Motor Matt's Clue; or, The Phantom Auto Read online

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  MOTOR STORIES

  THRILLING ADVENTURE

  MOTOR FICTION

  NO. 7 APR. 10, 1909

  FIVE CENTS

  MOTOR MATT'S CLUE

  THE PHANTOM AUTO

  _by STANLEY R. MATTHEWS_.

  "Look a leedle oudt!" yelled Carl, as Motor Matt made a quick jump for the phantom auto.]

  _STREET & SMITH, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK._

  MOTOR STORIES

  THRILLING ADVENTURE MOTOR FICTION

  _Issued Weekly. By subscription $2.50 per year. Entered according toAct of Congress in the year 1909, in the Office of the Librarian ofCongress, Washington, D. C., by_ STREET & SMITH, _79-89 Seventh Avenue,New York, N. Y._

  No. 7. NEW YORK, April 10, 1909. Price Five Cents.

  Motor Matt's Clue;

  OR,

  THE PHANTOM AUTO.

  By the author of "MOTOR MATT."

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER I. A NIGHT MYSTERY. CHAPTER II. DICK FERRAL. CHAPTER III. LA VITA PLACE. CHAPTER IV. THE HOUSE OF WONDER. CHAPTER V. SERCOMB. CHAPTER VI. THE PHANTOM AUTO AGAIN. CHAPTER VII. SURROUNDED BY ENEMIES. CHAPTER VIII. THE KETTLE CONTINUES TO BOIL. CHAPTER IX. ORDERED AWAY. CHAPTER X. A NEW PLAN. CHAPTER XI. A DARING LEAP. CHAPTER XII. DESPERATE VILLAINY. CHAPTER XIII. TIPPOO. CHAPTER XIV. IN THE NICK OF TIME. CHAPTER XV. A STARTLING INTERRUPTION. CHAPTER XVI. THE PRICE OF TREACHERY. CHAPTER XVII. THE LUCK OF DICK FERRAL. BILL, THE BOUND BOY. A WINTER STORY OF COLORADO.

  CHARACTERS THAT APPEAR IN THIS STORY.

  =Matt King=, concerning whom there has always been a mystery--a lad of splendid athletic abilities, and never-failing nerve, who has won for himself, among the boys of the Western town, the popular name of "Mile-a-minute Matt."

  =Carl Pretzel=, a cheerful and rollicking German lad, who is led by a fortunate accident to hook up with Motor Matt in double harness.

  =Uncle Jack=, a wealthy Englishman, with ways and means of his own for accomplishing things, who leads a hermit's life in the wilds of New Mexico.

  =Dick Ferral=, a Canadian boy and a favorite of Uncle Jack; has served his time in the King's navy, and bobs up in New Mexico where he falls into plots and counter-plots, and comes near losing his life.

  =Ralph Sercomb=, a cousin of Dick Ferral, and whose sly, treacherous nature is responsible for Dick's troubles.

  =Joe Mings=, } three unscrupulous friends of Sercomb, all =Harry Packard=,} motor-drivers, and who come from Denver to help =Balt Finn=, } Sercomb in his nefarious plans.

  CHAPTER I.

  A NIGHT MYSTERY.

  "Oh, py shiminy! Look at dere, vonce! Vat it iss, Matt? Br-r-r! I feellike I vould t'row some fits righdt on der shpot! It's a shpook, youbed you!"

  A strange event was going forward, there under the moon and stars ofthat New Mexico night. The wagon-road followed the base of a clifflikebank, and at the outer edge of the road there was a precipitous fallinto Stygian darkness.

  A second road entered the first through a narrow gully. A few yardsbeyond the point where the thoroughfares joined an automobile washalted, its twin acetylene lamps gleaming like the eyes of some fabledmonster in the semigloom.

  Two boys were on the front seat of the automobile, and one of them hadleaned over and gripped the arm of the lad who had his hands on thesteering-wheel. The eyes of the two in the car were staring ahead.

  What the boys saw was sufficiently startling, in all truth.

  Out of the gully, directly in advance of them, had rolled a whiteautomobile--springing ghostlike out of the darkness as it came underthe glare of the acetylene lights.

  The white car was a runabout, with two seats in front and an abnormallyhigh deck behind. It carried no lamps, moved with weird silence, and,strangest of all, _there was no one in either seat_! Yet, with no handon the steering-wheel, the white car made the dangerous turn out of thegully into the main road with the utmost ease, and was now continuingon between the foot of the cliff and the brink of the chasm with asteadiness that was--well, almost hair-raising.

  Motor Matt, who had been piloting the Red Flier slowly and carefullyalong that dangerous course, had cut off the power and thrown on thebrake the instant the white car leaped into sight. As he gazed at thereceding auto, and noted the conditions under which it was moving, agasp escaped his lips.

  "That beats anything I ever heard of, Carl!" he muttered.

  "It vas a shpook pubble!" clamored Carl Pretzel. "I don'd like dot, pyshinks. Durn aroundt, or pack oop, or do somet'ing else to ged oudtoof der vay. Shpooks iss pad pitzness, und schust vy dit it habbendon't make no odds aboudt der tifference. Ged avay, Matt, und ged avaykevick! Py Chorge! I vas so vorked oop as I can't dell."

  Carl released Matt's arm, pulled a big red handkerchief out of hispocket and wiped the perspiration from his face. He was having a chilland perspiring at the same time; and his mop of towlike hair was tryingto stand on end.

  Matt started the Red Flier. There was gas enough in the cylinders totake the spark, so that it was not necessary to get out and use thecrank.

  To turn around on such a road was out of the question, even if Matt haddesired to do so--which he did not. Nor did he reverse the engine andback away, but started along in the trail of the white car.

  "Vat you vas doing, anyvay?" cried Carl.

  "I'm going to follow up that phantom auto and see if I can find whatcontrols it."

  "You vas grazy, Matt! Meppy ve ged kilt oof ve ged too nosey mit dotmachine. It don'd pay to dake some chances in a case like dose. I knowvat I know, und dot's all aboudt it. Go pack pefore der shpook pubblehits us und knock us py der cliff ofer!"

  Carl was excited. He believed in "spooks" and Motor Matt didn't, andthat was all the difference between them.

  "Don't lose your nerve, Carl----"

  "It vas gone alretty!" groaned Carl, crouching in his seat, hanging onwith both hands and staring ahead with popping eyes.

  "Nothing's going to happen," went on Matt. "There's no such thing asghosts, Carl."

  "Don'd I know ven I see vone?" quavered Carl. "You t'ink I vas plind,Matt. Dot pubble moofs mitoudt nopody to make it go like vat it does;und it don'd hit der rocks or go ofer der cliff. Donnervetter! I vishI vas somevere else, py grickets. Ach! I vas so colt like ice, und Isveat; und my teet' raddle so dot I don't hardly peen aple to shpeakanyt'ing."

  "We've seen the Red Flier moving along without anybody aboard, Carl,"said Matt, in an attempt to quiet his chum's fears.

  "Yah, so," answered Carl, "aber der Ret Flier vas moofing along someshdraighdt roads, und der veel vas tied mit ropes so dot she keeps ashdraighdt course. Aber dot shpook pubble don'd haf nopody on, und derveel ain'd tied, und yet she go on und on like anyding. Ach, I peen asgoot as a deadt Dutchman, I know dot."

  While the boys were thus arguing matters the Red Flier was trailing thephantom auto. The white machine, still controlled in some mysteriousmanner, glided safely along the treacherous trail. It was beyond theglow of the acetylene lights, but the moonlight brought it out of thegloom like a white blur.

  In advance of the runabout Matt saw a place where the road curvedaround the face of the cliff. The phantom auto melted around the curve.

  Hardly had it vanished when a loud yell was wafted back to the ears ofthe boys.

  Carl nearly jumped out of his seat, and a frightened whoop escaped hislips.

  "Ach, du lieber!" he wailed. "Ve vas goners, Matt, ve vas bot' goners.I can
't t'ink oof nodding, nod efen my brayers! Vat vas dot? I bed youit vas der teufel gedding retty to chump on us. Whoosh! I never hadsome feelings like dis yet."

  "Don't be foolish, Carl," said Matt. "There was no spook back of thatyell, but real flesh and blood. Keep a stiff upper lip and we'll findout all about it."

  Just then the Red Flier rounded the turn. A long, straightaway courselay ahead of the boys, lighted brightly by the lamps and, farther on,by the moon and stars. But _the phantom auto had vanished_!

  Matt was astounded, and brought the Red Flier to a halt once more. Witha high wall of rock on one side of the road, and an abyss on the other,where could the white car have gone?

  "Ach, chiminy!" chattered Carl. "Poof, und avay she goes. Der pubblevas snuffed oudt, und schust meldet indo der moonpeams. Dis vas ahoodoo pitzness, all righdt. Ve ged der douple-gross pooty soon, I bedyou someding for nodding!"

  "But that yell----"

  "Der teufel make him! Id don'd vas nodding but der shpook feller,saying in der shpook languge, 'Ah, ha, I ged you pooty kevick!' I vishdot I hat vings so I could fly avay mit meinseluf."

  Matt got down from the car and started to walk forward. Carl let off ayell and scrambled after him.

  "Don'd leaf me, Matt! It vas goot to be mit somepody ad sooch a dime.Misery lofes gompany, und dot's vat I need."

  "Come on, then," laughed Matt.

  "Vere you go, hey?"

  "I'm going to see if I can discover what became of that car."

  "It vent oop on der moonpeams," averred Carl earnestly. "You can look,und look, und dot's all der goot it vill do. Dake it from me, Matt, dotve don'd vas----"

  "Ahoy, up there!"

  The words seem to come from nowhere--or, rather, from everywhere, whichwas equivalent to the same thing.

  Carl gave a roar and tried to push himself into the face of the cliff.

  "Vat I tell you, hey?" he groaned. "Dere it vas again. Matt, more undvorse dan der odder dime. Righdt here iss vere ve kick some puckets;yah, leedle Carl Pretzel und Modor Matt King vill be viped oudt like asponge mit a slate."

  "Keep still, Carl!" called Matt. "There's no ghost back of that voice.Listen a minute."

  Turning in the road, Matt lifted his head.

  "Hello!" he called.

  "Hello, yourself!" came the muffled but distinct response.

  The voice seemed to float out of the blackness of the chasm, and Mattstepped closer to the edge.

  "Who are you?" he asked.

  "My name'll be M-u-d, Mud, if you don't man a line an' give me a boostout of this."

  "Where are you?"

  "Down the wall, hanging like a lizard to a piece of scrub. Can't youtell by my talk where I am? From the looks, I'm about a fathom down;but I'll be all the way down if you don't get a move on. Shake yourselftogether, mate, and be lively!"

  Carl's fear, as this conversation proceeded, was gradually lost incuriosity. The voice from over the brink had a very human ring to it,and the Dutch boy was beginning to feel easier in his mind.

  "Get the rope out of the tonneau, Carl," called Matt. "Hurry up!"

  "Bully!" came from below, the person on the wall evidently hearingMatt's order to Carl. "That's the game, matey. If you've got a rope,reeve a bowline in the end and toss it over. I'm a swab if I don'tthink it's up to you to do it, too. I wouldn't have slid over the edgeif your white devil-wagon hadn't made me dodge out of the way. How'dit--Wow!"

  The voice below broke off with a startled whoop.

  "What's the matter?" called Matt.

  "The bush pulled out a little," was the answer, "and I thought I wasgone. Rush things up there, will you?"

  At that moment Carl came with the rope, and Matt, standing above theplace where he supposed the unseen speaker to be, allowed the noosedend to slide down to him.

  "I've got it!" cried the voice. "Are you ready to lay on?"

  "Catch hold, Carl," said Matt, "and brace yourself. All ready," heshouted, when he and Carl were planted firmly with the rope in theirhands.

  "Then here goes!"

  The rope grew taut under a suddenly imposed weight, and Matt and Carllaid back on it and hauled in.