Stanley R. Matthews

“ It's an island."
"Turtle Key!" jubilated Carl, shortsighted as usual and glad only that they were perhaps coming closer to the iron chest. "Hoop-a-la!"
"No," went on Dick, "not Turtle Key. It's another island."
"How you know dot?"
"I can see some palm trees. Townsend told us that Turtle Key has no trees."
"A good thing for us that it isn't Turtle Key!" declared Matt, plucking up hope. "If we're to be wrecked, the more comfortable the place we're wrecked in, the better. What could we possibly do on a sand hill in the middle of the ocean? If there are trees on that island it may be inhabited. ”

“ You're Motor Matt, who's been making ascensions in that air ship—— I've seen you a good many times on the beach. My name's Holcomb."
"Where do you think we are, Holcomb?" Matt asked. "It can't be we're on the Crescent."
"Sure not. Looks to me as though we had been brought aboard Captain Nemo, Jr.'s boat, the Grampus. She bobbed up at the Inlet wharf yesterday. I'm on night duty at the Inlet, and I seen her last night."
"The Grampus?" echoed Matt. "She must be an ironclad."
"She's more'n that, Motor Matt. She's a submarine."
"A submarine! I haven't heard of such a boat being in Atlantic City." ”

“ Matt had hardly finished speaking before Whistler rushed into the tent. He carried a revolver in one hand, and Matt, with a quick blow, dashed the weapon from his fingers. Whistler started back with an oath, only to find the muzzle of a six-shooter staring him in the face.
"Steady!" snapped Matt. "Try to yell, or to run away, and it will be the worse for you. Down on the ground, Whistler—face down!" ”

“ Some people have an idea that spruce gum is gathered in the forest by the lumbermen at odd jobs. It may be remarked in passing that from 4:30 a. m. until dark the Maine loggers have something else to do. They haven't any hankering to climb trees.
Practically all the spruce gum of commerce is gathered by men who make it their business and work at it as steadily as a man in a factory. You will find the snowshoe trail of these busy chaps zigzagging through pathless stretches, and if you happen to be up that way you will see their camp-fires glowing deep in many a lonely glen. ”

“ This move caused most of the gas that still remained in the bag to escape, and the envelope flattened itself out in the sand, twisting and writhing as the last of the gas worked its way out.
"This is the end of our cruise in the Hawk," muttered Dick, staring gloomily at the useless air ship, "and if this tight little island hadn't bounced up right in front of us just when we needed it most, the cruise would have been the end of us, too. But there's no use overhauling our hard luck. We're here, and we're safe, and we'd be worse than cannibals not to be satisfied. ”

“ Had the crew of the Crescent resorted to violence in order to save Jurgens from capture? The law would take hold of the men good and hard for resisting an officer.
As Matt figured it, he had been brought aboard the sailboat. But what would his captors have to gain by a move of that kind? McMillan knew what the men on the Crescent had done for Jurgens, and it was a fair inference that the officer would soon pay the craft a visit, himself. ”

“ That's all of 'em, Motor Matt."
"Jurgens and Whistler have been captured," went on Matt, "and one of my friends has another in the room below the conning tower. That leaves two more. Have you any idea where they are?"
This question was answered by a terrific clamor from some point in the forward part of the ship. Above the noise broke the sudden report of a revolver, echoing loudly between the steel decks and bulkheads.
"Here they are, men!" came the voice of Cassidy, husky and breathless as though he was fighting. ”

“ Then he has a leisurely smoke before the sputtering embers of the fire, gets his kit on his back and his gum bag under his arm, ties a lunch of biscuit and gingerbread in his handkerchief, straps on his snowshoes, and trudges away into the forest, his pipe trailing blue smoke behind in the sparkling air of the winter morning.
The gum picker must have a good eye for trees. A careless and myopic man would travel over acres of territory and miss the dollars right along. The shrewd picker, the experienced man, runs his practiced eye along every trunk. ”

“ If a city man happens to be ordered into the woods by his physician he would do well to take up gum picking for his pastime, even if he does not care for the money. There is just enough activity about it to keep a man's mind clear and his muscles healthy. It takes him abroad through the crisp winter air and gives him an excuse for "hucking it."
A gum picker's equipment comprises warm clothing, snowshoes, climbers—such as telegraph linemen use—a curved chisel in the handle of which a pole may be set, a good jack-knife and a gun. ”

“ Sometimes the poles are sold round, but the harvester who trims his own stuff and shaves the hoops receives two or three cents each for the finished products, and that pays. The hoop pole business is pretty steady work, but the evenings are pleasant, after all, with the slish of shaves, the crackle of the fire and the rumble of story telling. Even the rabbit, up-ending outside, looks in through the windows at the light and warmth, waggles his ears and wishes he might join the group. ”

“ We needed a little time to get the Grampus submerged. I don't care how much you tip us off now. We'll not come to the surface again until we're well off Cape May." Jurgens snapped his fingers. "That for Townsend!" he added, defiantly; "let him catch me if he can."
"You seem to know as much about submarines as you do about moving pictures," remarked Matt, caustically.
"I know a good deal about a lot of things, and I've found the knowledge mighty handy a lot of times. If you're ready, squeeze into the tube. We haven't much time to spare." ”

“ It's just about what I should expect of Motor Matt. I'm sorry for the trouble you had with the air ship, Matt, and shall consider myself under obligations to make up to you any extra expense you may incur in getting the Hawk back into shape. When I hired you to take me to Turtle Key I had no intention of allowing you to run the risk of losing the Hawk.
"And the Man from Cape Town told the truth, after all! I hadn't the least idea that there was a vestige of truth in that wild yarn of his. The iron chest has been found, but what we discover in the chest is liable to be another matter. ”

“ The two chums were thunderstruck. They had not had the least idea of the way Townsend's talk was trending.
"Sink me!" mumbled Ferral, "but that sounds like a large order."
"Not so large, perhaps," returned Townsend, "as it seems at first sight."
"How long a trip is it?" asked Matt, a bit dazed.
"Perhaps a thousand miles, as the crow flies, or fifteen hundred as we'll have to go. We could follow down the coast line, and then jump across the Florida Straits to the Bahamas. You tell me you can make thirty miles an hour in the Hawk, and that you can do even better with favoring winds. ”

“ Only people who have poked around up there more or less realize how many persons make a living out of the Maine woods. This reference is not to the lumbermen and the pulp stuff choppers. Their presence in the woods is a matter of course. This is a word about the army of specialists. One might say that they are the gleaners who follow the red-shirted reapers whose harvest is the giants of the forests. The side issues of the Maine woods feed many mouths; and speaking about mouths there are, of course, the gum pickers. ”

“ We're out to win that five thousand, and I guess we can do it, but I'd like mighty well to help Townsend and not stand by and see him spend his money without getting a fair return for it."
"That's the way I feel," agreed Matt. "The weather's good, the wind favoring, and all we can do is to keep fanning along. By to-morrow, something may happen to give things a brighter look. Go forward, Dick, watch the maps and keep a sharp lookout. Let me know where we are from time to time."
The motor hummed steadily, and hour after hour the Hawk clove her way through the air. ”

“ It was your air ship that caused him to come here."
"The air ship?" queried Matt, more and more mystified.
"That's what he told me. Everything in the line of inventions, he says, interests him, especially if the inventions have anything to do with gasoline motors. This boat is run by a motor of that kind. Nemo, Jr., said he was goin' to take a fly with you to-day."
"I guess he didn't, then. No man by that name went up with us. But the point that's bothering me is, Holcomb, why were we brought here?"
"To save Jurgens, the movin'-picture man." ”

“ When ascending or descending, the car of the air ship, as might naturally be supposed, was always tilted. In the present instance it was inclined at a dangerous angle, for Matt was trying to bring the craft to an even keel as nearly over the spot where the sextant was lying as he could.
The inclination of the car made it exceedingly difficult for those who were standing to keep their feet, and it was only by clinging to the rail that they could do so. Matt had a chair, and there were supports against which he could brace his feet, thus leaving his hands free at all times to manage the motor. ”

“ They perk up wonderfully as the barometer falls and the damp makes itself felt in their warm cases of glass.
Rain makes monkeys glum. They are apt from instinct, when they see it through the window, to clasp their hands above their heads and sit so for hours. ”

“ Matt nodded.
"I can't," said Holcomb.
"Well," went on Jurgens, "I don't want to drown you, but the Grampus can't go to the surface just to let you off. You say you can swim," and he turned to Matt. "You'll come up not far from the wharf, and ten to one you'll find quite a lot of people on the wharf. As soon as they pull you in, you tell them to get out a small boat and lay to in her half a fathom off the end of the pier. That's where the officer will come up, and you can fish him in out of the wet. ”

“ Six persons were all Matt thought advisable to take up in the air ship, and of course he had to go along to take charge of the motor, and with him went either Dick or Carl to act as lookout and "crew." A charge of $25 was made for each passenger, and the flights had so captured the fancy of wealthy resorters that the boys had advance "bookings" that promised to keep them in Atlantic City all the summer. With $400 a day coming in, and a very small outgo for expenses, the chums were making money hand over fist. ”

“ Thinking that surely he would find McMillan, or some other officer, at the end of the wharf, ready to deal with Jurgens the moment he tried to come ashore, Matt hurried on.
The Crescent had just warped into her berth. A man on the wharf was making her cable fast. Under the electric light Matt could see a group of three or four men in the cockpit of the little sailing craft. At about the same moment, a figure lurched forward from behind a barrel that stood on the wharf. The gleam of a star on the coat informed Matt that the man was an officer. ”

“ Almost as necessary is a good supply of tobacco, for if you can imagine a gum picker sitting down of an evening by the camp fire and cleaning his day's pick of gum without clouds of smoke about his head your imagination pictures a very cheerless scene.
There is a special thing about gum picking—the daily expenses are small. The men cannot register at hotels or patronize saloons. ”

“ This maneuver met with some success, although the air ship continued to settle by the stern, coming nearer and nearer the tumbling waves.
The island was so close now that those aboard could see a little cove in its shore line. The tilted air ship, like some stricken monster, was being carried toward this cove by the wind.
"That bit of a bay is a good place for us to come down, matey," said Dick.
"Almost any place will be good enough," answered Matt, grimly, "just so it's close enough to the shore."
"Der pag," cried Carl, "ain'd more dan haluf so pig as id vas." ”

“ 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. ”

“ The binoculars went first, then the mooring ropes and a few other objects which could be of no particular use to castaways on a desert island.
The effect was instantly noticeable and, for a brief space, the Hawk seemed to stay her descent. In a few minutes she had drifted almost over the cove.
Just at that moment the hissing of the escaping gas grew to redoubled volume, proving that the rent had suddenly broken wide and that the bag's contents was pouring out. The ship began to drop more rapidly.
"I'll go overboard, mates," shouted Dick. ”

“ At that point the explosions of an engine getting to work echoed sharply through the steel hull of the Grampus. The whole fabric began to quiver, and muffled, indistinct voices could be heard. Immediately there was a perceptible downward movement.
"We're sinking!" exclaimed Matt.
"Looks like the scoundrels was takin' us to the bottom," said Holcomb grimly. "More'n likely McMillan has shown up with some more men and is makin' things lively for those on the wharf. The fellows that grabbed us are takin' us below the surface so the officers can't get at us, or Jurgens! ”