Stanley R. Matthews

“ A long string of lights shot across the gloomy landscape below them, and a whistle came upward from the earth with startling distinctness.
"There goes a train, whistlin' fer Lake Station," remarked Pete.
"We'll be over the town in a minute," said Brady, "and then it won't be long until we get to the swamp."
"What swamp?" asked Matt.
"Never ye mind," was Pete's surly rejoinder. "Ye're here to obey orders an' not ask any fool questions."
"I don't think it very foolish for a fellow to ask where he's being taken." ”

“ How did he ever find out where I was, I wonder?"
"I'll bet dad is trying to guess the same thing," said the girl. "He'll be badly cut up over this. But it's no more than he ought to expect," she added. "Whenever a man breaks the law he'll have to pay for it, sooner or later."
"What has your father been doing?" asked Matt.
"I came to talk with you about that. While I'm giving you your breakfast, I'll tell you my plans. Dad, and all the rest except Whipple, are off in the swamp, somewhere, keeping track of Jerrold's air-ship, and that will give us a chance." ”

“ When you are back in South Chicago, you can send the police here and—and they can capture dad and the rest."
Matt had finished eating and the girl had put aside the dishes. Suddenly she broke down and hid her face in her apron. For a few moments she sobbed convulsively.
Small wonder her feelings overcame her! In carrying out her ideas of right and justice, she had planned to give her own father into the hands of the law.
"You're a noble girl, Helen!" declared Matt. "But how am I to get away in the air-ship and to take the stolen property with me?" ”

“ He moved the steering lever backward a couple of notches. Immediately the rudder was tilted and the Hawk began to climb upward.
"Stop that!" yelled Brady. "We're high enough. What are you trying to do?"
"Learning the machine," answered Matt, and threw the lever forward.
The front end of the gas-bag tipped downward, and the air-ship slid toward the earth with a suddenness that almost threw Brady over the rail.
"That'll do you!" he whooped. "Get her on a level again, and be quick about it. You can handle the machine, all right, and I don't want you to do anything but what you're told." ”

“ The girl had been brought along with them! Matt was glad, for her sake, that he had not got into a rough-and-tumble with Brady.
Without seeming to pay the girl more than passing attention, the young motorist turned toward the man in the chair.
"Well?" said he, crisply. "What have you got to say about this, Brady? I guess you could be arrested for what you've done, all right."
Brady laughed.
"How's a policeman coming up here to get at me?" he asked. "An air-ship is a great thing for a fellow who wants to turn a few tricks in spite of the law." ”

“ In the Hawk we can travel all over this continent, from Hudson Bay to Patagonia. Where men never went before, we can go. No mountain range is so high that we can't cross it, and no desert is so barren that we can't wing our way comfortably over it."
Matt stared at the dark figure in the chair. If any honest man had talked to him in that way, the young motorist would have been tempted to become an aeronaut, for he could see plainly the possibilities of a serviceable air-ship; but as for Brady, he was a criminal, and that cut him off from any consideration on Matt's part. ”

“ It's hard to steer when you're rocking the car in such a fashion. You fellows are my prisoners, so make the best of it."
"Yes," growled Grove, "and us two aeronauts will have a fine tale to tell when you take us where you're going to. You've stolen this car. That'll cook your goose for you."
"Brady," answered Matt, "can have his air-ship back whenever he wants to show up and claim it."
There followed a brief silence, during which Matt noted that the wind was brisk, and from the north, and exulted over the speed the Hawk developed in the teeth of it.
Needham was first to break the silence. ”

“ When Carl next saw Matt, the young motorist was spinning around the great oval in a Jarrot machine, which he knew so well and had driven to victory in Kansas. The five-day race was not for one driver alone, but several drivers were to be at the steering wheel of each car. ”

“ Either Harper has been caught, and has told what he knows, or else a letter I gave Needham to deliver to Whipple, here in the swamp, has fallen into the hands of the police. It don't make much difference, though, how Jerrold got next to our hang-out. The main thing is that he knows where we are, and that you will be put in a mighty tight corner if he keeps on trying to make trouble for me. That's about all, King. I want you to understand what you're up against and be ready for whatever happens. ”

“ Come on," he continued, picking up the bag. "I'll lead the way back."
"You've got a way about you," said Helen, "that gives a person courage."
"A fellow would be a pretty poor stick," returned Matt, "who couldn't keep his nerve with a girl like you to help him."
Helen's dress was torn by the bushes, and her hands and face were scratched and bleeding; but she seemed to mind her physical discomforts very little, so eager was she to have Matt's escape prove successful. ”

“ The repairs to be made to the Eagle were somewhat extensive, and taxed the capacity of the blacksmith shop. Had Jerrold been in his own workroom he could have fixed up the motor more easily and quickly, but to take the Eagle back to South Chicago would have resulted in a loss of time.
Hour after hour the inventor labored, helped by the blacksmith and eyed with wonder by the townspeople. The detail of officers arrived, and they could do nothing but wait until the Eagle was ready to carry them to the "island" in the swamp. Any attempt to reach the "island" on foot was hardly to be considered. ”

“ The boys who want to learn something from what they read, as well as to be interested by it, will never find another publication that will satisfy them so well as MOTOR STORIES. "Motor Matt" is not an impossible boy character. He is simply a youth who has had considerable training in a machine shop where motors of all kinds were repaired, and who is possessed of a genius for mechanics. ”

“ If I should get dizzy and fall off the car——"
"You won't," interrupted the inventor; "people never get dizzy in balloons."
"You're sure it won't tip over and spill us out?"
"Positive."
"You don't know much about it yourself, you know, having never been up in it."
"That scoundrel, Brady, has used the Hawk with fair success, and the Hawk is modeled on the same lines as the Eagle, only the Eagle has improvements which Brady was not able to get hold of and put on his own machine. Shall we go to the rescue of Motor Matt? Come, my friends, time is flying." ”

“ And when Carl told of the bogus telegram that had brought the boys to South Chicago, Jerrold's face clouded with indignation and anger.
"Motor Matt," declared Jerrold, when Carl had finally finished, "has done a lot for me, and he's going to find that Hamilton Jerrold knows how to be grateful. I agree with Harris that there is hardly a doubt but that Brady has taken young King to Willoughby's swamp. Brady wants the young motorist for the Hawk, and intends to have him, whether or no. According to Harris, the swamp's a difficult place to get at for those not equipped with an air-ship. ”

“ The rest were roused into frantic activity.
"I'll sw'ar he didn't git out while I was watchin' the Hawk," cried Whipple. "Anyways, he can't be fur off."
"Hustle around!" fumed Brady. "Get into the swamp, every man-jack of you, and find that whelp wherever he is. I wouldn't have him get clear for a thousand, cold!" All the gang forthwith became exceedingly busy. They darted off in various directions, and Brady himself, accompanied by Grove, started for the side of the island from which Matt and the girl were watching. ”

“ Matt noted the flight of the fallen object only incidentally, for the major part of his attention was taken up with the actions of the car.
The steering rudder had become elevated, and the air-ship started at a tremendous clip toward the clouds. The two aeronauts could be seen rushing around the car like mad. While the two boys watched, the rudder was brought down to a level; but something else had gone wrong, for the machine could not be maneuvered. ”

“ For," and here the inventor threw back his head with laudable pride, "I claim to have invented an air-ship that can be used for commercial purposes—the first machine of the kind that will successfully navigate the air against the strongest wind that blows. But if that scoundrel Brady takes from me the fruits of my toil, I shall be ruined!" ”

“ I thought you might."
"I've been mighty thick-headed," answered Matt, between mouthfuls, "and I never thought the thing through that far. Possibly it's because so much has been happening to me since I went into that place on Hoyne Street."
"It's nearly broken my heart having dad act like he's been doing," said the girl, her lips quivering. "If mother had lived she'd have kept dad straight, but when she died dad just seemed to go to the dogs. He has tried to make the people in South Chicago think he was just an honest inventor, but, even at that, he stole all his ideas from Jerrold. ”

“ If Brady has had a hand in the robberies that have been going on here, this is liable to be good and profitable work for me."
Jerrold lived almost a mile from the place where Harris had done his telephoning. He had a large, rambling old house set far back in a dense mass of trees and shrubbery.
"He's a good deal of a hermit," explained Harris, as he and Carl proceeded along the walk to the front door. "A harmless old skate, but he's pretty broad between the eyes, at that." ”

“ I'm not the only man in South Chicago that's perfecting an air-ship. A fellow named Jerrold has cut into the same game, and he has some one nosing around here a good share of the time, trying to get wise to something. If Jerrold has sent you here——"
"He hasn't," broke in Matt. "I don't know Jerrold from Adam."
"What's your name?"
"King, Matt King."
Brady gave a jump.
"You don't mean to say you're the young Western phenomenon the Lestrange people have brought to Chicago to run in that five-day automobile race that's turned on at the Coliseum to-morrow?"
"I'm one of their racers," answered Matt. ”

“ A long rope depended from the car, and twenty or thirty feet of it dragged along the ground as the car moved.
"Vat's der rope for, Matt?" inquired Carl.
"If that was an ordinary balloon," replied Matt, "we'd call the rope a guide-rope. Usually the guide-rope helps to save gas and ballast. When you want a balloon to go up, you know, you throw out sand; when you want it to come down, you let out gas. That trailing rope acts as ballast. When the gas expands, and the ship wants to rise, part of the rope that trails is lifted from the ground and throws more weight on the car ”

“ Jerrold went on, "is of the very best. The motor is the lightest, strongest and most powerful ever constructed. The car will carry half a dozen, easily. Sand-bags are suspended from each end of the gas-bag. When I pull in the sand-bag at the front end, the equilibrium is displaced, the bag points upward, and the propeller forces the air-ship to rise. So, when I wish to descend, I pull in the sand-bag at the rear point of the bag. When both bags are hanging loose, the Eagle swims in the air on an even keel. ”

“ There were five cots in the "roost," and Matt was told to lie down on one of them.
"Harper used to sleep there," remarked Needham, as Matt stretched himself out on the hard bed, "and the deuce only knows where poor old Harper is now. You're taking his place, King, and so it's only right you should have his cot."
It was on Matt's tongue to say that Needham had another guess coming, but he held his peace. He would not show too much of the hostile side of his feelings until he had had a chance to talk with the girl. ”

“ If those men in the buggy had had their wits about them, they'd have hitched their rig to the fence and have jumped into the automobile. We could have hustled them over the ground four times as fast as they were going."
[Pg 5]
A few moments later the boys reached a place where the road branched. The horse and buggy were not in sight along either road.
"Vich vay now?" queried Carl.
"It's all guesswork," answered Matt, "but it's always a pretty good plan to keep to the right," and, with that, he drove the car along the right-hand branch. ”

“ The girl spoke quickly and steadily and made her way swiftly to Matt's side. "Dad has changed his plans—I was listening to all he said, out there at the back of the hut. He's going to use the Hawk to take us all away from the swamp, and you're going to go on the Hawk's first trip! That means that we must do what we can, at once. If we fail now, everything is lost." ”

“ Matt called back. "It was only by a happenchance that we got your drag-rope tied to the tree. If you've got an anchor-rope up there, throw it down and we'll make it fast to the car before we cast off the other."
"That's the only long rope we've got," answered the man.
"Well," went on Matt, "you ought to be able to see what sort of a job we're up against. Your motor is pulling hard on the rope, and the moment we take the rope from the tree it will be jerked out of our hands. ”

“ After a quick and uneventful run into Chicago, Matt drove the automobile into the Lestrange garage and asked for Mr. Harkrider. To his disappointment, Mr. Harkrider had left for the day and would not return to the garage until the following morning.
"Well," said Matt, as he and Carl left the garage and proceeded toward their boarding house, "I guess the delay won't make much difference. I'll be busy with the race to-morrow, but you can take the papers, Carl, and do with them whatever Mr. Harkrider advises." ”

“ You wait, Rutherford, in the bushes here, and you'll soon get a shot. Pete and I will take up our places on the far side. Then whatever comes some of us will get a buck."
"Watch me, and don't do what he says." Pete's words were ringing in Rutherford's ears. He cast a glance at the negro. Pete made a quick sign, which the English boy took to mean that he was to follow instead of remaining.
Next moment Randal had plunged off through the palmetto with Pete at his heels.
"What's it all mean?" muttered Rutherford angrily. "Is Fearon fooling me, or is it Pete? ”