AT POTTER'S GAP.
All those rough and ready men were amazed at Motor Matt's performance.
Their interest in the boy and his machine, however, was pushed to the
background by their curiosity to learn what sort of a message the
governor had sent to Burke.
The sheriff read the message through, then slapped the letter excitedly
with the back of his hand.
"Here's a go and no mistake, boys!" he cried. "The governor and
McKibben have picked up a hot clue about that Dangerfield outfit. If
Motor Matt, here, hadn't got this message through in the time he did,
the smugglers would have got away from us."
"How's that, Burke?" asked the man Matt had met in the gap, riding
forward and joining the rest of the posse.
"First off," Burke explained, "Juan Morisco has been nabbed in Phoenix.
He was getting out of town with a wood-hauler, but he had been acting
queer, and McKibben was having him watched. While in Phoenix, Morisco
wore a piece of courtplaster on one side of his face. The wood-hauler's
team ran away, just as he and Morisco were leaving Phoenix, and, in
the excitement of catching it, the courtplaster must have got knocked
off Morisco's face. Anyhow, when McKibben saw him after the team was
stopped, there was that cross-shaped scar, plain as anything. That was
all McKibben needed to see. Morisco was taken to jail, and it was what
McKibben got out of him that concerns _us_."
"What in thunder was Juan Morisco doin' in Phoenix?" queried one of the
men. "I thought he was with Dangerfield, an' movin' this way, on the
road to Mexico."
"Morisco told McKibben," went on Burke, "that Dangerfield sent him on
an important piece of work. He also told McKibben that the smugglers
are rounded up at Tinaja Wells, and that they have heard we're waiting
for them at Potter's Gap, and that they're going to leave the Wells
to-night, give us the slip, and go south by way of the Rio Verde."
This revelation caused a tremendous amount of excitement, all the men
talking back and forth.
"How'd Dangerfield ever find out we was layin' fer him here?" asked one.
"The governor don't say anything about that; but Dangerfield must know
it, or Morisco wouldn't have been able to tell McKibben. The governor
says," proceeded Burke, glancing at the letter which he still held in
his hand, "that Morisco tells McKibben Dangerfield is going to leave
Tinaja Wells to-night, but that he--the governor, mind you--hopes to
get this letter into my hands by five o'clock this afternoon, so we'll
have a chance to rush the smugglers at the Wells by daylight." He
folded up the letter and shoved it into his pocket. "It's twenty miles
to the Wells, my lads, and if we start at once we can make it. Saddle
up in a hurry. One of you make my horse ready."
Instantly the camp became a scene of bustle and excitement. While the
men were making ready, Burke turned to Matt.
"I don't know how you ever got through in the time you did, King," he
observed. "That machine of yours must be a jim-dandy."
"It's the best ever," answered Matt.
"Tell me about your trip--just the main points."
Matt began with the red roadster and the trouble he had had with the
two men who were traveling in it.
"Dangerfield has a heap of friends through this part of the country,"
commented Burke. "There's a whole lot of people, you know, who don't
think smuggling Chinks into the United States is very much of a crime.
Dangerfield must have been expecting something to go crossways in
Phoenix and had some of his misguided friends watching McKibben. But go
ahead."
Matt told about the smoke-signals, and how they were passed on along
the rim of Castle Creek Cañon. The stern lines deepened in the
sheriff's face.
"Dangerfield was sure doing everything he could to make a safe getaway
into Mexico," said he. "They say he has fifteen men, whites and
half-breeds, working his underground railroad. I'm willing enough to
believe about those smoke-signals. The two in the red automobile sent
word ahead that you and your chum were coming. Well, did that make any
trouble for you, King?"
Matt told about the boulder which had been rolled down the side of the
notch, and which had crippled Clipperton's machine and put him out of
the running; but he did not say a word about the half-breed.
The sheriff was deeply interested in Matt's recital. By that time the
rest of the men had finished getting ready, and were pushing around
Matt and listening to his experiences. As he went on with the incident
on the divide, and the way he had escaped from the man and the dog,
several rough hands reached over to give him an admiring tap on the
shoulder.
"You're the stuff, son!" cried one of the men.
"You're a fair daisy, an' no mistake!" added another.
"If we clean up on the Dangerfield gang, it will be you as helped
more'n anybody else," dropped in a third.
"Some o' us, Burke," suggested a fourth, "mout lope acrost the divide
an' down the cañon, gatherin' in all them outposts. Each one means a
thousand apiece."
"By the time you got there, Meagher," returned the sheriff, "you
wouldn't find any of the men, so it would be a bad play. Besides, we're
liable to need our whole force over at Tinaja Wells. What are you going
to do, my boy?" he asked, turning to Matt.
"I'm going back to Phoenix," replied Matt.
"Take my advice, and don't try it to-night. It will be dark on the
divide before you could get over it, and it's a ticklish enough place
in broad day, say nothing of trying to cover the trail when you can't
see where you're going. I'll leave a blanket here for you to sleep on,
and a bottle of cold coffee, some crackers, and a hunk of 'jerked.' You
can get an early start in the morning, and probably poke this envelope
into the governor's hands at noon."
Fishing the stump of a lead-pencil out of his pocket, Burke wrote a few
words on the back of the envelope that had contained the governor's
message, and gave it to Matt.
"Before I leave, son," went on the sheriff, taking Matt's hand, "let
me say that I think you're the clear quill. You've done a big thing
to-day, and if you hadn't had more pluck and ginger than common, it's a
cinch you'd have lost out. Now it's up to us, and if we can make good,
as you did, everything will be all serene."
Burke turned away and jumped into his saddle. The rest of the men also
shook Motor Matt's hand, and then got on their horses.
"There's the blanket," called Burke, tossing a roll in front of Matt.
"_Adios_, my lad, and always remember that Burke, of Prescott, is your
friend. Spurs and quirts, boys!"
Away dashed the posse, Burke in the lead. They vanished in the
direction of the Gap, although their road to Painted Rocks and Tinaja
Wells was not to take them over the divide.
Matt was tired, and the prospect of a rest appealed to him mightily.
With a cloth taken from his toolkit, he proceeded to dust off the
_Comet_, and to look it over and make sure it had suffered no damage.
He attended to this before he looked after his own comfort.
After finishing with the machine, he spread out the sheriff's blanket
under some bushes near the spring, and ate a supper of jerked beef and
crackers and drank the bottle of coffee.
A feeling of relief and satisfaction ran through him. He had finished
his "century" run and had delivered the governor's message to Burke on
time. Now, if only Clip had been with him, his enjoyment would have
been complete.
He fell to wondering what Clip was about, and how he had expected to
help with his smoke-signals. It would have been easy for Clip, aided
by the half-breed, to send signals along the line carrying information
that the trouble was over with. But Clip had not been able to do that,
or the encounter would not have occurred on the divide.
While Matt's mind circled about his chum, darkness fell suddenly, as
it always does in Arizona, and coyotes began to yelp shrilly among the
hills. Feeling perfectly secure, Matt lay back, pulled the side of the
blanket over him, and fell asleep.
He must have slept several hours, when he was aroused by a rustling in
the bushes near him, and a sound as of some animal sniffing about his
camp. Reaching for the bottle that had contained the coffee, he threw
it into the brush. There followed a yelp, and the animal--coyote or
wolf--could be heard scurrying away.
Getting up, Matt walked down to the spring and took a drink. As he
lifted himself erect, far off across the hills toward the north and
west he saw a fiery line rise in the air and burst into a dozen flaming
balls. Perhaps a minute later the rocket was answered by another, off
to the south.
"There's a whole lot going on in these hills to-night," thought Matt,
returning to his blanket. "By this time, I guess, Burke and his men
must have reached Tinaja Wells and done their work there. The smuggling
of Chinks across the Mexican border is getting a black eye in this part
of the country, all right."
Once more Matt fell asleep. When he was aroused again it was by a sound
of voices close at hand. He started up quickly, rubbing the sleep out
of his eyes.
Morning had come, and in the gathering light he looked through the
bushes and off toward the spring. Two men were standing by the pool,
one an American and the other a Mexican. They were both travel-stained
and looked as though they had been doing some hard riding.
The American was dressed after the fashion prevailing in the hills, and
had a couple of revolvers dangling at his hips. Each man had a horse,
and the animals looked worn and tired.
Matt wondered who the two travelers could be, for he could not remember
having seen either of them among the sheriff's men. As he gave the
Mexican more critical attention he was amazed to discover that he was
the wood-hauler who had fled from Phoenix at the time McKibben had
arrested Juan Morisco.
_This_ was a disquieting discovery, and Matt thought that if he could
levant without being seen it would be well for him to do so. The
_Comet_ was not far away, and Matt got on his knees and began crawling
toward it.
A bit of brush snapped under him, however, and startled exclamations
escaped the two men. Matt sprang up, with the intention of making
a run for the motor-cycle, but before he had taken two steps, an
authoritative voice shouted: "Halt!"
Over his shoulder he could see that the American was pointing a
revolver at him. Matt halted, of course. There was no reason in the
world why the two men should interfere with him, and now that he had
been unable to slip away unnoticed he faced them boldly.