TRICKED!
"What time is it, Cassidy?"
"A little after eleven, cap'n."
"Nearly an hour, then, before Motor Matt gets here."
"You told him not to come afore midnight, cap'n. I didn't say anything
ag'in it, although it struck me as how that wasn't a very good time."
"I know my business, perhaps, better than you do, Cassidy."
Townsend was a very sick man, and fretful. Apart from his illness he
had other things to worry him.
"Aye, aye, cap'n," said Cassidy easily, "you know your own business
best."
"Was there a man across the street spying on the house when you looked
last?"
"I piped him off last when there was daylight enough to see. He was
there, all right, just as he has been for the last two days."
"He must be there now, don't you think?"
"Either him or somebody else. One man couldn't stay on the job all the
time, cap'n, you know. A feller has to sleep an' eat."
"By having Motor Matt come at night, and come the back way, the spy
won't see him, will he?"
"I reckon not, cap'n. Even if Matt came the front way, any time after
eight o'clock, I don't think the spy could tell him from Adam, across
the street."
"My mind's made up. There's a load on me that I've got to get rid of
before I can be well."
"That's what frets me, cap'n," returned Cassidy earnestly. "You're just
sick enough to make a whole lot more of that 'load' than you ought to.
Quit worryin' about it. That'll be better for the 'load' and for you,
too."
"Does the landlady understand----"
"I've told her to expect a friend of your'n by the back door, an' Mrs.
Thomas is sittin' up herself just to let the friend in. She won't trust
it to the servant girl."
"I'll remember Mrs. Thomas for that! When I'm well again----"
A bell rang sharply in front of the house.
"What's that?" demanded Townsend, starting up in his bed.
"Don't get nervous, cap'n," answered Cassidy soothingly. "It's only the
gate bell. Some other visitor, I reckon."
"I don't see why people have bells on their gates," worried Townsend.
"I never saw it any other place."
A stir was heard in the regions below. Presently there came the mellow
tinkle of the doorbell, and the sound of an opening door and voices. A
little later a knock on Townsend's door carried Cassidy to the entrance
to the room. Mrs. Thomas was in the hall.
"There must be some mistake," said the landlady in her soft Southern
drawl. "Mr. Townsend's friend came to the front do', and I reckon he
didn't know anything about coming to the kitchen."
"Well, have him come up, Mrs. Thomas," called Townsend. "I don't seem
able to have anything as I want it. Matt not only comes to the front
door, but he comes nearly an hour ahead of time. I'll see him, though.
He's a sharp boy, and if he's read my letter he'll know what I expect
of him."
The landlady went away.
"I want to talk with Matt alone, Cassidy," continued Townsend.
"I know that, cap'n," replied the mate, "and just as soon as Matt gets
in I'll slide out and leave you to yourselves."
Another rap fell on the door. Cassidy went to it and admitted Joe
Dashington, still in his old slouch hat, sweater and corduroys.
"Great guns, Motor Matt!" exclaimed Cassidy, "I'd hardly have known you
in that get-up."
"Matt!" exclaimed Townsend querulously, lifting himself on one elbow
and staring at the caller. "Is that you, Matt?"
"I guess I do look a Reub, eh?" laughed Dashington. "Well, I thought
I'd be foxy and get on a disguise. Hope you're feeling better, Mr.
Townsend?"
"You can go now," said Townsend, falling back on his pillow.
The mate gave the caller a sharp sizing out of the clew of his eyes and
then went out, closing the door softly behind him.
"Pull a chair up close to the bed, Matt," went on Townsend. "I guess
I'm getting better--the doctor says so--but I'll know that as soon as
these diamonds are off my hands. I'm worried to death about them, as
some one has been watching this house for two days. Why didn't you come
the back way, as I told Carl and Dick to tell you? And why didn't you
wait until midnight?"
"Well," answered Dashington, seating himself by the bed, "the cars
don't run so I could get here at just midnight, old fel. I either had
to come now, or get here at half-past twelve. Thought I'd take an
earlier chance. As for coming the back way, I tried it; but there's no
alley and there's a dog in the next yard. I think this rig I've put
on'll fool anybody across the street, eh? And then the talk that goes
with it is some fine, don't you think? I'm a regular lollypaloozer with
the 'con' talk."
"You're about the most resourceful young fellow I've ever come across,"
said Townsend, "and I knew you'd see that everything was all right."
"Sure, old fel. I'm no hand to jolly, but I give you credit for being
a pretty slick piece of goods yourself. But, say! Don't you think we'd
better rush this business? Ef there's a man piping the house off, the
quicker we finish and I duck, the better."
"Keen as ever, my boy!" exclaimed Townsend, in a tone of relief. "Reach
your hand under my pillow and take out what you find there."
It was an eager hand that went under the pillow and drew out a canvas
bag.
"Those are the diamonds, Matt," said Townsend. "I don't have to tell
you anything about them. The address of the lady to whom they are to go
is on the card pinned to the bag."
"Is she looking for me to come?" inquired Dashington. "This isn't
exactly a fashionable hour for a call."
"We'll have to overlook that point, Matt. The lady will come to the
door, and all you will have to say is that the package is a valuable
one and comes from the Man from Cape Town. She will understand,
although I haven't been able to see her, or to send her word."
"Bank on me, old fel," answered Dashington, hardly able to conceal the
exultation he felt.
"Get a receipt from the lady, Matt."
"Sure. I always get a receipt when I deliver a valuable package."
"And bring the receipt to me here, to-morrow."
"That's me. Anything else, Townsend?"
"Nothing, Matt, except to say that you're the only person I'd trust to
deliver those diamonds. Why, I wouldn't even let Cassidy do the errand!
I was to deliver the stones personally, but it would be some time
before I could do that and I can't stand it any longer to have such
valuable property around me."
"I'm next to how you feel, all right, and I don't blame you."
"Of course I could have sent Cassidy to the lady and have had her come
here, but that fellow across the street might have seen her come, and
if he's connected with the people I think, then it's a dangerous gang
who are laying to get hold of those stones."
Dashington pushed the bag under his sweater and got up.
"How much do you think these diamonds are worth?" he asked.
"A fortune, a king's ransom!"
"Gee! There must be a double handful of the sparks in the bag. Well,
old fel, I'll be going. Hope you'll get well in short order."
"I know I will, now," answered Townsend, with a deep sigh of
satisfaction. "I'll see you to-morrow, Matt?"
"Sure. Good night."
Dashington left the room and, as Cassidy came back, the front door was
heard to open and close.
"I never thought Matt King could get himself up to look like that,
cap'n," remarked the mate, as he took the chair by Townsend's bed.
"He's a clever boy," averred Townsend, "and as steady and reliable as a
clock."
"He's about as different from what he usually is as any one could
imagine," pursued Cassidy. "The way he acts and talks are both
different. You're right, he's clever."
"I don't mind telling you now, Cassidy, something I've been keeping
from you," said Townsend, after a brief pause. "You remember that iron
chest that was hidden away in an island in the Bahamas, and how a
fellow calling himself the Man from Cape Town gave me a chart and asked
me to go after the chest, bring it to New Orleans and open it in the
presence of a lady who lives in St. Charles Avenue?"
"I know that by heart, cap'n," answered Cassidy. "The lady who lives in
St. Charles Avenue is the daughter of the Man from Cape Town, and you
was to open the chest in her presence and divide the contents. Don't
talk about it. It's late, and you're tired and ought to go to sleep."
"I'm not done, yet," demurred Townsend. "You know how Jurgens and
Whistler stole my submarine, the _Grampus_, from Atlantic City, got
the iron chest, and how Motor Matt and his friends, in their air ship,
recaptured the submarine and found the iron chest aboard?"
"I was mixed up in that myself, so I don't reckon I'll ever forget it."
"And then, when we came on here in the submarine, you know how the
chest was stolen by Jurgens, Whistler, and Bangs; how Motor Matt
recovered it; how Dick and Carl let it slip through their hands; how
it was opened and found to contain the head of an African voodoo
idol; how the head was smashed and found to be full of South African
diamonds; how I did the worst thing I ever did in my life and let
Whistler, Jurgens, and Bangs go clear when I could have had them sent
to jail; and, lastly, you know how suddenly this illness came upon me
and prevented me from taking the diamonds to the lady in St. Charles
Avenue, as I had planned."[A]
[A] See No. 13 of the MOTOR STORIES, "Motor Matt's Queer Find; or, The
Secret of the Iron Chest."
"Yes, cap'n," said the mate, "I know all that."
"Well, here's something you don't know, Cassidy. I have had those
diamonds with me, here under my pillow, all the time I've been sick."
"Great guns!"
"And," finished Townsend exultantly, "I have just given them to Motor
Matt to deliver to the woman. When I am well, I will go to her and get
my share of them, as well as the share that is coming to Motor Matt and
his friends."
Cassidy was amazed. Before he could speak, however, another rap fell on
the door--a nervous and excited summons, as could be told by the sound,
alone.
"What now, I wonder?" fretted the sick man.
Cassidy opened the door and found Mrs. Thomas.
"Oh, Mr. Cassidy," cried the landlady, "some one has just come to the
back door and he says he is Motor Matt--a nice-looking, well-dressed
young fellow who----"
"What?" cried Townsend hoarsely, trying to get out of bed.
"Softly, cap'n, softly!" warned Cassidy, leaping to the bed and
pushing Townsend back. "Mebby there's nothing wrong. Anyhow, your cue
is to take it easy. Tell this other Motor Matt to come right up, Mrs.
Thomas," he added.