A HARD JOURNEY.
There were few better athletes than Matt King, and he was in the pink
of condition. It was a matter of pride with him to keep himself at all
times fit and ready for whatever fate threw his way.
But scaling that steep wall, under the double necessity of doing it
effectively and making little noise, was one of the hardest things he
ever attempted. He had kept vividly in his mind the path he had mapped
out, and the upward climb was merely the working out of a problem that
he had already solved in theory; but he had to work out the problem in
the dark, and to grope with his feet for the projecting stones and with
his hands for the bushes.
At last, with every muscle tingling and his breath coming hard through
his tense lips, he drew himself over the crest of the wall. Here he
paused for a moment's rest, and to put on his shoes. There was cactus
on the hill-slope, and he didn't want to hamper himself by picking up a
bunch of fish-hooks in his unprotected feet.
When near the top of the wall he had heard Bisbee's demand to know what
was going on, and he had chuckled at Chub's response. Chub's ready wit,
it might be, had made the escape successful.
Once in his shoes, Matt stole down the slope and made his way to the
center monument on the claim. The _Comet_ was lying just where Perry
had let it drop. How Matt was to fix the machine in the dark he did not
know, but he had had an idea that the motor-cycle had "bucked" because
Perry did not understand just how to operate it.
His first disappointment came as he knelt down by the machine and
detected a heavy odor of gasoline. After a minute or two of groping
about, he made the startling discovery that the gasoline-tank was
empty. The cap that closed the opening into the reservoir had become
loosened in the fall, and all the gasoline had trickled out.
Here was a difficulty, and no mistake. Matt remembered having seen a
gasoline-stove at the Bluebell, but he was under the impression that
Delray didn't use the stove very much. If there was no gasoline to
be had at the mine, then Matt would have to keep on to the Arizona
canal, and try to get some at the first ranch he came to. There was no
use now in looking for the trouble that had cut short Perry's flight
on the _Comet_--that could be attended to later. What Matt had to do
was to figure on getting a hundred-and-fifty pounds of mechanism to
the Bluebell mine. To pedal the machine that distance, over the rough
pack-trail with its sharp rocks and cactus, and at night, was a task he
did not care to think about.
It was then that the idea of taking the horse appealed to him. The
horse could carry both him and the machine, providing he used judgment
in stowing the _Comet_ on the animal's back.
Having made up his mind to get over the difficulty in this way,
Matt raised the machine and trundled it toward the spring. To his
satisfaction, he gathered that everything was serene in the vicinity of
the notch. Not a sound reached him from there. If he had been nearer,
perhaps he might have heard the resonant snores of the sleeping Jacks.
When he had come close to the horse, Matt laid the motor-cycle down
and went up to the animal, whispering and stroking his neck to prevent
a startled snort or jump. With his knife he cut the picket-rope off
close to the pin, and after twisting the rope about the horse's lower
jaw, in lieu of a bridle, he cut the rope again. This gave him not
only enough for a bridle, but also some twenty feet of lashing for the
_Comet_.
To hang the machine from the horse's back so that it would ride without
injury to its mechanism was the next problem Matt had to solve. This
was accomplished by first passing a loop of rope through the forks, and
then drawing the machine up by the front with the rope over the horse's
back.
Naturally, the horse objected to this unusual procedure, and a good
part of the half-hour required by Matt in effecting his escape was
consumed in getting the horse accustomed to his strange burden.
After the front of the _Comet_ had been swung into place and fastened,
Matt repeated the operation with the back of the machine and drew the
rear wheel off the ground. The right pedal and toe-clip dug into the
horse's ribs and caused a good deal of shying and side-stepping. But
the interfering pedal had an advantage as well as a disadvantage,
inasmuch as it braced the machine away from the horse's side and gave
Matt room on the animal's back. His position, once he was astride the
horse, was far from comfortable, but he thought he could make shift, at
least, to ride until he had left the camp well behind.
Heading the horse toward the trail, he shouted his good-by to Jacks
at the top of his lungs, and then urged the horse into a gallop with
his heels and the end of the rope hackamore. The _Comet_ slipped, and
plunged, and rattled, but Matt supported it with one hand and let the
frightened horse take his own gait.
He heard Jacks and Bisbee chasing after him, but was soon so far away
that these sounds of pursuit were lost in the distance. A little later
he turned into the pack-trail, and the most difficult part of his night
journey lay ahead of him.
Matt could have hidden his machine away among the rocks and left it
there while he galloped on to Phoenix. There would have been nothing
to gain by this move, however, except an easier ride to the Bluebell.
The office of the recorder would not be open for business before eight
o'clock the next morning, and Matt had plenty of time to reach his
destination. If he could get a supply of gasoline at the mine, and
found that the _Comet_ could be easily repaired, he would leave the
horse with Delray and get back to town on the motor-cycle.
Before Matt had gone far along the pack-trail the difficulties of his
position on the horse's back became so great that he was forced to
dismount and walk. Even though he could have ridden comfortably, he
would soon have been obliged to fall back on his own feet anyway. The
trail was rough and hard to follow when it could be plainly seen, and
now, when it twisted and turned through black arroyos and clung to the
edge of half-hidden chasms, progress could only be safely made by going
slowly and carefully.
Leading the horse by the rope, Matt picked out the course with the
utmost care. Once he lost the trail and was all of two hours finding it
again; then the lashings of the _Comet_ gave way suddenly, and the rear
wheel dropped, causing the horse to give a frightened jump that nearly
took him over the edge of a steep descent. At the most difficult part
of the trail, where it ran along a shelf gouged out of the cliffs, Matt
had to unship the wheel and swing it from the other side, in order to
keep it from colliding with the rocks and being broken.
Before the _barranca_ and the Black Cañon were reached, a quivering
line of gray had run along the tops of the eastern hills. Morning was
at hand, and Matt, who had been working like a Turk through the dark
hours, was not yet at the Bluebell!
"The _Comet_ has made me a heap of trouble," he muttered, "but I'll
take the kinks out of the old girl when we get to the Bluebell, and
then there'll be clear sailing all the way to town. It's about time I
struck a streak of luck, seems to me. If Delray has any gasoline----"
Matt broke off the remark suddenly, wincing as he thought of an added
jaunt of five miles to the canal, leading the horse or pedaling a heavy
motor-cycle. If luck ever did anything for him, he hoped it would show
itself at the Bluebell.
The sky was bright with coming day when Matt turned into the
_barranca_, and the sun was up when he came in sight of the house and
derrick at the Bluebell. There was some one on foot in the road, far
away toward the canal. When Matt drew up by the house he saw that the
approaching man was Delray.
"I wonder if Del is still gadding about looking for the fellow who
smashed the wireless instrument?" thought Matt, setting to work
unloading the _Comet_.
But it was something else that had taken Delray abroad that morning. He
came, puffing, just as Matt got the _Comet_ on the ground.
"Well, by thunder!" exclaimed the watchman. "What's the matter with the
machine? Where's Chub? Say, but I've had the duse of a time!"
Delray mopped his face with a handkerchief and looked excited, and
curious, and a little bit chagrined.
"First off, Del," said Matt, "have you got any gasoline? Don't tell
me you haven't! It's the one thing I need just now more than anything
else."
"That's right," cried Delray, surprising Matt with a fresh show of
excitement, "if you ever needed gasoline, you need it now. But I don't
think I've got a drop. Haven't used the gasoline-stove for a month, and
it seems to me the can was empty when I last tried it. But wait; we'll
make sure."
Delray darted into the house. In a moment he came rushing back with a
can.
"There's some here, but I don't know how much," said he.
"Bully!" exclaimed Matt. "A quart will take me to Phoenix on the high
speed."
He began working while he kept up a flow of talk.
"Chub's in the hills, looking for his father, who's mysteriously
missing from the claim. Jacks and a rascal named Bisbee held us up
yesterday afternoon while Perry got away on Chub's wheel. Jacks and
Bisbee tried to keep us bottled up in a hole in the rocks all night;
but we managed to get away. Chub's going to look around for his
father, and I'm going to take his father's location notice to Phoenix.
Seen anything of Perry?"
"_Seen_ anything of him?" muttered Delray; "well, I should say I had!
He came puffing along here yesterday afternoon, on Chub's motor-cycle,
and I jumped for the road and headed him off. He tried to run me down,
but I grabbed him. Why, he was all night in the house with me. He
begged me to let him go, and tried to bribe me, but I was thinking of
Chub and held onto him. About half an hour ago Tom Clipperton rode
up on horseback. He was looking for you and Chub. I stepped out to
talk with him, and while I was explaining the situation, we heard the
popping of that motor-cycle, and saw Perry darting along the road. I
had a rope on Perry's hands, and how he ever got rid of it is more'n I
know. Clipperton took after him just a-smoking, but he might as well
have tried to chase a lightning express-train on a hand-car. I ran down
the road a ways, and was just coming back when I saw you."
All this set Matt's nerves to tingling. Here was an unexpected stroke
of luck. Perry had been held up all night at the Bluebell! Even though
he had got away, there was a chance to overtake him. Matt flung down
the can, adjusted the needle-valve of the gasoline shut-off which he
had found out of order, and tried the motor. She took the spark finely,
and was apparently in as good shape as before she had "bucked" with
Perry.
"Bully for you, Del!" cried Matt. "Perry leads me by half an hour?"
"Yes; but that's a whole lot, and----"
Matt did not hear the rest. He was off down the road, with the
cylinders sweetly purring and the rubber tires kicking up a cloud of
dust.
The fatigue of his night work dropped from him, and he felt as fresh
and fit as though he had had his usual amount of rest and sleep.
Once more his face was set toward Phoenix, and he felt equal to
anything.