Stanley R. Matthews

“ As Matt shut off the power and glided over the edge of the roof, he caught a glimpse of Whipple's astounded face in a second-story window which had not been boarded up. When the air ship vanished over the edge of the house top, Whipple disappeared from the window.
"They're onto you, Matt!" roared Harris, from below. "You'll have to hurry, if you win. From the sounds we hear, everybody is climbing for the roof."
Matt and Ferral remained perfectly cool. The situation was a ticklish one, and if their labors were crowned with success they would have to keep their heads and not make any misplays. ”

“ According to my notion, he stands a better chance of steering clear of the law than do Pete and Whipple. Brady can give any the rest of his old gang cards and spades when it comes to headwork."
"I don't know why it is, Dick," said Matt, "but somehow I've got a lot of confidence in Brady's doing as he said he would. He's hungry to revenge himself on Pete and Whipple for their attempt to steal the buried plunder, and making the girl help them. Brady, if I know him, will go a long way to get even with a man." ”

“ The quicker you obey me, Hooligan, the better it will be for you."
"I know my business," continued the angry voice, "an' if ye don't git off these grounds ye'll never live to git off."
"That's a game two can play at, Hooligan," answered Harris coolly. "We're going to get the people we've come for if we have to batter in the door."
"Yes, ye will!" whooped another voice, which Matt plainly recognized as Whipple's. "Ye'll never git us alive." ”

“ Your nearest course is to follow the railroad track. Better land in the timber and surround the house before you let Pete and Whipple know you're anywhere in the neighborhood. If you have to shoot, shoot straight."
There was a deadly menace in the last words which did not escape those who heard them.
"You're a bloodthirsty scoundrel!" muttered Harris.
"My word's as good as my bond, though," laughed Brady cynically, "in a case like this."
"You'd better take him to La Grange, Graydon," said Harris, "and then on to South Chicago. Can you manage the team and Brady, too, as far as the town?" ”

“ Carl had not had time to get to Chicago and back, so he knew it could not be him.
As the hurrying figure drew closer, and became more distinct, it resolved itself into the form of a man in blue and brass buttons.
"Harris!" exclaimed Matt.
"That's right!" agreed Ferral excitedly; "Harris, or I'm a Fiji! He's got something mighty important stowed away in his locker, or he wouldn't be bearing down on us at that gait."
Harris was a member of the South Chicago police force, and was a good friend of Motor Matt.
"Perhaps he's got something to tell us about Helen Brady!" cried Matt, starting up. ”

“ There's a whole lot been going on that's got me queered."
"He's not the only one that's queered," muttered Ferral as Matt turned the nose of the Hawk earthward.
"Watch sharp, Dick," said Matt. "If there's more than one man there, tell me before it's too late for us to get away. I'm looking for trouble everywhere to-night." ”

“ Matt had shifted the course of the Hawk.
"I've just realized what an advantage we have over the automobile," laughed the young motorist. "Roads don't bother us any, and fences, hills, and swamps don't exist for us. I'm cutting off a corner, Harris. If the going on that cross road is as rough as I think it is, we'll overhaul the automobile."
"Fine!" cried Harris, clapping his hands.
"Nodding can shtop a air ship ven it vants to go some blace," grinned Carl.
"Nothing but the wind," said Matt. "We've got a good, smart breeze right behind us, and we're making every bit of thirty miles an hour. ”

“ Matt paused. To his ears there came the popping of a motor just getting into action. The noise was followed by a steady hum of cylinders, getting down to work. The hum grew low in the distance and finally died out.
"Dere's a pubble!" muttered Carl.
"In the street on the other side of Hooligan's," said Matt. "It's getting so you can hear automobiles at any time of the day or night."
"But Hooligan's house faces a street where no one lives that's able to own an automobile," spoke up Brady.
"Somebody else who doesn't live on the street is going through." ”

“ Eh, Matt?"
"It's all right to hang onto the craft until we get at all the ins and outs of this air-ship business," replied the king of the motor boys from his place among the levers, "but if we can't make some money out of the Hawk after that, I'll have to unload my interest in her, Dick, and get busy with something more profitable. Carl and I, you know, haven't any rich uncles to stand behind us. We have to work like Sam Hill for all we get." ”

“ Carl and Ferral realized the necessity of quick action. Grabbing up Brady by the feet and shoulders, they hustled him toward the Hawk. When they dumped him into the car, Matt had already cast off one rope and was working frantically with the other.
"Here's the Hawk, by thunder!" bellowed an exulting voice from the gloom. "What do you think of this for luck? We got ter capture the air ship, Pete! It won't do to let such a chance get away from us." ”

“ The balloon had no car, only a trapeze. On this Starley seated himself, holding the side ropes tight with both hands. The parachute, Clifford noticed, was fastened up against the side of the balloon.
"Now, gentlemen, when I give the word I want you all to release the cords at the same instant. The wind makes——"
At that very moment came such a gust that Starley's speech was cut short. The balloon came whirling over almost on top of Clifford, and two men who had hold of the same rope let go and sprang out of the way with shouts of alarm. ”

“ Helen got out of the car as soon as the ropes were cast off, and Matt, Carl, Harris, and Burton jumped in.
A twist of the right hand got the machinery to going, and a jerk of the left gave the steering rudder the proper angle.
Rising swiftly, the Hawk turned her nose toward the wagon road. From their high elevation, Harris, Burton, and Carl were able to see the automobile, far in the distance and making along the La Grange road.
"Turn her to the right, Matt!" cried Harris, "and we'll bear away in the direction of La Grange. It may be a hopeless chase, but we've got to do what we can." ”

“ If he should see Miss Brady he'd be liable to yell to us, and that would let Pete and Whipple know what's up."
"They'll probably suspect something when they see the air ship coming."
"I don't think so. Besides, if you keep them busy enough, the chances are that the Hawk won't be seen."
"If you are seen, Matt, you'll surely be shot at—and the Hawk's a pretty big target. If a bullet is put into the gas bag, or if one smashes into the motor, you and the girl may be killed." ”

“ What you've been doing in the aeronautical line, Matt, has aroused a good deal of interest all over the country. It's the first time, so far as I know, that an air ship has ever been used practically. First, Brady used the Hawk in his thieving operations, and next you used her to bring two of the gang and some of their booty from Willoughby's swamp. Your last exploit, in which you made an air-ship trip across Lake Michigan in Jerrold's machine, the Eagle, captured the Hawk and returned safely with her, seems to have caused more talk than anything else you have done. ”

“ 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. ”

“ We can not only shift our course by putting the helm down or up, but we can dive through the air like a porpoise in the water, and then we can climb up like a blooming whale that wants to spout. I'm an air sailor from this on, as long as the Hawk's afloat. ”

“ But this strange affair of Helen's has changed all that. I'm thinking more of getting even with Whipple and Pete than I am of getting even with you. As for Helen, I can see now that the girl meant well, although what she has done has made a convict of me."
The convict was always a well-spoken man, and plainly a man of education. This, perhaps, had made him a more dangerous criminal than he would otherwise have been.
Somehow, Matt was deeply impressed by his words. The young motorist's desire to help Helen Brady probably influenced him to pay some attention to his prisoner's words. ”

“ If we don't, there's no telling what will happen to the girl. Whipple has already threatened her, in case the officers don't leave the house. Can you see Miss Brady?"
Matt's position, in the rear of the car, rendered it impossible for him to see much of what lay ahead.
"There she is, matey!" cried Ferral. "She sees us coming. There's an open skylight in the roof which shows how she got to the top of the house."
"Any of the men on the roof?"
"No."
"Good! How are we headed?"
"Just right. Hold to the course as you are."
"Are we high enough?" ”

“ That, I had decided, should go back to its rightful owners."
"You were a brave girl to hang out for your principles like that," put in Matt.
"It does take a little courage, sometimes, to do what is right," returned the girl, "but when your conscience approves, that makes it easy. I lost track of the time, while I was at Mrs. Hooligan's house, in La Grange, and it seemed as though months must have passed; then, suddenly, I heard an automobile stop in front of the place, last night, and Mrs. Hooligan and I were bundled into it and taken away. ”

“ During the daytime they will hide away somewhere."
"Well, I think the chances are good for the whole party being captured. Helen Brady has done so much for us, though, that I would like to have had a hand in rescuing her."
"I'm tagged onto the same rope, old ship! But I guess it don't make much difference how Helen Brady gets away from Pete and Whipple, just so she does get away. That guff about the memorandum in the Lake Station house, and the buried treasure, was a fine yarn for the marines. I'm a Fiji if that Brady hasn't got a keen imagination." ”

“ You want to take the Hawk to the place in La Grange where Hooligan and his wife live?"
"To the place where they live when they're at home," answered Brady. "They only stay there in the winter. [Pg 11] During the summer they're taking care of that house in River Forest."
"They're making fine use of that River Forest house!" exclaimed Matt. "But they can't be there now, if they've got Helen at the place in La Grange."
"Mrs. Hooligan has charge of Helen, and Whipple and Pete are there with her. Hooligan himself is at River Forest." ”

“ There's enough of the loot to make them all pretty comfortable. If you hadn't butted into my affairs, King, I could have sailed away in the Hawk and taken life easy for the rest of my days."
"The proper way to work this," said Matt, after a moment's reflection, "is to take you to South Chicago, Brady, leave you there, and pick up Harris and two other officers. Then you can tell us where to go and we'll have Whipple, Pete and the two Hooligans behind the bars before daylight. ”

“ Several bullets followed his retreat, coming from the windows, and one of them pierced his helmet and flung the head-piece to the ground.
"They're getting real savage," remarked Sanders grimly. "If they don't look out they'll hurt somebody."
"It will make it all the worse for them, if they do," snapped Harris, his temper rising with each succeeding failure to get into the house. "We'll get a stick of cordwood and smash in this back door."
There was a pile of cordwood near the garage, and Harris ran and got a heavy, four-foot section of elm. Matt jumped to help him. ”

“ Glennie must have "hustled," for in less than a minute he was at the phone, saying hello, and asking what was wanted.
"Did you write a letter to Motor Matt and send it to him in care of the Lestrange Garage, there in Chicago?"
"What would I want to write a letter to Motor Matt for?" demanded the detective.
"I'll keep it quiet, if you did. All I want's to get at the truth."
"I've given you the truth, Harris."
"You've been working on that Helen Brady case, haven't you?"
"Sure, but my hands are in the air. Everybody's hands are in the air. ”

“ The officer lay on the floor, half stunned. Grabbing him by the feet, Matt jerked him back to safety, followed by a torrent of oaths from the two fugitives.
The door slammed. While Harris was getting to his feet, Pete and Whipple could be heard piling things against the door on the inside.
"Wow, this head!" exclaimed Harris, lifting one hand to his temples. "It hasn't got over that first jolt, yet, and here it gets another. And we didn't gain much, at that."
"We haven't got a strong enough force to rush into the house," said Sanders. ”

“ With the Hawk, he can snap his fingers at all the detectives and police officers, and it's a cinch he'll come this way. Some of the rest of the gang may be helping him. You know Pete, Whipple, Grove, and Brady, Jr., are still at large. You don't want to have another balloon-house plot worked on you, so I think you lads had better pull out, and go east, if that's where you're headed for."
"But I don't want to leave until I can learn something about Helen Brady!" protested Matt.
"You can't help the girl any," continued Harris. ”