Stanley R. Matthews

“ With that, the cowboy broke a bottle of Adam's ale over the lower plane.
"No likee June Bug," chattered Ping. "Him velly bum name. Why you no callee him Fan Tan, huh?"
"Fan Tan!" jeered McGlory. "Why, you squint-eyed heathen, this ship's no gamble, but a sure thing. Remember the lines of that beautiful poem:
"The June bug has no wings at all,
But it gets there just the same."
"That's good enough," laughed Matt. "I'm going to eat and turn in, for to-morrow I fly."
The motor was a four-cylinder, and Matt judged, after taking measurements, that it would develop about twenty-five horse power. ”

“ But his emotions, at every stage of that ride from Jamestown, had changed with Matt's and McGlory's. Now Ping was all chagrin, and a wild desire to "push on the reins" and overhaul Jake.
The road was fairly good until the automobile reached the forks; after that, it ran into hilly country where there was considerable sand.
Black forced the car all he could, but the poor speed it developed filled the impatient boys with dismay and anxiety.
"We'll never overtake that wagon in a thousand years, at this gait," fumed McGlory. ”

“ Every boy who reads one of the splendid adventures of Motor Matt, which are making their appearance in this weekly, is at once surprised and delighted. Surprised at the generous quantity of reading matter that we are giving for five cents; delighted with the fascinating interest of the stories, second only to those published in the Tip Top Weekly. ”

“ But Matt had studied the subject, felt sure that he could acquire the necessary knack, and was determined to carry the venture through to a success.
"You're a plucky young man," said Matthews to the king of the motor boys when the business had been finally wound up, "but I want to warn you to look out for Murgatroyd. It does me good to hear how you sailed into him, but that was something Murg will never forget. As matters are now, you've beaten him, but he'll never let it rest at that. He'll move heaven and earth to get even with you. ”

“ CHAPTER VI. A NEW VENTURE.
"That old persimmon is about ripe enough to be picked," growled McGlory, as he and Matt climbed the stairs on their way back to their room. "He's one of those cold game gents that gets quick and deadly every time a fellow looks at him cross-eyed. The next time he and I come together there's going to be fireworks."
"The chances are," said Matt, "we've seen the last of him. We'll close up our business with Mrs. Traquair at three o'clock, and then we'll catch the first train for Totten. That will finish our dealings with Siwash Charley, and with Murgatroyd, too, I hope. ”

“ The cowboy was anxious to see what was in the satchel, but Matt made no move to gratify his curiosity, just then; instead, he launched into his experiences at Murgatroyd's office, at City Park, and, lastly, at Mrs. Traquair's. When he was through, McGlory rubbed his eyes, stared, then rubbed his eyes and stared again.
"What's the matter with you?" inquired Matt.
"Dreamin'," answered the cowboy. "You're going to take a little fly for fame and fortune, and I'm in on the deal to the tune of two hundred and fifty cold plunks. It's all right, pard. ”

“ It was eight o'clock when Matt, McGlory, Ping, and Black ducked out of Jimtown, and struck into the trail that followed the railroad track and the river. Black attended to the driving, and Matt occupied the seat at his side. McGlory and Ping occupied the tonneau.
Matt explained to Black that there was a car, somewhere ahead, which they wanted to beat to the post trader's store at Fort Totten; also, that the car ahead was filled with men who were not on friendly terms with Matt and his companions.
Black was a man of spirit. ”

“ Near Jamestown the "Jim" River forms a loop, encircling a generous stretch of timber. Wherever there is timber, in any prairie country, there is an invitation for men to make a park; so the ground encompassed by this loop of the river was beautified and obtained the name of "City Park."
After leaving the broker's office, Matt started for the park. In the outskirts of town he met a youngster walking in the direction of the river, with a fishpole over his shoulder.
"Hello," said Matt.
"Hello yourself," answered the boy.
"Do you know where Mr. Traquair lost his life in that flying machine?" ”

“ Matt paused with his hand on the stair rail, and the clerk came gliding toward him.
"Don't have anythin' to do with him," said Prebbles, in a tremulous whisper; "he's a robber."
"Who's a robber?" returned Matt.
"Murgatroyd. He's a skinflint and hasn't any more heart than a stone. He's a robber, I tell you; and, anyhow, if you try to run that machine you'll get killed. Traquair got killed, and he invented it, and knew more about it than you can ever learn. ”

“ After a brief search through the file, the broker developed a number of newspaper clippings.
"That your picture?" he asked, holding up a clipping with an electrotype reproduction of the king of the motor boys at the top of it.
"It's supposed to be," smiled Matt, wondering why this close-fisted broker had gone to so much trouble to collect the clippings.
"You had a flying machine called the Hawk, quite a while ago, didn't you?" pursued Murgatroyd, studying the clippings.
"It was a dirigible balloon," explained Matt. "Correctly speaking, a flying machine is not a motor suspended from a gas bag." ”

“ You're engaged in a worthy work, and I believe you'll succeed, but you've got to be wary. I'm going with Mrs. Traquair to pay this interest. Murg won't attempt any bulldozing tactics while I'm around, you can depend on that."
"You might see that he doesn't persecute Mrs. Traquair while we're at Fort Totten, Mr. Matthews," said Matt. "If he gets his interest, he can't make her any trouble, can he?"
"He can't make her any more trouble until next year, when the interest and principal both become due. Long before that, I hope Mrs. Traquair will be able to settle up with Murgatroyd in full. ”

“ The forward rush, and the motor's music, thrilled Matt as they always did whenever he was connected with a speeding engine.
They whipped through a little town, hardly glimpsing the scattered lights before they had left them astern.
"This machine is a back number," remarked Black, "but she can slide along pretty well, for all that."
"You're right," said Matt. "I never saw a car with a rear door that could hold a candle to this one. But the road helps. It's like a boulevard."
"Take these Dakota roads, when they're neither too [Pg 15] wet nor too dry, and they're hard to beat. ”

“ You boys belong?"
"Belong to what, Prebbles?" asked Matt.
"To the Salvation Army," answered Prebbles earnestly.
"No," answered Matt.
"I do. Soon's I leave here, and get my supper, I'm going to the barracks, get into my uniform, take my tambourine and march with the rest. I was converted two weeks ago. That's why I hate Murgatroyd and his ways. He's a robber. I want to do right, and that's why I'm here."
"What do you work for the old skinflint for, if you want to do right?" put in McGlory.
"There's nothing wrong with tainted money," replied Prebbles, "if you use it in the right way." ”

“ Voices could be heard coming from the front room—a woman's voice, tearful and full of entreaty, and a man's sharp, clean-cut, and almost brutal.
Quietly Matt passed through the gate and took up his post near one of the windows.
"You sign this paper," Murgatroyd was saying, "and I'll give you a receipt for two years' interest. What more do you expect?"
"I can't sign away all my rights to my husband's invention, Mr. Murgatroyd!" a woman's voice answered. "The interest for two years is only three hundred dollars, and that machine he sent to Fort Totten cost nearly a thousand dollars to build. ”

“ On Monday afternoon, after Matt had finished a flight during which he had kept the June Bug almost level in the air, Lieutenant Cameron caught his hand in a convulsive grip.
"I'm ready, Matt," said he; "you've got the knack."
CHAPTER XIV. DASTARDLY WORK.
Ping was a badly demoralized Chinaman. He had watched, with soulful admiration, every flight Matt had made; he had swelled out like a toad every time the work of his master was applauded in his hearing; and he crept around Matt as though he was a joss—a wizard more superhuman than a mere mortal. ”

“ Siwash Charley seemed to be well known through that section, and the fact that the man at the hotel knew him made Matt and his friends certain that their enemies were less than an hour ahead.
"We're gaining on 'em!" cried McGlory, as the car shot through the outskirts of Carrington. "If we can keep on gaining, we'll reach the post trader's with ground to spare." ”

“ Its note is like the tolling of a distant church bell, and is uttered during the heat of the day, when every other bird has ceased to sing and nature is hushed in silence. The hornbill, a bird which is widely distributed in India, the Malay Archipelago, and Africa, has also a very loud note. ”

“ The government, I presume," he added, "merely buys the aëroplane? What it pays for the machine isn't a purchase of Traquair's patents?"
"Not at all," went on the officer who had been doing most of the talking. "The government simply buys this aëroplane, called the—er—the June Bug—a name, by the way, which I don't fancy—and the government likewise secures the right to purchase any other aëroplane using the Traquair patents, or to build such machines itself, paying Traquair's heirs at law a royalty."
"That," said Matt, "is liable to make Mrs. Traquair a rich woman." ”

“ It's the coming power"—Matt's gray eyes brightened enthusiastically—"and as motors are improved, and their weight reduced in direct ratio with the increase in the horse power, the explosive engine will be used in ways as yet——"
"That's all right," cut in Murgatroyd, who was coldly commercial and as far removed from anything like enthusiasm as night is from day. "A gasoline engine is a noisy, dirty machine and smells to high heaven. ”

“ We're in the lead, now, and I hope we can keep it."
"If the motor hangs together," returned Black, "we'll not only keep it, but increase it. That's a murderous gang, back there," he added. "There must be something mighty important awaiting you fellows at the post trader's to cause Siwash Charley to break loose like that!"
"Murgatroyd is back of it," said Matt.
"Murgatroyd? There's a double-dyed scoundrel, if I ever knew one." ”

“ Shucks!"
"You can understand, can't you," went on Matt patiently, "that closing or opening the wings distributes the air pressure on each side of the machine and holds it level?"
"Never mind me, pard," said McGlory. "Keep right on."
"These bicycle wheels," and Matt indicated three wheels under the aëroplane, "give the machine its start."
"It's got to have a running start, eh?"
"Sure. When a bird begins to take wing it has to have some kind of a start. A small bird jumps into the air, and a big bird, like a condor, has to take a run before its wings take a grip on the atmosphere. ”

“ It's the same with an aëroplane. A speed of twenty-eight miles an hour is required before the air under the planes will lift the flying machine. The motor of this machine is geared to the bicycle wheels, at the start. When the machine is running fast enough, the power is switched to the propeller—and up we go!"
"Mebby we do," muttered the cowboy, "but I wouldn't bet on it. Then, again, if we go up will we stay up? And how can you guide the blooming thing skyward, or on a level, or come down?"
"Why," continued Matt, "these two little planes in front of the big ones attend to that." ”

“ Murgatroyd, for you to take the machine the government is thinking of buying, and all my interest in poor Harry's invention, for just three hundred dollars."
"Oh, you know a heap about business, you do, don't you?" snarled Murgatroyd. "What good's the flying machine, anyway? It killed your husband, and it's likely to kill anybody else that tries to run it. By taking over the invention, I feel as though I was loading up with a white elephant, but I've got a chance to get a young fellow to try and fly in that aëroplane at Fort Totten. ”

“ Traquair," said Matt, stepping to her side. "There may be a way out of this."
She lifted her head.
"No, there is no way out," she answered, in a stifled voice, "you don't know Mr. Murgatroyd! You don't know what it means to owe him money and not be able to pay him even the interest."
"How much do you owe him?"
"Just a thousand dollars."
"But he said the interest due, if I recall his words, was one hundred and fifty dollars."
"That's right—fifteen per cent."
"Fifteen per cent? Great spark-plugs! Why, that's usury."
"Not out here. Harry borrowed the money on our homestead, up in Wells County. ”

“ I'll soon be on the wing, Joe, and making a fight for fame and fortune. That's got to be a winning fight, in spite of Siwash Charley and his pals, and in spite of Murgatroyd."
Matt's quiet confidence always inspired confidence in others.
"Whoop!" jubilated McGlory. "You've got a cheery way about you, pard, that's as catchin' as the measles. Sure we'll win; and we'll save the old homestead for Mrs. Traquair like the feller in the play."
CHAPTER IX. DODGING TROUBLE.
The wagon road from Jamestown to Devil's Lake follows the railroad all the way. ”

“ We're going to lose time, though, going around the sloughs."
"Sloughs?" queried Matt.
"Just bog holes," went on Black. "They gully the prairie, here and there, have no inlet or outlet, and the water rises and falls in 'em like tides of the ocean. Queer, and I don't think the rise and fall have ever been explained. A wagon with high wheels can spraddle through, but low wheels and a lot of weight have to go round. But the car ahead will have to go around, too. ”

“ At Minnewaukon, near the western end of the lake, the wagon road to Fort Totten leaves the iron rails and points southeast.
The trail from Jamestown to Minnewaukon crosses a prairie almost as level as a floor, and the trail itself is like asphalt. From Minnewaukon southeast, the road is not so well traveled. Formerly the mail was hauled from Minnewaukon to the post by wagon, but the mail carrier was put out of business by a launch that crossed the lake from Devil's Lake City, on the north shore. ”