Motor Matt's Reverse; or, Caught in a Losing Cause Read online

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  MOTOR STORIES

  THRILLING ADVENTURE

  MOTOR FICTION

  NO. 25 AUG. 14, 1909

  FIVE CENTS

  MOTOR MATT'S REVERSE

  OR CAUGHT IN A LOSING CAUSE

  _BY THE AUTHOR OF "MOTOR MATT"_

  _"Are you hurt"? cried the girl, as Motor Matt lifted himself and looked toward her._]

  STREET & SMITH PUBLISHERS NEW YORK

  MOTOR STORIES

  THRILLING ADVENTURE MOTOR FICTION

  _Issued Weekly._ _By subscription $2.50 per year._ _Copyright, 1909,by_ STREET & SMITH, _79-89 Seventh Avenue, New York, N. Y._

  =No. 25.= NEW YORK, August 14, 1909. =Price Five Cents.=

  MOTOR MATT'S REVERSE;

  OR,

  Caught in a Losing Cause.

  By the author of "MOTOR MATT."

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  CHAPTER I. PLOTTERS THREE. CHAPTER II. THE NEW AEROPLANE. CHAPTER III. TREACHERY AND TRAGEDY. CHAPTER IV. MURGATROYD'S FIRST MOVE. CHAPTER V. A STARTLING PLAN. CHAPTER VI. THE AIR LINE INTO TROUBLE. CHAPTER VII. NOTHING DOING IN SYKESTOWN. CHAPTER VIII. BROUGHT TO EARTH. CHAPTER IX. THE COIL TIGHTENS. CHAPTER X. THE DOOR IN THE HILLSIDE. CHAPTER XI. A REVELATION FOR MATT. CHAPTER XII. PECOS TAKES A CHANCE. CHAPTER XIII. BESIEGED. CHAPTER XIV. THE BROKER'S GAME. CHAPTER XV. CANT PHILLIPS, DESERTER. CHAPTER XVI. THE LOSING CAUSE. THE DOCTOR'S RUSE. STRANDED ON A CHIMNEY. A SCRIMMAGE OF LIONS. DREDGING FOR GOLD.

  CHARACTERS THAT APPEAR IN THIS STORY.

  =Matt King=, otherwise Motor Matt.

  =Joe McGlory=, a young cowboy who proves himself a lad of worth and character, and whose eccentricities are all on the humorous side. A good chum to tie to--a point Motor Matt is quick to perceive.

  =Ping Pong=, a Chinese boy who insists on working for Motor Matt, and who contrives to make himself valuable, perhaps invaluable.

  =Amos Murgatroyd=, an enemy of Motor Matt, and who cleverly manipulates the various wires of a comprehensive plot only to find that he has championed a losing cause.

  =Amy=, Murgatroyd's niece, who helps right and justice, turning against a relative in order to befriend a stranger.

  =Siwash Charley=, a ruffianly assistant of Murgatroyd who proves to be one Cant Phillips, a deserter from the army.

  =Pecos Jones=, who has no principles worth mentioning, plays a double part with friend and foe, and abruptly vanishes.

  =Lieutenant Cameron=, an officer in the Signal Corps, U. S. A., who proves to be the cousin of an old friend of Matt, and who nearly loses his life when the a?roplane is tested.

  CHAPTER I.

  PLOTTERS THREE.

  "There's no use talkin', Siwash," and Pecos Jones leaned disgustedlyback against the earth wall of the dugout; "he's got one o' these herecharmed lives, that feller has, and it ain't no manner o' use tryin' todown him."

  Siwash Charley was cramming tobacco into the bowl of a black pipe. Hehalted operations long enough to give his companion an angry look outfrom under his thick brows.

  "Oh, ye're the limit, Pecos!" he grunted, drawing a match across thetop of the table and trailing the flame over the pipe bowl. "The cub'shuman, an' I ain't never yet seen a human bein' that couldn't bedowned--purvidin' ye went about it right."

  Pecos Jones scowled discontentedly.

  "Then I opine," said he, "ye ain't got sense enough to know how togo about it. That last attempt at Fort Totten wasn't nothin' more'na flash in the pan. What did ye accomplish, huh? Tell me that. Herey' are, holed up in this dugout an' not darin' to show yer face whereit'll be seen an' reckernized. The sojers want ye, an' they want yebad. Ye come purty nigh doin' up a leftenant o' the army, an' that'swhy the milingtary is on yer trail, but if they knowed as much o' yerhist'ry as I do, they'd be arter ye a lot worse'n what they----"

  "Stow it!" roared Siwash Charley, leaning toward his companion andbringing a fist down on the table with force enough to make the flameleap upward in the chimney of the tin lamp. "Ye'll hush arbout my pasthist'ry, Jones, or thar'll be doin's between you an' me."

  The place where this conversation was going forward was a hole in thehillside--an excavation consisting of a single room with a door and awindow in the front wall. A shelf of earth running around three wallsoffered a place to sit, as well as a convenient ledge for the stowageof food supplies and cooking utensils.

  The window was darkened with a blanket, so that the light would notshine through and acquaint any chance passers with the fact that theinterior of the hill was occupied.

  Pecos Jones was a little ferret of a man. His face had "undesirablecitizen" written all over it.

  Siwash Charley was larger, and on the principle that there can be morevillain in a large package than in a small one, Siwash was the moreundesirable of the two.

  He banged the table and scowled so savagely that Pecos Jones pulledhimself together with a startled jerk. Before he could say anything,however, a set of knuckles drummed on the door.

  Pecos gasped, and stared in affright at Siwash. The latter mutteredunder his breath, grabbed up a revolver that was lying on the table andstepped to the door.

  "Who's thar?" he demanded huskily.

  "Murg," came a muffled reply from the other side of the door.

  Siwash laughed, shoved a bolt, and pulled the door wide.

  "Come in, Murg," said he. "I was sorter expectin' ye."

  A smooth-faced man, wearing gauntlets, a long automobile coat, and withgoggles pushed up above the visor of his cap, stepped into the room. Hecarried a rifle over his arm, and for a moment he stood blinking in theyellow lamplight.

  Siwash Charley closed the door.

  "Got yer ottermobill fixin's on, eh?" said he, facing about afterthe door had been bolted; "an' by jings, if ye ain't totin' of erWinchester. Them fellers at Totten arter you, too, Murg?"

  Murgatroyd's little, gimlet-like eyes were becoming used to thelamplight. They shot a reproving glance at Siwash, then darted to PecosJones.

  "Who's that?" he asked curtly.

  "Him?" chuckled Siwash. "Oh, he's the Artful Dodger. I reckon he doesmore dodgin' across the international boundary line than ary otherfeller in the Northwest. Whenever things git too hot fer Pecos Jonesin North Dakotay, he dodges inter Manitoby, and vicer verser. Hossstealin' is his line."

  "Never stole a hoss in my life!" bridled Pecos Jones.

  "Thunder!" snickered Siwash. "Why, I've helped ye."

  "How does Pecos Jones happen to be here?" demanded Murgatroyd.

  "He got ter know this place o' mine while we was workin' tergether.Arter that flyin' machine was tried out at Fort Totten, o' course I hadter slope ter some quiet spot whar I could go inter retirement, an'this ole hang-out nacherly suggested itself. When I blowed in hyer, lo!an' behold, hyer was Pecos."

  Murgatroyd appeared satisfied. Standing his rifle in one corner, hepulled off his gauntlets and thrust them in his pockets, sat down onthe earth shelf, and hooked up one knee between his hands. For a whilehe sat regarding Siwash reflectively.

  "Is Pecos Jones known at Fort Totten?" he asked.

  "Bet yer life I ain't," said Pecos for himself. "What's more," headded, nibbling at a slab of tobacco, "I don't want ter be."

  "He works mostly around Turtle Mounting," explained Siwash Charley."Why?"

  "I think he can be useful to us," answered Murgatroyd. "Those other twofellows who helped you at Totten--wh
ere are they, Siwash?"

  "They was nigh skeered ter death, an' made a bee line fer Winnipeg."

  "That was a bad bobble you made at Totten," resumed Murgatroyd. "MotorMatt, in spite of you, put Traquair's a?roplane through its paces, metthe government's requirements in every particular, and the machine wassold to the war department for fifteen thousand dollars."

  "Things didn't work right," growled Siwash. "I tampered with that tharmachine the night before the trials--loosened bolts an' screws an'filed through the wire guy ropes--but nothin' happened till the flyin'machine was done sailin' an' ready ter come down; then that cub, MotorMatt, got in some lightnin' headwork an' saved the machine, savedhimself, an' likewise that there Leftenant Cameron of the Signal Corps."

  "The boy's got a charmed life, I tell ye," insisted Pecos Jones. "I'veheerd talk, up around Turtle Mounting, about what he's done."

  "Think of a full-grown man like Pecos Jones talkin' that-a-way!"exclaimed Siwash derisively.

  "Motor Matt is clever," said Murgatroyd musingly, "and I made a mistakein sizing him up. But there's a way to get him."

  "What do you want to 'get' him fer?" inquired Pecos Jones.

  Murgatroyd drew three gold pieces from his pocket and laid them in alittle stack on the table, just within the glint of the lamplight.

  "Pecos Jones," said he, "Siwash, here, has vouched for you. In thelittle game I'm about to play we need help. You can either take thatmoney and obey orders, or leave it and get out."

  There was a silence, while Pecos eyed the gold greedily. After alittle reflection he brushed the coins from the table and dropped themclinking into his pocket.

  "I'm with ye," said he. "What's wanted?"

  "That's the talk," approved Murgatroyd. "Our plans failed at thea?roplane trials,[A] but I've got another scheme which I am sure willwin. You know, Siwash, and perhaps Pecos knows it as well, that MotorMatt was demonstrating that a?roplane for Mrs. Traquair, who lives inJamestown. Motor Matt came meddling with the business which I had withthe woman, and the fifteen thousand, paid by the government for thea?roplane, was divided between Mrs. Traquair and Matt. Half----"

  [A] What Murgatroyd's plans were, and why they failed, was set forth inNo. 24 of the MOTOR STORIES, "Motor Matt on the Wing; or, Flying forFame and Fortune."

  "We know all that," cut in Siwash.

  "Well, then, here's something you don't know. Mrs. Traquair has aquarter section of land near here, on which her husband borrowed onethousand dollars of me while perfecting his a?roplane. After Traquairwas killed by a fall with his flying machine, I felt sure I couldget that quarter section of land on the mortgage. Now Motor Matt, byhelping Mrs. Traquair, has made it possible for her to pay off themortgage. She hasn't done it yet, because I haven't been in Jamestownsince your failure to wreck the a?roplane at Fort Totten. I've beentraveling around in my automobile with my niece, who is in poor health.She is in Sykestown now, while I am making this night trip out here. Ivisited this place once before, you remember, and I kept its locationso well in mind that I was able to find it without much trouble. I feltfairly certain, Siwash, that you would be here, so----"

  "Well, what's your scheme?" interrupted Siwash Charley.

  "I'm getting to that," went on Murgatroyd. "Motor Matt and his friendJoe McGlory, together with the Chinese boy, Ping Pong, have been atFort Totten ever since the a?roplane was sold to the government. Thewar department will take another of the Traquair a?roplanes at the sameprice paid for this one in case it can be finished and delivered by thefirst of the month, in time to go to Washington for trials of dirigibleballoons and other devices at Fort Myer. Motor Matt is building ana?roplane for this order, and it is nearly completed. I don't careanything about that. What concerns me is that quarter section of land.For reasons of my own, I want it--and I am going to have it, if not inone way, then in another."

  "What's yer scheme?" asked Siwash Charley impatiently.

  "My scheme is to give Motor Matt such a reverse that Mrs. Traquair willhave to come to his rescue and buy his safety with the quarter section."

  "Ye never kin do it!"

  "I believe that I can." Murgatroyd took a letter from his pocket andlaid it on the table. "That," said he, nodding toward the letter, "isto be delivered to Motor Matt at Fort Totten by Pecos Jones, and Jonesis to tell a story which will run substantially like this."

  Thereupon Murgatroyd entered into a more lengthened review of hiscrafty scheme, Siwash Charley's eyes gleaming exultantly as heproceeded.

  "It's goin' ter win!" declared Siwash, thumping a fist down on thetable to emphasize his declaration. "I've got ter saw off even withthat young cub, an' I'm with ye, Murg, chaps, taps, an' latigoes! So'sPecos. Ye kin count on the two of us."

  "Very good," responded Murgatroyd, getting up and drawing on hisgauntlets. "Succeed in this, Siwash, and I'll not only secure thequarter section, but you and Pecos will get more money and, what'sbetter, a promise from the government not to trouble you because ofwhat happened at Fort Totten--or what's going to happen. You understandwhat you're going to do, so no more need be said. I'll get away beforemy absence from Sykestown arouses any remarks. So long."

  The door closed, and presently the two in the dugout heard the muffled"chugging" of a distant motor car fading into silence in the directionof Sykestown.