Stanley R. Matthews

“ The car was coming, but there was only one man in the driver's seat. The girl had vanished from the tonneau.
"Murgatroyd took her to some farmhouse," ran Matt's startled thought, "and he is coming back to try some more villainous work." The young motorist's fists clinched instinctively, and a fierce gleam darted into his gray eyes. "We'll see about that," he muttered, between his teeth.
The automobile came on swiftly, and Murgatroyd brought it to a standstill close beside Matt.
"Get in here," the broker ordered, nodding his head toward the tonneau. ”

“ As the car leaped and swayed across the prairie, the cowboy stood up, hanging to Cameron with one hand and waving the revolver with the other.
"Halt!" he shouted.
Siwash Charley turned in his saddle and shook his fist defiantly.
"He's going to fight," said Cameron. "Look out for a shot when we come close. But don't fire yet, McGlory."
"What's the use of waiting?" demurred the cowboy. "It's a wonder Siwash hasn't opened up on us before now." ”

“ Then there's Siwash Charley. He's a tinhorn and mucho malo, and there's no love lost between him and the king of the motor boys. What's the result if Murg and Siwash get Matt in their clutches?" The cowboy scowled and ground his teeth. "You ought to be able to figure that out, Cameron, just as well as I can."
"Murgatroyd isn't anybody's fool," said Cameron. "He's not going to go to any desperate length with Matt and run his neck into a noose."
"Murg won't, but what does Siwash Charley care? He's already badly wanted, and he's the sort of cold-game gent who does things when he's crossed. ”

“ Cameron was silent for a little, examining with pensive eyes the rusted dagger which he had laid on a table in front of him.
"Fortescue came to Totten from the Presidio, at San Francisco," he finally went on. "I presume you have heard how eager one nation is to secure the plans of another nation's defenses——"
"I know a good deal about that," interjected Matt grimly. "Other nations are just as eager to find out about submarine boats belonging to another nation—and to destroy them, if possible. ”

“ Almost before Matt realized it he was over the town of Minnewaukon, with the jubilant cheers of the citizens echoing in his ears.
He made a half turn to lay the machine on her new course. The inner wing dipped as the aëroplane came around, but the expanding and contracting device kept the craft from going to a dangerous angle, and it came level again on the straightaway course.
Even on a day that seems still and quiet the air is a veritable maelstrom of conflicting currents close to the earth's surface. ”

“ Matt repeated Hackberry's story, then showed the lieutenant the ragged note and the letter.
"It's a fishy yarn," mused Cameron. "For a clever man of business, like Murgatroyd, to extort a quitclaim deed from a woman in that way is rank foolishness, say nothing of the criminal part of it, which is very apt to get the scoundrel into trouble. No, I can't believe Murgatroyd would do such a thing. Who is this fellow Hackberry?" ”

“ If she was a prisoner at the homestead, why was Murgatroyd writing a letter?
It required an hour's time to write the three letters. Murgatroyd allowed Siwash to read each one as soon as it was finished.
Siwash became jubilant as the reading progressed. When the last letter had been gone over, he brought his fist down on the table with a smashing blow.
"They'll do the trick, by jinks!" he declared. "Ye'll git what ye're arter, Murg, an' so'll I. Thunder, but I wisht I had your head!"
"It takes something of a head to make money and keep out of jail, these times," laughed Murgatroyd, getting up. ”

“ The other promptly retaliated, and in the twinkling of an eye they were fighting fiercely.
The temper of the others flashed up like gunpowder, and almost instantly seventeen lions were engaged in a wild, free fight.
The one big fellow who had climbed on his pedestal when he entered still sat there, but at this moment the remaining nine lions appeared in the arena, followed by Bonavita.
The animals rushed forward into the battle; the big lion with an ugly snarl leaped from his pedestal into the thick of the fray, and in an instant twenty-seven lions were fighting with teeth and claws. ”

“ The cowboy looked straight ahead.
"You're right!" he cried. "There's a horse there, and a man farther along. The man's shooting at the face of the uplift. There! Hear that, Cameron? What's he wasting ammunition like that for?"
Cameron did not answer; he was busy looking and listening and running the car.
"Thunder!" exclaimed McGlory, as the scene opened clearer and clearer before his eyes, "there's a hole in the hillside—two holes, or I'm a Piute, for another just opened up."
"And the man's mounting the horse," said Cameron. ”

“ When the friends left, they closed the door, allowed the painted screens to fall into place over the door and the broken window, and then marked with astonishment how, at a little distance, even they were at a loss to mark the particular place of that lawless retreat.
"It's a regular robbers' roost," declared McGlory, looking back as the car carried them toward the road.
"It ought to be destroyed," said Cameron. "A knowledge of its presence is an invitation for some other lawless men to make use of it."
"Pecos Jones, for example," added McGlory. ”

“ Traquair?"
"There's no train out of Carrington until day after to-morrow," said Matt.
"Let's get a hand car, or one of these gasoline speeders, and go over the branch to Sykestown," suggested McGlory.
Matt's eyes sparkled at mention of the gasoline speeder, for as yet he had had no experience with one of them.
"We wouldn't be liable to find such a thing as a 'speeder' in a small place like Carrington," said he.
"Then we'll get an automobile from Devil's Lake City," put in Cameron. "By Jupiter, Matt, I'm pretty nearly as warm about this business as you are. An automobile, that's the thing!" ”

“ CHAPTER VII. NOTHING DOING IN SYKESTOWN.
Cameron, by a happy blunder, finally located the trouble, and repaired it. McGlory had a little knowledge of motors and he might have helped, but his dejection was so profound that all he could do was to sit in the car, muttering to himself.
"Buck up, McGlory," said Cameron, jerking the crank and noting that the motor took up its humming tune as well as ever. "While there's life there's hope, you know. We'll be able to do something yet."
"Oh, yes," gibed McGlory. "With a car going fifty miles we'll be able to overhaul a flying machine doing sixty." ”

“ If McGlory, Cameron, and Ping were delighted with the start of the new aëroplane, Motor Matt was doubly so. Matt was "at the helm" and capable of appreciating the machine's performance as his friends could not do.
Preserving an equilibrium, and riding on a more or less even keel, is the hardest point to be met in navigating an aëroplane. The centre of wind pressure and the centre of gravitation is constantly changing, and each change must be instantly met by manipulating the wings. ”

“ The motors have got a strangle hold on me—they're keeping me out of college, keeping me from settling down, and filling my life with all sorts of adventures. But I can't help it. I'm under the spell of the gas engine, and that's all there is to it."
It was during this talk of Matt's with Cameron, along toward the last days of the busy two weeks, that Ping came into Camp Traquair with a dagger.
"You savvy knife, Motol Matt?" asked Ping, offering the dagger for inspection. ”

“ Matt greeted them cheerily as they drew up at the door of the dugout.
"How are you, pard?" whooped McGlory.
"Bruised a little and mighty hungry, but otherwise all right. How's Siwash?"
"In need of a rope, Matt," said Cameron. "Have you got one handy?"
Matt ran into the dugout and picked up part of the rope that had been used to secure him to the chair and the cot. With this Cameron and McGlory made Siwash Charley secure before his wits returned, thus avoiding a possible struggle.
As soon as this part of the work was finished, the cowboy sprang from the car and gripped Motor Matt by the hand. ”

“ Lieutenant Cameron had declared.
Matt laughed.
"Why, Cameron," he answered, "I used to work in a motor plant, in Albany, New York."
"That may be, Matt, but building a motor is a different proposition from building a flying machine."
"Traquair laid down the plans. All I have to do is to follow them. It's really very simple. An aëroplane, you know, is nothing more than two oblong pieces of canvas, fastened together one above the other and pushed against the air by a motor and propeller. If the motor drives the wings fast enough, they're sure to stay up." ”

“ Matt's personal property had not been tampered with by his captors—probably on orders issued by Murgatroyd, who seemed to have his own ideas about how the prisoner should be treated.
Pecos, in feverish haste, bent over Matt and tried to get at his pockets. The tightly drawn coils of the rope interfered. Swearing volubly, he grabbed up Siwash Charley's knife from the table and hacked one of the coils in half. ”

“ In the Traquair machine, equilibrium was preserved by expanding or contracting the wing area, giving more resistance to the air on one side and less on the other, as necessity demanded.
Matt, facing westward in the direction of Minnewaukon, could give no attention to his friends, every faculty being required for the running of the flying machine. Every condition that had so far developed the aëroplane was meeting wonderfully well; but new conditions would constantly crop out and Matt was still in doubt as to how the great planes and the motor would take care of them. ”

“ For ages the gold-laden quartz of the land of the Incas—the people who covered the walls of their temples with plates of gold and used the precious metal to fashion cooking utensils—has been broken down by the denuding agencies of frost, rain, and snow, and carried into rivers, where it has remained undiscovered, until recent explorations revealed an astonishing source of wealth. ”

“ Traquair?" echoed Cameron. "Then she's got away from Murgatroyd and his rascally hirelings."
"Got away from 'em?" bellowed McGlory. "Why, they never had her at that homestead! The whole blooming business is a frame-up, just as I thought, all along. Murgatroyd and Siwash Charley are trying to play even with Matt. Hit her up, can't you, Cameron? For Heaven's sake, let her out! If you don't Matt will get away from us and drop right into the hands of those scheming scoundrels."
Cameron pushed the automobile for all it was worth. The ground raced out from under the flying wheels. ”

“ The car swung into Minnewaukon, and there was a momentary pause for counsel.
"If Matt's taking the air line, as he said he was going to do," remarked Cameron, "then he'll be cutting the corner between here and Sykestown. There are poor roads and bad hills on that lap, and we'll make better time by taking the longer way round and going by Carrington."
"Maybe he didn't go that way," said McGlory. "If he has to come down for anything he'll have to have a fairly good stretch of trail in which to get a start before the flying machine can climb into the air. ”

“ A pair of "flyers" may be built exactly on the same model, with all dimensions and power equipment identical, and yet the moment they leave earth and launch themselves into the blue each develops eccentricities peculiar to itself. In a great measure, every machine has to be "learned."
This was the one point that bothered Matt. Would the new aëroplane be easy or difficult to learn? If difficult, he might have to make a few trial flights at Camp Traquair before setting off for Sykestown. ”