A NEW PLAN.
"Get away from that machine!" cried Matt, leaping into the barn.
He had grabbed up a club on the way, and as he spoke he advanced
threateningly upon Sercomb and his friends.
All four were in the car or around it. What they were trying to do Matt
did not know, but he felt pretty sure they had not broken into the barn
with harmless intentions concerning the Red Flier.
Sercomb turned away from the front of the machine and the others got
out.
"What are you intending to do with that club?" Sercomb demanded.
"That depends on what you're trying to do to that car," answered Matt.
"This is my property and the car has no business here. We want this
place for the other machine."
"Then leave the barn and I'll run the machine out. I don't allow any
one to fool with that car."
"There ain't one of us," struck in Mings, "that don't know more about a
car in a minute than you do in a year."
"That may be," said Matt, "but I'm boss of the Red Flier, all the same."
"I've heard about you, King," went on Mings. "Dace Perry, of Denver, is
a friend of mine, and he told me just what kind of a four-flusher you
are--always sticking your nose into other people's business, same as
now."
"Glad to hear Perry has a friend," returned Matt amiably, "but he could
have told you a whole lot that I guess he thought he hadn't better."
Just then Carl and Ferral flocked into the barn.
"Are they trying to scuttle that red craft, Matt?" asked Ferral.
"No," was the reply, "they're just going to run it out of the barn to
make room for the other car. I told them I'd attend to it."
"And when you get the car out of the barn," said Sercomb pointedly,
"just keep going, all of you."
"We'll do that to the king's taste," averred Ferral. "I wouldn't hang
around here with you and your outfit for a bushel of sovs, Sercomb,
although I'm coming back after my roll."
"Come on, fellows," called Sercomb, and left the barn with his friends
at his heels.
Matt got the Red Flier in shape, Carl climbed into the tonneau and
Ferral into the front seat, and they moved out of the barn.
As they passed around the house they saw Mings sitting in the other
car, evidently watching it to make sure it would not be tampered with.
He scowled at the Red Flier as it passed.
"Dey like us a heap--I don'd t'ink," chuckled Carl. "I bed you dot
Mings feller iss vone oof der chumps vat come indo der room lasht
nighdt, Verral."
"He don't like me any too well," said Ferral grimly. "And he's none too
easy in his mind, either. He knows what I can do to him for that Lamy
business."
"Are you really going to get an officer in Lamy and come back here?"
asked Matt.
"Strike me lucky if I'm not!"
Reaching the main road, Matt turned in the direction of Lamy and the
cliffs.
"We'll take you to Lamy," said Matt, "and bring the officer back. We've
the whole day before us, though, and there's something else I'd like to
do."
"Name it, mate. I'm in for anything."
"I'd like to go along the top of those cliffs and see if I can find how
and where that white runabout went to last night."
"If you go along the cliffs, you'll have to walk. Why not make your
examination from the road?"
"We can't see enough from the road, Dick. There may be something on the
other side of that ridge. By walking, and staying on the cliffs, we
can see both sides. The mystery of that white auto may be the key to
the whole affair at La Vita Place. Now's the time to settle it. If we
don't, Sercomb and those other fellows will."
"Right-o! We'll leave the Red Flier somewhere and tackle the game on
foot."
"We can't leave the Red Flier alone," said Matt. "I was going to
suggest, Dick, that we run the car off the road, between here and
the cliffs, and that you stay with it. I've got to look out for the
machine, you know. I came pretty near losing it, near Fairview,
in Arizona, and that gave me a jolt I'll never forget. It's a
five-thousand-dollar car, and if anything happened to it it would be
difficult to explain the matter satisfactorily to Mr. Tomlinson."
"I smoke you, mate," returned Ferral. "You've butted into this affair
of mine, and if you were to lose the old flugee on account of it, I'd
feel worse than you. I'll stay with the thing, and you can be sure
nothing will happen to it. You and Carl go hunt for the spook-car. I'll
wait. How far do you intend to hoof it over the cliffs?"
"If necessary, I'd like to go clear to that gully where the machine
flashed into the cliff road ahead of us; but I'm particularly anxious
to look over the ground this side of the turn, at the place where the
white car vanished so mysteriously."
"Crack the nut! If any one can do it, by jingo, it's Motor Matt."
By then they had reached a point about half-way between La Vita Place
and the cliffs. Here, off to one side of the road, there was a patch of
timber, and Matt turned the Red Flier, ran across the flat ground, and
drew up among the trees.
"Here's a good shady place for you to wait, Dick," said Matt. "Carl and
I may not be back before noon."
"Take your time, mate. I'm the greatest fellow to sojer in the
dog-watch you ever saw. Take your turn-to, and when you want me on
deck, just give the call."
Matt and Carl got out, returned to the road, and proceeded on toward
the cliffs.
The road was a straight stretch clear to the first turn that carried it
to the edge of the precipice. Matt and Carl remarked upon this as they
strode forward.
"A pad blace for any one to come in der nighdt, oof dey vas regless,"
observed Carl. "I don'd vant to go ofer dot roadt again in der nighdt,
nod me."
"We won't have to go over it again with our lamps, Carl," said Matt.
"It won't take us long to run to Lamy, get an officer, and come back to
La Vita Place. If we get back to the Red Flier by noon, we can make the
round trip to town by four o'clock, and have half an hour to get our
dinner."
"Sure! Dot's der talk. Aber I don'd t'ink ve vas going to findt der
vite car, Matt."
"I'm not expecting to find the white car, but I want to discover how it
managed to vanish like it did."
Carl shook his head gruesomely. He was still half-inclined to credit
the runabout with "shpook" proclivities, and Matt's new plan didn't
appeal to him very powerfully.
When they came to the chasm they paused to note how the road, in
reaching its treacherous path along the edge, broke suddenly from a
straight line into a sharp curve. Certainly it was a bad place for
motoring.
In order to get to the top of the cliff that edged the road on the
right, the boys had to do some hard climbing; but when they were on the
crest of the uplift, the view that stretched out around them was ample
reward for their toil.
On their left they could look down on the ribbon of road, winding
between the foot of the cliff and the chasm; and on their right they
looked away toward a swale, which made the cliff-tops a sort of divide.
"Dot gulch down dere," shuddered Carl, looking over the cliff, "iss
more as a million feed teep, I bed you."
"I don't know about that," said Matt, "but it's deep enough."
"Oof Verral hat dumpled from dot push," went on Carl, "he vould haf
gone clear py China."
"That swale," said Matt, pointing in the other direction, "is where
the gully enters the hills. As the gully runs on toward Lamy it comes
closer and closer to the cliff trail."
He turned and looked behind him.
In the distance he could see the clump of timber where Ferral had been
left with the Red Flier; and beyond the little patch of woods could be
seen the larger grove that sheltered La Vita Place. The touring-car
was screened from sight, and so was the adobe house. Matt was not
interested in either of them just then, however, but was working out
another problem in his mind.
"Carl," said he, "there's just a hint of a road leading out of the
swale and off toward La Vita Place."
"Vell, vat oof dot?" asked Carl.
"Incidentally," answered Matt, "if one wanted to cut off a good big
piece of that dangerous road, in going to Lamy, he could leave La Vita
Place and follow the blind track through the swale and gully, coming
out on the cliff trail just where the white runabout showed itself in
front of us last night."
"Py shiminy!" exclaimed Carl. "You're der feller to vork mit your
headt, Matt. Yah, so. Meppy dot's der vay dot shpook car come oudt on
us, hey? You t'ink she come from La Fita Blace?"
"That's only a guess. The white car had to come from somewhere. Let's
go on."
They climbed across the rugged cliff-top, and as they neared the turn
where the white runabout had vanished the night before, the gully
angled quite close to them; then, bending with the curve of the cliff
road, went on until it merged with the face of the cliffs.
At this point the cliff was not so high, with respect to the road, and
its face was not so steep. While Matt was trying to figure out how the
phantom auto had made its abrupt disappearance, a sudden cry from Carl
drew his attention.
"Ach, du lieber!" faltered Carl. "Der teufel is coming some more. See
here, Matt!"
Matt, following Carl's shaking finger with his eyes, saw the white
runabout. Apparently of its own volition, it was proceeding Lamyward
along the gully. Sometimes it darted out of sight behind a rise in the
gully wall, and again it came into full view, white, gleaming, and
presenting a most uncanny spectacle.