COMING OF THE "COMET."
Matt hardly dared hope for success. There was a chance--perhaps one
chance in a hundred--that everything would work as it should, and Penny
arrive along the Black Cañon road with the _Comet_ in time for Matt to
make such a run into Phoenix as was never heard of before. But when
Matt thought of the many things on which success hinged, his heart
stood still before the very audacity of his thought of winning out.
In the first place, everything depended on the quickness with which a
number of intricate details were accomplished in Phoenix--and all these
were left in the hands of a girl! True, Susie McReady was a girl in a
hundred, quick-witted, and able to hustle in a pinch, but it was not to
be supposed that she could do as well as Chub would have done.
Then, Susie would have to take chances getting Major Woolford on the
phone. In the crowd at the park it might be impossible to find the
major for an hour--and it was quite likely a loss of ten minutes would
spell disaster. But if Susie _could_ get the major on the phone, Matt
knew that the energetic president of the Phoenix Club would move heaven
and earth to find Penny and start him along the Black Cañon road.
The major, too, would delay the start of the bicycle-race as long as
he could. Prescott, however, if it saw a chance to pull off the race
without Matt, was allowed to insist, under the rules governing the
contests, that the starter bring the racers to the mark on the dot.
As the difficulties before him piled steadily up under Matt's mental
view, he halted his pace, almost discouraged by the outlook. Clipperton
toiled up alongside of him.
"You shouldn't have tried to chase along with me, Clip," said Matt.
"You're pretty near all in, old man. Jupiter! but you've made a record
this day!"
"You can make a better one," panted Clipperton. "I want you to make
good. But how are you going to? Put me next."
Matt explained about Chub's wireless line, about the seven-horse-power
motor-cycle which could do sixty-five miles an hour on the high speed
if a rider was reckless enough and had the right kind of a road, and he
finished by giving the situation at the Phoenix end of the route.
Clipperton's eyes snapped and sparkled. He had been born to champion
forlorn hopes, and certainly this idea of Matt's was desperate enough
to make the biggest kind of a hit with him.
"Great!" he muttered breathlessly. "If you win it will be the biggest
thing on record. Won by wireless, and a jump of twenty miles on the
_Comet_. Fine! Motor Matt, Mile-a-minute Matt, King of the Wheel. Say,
you're a wonder."
"Not so you can notice it, Clip, not yet. Just now, all I can do is to
hope for the best."
For some time they continued on through the hills, finally reaching
a high part of the road which gave them a view of a flat stretch of
desert leading away to the Arizona Canal.
There were several canals in Salt River Valley and contiguous to
Phoenix, all constructed for irrigation purposes. It was the "Town
Canal" that ran past the McReady home, and between that and the Arizona
Canal there was still another of the artificial streams. The Arizona
Canal, however, formed the outpost of the waterways.
Pausing on the "rise," Matt and Clipperton peered across the glimmering
yellow sands. A fork in the road lay below them.
"The branch goes to Pedro Garcia's old _jacal_ and beyond," said Clip.
"Look!" he added excitedly.
Matt followed Clip's extended finger with his eyes. Off along the
branch road, trudging slowly toward the main trail, a distant form
could be seen.
"The cowboy!" muttered Matt. At that distance he could not identify the
figure, but intuition told him who it must be.
"Yes," returned Clipperton grimly. "He thinks we started for Phoenix."
"What time is it now, Clip?"
"We're four miles from the Bluebell. It's taken us an hour. So it must
be nearly three."
"Sixteen miles from Phoenix and only a little more than an hour left!
I'm expecting too much, Clip. Susie has had an hour to find the major
and get Penny started this way with the _Comet_. Somebody hasn't been
able to make good and I guess I'm let out."
"No!" shouted Clip. "What's that coming this way? See!"
Clipperton pointed along the main road where it ran in a light streak
across the desert. A cloud of dust, more like a column of smoke than
anything else, was sweeping toward the hills.
Matt held his breath as he gazed. The dust cloud seemed fairly to jump
at them; then, suddenly, the wind whipped it aside, and brave Ed Penny,
glorious old Penny, could be seen crouching upon the saddle of the
_Comet_. He was shooting for the hills like a cannon-ball.
"Hurrah!" yelled Clipperton, jerking off his cap and throwing it into
the air. "Motor Matt is going to win!"
The _Comet_ took the "rise" like a bird on the wing. Penny, covered
with dust and half-blinded, halted only when he heard Matt's voice
calling to him. Clip sprang to support the machine while Penny got off.
"That you, King?" queried Penny, dizzy and staggering.
"Yes!" shouted Matt, gripping the brave fellow's hand. "Bully boy,
Penny! How's everything at the park?"
"Panic! Mile race lost because Clip wasn't there. All Phoenix wild
because King is missing. Major red-headed. Jerked me out of the
high-school bunch and snatched me into town in his automobile; threw
me onto the _Comet_ and offered me twenty-five dollars if I'd get the
machine to you inside of an hour, and fifty dollars if you got to the
park in time for the race. Jinks, but that machine is a dandy!"
Matt and Clip were lifting the _Comet_ around. Clip held the machine
while Matt rose to the saddle.
"Wait!" roared Penny; "don't start yet."
"Why not?" asked Matt.
"Hawley is coming! See that dust? Pull the _Comet_ out here beside the
road and crouch down so we can't be seen when the dust blows away. The
driver of the car may take the other road at the forks."
Here was startling news--news that might snatch success out of Matt's
hands just when the prospect of victory seemed brightest.
Another dust cloud was coming. As the three boys drew aside and
crouched down the cloud dissipated slightly and through it they could
see Dirk Hawley's motor-car, hitting nothing but high places and
reaching for the hills like a streak.
"He saw the major grab me and rush me away from the park," explained
Penny, referring to Hawley. "His driver and another man were in the car
besides himself. They took after me. I led them by a quarter of a mile
at the bridge over the Arizona Canal. They stopped there and the man in
the tonneau with Hawley got out. The whole bunch means trouble! What's
Hawley got to do with this, anyhow?"
"He's got a lot to do with it," muttered Matt, "but I haven't time to
explain now. Ah, look at the cowboy, Clip!"
The cowboy, who was coming across fairly high ground, could be seen
waving his arms. Evidently he saw the motor-car and recognized those
who were in it.
"That does the trick!" whispered Clipperton excitedly. "Hawley was
coming along the Bluebell trail. The cowboy is drawing them into the
other road. Luck! That will clear the way so you can get past on the
_Comet_. Wait until the car is close to the cowboy. Then make a rush."
"For heaven's sake," begged Penny, "beat him in, Matt! The _Comet_ can
do it."
"The _Comet_ is going to do it," said Matt, between his teeth.
All three of the boys watched while the motor-car flung itself up the
gentle slope toward the cowboy.
"Now!" said Clip, starting up and laying hold of the _Comet_.
They trundled the machine back into the road and Matt got into the
saddle and laid hands on the grip-control.
"Ready?" cried Penny.
"Let her go!" answered Matt.
Penny and Clip gave him a shove. _Pop_, _pop_, _pop_, snapped the
motor, the explosions presently coming so fast that they sounded like a
dull roar. Off went the exhaust, and Motor Matt slipped down the slope
like a brown streak, kicking the dust up behind him.
"He'll win, he'll win!" cried Clipperton. "The men in the motor-car see
him. The cowboy is getting into the front seat alongside the driver.
They can't head him! Hurrah for Motor Matt!"
Hawley and those with him had seen the sliding streak rushing down
from the hill and making for the canal. There was a scramble about the
motor-car, a frantic cranking-up and jumping start on the high-gear.
But it was plain to the two boys on the hill that Matt would pass the
forks of the road before the car and its passengers could get there.
Penny danced around excitedly.
"Why did Hawley drop that man off at the bridge?" he fumed. "That's
what I can't understand. That man at the bridge spells trouble with a
big T. What's Hawley butting into this game for, anyway?"
"He's been plunging on O'Day," answered Clip. "He knows O'Day loses if
Matt gets to the park in time. Of course, he wants to stop him. Put two
and two together, Penny."
"That's right, Clip," explained Penny. "It's up to Matt, now."
"Leave it to him. The game couldn't be in better hands."
Then, with staring eyes, Clip and Penny watched the two dust flurries.
The cloud kicked up by the _Comet_ passed the forks of the road a full
minute ahead of the fog raised by the motor-car.
"Three groans for Hawley!" chortled Clip.
"But that man at the bridge," groaned Penny. "He sure is worrying me."