Stanley R. Matthews

“ The lake was alive with motor boats, sailboats and rowboats. Matt and McGlory, sitting in the shade on the little pier in front of their temporary home, idled and dreamed away the afternoon until, about four o'clock, a snappy little launch, equipped with canopy and wicker chairs, untangled itself from the maze of boats out in the lake and pushed toward the cove. ”

“ In an automobile race, Joe, the driver's left hand has to do a big share of the work. The racer steers with the left hand, holding the right hand free for the emergency brake. The left hand has to be trained to take full charge at all corners, and in a thousand and one other places as the need arises. I can do the racing well enough."
"But the doctor says——" began Lorry.
"I know what I can do better than the doctor, George," laughed Matt. "I'll be in that race every minute—watch me."
Both Lorry and McGlory studied Matt's face carefully. ”

“ McGlory cleared a foot of water at a flying leap and dropped into the Sprite's cockpit. In a few minutes he had checked the boat's aimless racing and had brought her to a halt.
"Is Matt there?" queried Lorry anxiously, working the launch close to the Sprite.
"He's here," answered McGlory, "but he's unconscious. Ping's here, too, and his wits are wool-gathering, same as Matt's. They're both alive, though, and I reckon they'll be all right with a little care."
"Follow me across the lake," said Lorry. "We'll go to the clubhouse. The quicker we can get a doctor, the better." ”

“ Anyhow, the Dart won't run any rings around us."
"You must be about fagged," said Lorry as Matt dropped down on his cot by the wall. "You've worked like a galley slave, and if we win the prize it will be all owing to you."
"I'm tired, and that's a fact," Matt answered, "but I've got some good feelings in me, as my old Dutch pard used to say. If a fellow's mind is easy it doesn't matter so much about his body." ”

“ The idea that any human emotion can be blotted out with an intoxicating beverage is a fallacy. The mind can be drugged, for a time, but when it regains its normal state all its impressions are revived even more harrowingly than they were before.
As soon as the glasses had been emptied Merton produced several packages of cigarettes, and the air grew thick with the odor of burning "doctored" tobacco.
"What're we going to do with Motor Matt?" demanded Jimmie Hess. "Take it from me, you fellows, something has got to be done with him or the cup goes back to the Yaharas. ”

“ Dexterously he passed the stake boat and brought the Sprite slowly around for the start.
The Sprite was charred and blistered, and, as McGlory had humorously put it, the "skin was barked all off her nose," because of her collision with the water door; but there she was, fit and ready for the race of her life.
She did not compare favorably with the handsome Dart; but then, beauty is only skin deep. It's what's inside of a boat, as well as of a man, that counts. ”

“ There was a silence between the boys for a moment, broken, at last, by Matt.
"That's pretty tough!"
"Tough?" echoed McGlory. "If Merton had what's coming to him he'd be in the reform school. Don't waste any sympathy on him."
"Why," spoke up George, with feeling, "he's just the fellow that needs sympathy. It's too bad he hasn't a Motor Matt to stand by him and help him over the rough places he has made for himself." ”

“ Merton coolly, "the pay he receives is quite an item. I understand Motor Matt is poor, and out for all the money he can get."
"You have been wrongly informed, Merton. Not a word as to what he shall receive has passed between George and Motor Matt. The boys are friends."
"I'd be a little careful, if I were you, how I allowed my son to pick up with a needy adventurer."
"Motor Matt is neither needy nor an adventurer," said Mr. Lorry warmly. "I'm proud to have George on intimate terms with him." ”

“ It's too late for us to order another boat, and we'll have to go on with the Sprite and look at Merton's heels over the finish line. Oh, thunder! I wish this Chink and that Pickerel Pete were in the bottom of the lake!"
Noticing the scowl Lorry gave him, Ping slunk away from his vicinity, and came closer to where Matt was walking thoughtfully back and forth across the floor of the boathouse.
"Don't lose your nerve, Lorry," counseled Matt, coming to a halt and leaning against the work-bench. "No fellow ever won a fight unless he went into it with confidence." ”

“ In case there isn't any race because of the failure of the Yahara Club to produce a starter, the Winnequas take the stakes. That looks as though Merton and his pals knew what was going to happen. If the Sprite was burned, there'd be no boat for the Yaharas to produce."
"Joe's right," declared Lorry.
"Well, keep your suspicions to yourselves," said Matt. "In a case of this kind it's positive proof that's needed, not bare suspicion. Wasn't the fire seen from the city? Didn't any one go across the lake to help fight it?" ”

“ Then the two scoundrels set fire to the building while Lorry, the Chinese boy, and I were sound asleep inside."
Something like trepidation crossed Mart Rawlins' face.
"McGlory is sure that the men were negroes who assaulted him?" queried Rawlins in a shaking voice.
"He's positive."
"Then," breathed Rawlins, as though to himself, "there's no doubt about it."
"No doubt about what?" demanded McGlory sharply, whirling away from the window.
"Why," was the answer, "that there was a conspiracy to destroy the boathouse and the Sprite, and that Ollie Merton was back of it." ”

“ Matt went more into the details of his experience with Merton and his friends.
"That's a nice way for the commodore of a rival boat club to act," remarked Lorry sarcastically.
"How did Merton ever get to be commodore?" said McGlory. "That's what sticks in my crop."
"Money," was Lorry's brief but significant response.
"Money cuts a pretty wide swath, and that's a fact. That work of Merton's and his friends, though, was a pretty raw blazer. Wonder what Merton's thinking of himself, now that Matt's found out he was in the gang?" ”

“ His friends are in the pool with him, and they're offering all sorts of fancy odds."
"If I could rake together a stake," said McGlory, "I'd take a little of that Winnequa money myself."
"No, you wouldn't, Joe," returned Matt. "I'm out with a club for that sort of thing. Good, clean sport is all right, but when you tangle it up with a lot of bookmakers it goes to the dogs."
"Mebby you're right, pard," grinned Joe, "but any kind of a chance, with money in sight, is excitin'."
"Merton and the rest wanted me, if I wouldn't agree to pull out, to throw the race."
"The scoundrels!" cried Lorry. ”

“ Merton fooled me. He said Motor Matt was an unscrupulous adventurer, and a professional motorist, and that the good of the sport made it necessary for us to get him out of that race. He didn't say he was going to bribe him to 'throw' the race. I didn't know that offer was going to be made, and I think there were some others who didn't know it. If we could have hired Motor Matt to leave town, I'd have been willing. I've got up all the money I can spare on the race, and naturally I want our boat to win—but I won't stand for any unfair practices. Nor will the Winnequa Club, as a whole. ”

“ Merton were descending the other, getting into the boat that was to take them ashore to their waiting automobile.
Mr. Lorry, red as a beet, his collar wilted, his high hat on the back of his head, and his necktie around under his ear, met the victors, giving one hand to Matt and the other to George.
"Jove!" he said huskily, "I've yelled myself hoarse. Oh, but it was fine!"
Ethel threw her arms around Matt's neck and gave him a hearty kiss.
"Nice way to treat a one-armed fellow that can't defend himself," whooped McGlory; "and sick, at that. ”

“ There you are, son," and the judge pushed the check into the hand of the astounded Matt.
"Great spark-plugs!" exclaimed Matt. "I—I—— Well, I hardly know what to say. I was in the game for the love of it, and—and I was not expecting this!"
"That was dad's idea," said Ethel happily.
"Bully for the governor!" cried George, grabbing his father's hand. "Why, I didn't know anything about this, myself." ”

“ Sufferin' thunderbolts! but I've made a whale of a discovery."
"What is it?" demanded George, wildly impatient.
"Why," cried McGlory, "Merton's got another boat, and she's certainly a blue streak, if I know the brand. The fat's in the fire, pards. If the poor old Sprite gets into a race with this new boat of Merton's, she'll be in the 'also ran' column."
Lorry collapsed.
"A dark horse!" exclaimed Matt. "I'd have bet a farm Merton was planning to spring something like that. Buck up, Lorry! Perhaps this isn't so bad, after all. Tell us about it, Joe." ”

“ Motor Matt's deep, as you say, but don't make the mistake of crediting him with too much knowledge. He's only human, like the rest of us. From the way matters look now, we've got him and Lorry beaten, hands down. Motor Matt isn't sharp enough to steer those papers into my hands by way of Pete. Now, in all this betting of ours, the money is being placed with the understanding that if there is no race we take the cash; in other words, if the Yaharas back down and fail to send a boat to the starting line, we take the money. ”

“ It's an order to quit. Understand? You're an outsider and we don't want you around here."
"So is Halloran an outsider," said Matt caustically. "He comes from Milwaukee."
"We're talking about you, now, and not about Halloran. Lorry has got to stand on his own pins. He's got money enough to see him through this race without any of your help."
"You're a one-sided lot, you fellows," went on Matt. "All you say about Lorry applies equally well to Merton. Why don't Merton 'stand on his own pins,' as you call it? And why do you ask more of Lorry than you do of Merton?" ”

“ Merton has our drawings, and probably thinks he knows just what we're about. Let him think so. If he springs a 'dark horse' on us, we'll get even by springing one on him."
"But can you get the Sprite ready in time?" asked Lorry anxiously.
"Sure I can! I'll have to begin at once, though, and some of us will have to stay in this boathouse night and day to make sure that none of the Winnequas come prowling around. If you'll stay here with McGlory, George, I'll borrow your motor cycle to go over to the machine shop and dicker for that second-hand engine." ”

“ We were going over to your boathouse, but saw you coming down the hill from the point, and thought we'd better lay for you."
"Well," said Matt, "here I am. Hurry up with your talk. I'm in a rush, and don't want to stop here long."
"We want to ask you a question: You're a professional motorist, aren't you?"
"I've driven a racing automobile, if that's what you mean."
"They say you know gasoline motors forward, backward, and sideways." ”

“ Pete sat down with a good deal of force, and, as it happened, he sat down on his fishhook. A fishhook was never known to lie any way but point up and ready for business, so Pete got up about as quick as he sat down. The next moment he rushed at Ping, trailing the line and the fishpole after him.
This time the two boys clinched, and the noise they made as they rolled about among the perch and pummeled each other caused a commotion at the boathouse. Motor Matt and George Lorry rushed out of the building and looked up the path. ”

“ Early in the forenoon automobiles began moving out toward Maple Bluff, loaded with passengers. And each automobile carried a hamper with lunch for those who traveled with it. Most of the citizens made of the event a picnic affair.
The asylum grounds also held their quota of sightseers with opera glasses or more powerful binoculars; and Governor's Island, and the shore all the way around to Picnic Point.
The day was perfect. Fortunately for the many craft assembled, the wind was light, and what little there was was not from the west. Fourth Lake was to be as calm as a pond. ”

“ Will you jump aboard her, Joe, or shall I?"
"I'll do it," answered the cowboy. "Can't you turn the launch and follow the Sprite, side by side with her? She'll travel faster than we will, but it'll make it easier to jump without going into the lake."
This manœuvre was carried out, and Lorry, who could handle a boat tolerably well for an amateur, brought the launch about and picked up the Sprite as she dashed onward. ”

“ An incline fitted with rollers made it easy to launch a boat or to haul it out upon the floor. The water door came down to the lake level, and both door and well were wide enough to admit a craft of eight-feet beam.
During all these days of work Ping had not detected a single person skulking around in the boathouse's vicinity. Matt worked until late every night, and there was always some one on guard on the outside from sunset till sunrise. Generally it was McGlory, but occasionally Lorry would come over and insist that the cowboy should sleep while he did the sentry duty. ”

“ I'm feelin' like a brass band again, and——"
"Don't toot, Joe, for Heaven's sake," implored George. "You've got about as much music in you as a bluejay."
"Some fellows," returned McGlory gloomily, "don't know music when they hear it. It takes a cultivated ear to appreciate me when I warble."
"I don't know about that," laughed George, "but I do know that it takes some one with a club to stop you after the warbling begins. When are you going to 'warm up' the Sprite, Matt?" he asked, turning to the king of the motor boys. "Every ship has got to 'find herself,' you know. ”

“ We're game to let our boat face the start on its own merits. If we can't win by fair means, I want to lose my money."
Rawlins got up.
"That's all I came here for—to find out how you are, Motor Matt, and to let you know how I stand, and how the rest of the club stands. I have come out flat-footed, and for the good of motor boating in this section I hope you will not press this matter to its conclusion. We all know what that conclusion would mean. It would go hard with Merton, and there would be a scandal. In order to avoid the scandal, it may be necessary to spare Merton." ”