Stanley R. Matthews

“ It was nearly nine o'clock in the evening when the boys reached this good stretch of road, and their lamps, streaming out ahead, showed it to them clearly.
"Mighty good going for a motor-cycle race," said Chub.
"And a fine place for racing a limited train," added Matt, his mind running on the possibilities of steam versus gasoline.
"Say," said Chub, "I'd like to see the Comet splurging along by Jack Moody's big Baldwin, with Moody late and making up time! Whoo-ee! That would be a race! When Moody's behind his schedule you'd think a wildman was at the throttle." ”

“ Faint sounds of the uproar behind had reached the old man. Planted in the middle of the road, he was staring back, wondering, no doubt, why the horseman was tearing along at such a rate of speed, and why the red roadster was letting itself out on the back track. But the old man was not kept long in doubt. Through the haze of dust back of the automobile he saw the plunging cattle. ”

“ If there's danger in meeting Pima Pete, it's my danger. Besides, it's my duty. Another thing. I'll not tell McKibben, nor any one else, what Pima Pete is to me. I'll die first. And as long as you're my friend, you'll not breathe a whisper of it to any one."
The last words were spoken slowly and deliberately.
"No matter what happens, Matt, that shot goes as it lays," went on Clip. "I'm going to see Pima Pete and warn him. I'll start as soon as I leave here. But I'll put on some other clothes so no one will know me. And I won't take my motor-cycle. That would be a give-away. I'll walk." ”

“ When they left the jail Short was tempted to withdraw from the case. "What can we do for a fellow who won't help himself?" he demanded, out of patience.
Matt prevailed on him, however, to do what he could, and the boys left him at the foot of the stairs leading up to his office.
"We're up against it, pard," remarked Chub gloomily, as he and Matt went off down the street. "I'm no knocker, but hanging out like this is the worst kind of foolishness on Clip's part. He's crazy, to act like he's doing. McKibben knew his business when he told you to do what you thought best, and never mind Clip." ”

“ Chub McReady, sometimes called plain "Reddy," for short, on account of his fiery "thatch"—a chum of Matt, with a streak of genius for inventing things that often land the bold experimenter in trouble.
Welcome Perkins, a one-legged wanderer who lives with Chub and his sister while their father prospects for gold—Welcome is really a man of peace, yet he delights to imagine himself a "terror," and is forever boasting about being a "reformed road-agent."
Tom Clipperton, known generally as "Clip," a quarter-blood, who is very sensitive about his Indian ancestry. ”

“ Chub and Welcome were still in the car, and Clip merely gave Matt a significant look as he waved a good-by. Matt knew that Clip must be anxious to read the note and find out what his uncle had to say to him.
Chub and Welcome got out in front of their home, and stood for a moment beside the car.
"You've shut up like a clam, pard," remarked Chub, with a curious look at Matt. "What's the matter? Anything gone crossways?"
"What makes you think that, Chub?" laughed Matt. "Don't a fellow ever do a little head-work except when things go crossways?" ”

“ Welcome's peril struck wild alarm to the hearts of the boys. They realized that if they had insisted on the old man getting into the car he would not now be in that terrible predicament.
In order to get Welcome up behind him the cowboy had to throw himself back on the bit and bring the horse to a quick halt. He leaned down to help Welcome up, and Welcome, who was almost as frenzied as the steers, gave a wild jump and grabbed saddle-horn and cantle. Under his weight, and the weight of the cowboy, which was temporarily thrown on the same side, the saddle turned. ”

“ From Skull Valley north they found the worst part of the road. It was on low ground, and boggy. During the present dry weather the road was passably good, but after a rain it would have been difficult for wagons to travel it, to say nothing of motor-cycles.
For the most of the way the trail tried to follow the railroad-track, dipping under high trestles and angling back and forth across the rails. It was poor up to within half a dozen miles of Prescott, and then, abruptly, it became like an asphalt boulevard, level with the track and smooth and clean right up to the ends of the ties. ”

“ The boys of the dormitory were astonished, therefore, to see him in so breathless and limp a state.
"What's up?" asked Caggles, with mouth agape.
"The tennis-ground!" gasped Crieff, mopping his face with a handkerchief.
The tennis-ground at Bidford School was reputed to be one of the finest in the whole neighborhood. It had been specially laid, and its smooth surface was as level as a billiard-table. Every boy was proud of it, and Crieff tended it with the anxiety of a father. ”

“ If you want to get Clip out of a bad hole, Matt, you don't want to keep anything back, no matter what Clip says. You've got to help him in spite of himself. This is no time for false ideas of loyalty to a friend."
"What I know wouldn't clear Clip," said Matt, "although it would explain a few things that are counting against him. I'm in honor bound to keep it quiet."
"Well," went on the sheriff, "have you any idea who Dangerfield's next of kin is?"
"I understand that he has a father living in Emmetsburg, Iowa."
"Good enough! I'll wire that to Leavenworth." ”

“ Immediately the horse-mackerel, with all but a small portion of the main-halyards tied to its tail, vanished like a flash through the broadside netting of the weir, vanished for good. Lewis, owner thereof, gave vent to sundry explosive ejaculations.
Cape Cod weirs scoop in many unexpected water-creatures. Recently a forty-foot-long—estimated—right-whale entered O'Neil's head of harbor Provincetown floating traps. ”

“ The prosecutor had nothing to say, and Chub got down and walked wearily to a seat beside Susie and Welcome.
And Clip! The first real feeling he had shown he showed then. With his face in his hands he leaned across the table beside which he was sitting.
Short finished his plea. He did not consume much time, for he was an astute lawyer and knew when he had his jury with him. Jurymen are emotional, as well as any one else; they can weigh the evidence, but sentiment cuts a big figure in any jury's decision—just how big probably even the jurymen themselves do not know. ”

“ More than that, two deputies are in the hills looking for Pima Pete."
Clip scowled his dissatisfaction over the prospect.
"You can see, old chap," said Matt, "what it means to tangle up with Pima Pete in this business of Dangerfield's. Cut Pima Pete out. It isn't safe for you to have anything more to do with him."
"You needn't, Matt. You can't, after this. But I've got to. Pima Pete's my uncle. Blood's thicker than water, even if it is Indian blood." The fiercely resentful look gleamed in Clip's eyes. "Pima Pete came here on Dangerfield's business. ”

“ The Comet was always as spick and span as when it came from the factory, for Matt groomed the machine as he would have groomed a race-horse, and cleanliness is one of the first points to look after if a machine is to travel right. On his return from a trip he never failed to go over the motor-cycle with wrench and pliers, to inject a few squirts of kerosene into the warm cylinders, and to "turn over" the engine a few times. He was busy making a final survey of the Comet when Chub pounded up on Clip's machine. ”

“ Yells of consternation went up from Chub and Clip. Matt had been obliged to bring the car almost to a halt while the cowboy was trying to pick up Welcome. The leaders of the stampeding herd had come dangerously close.
"They're on us!" whooped Chub despairingly; "we're all done for!"
"Not yet," shouted Matt, sending the car ahead toward the place where Welcome and the cowboy were scrambling to their feet. "Take 'em both aboard! Quick on it, now, and we'll get away." ”

“ Fuzzy was an amateur naturalist, and delighted to keep a stock of living insects about his person, in pill-boxes.
"This fellow got loose," he said, as he fearlessly picked up the coal-black beetle and popped it into the small cardboard prison which he had ready.
"I say, 'Cag,'" resumed Bottlebury, "it's our turn to roll the tennis-ground."
"So it is," said Caggles; "won't it be hot work if the sun hangs out all day!"
"I should say so!" assented his friend. "I say, though, you were dreaming like a madman last night."
"Was I?" laughed Caggles; "I'm an awful fellow to dream. ”

“ You were out this afternoon with Clipperton, McReady, and Perkins, and you got away from a cattle stampede by the skin of your eye-winkers, at the same time saving Josh Fresnay, of the Fiddleback outfit."
"It wasn't much of a getaway," laughed Matt. "When you open that red roadster up she can go about ten feet to a steer's one." ”

“ Both Chub and Clip had had a scare, the sudden plunge of the machine having made them grab each other, and they only missed going over the side by a hair's breadth.
As quickly as he could, Matt brought the lever to an upright position and pressed the primary foot-brake.
"The old freak!" shouted Chub, as the car came to a halt. "He came within one of putting the lot of us overboard. If he had two good legs, I'm a farmer if we wouldn't make him walk back to town for that!"
"If he don't agree to sit quiet in the rumble and enjoy the scenery," said Matt, "we'll make him walk, anyway. ”

“ They're not losing any time putting him through."
"Not much time to waste on a breed," returned Burke. "I know how it is. How long will you be in Prescott?"
"Can't tell. Not long, I hope."
"Where are you stopping?"
"Briggs House."
"If anything turns up I'll let you know. If you've gone back to Phœnix, I'll wire you. Keep a stiff upper lip," he added kindly, noting the gloom in Matt's face. "You seem to always win out when you tackle anything."
"There's got to be a first time for a fellow to fall down, Mr. Burke."
"Not for you, Matt," said the sheriff cheerily. ”

“ The evidence was all in, and the prosecuting attorney had made a masterly address demanding a prison sentence for Tom Clipperton. The prosecutor had so marshaled the evidence that there did not seem a possible hope for Clip. The jurymen looked convinced, and the defiant bearing of the prisoner, which at no time had appealed to their sympathies, was far from making such an appeal now.
Short was in despair. He was not the man, however, to throw up his hands until the jury had announced their verdict and had been polled. ”

“ CHAPTER XIV. STEAM VERSUS GASOLINE.
Motor Matt knew, as well as he knew anything, that there was more speed in the Comet than there was in Moody's big Baldwin engine.
Moody's running-time was perhaps forty miles an hour. He might, on such a favorable stretch of track, eat into his lost thirty minutes at the rate of fifty miles an hour, but he would hardly dare to do better than that.
Matt, on the other hand, could get sixty miles an hour out of the Comet, and even sixty-five if he had to in order to get that letter into Chub's hands before the good road jumped into the bog. ”

“ Matt has been killed! Let me off! Moody——"
"Of course there's been an accident!" cried Moody, without looking around. "Why shouldn't there have been? With two reckless daredevils playin' tag between a motor-cycle and a limited, it's a wonder there wasn't a worse accident than there was."
"Let me get off!" screamed Chub. "If you don't stop, I'll jump!"
"Sit down on him, Jerry," said Moody to the fireman. "If he won't act reasonable, lash his hands and feet. We're going to take him to Phœnix. I'm an old fool to have such a rattle-headed kid around. ”

“ It details the astonishing adventures of a young mechanic who owned a motor cycle. Is there a boy who has not longed to possess one of these swift little machines that scud about the roads everywhere throughout the United States? Is there a boy, therefore, who will not be intensely interested in the adventures of "Motor Matt," as he is familiarly called by his comrades? ”

“ Every one was out of bed, skipping to and fro, as lively as grasshoppers, throwing wet sponges at one another, and indulging in divers other jocular vagaries, which sufficiently accounted for the many strange noises and the repeated loud bursts of laughter that greeted the listening ear. ”

“ You see, the federal lawyer would think it money Dangerfield got for smuggling Chinamen over the border."
"Well," said Matt decisively, "if we fooled with that money we'd be apt to get our fingers burned. Besides, it isn't a good thing to tangle up with Pima Pete. He's better off, and so are we, if we keep apart."
A dark frown settled on Clip's swarthy face. For several minutes he bent his head thoughtfully.
"Pete has to get his part of the money," said Clip finally. "He can't get away to Mexico until he has it." ”

“ If there was one thing he hated more than another it was a lie. Only a coward will side-step the truth. However, Matt couldn't very well tell McKibben that Clip was in the closet, and he didn't see how he could refuse to answer McKibben's question without arousing his suspicions. ”

“ Suddenly Caggles gave a cry of extreme pleasure.
"I know a good plan," he said; "I'll get a ball of strong, thin twine, fasten one end to the spade in the shed, carry the ball across the field, and up-stairs to the dormitory, and then tie the other end to my big toe. If any one walks off with the spade, the string will pull my toe and waken me. Then, down-stairs we go, and ask the midnight visitor if he wants any help."
Crieff laughed.
"It's a good idea," said he, "and there's no harm in trying it. It may answer and it may not. The schoolhouse isn't a hundred yards away." ”

“ Clip's motor-cycle wasn't a very late machine and might not be able to duplicate the Comet's performance. Far up the slope the horsemen could be seen racing after the boys at top speed. There was nothing else for it, Matt knew, but for Chub to take his chance. ”