment,'" commented Merritt, gazing at the thick patches of paint on the ceiling above them.

"That is quite right," said the guide. "This painting was put here to be seen from the floor of the Rotunda, and that is one hundred and eighty feet below."

"Jiminy," e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Tubby, "our heads must look like mere specks to the people who are looking up here now!"

"And the people down there look like flies and ants scuttering around,"

added Andy with his usual chuckle, as he peered over the lofty railing.

On the way down, the attendant showed the boys a fine view from the dome, and pointed out many of the prominent buildings and towers that they had already pa.s.sed in their morning's ride.

As they paid the excellent guide in thanks as well as coin and went out of the great eastern portico, Tubby patted the front of his coat suggestively.

"Fellers, my feelings tell me that it is long past noon," he said.

Rob pulled out his watch.

"For once your feelings are to be trusted, Tubby. It is one o'clock.

We'll get a hasty lunch nearby and try to visit both the Library and the Monument this afternoon."

An hour pa.s.sed, however, before the boys were again free to go sight-seeing. In Washington, distances are deceptive and time flies.

"Well, which shall it be, boys?" asked Rob. "It is two o'clock, and we have two hours before we must start for the station."

"Let's make it the Monument," suggested Merritt.

"Agreed," said the others.

"And we'll ask this policeman the quickest way to get there," added Rob, jumping after a pa.s.sing uniform.

The man pointed out a coming street car, gave them a few definite directions, and the boys were off once more.

At the Monument luck favored them again, for they were just in time to catch an ascending elevator. In spite of all that they had seen, they were greatly surprised at the extent and the beauty of the view from the top of the tall shaft. It was fortunately a clear day and they could trace easily the glint of the broad Potomac for many miles.

"Time to be moving if we walk down," said Rob, after they had tried to locate everything visible in the panorama spread out before them.

"We must walk down," urged Merritt. "There is so much to see in the rare stones and relics set all the way down in the inside of the tower walls,--so I've been told."

"If we read all the inscriptions it will take too much time," warned Rob, "but we can spend half an hour more here."

At the end of that time the boys emerged from the lofty shaft with a feeling that they had been on a long journey. From all over the world had come the mementos that they had just seen,--from foreign battlegrounds, from fields of exploration, and from places of historic sentiment.

"That was as good as a lesson in 'Ancient and Modern History,'" claimed Tubby, reluctant to go.

"Yes, but now let's beat it to the station," Andy urged, "or we'll miss our train."

"Should you care if we missed it, boys?" asked Rob, stopping deliberately and facing them.

"What do you mean?" inquired Merritt.

"Just this: We have purposely refrained from giving our folks the exact date of our coming home, and this itinerary does not bind us to any definite train. Why not get a glimpse of the Smithsonian Inst.i.tute, visit the Congressional Library this evening and take the midnight sleeper for New York? Then we can walk in at home soon after breakfast is over to-morrow morning and surprise everybody. What do you say?"

"We say 'Yes'!" chimed in the three other voices.

"It is a great idea," Merritt added. "They say that the Library is really wonderful at night."

And this was the program decided upon and carried out effectively. Tubby and Andy were perhaps more enthusiastic over the collections in the Inst.i.tute than over the color decorations in the Library; but Rob and Merritt observed no lack of interest, their own pleasure in everything being so complete.

It was a tired quartette of scouts who tumbled into their berths that night half an hour before the "owl train" pulled out of Washington, but not one of them thought of complaining of their weariness. They were more than satisfied at the delightful ending of their hasty flight to Mexico.

CHAPTER XXVII.

TUBBY SOLVES THE MYSTERY.

"Well, I've got some great news for you, fellers!" Tubby exclaimed as he came panting into Rob's den, where Andy and Merritt were comfortably coiled in easy chairs, about a week after they had returned home from their eventful trip down across the Rio Grande.

"Another accident happened to the poor old Academy, just when they've got the unlucky building fit for school! And perhaps a lovely journey for us, away across the continent this time to Sunny California!"

suggested Andy, sitting up suddenly with a look of eagerness on his boyish face.

Tubby shook his head in the negative.

"You're no good at guessing, Andy; perhaps now, Rob, here, or our corporal, might hew closer to the line."

Rob had been looking at the excited, triumphant face of the fat chum. He remembered what a great fellow Tubby was to hang on to anything, just like a bulldog might, and there flashed into his mind how he had once caught Tubby looking at a certain little object which he had carried carefully with him all the way to Mexico and back.

"You've struck something new about that boat business, that's what, Tubby!" he cried, pointing his finger at the other.

"Oh! say, that is hardly fair," grumbled Tubby. "I expected to have you all up in the air guessing; and here Rob goes and hits the facts the very first pop."

"Then you've made a discovery, is that it, Tubby?" asked Merritt.

"I should say I had, and in the most remarkable way ever heard of," the stout scout declared. "Talk about your luck--but then, if I hadn't been prepared and kept my eyes open, it wouldn't have happened, that's what.

Yes, sir, it pays to have eyes in your head, and some gray matter in your brain, if I do say it myself that oughtn't. Remember that, Andy Bowles, and don't think you're doing your whole duty as a scout when you just blow that bugle of yours now and then."

"Oh! come, tell us what's happened, Tubby, and never mind about me,"

suggested Andy with a broad grin. For it was like putting the cart before the horse to have clumsy, good-natured, but careless Tubby tell another boy how to prove himself worthy of bearing the name of scout.

"All right, I won't keep you wondering too long," Tubby continued, being in reality just wild to relate his story. "You all remember how, when I picked up that little curled shaving floating on the water that was in Rob's sailboat, and noticed how it had a queer raised ridge running all along, I said that the bit that had been used to bore that round hole must have a good-sized nick in each of the two cutting edges? Well, I was right; it has!"

"Then you prowled around, and poked into everybody's tool-chest till you found such a bit, did you?" demanded Andy.

"I meant to," admitted Tubby, "but so many things have kept coming up since our getting back from Mexico that it just seemed as though I couldn't make a start. But only this very morning I told myself I'd get busy, and see if I couldn't wipe that old mystery off the slate. Then that wonderful streak of good luck ran slap up against me, and I took advantage of my opportunity. Every true scout has to grab a golden chance when it comes along, Andy; you know that?"

"Oh! go on, and quit your preaching," grunted the other scout.

"Well, I was walking along the main street of Hampton just half an hour ago, and all at once I happened to spy just such an object as I had in my mind right then. It was a carpenter's brace, and was carried under the arm of a man I immediately recognized as Jacob Ramsay."