FOOLING THE COWBOYS.
"If you're bound to make Motor Matt take you to the ranch, Spearman,"
said McGlory, "that means that the chink and me'll have to wait here
till you get back."
"Which is what I was expectin'," answered Spearman. "I don't want ter
feel cramped in that thar machine."
"The rest of you will have to give the machine a start down the hill,"
went on McGlory innocently. "When the craft gets a start, and is in the
air, you'll have to watch your chance, Spearman, and jump aboard."
"Jump on when she's goin' sixty miles an hour?" howled Spearman. "Say,
what d'ye think my scalp's wuth?"
"It won't be going sixty miles an hour," parried McGlory.
Matt had already taken his seat in the _Comet_.
"Why kain't I git in thar with him," asked Spearman, "an' travel with
the machine right from the start?"
"Sufferin' centipedes!" exclaimed McGlory, in well-feigned disgust.
"Say, I reckon you don't savvy a whole lot about flyin' machines. She's
got to have a runnin' start, as light as possible; then, when she
begins to skyhoot, you climb aboard. I guess you don't _want_ to take a
trip aloft."
"Guess again," cried Spearman. "I kin jump some, if it comes ter that,
only"--and here he turned to Matt, who was quietly waiting--"fly low
an' slow."
"All of you have got to help," proceeded Matt's cowboy pard briskly.
"Lay your guns away, somewhere, so you can give both hands to your
work."
None of the cowboys had six-shooters, but all were armed with rifles.
This was rather odd, but, nevertheless, a fact. When they started
out after George Hobbes, the Tin Cup men had been counting on target
practice at long range.
The horses had already been bunched with their heads together. Four of
the cowboys, who were still holding their rifles, stepped hilariously
over to where Slim and Spearman had deposited their guns, and dropped
their weapons.
McGlory gave Ping a significant look. The young Chinaman stared blankly
for a moment, and then a complacent grin settled over his yellow face.
He was as sharp as a steel trap when it came to understanding guileful
things. Ping knew what was expected of him, and he was ready.
The _Comet_ was headed down the western slope of the hill. Four of
the cowboys placed themselves at the lower wings, two on each side,
ready to run with the machine when they received the word. Spearman,
in his shirt sleeves, was tying one end of a riata to the timber which
passengers in the aëroplane used as a footrest.
"What are you doing that for?" demanded Matt.
Spearman straightened up with a wink.
"Waal, it's fer two things, pilgrim," he answered jocosely. "Fust off,
by hangin' ter the rope, Slim an' me kin pull while the rest o' the
boys push. Then, ag'in, if ye've got any little trick up yer sleeve,
I'll have a line on yer ole sky sailer an' ye kain't leave me behind,
not noways."
That rope troubled Matt, but he could voice no reasonable objection to
it. Already McGlory had played on the credulity of the punchers to the
limit, and it was not safe to go much farther.
"I'm goin' ter have yer job, Jed," rallied one of the cowboys, "if ye
fall outen the machine an' bust yer neck."
"Don't ye take my job till I'm planted, Hen, that's all," grinned the
foreman. "I been wantin' a new sensation fer quite a spell, an' I guess
here's the place whar I connect with it."
If the plans of Matt and his friends worked out successfully, Jed
Spearman was to "connect with a sensation" vastly different from what
he was expecting. McGlory was chuckling to himself over the prospect.
The cowboys, in their uproarious mood, did not seem to notice that
neither McGlory nor Ping were helping to give the aëroplane a running
start down the hill.
"Ye'll be a reg'lar human skyrocket, Jed," remarked Slim, "if ye travel
at the rate o' sixty miles an hour."
"I'll be goin' some, an' that's shore," answered the foreman. "Wonder
what folks'll invent next? Say, thar! If ye're ready, let's start."
Matt started the motor. This evidence of power rather awed the cowboys,
and their grins faded as they watched and listened.
"Now," instructed Matt, "the minute I turn the power into the bicycle
wheels, you fellows begin to run the machine downhill."
"Let 'er go!" came the whooping chorus.
Jed Spearman and Slim, tailed on to a forty-foot riata, were some
twenty feet ahead of the aëroplane.
"Now!" cried Matt.
The bicycle wheels began to take the push, and the _Comet_ started down
the slope, the two cowboys ahead pulling, and the four at the wings
pushing.
Naturally, the descent aided the motor. There had not been as much
rain, in that part of the State, as there had been in the Devil's
Lake country, and the turf was fairly dry and afforded tolerably good
wheeling.
The cowboys roared with delight as they ran awkwardly in their
tight, high-heeled boots. What happened was only natural, in the
circumstances, although quite unexpected to the ignorant cattlemen.
In less than fifty feet the aëroplane was going too fast for the
runners. The four at the wings had to let go; and the two at the rope,
finding themselves in imminent danger of being run over, dropped the
rope and leaped to one side.
All six of the cowboys watched while the _Comet_, catching the air
under her outspread pinions, mounted gracefully--and then continued to
mount, the riata trailing beneath.
"He ain't comin' back fer ye, Jed!" howled Slim.
"Here, you!" bellowed the foreman. "Whar ye goin'? What kinder way is
that ter treat a feller? Come back, or I'll send a bullet arter ye!"
Matt paid no attention. He was following, to the very letter, the plan
McGlory had formed, and was rushing at speed in the direction of the
Missouri and the mouth of Burnt Creek.
"Git yer guns!" cried the wrathful Spearman. "Shoot him up!"
It is doubtful whether the cowboys would have been able to retrace
their way up the hill and secure their guns before Matt had got out of
range. But they had not a chance to put their purpose to the test, for
the contingency had been guarded against.
When the cowboys reached the top of the hill, Ping was at the foot of
it on the eastern side, traveling as fast as his legs could carry him;
and clasped in his arms were the six rifles!
"Blazes ter blazes an' all hands round!" fumed the enraged Jed. "The
chink's runnin' off with the guns so'st we kain't shoot. Hosses, boys!
Capter the little heathen!"
And here, again, were the cowboys doomed to disappointment. Well beyond
the foot of the hill, on the south side, was McGlory. He was riding one
horse and leading the other five bronchos.
"Done!" gasped Slim, pulling off his Stetson and slamming it on the
ground, "done ter a turn! Who'd 'a' thort it possible?"
"It was a frame-up!" raged the foreman. "The two of 'em hatched the
plan while they were talkin'. I was a fool ter let 'em palaver like
what they done, kase I mout hev knowed they was up ter somethin'. The
chink lifted the guns on us, an' t'other feller lifted the hosses so'st
we couldn't ketch the chink; an', as for _him_," and Jed Spearman
turned and looked westward to where the aëroplane was a mere speck
in the sky, "as fer him, I say, if that flyin' machine ever comes
crowhoppin' eround whar I am, I'll shore put it out o' bizness!"
"An' ye didn't fly, arter all!" bubbled Slim.
"You hesh," grunted Spearman, "or thar'll be fireworks."
"Ye're purty good at jumpin'," jeered another, "so why don't ye jump
aboard? I don't reckon she's more'n two mile off an' a mile high."
"Oh," fretted the foreman, "if I _only_ had a gun! Say, let up er I'll
use my hands."
"An' we had to push," scoffed Slim; "oh, yas, _indeed_! We had ter
git off'n our hosses, an' put down our guns, an' push. Never reckoned
nothin', did we? Never a thing. But they knowed, them fellers did--they
knowed ev'ry minit jest what they was about. Next time I fool with this
here Motor Matt an' his flyin' machine, ye'll know it."
"An' Jed had a string on her," mourned another. "Sure he did. Why,
Jed had his rope fast to her so'st ter hang on in case Motor Matt had
anythin' up his sleeve. Well, well! I wonder----"
But Spearman could stand no more. With a fierce whoop, he rushed down
the hill along the path taken by the Chinaman. Across, on an opposite
uplift, Ping could be seen. He was adding insult to injury by hopping
up and down and making derisive gestures with one hand.
"We got ter overhaul the chink an' git back them guns," shouted Slim.
"Come on, boys!"
The remaining five started after Spearman. Ping, observing the pursuit,
hopped out of sight over the top of the hill. Burdened as he was, he
could not hope to escape the pursuing cowboys. But he had faith in
McGlory--and McGlory did not fail him.
When the cowboys reached the top of the next hill, they could look
down and see McGlory and the six horses. Ping was mounting one of the
animals, and when he and McGlory vanished around the base of another
coteau--which they were not slow in doing--they took the rifles with
them.
The cowboys had to pursue, and they had to do their pursuing on foot.
If a cattleman hates one thing more than another it is walking, and
the six disgruntled Tin Cup men limped and staggered and toiled onward
through the coteaus, following the trail for at least four miles. When
they finally ran it out, they found their horses and their guns, but
McGlory and Ping were conspicuous by their absence.