CHAPTER V.
AN ODD TANGLE.
In a flash Motor Matt recalled what McGlory had told him among thesand dunes beyond the Presidio barracks. He had described a fellow,about his own heft and height, whom he named as George Lorry. Could itbe that Matt had picked up the very chap McGlory was looking for? AndMcGlory had referred to him as his cousin!
Matt hurried forward to where the so-called Thompson was struggling toget away from the cowboy.
"Hands off of me, McGlory!" panted the bedraggled youth. "You haven'tany right to lay a finger on me, and you know it!"
"I haven't, eh?" growled McGlory. "Well, you just try to bolt, and I'llgive you a run for your alley. You're a pretty specimen, ain't you? Oh,shucks! I'm plumb disgusted with you, and so's everybody else. What doyou suppose the folks think, back in Madison?"
There was an exasperated rattle in the other's throat, but words andstrength failed him, all at once, and he drooped limply in McGlory'sarms.
"He's played out, Joe," said Matt. "Let him sit down for a minute andrest."
"What a mess he's made of this business," muttered McGlory angrily, ashe allowed the flabby form he was holding to slip down on the roughcobblestones. "He hasn't as much sense as the law allows, and you canspread your blankets and go to sleep on that."
"You're positive he's the fellow you were looking for, Joe?" inquiredMatt.
"Positive? Why, pard, I know him as well as I know my own picture inthe looking-glass. See that scar?" and he indicated a thin red lineover his cousin's right eyebrow. "I don't need even that to prove whohe is," McGlory added.
"He told me his name was Thompson, and that he lived in Sausalito."
"He's liable to talk anything but straight--_now_. Let's get himsomewhere to a hotel. Sufferin' sand hills! his folks would throw a fitif they could see him like this. His name's George Lorry, and he livesin Madison, Wisconsin. What's more, he's a cousin of mine, althoughthat's nothing to congratulate myself about." McGlory bent down. "Ableto walk, George?"
"Yes," was the sullen rejoinder.
"Any particular place you'd like to be taken?"
"Bixler House, around in Kearney Street. Get a cab."
"Got any money, George?"
Lorry's hands went slowly into his pockets.
"All I had with me is in the bottom of the bay," he answered sulkily.
"I don't think I can dig up enough to pay for a cab, but I reckon it'sjust as well for us to ride."
"I'll foot the bill," chimed in Matt. "Here, Ping!"
Ping was almost as hard a sight as was Lorry, but he came blandlyforward in his bare feet.
"Yasso, Missul Matt," said he.
"Go and get a cab for us, Ping."
"Allee light. My workee fo' you," and he darted away along the street.
"I thought there was something queer about Lorry," remarked Matt.
"It's queerer than you think. Matt," replied McGlory. "The whole yarn,when you go over it from end to end and crossways, is enough to make afeller's hair stand like the fur on a buffalo robe."
Lorry looked up with a scowl.
"How did you know where I was?" he demanded.
"Didn't you buy a ticket to San Francisco?"
"I bought a ticket to Chicago."
"And from there, George, you bought one for here. Think you could foolthe wise boys your father had scramblin' around Chicago lookin' you up?I got a telegram at Tucson asking me to hustle for 'Frisco, and do whatI could to locate you. I've been in this burg for a week, and had justabout made up my mind you'd taken a boat for somewhere on t'other sideof the Pacific. And to think you were riding from Tiburon on the samecraft that was carrying me!"
"I saw you on the boat, and I jumped overboard to get away from you."
McGlory went up into the air and came down with an astounded look atMatt.
"Say something about that!" he gasped. "Sufferin' Hottentots, Matt,did you hear him? He jumped overboard to get away from his cousin, JoeMcGlory! Don't tell me, George!" he growled to Lorry. "You're not sucha fool as that comes to. We're out of the same family, mind, and I'dhate to think it."
"You--you don't know everything," faltered Lorry.
"Keno, I don't; but I'm goin' to know everything, George Lorry, beforewe part company."
All this, of course, was more or less Greek to Motor Matt. It was clearenough that George Lorry had come of good stock, and equally clearthat he had been pampered and spoiled. As for the rest of it, Matt wascompletely in the dark.
Just at that moment the cab arrived. As it drew up, Ping Pong threwopen the door and jumped out.
"My gottee, Missul Matt!" he chirruped. "My workee fo' you, huh?"
"For a while, yes, Ping," Matt answered, unable just then to think ofany other satisfactory method for dealing with the Chinaman. "Stay hereand watch the boat till I come back. Savvy?"
"Can do," crowed Ping Pong, "you bettee. My workee fo' Motol Matt.Hoop-a-la!"
The Chinese boy seemed as delighted as he had been over in Tiburon,when ticket number 73 won the boat. He had insisted on working forMatt, and the pleasant feeling that comes with a job brought a grin tohis face and satisfaction to his soul.
Matt, McGlory, and Lorry loaded themselves into the cab, and weredriven away in the direction of Kearney Street.
"Let's get right down to cases, George," said the cowboy when they werewell on their way. "First off, just understand that I'm your friend,that I'm representin' the folks back in Madison, and that I haven'ttrailed you to get back those ten thousand plunks."
With an effort, Lorry braced back in his seat and pushed the stragglinghair out of his eyes.
"I didn't know what you were after, McGlory," he answered; "but Iwasn't going to be bagged by _you_. When I'm ready to go home I'mready, and not before."
"Oh, you ain't?" grunted the cowboy sarcastically.
"That's flat. The folks haven't treated me right, and they know it.They----"
"Oh, cut that out," growled McGlory wearily. "Haven't you got anysense, or are you just half fake and half false alarm? The trouble withUncle Dan and Aunt Mollie is that they've done a heap too much foryou. If you'd had to knock about the mines and cattle ranges, same asme, earnin' your grub by hard knocks, I reckon you'd see things a lotdifferent."
"I know my own business," snapped Lorry. "You haven't been in Madisonfor a year, Joe McGlory, and you don't know how the old man has beenrubbing my fur the wrong way. I told him I wouldn't stand for it--and Ididn't."
"You're a pill!" snorted McGlory, in a temper.
"What's more," pursued Lorry, in a temper that matched his cousin's,"I'm not going to take any insolence from you. You're nothing but arowdy, anyhow. Your father was a rowdy----"
McGlory leaned over and dropped a hard hand on Lorry's knee.
"That'll do you, my buck," said he, his low voice ringing like steel."While my father was alive he had my respect, and I did what he told meto. What's more, he steered me plumb right. He didn't have the moneyyour father had, but that wasn't his fault. As for the rest, justremember that my mother was your mother's sister. Whenever I go to thathill, just out of Tucson, where those two mounds are heaped up, side byside, I can stand between 'em and say, with a clear conscience, thatI'm livin' square. In my place, George Lorry, you couldn't do that, andyou know it."
McGlory's eyes flashed, and, on the instant, the liking Matt hadalready conceived for the cowboy intensified into a fast and enduringfriendship. Joe McGlory had character, and the right kind of an outlookupon life.
At that moment the cab came to a halt.
"Here's the place," announced McGlory, pushing open the door, "and afine old honkatonk it is. I've been to this place huntin' for you.Wonder why I didn't find you?"
"Probably," was the sarcastic comment of Lorry, "you didn't ask forThompson."
Matt paid the driver of the cab, and then followed McGlory and hiscousin into the dilapidated building. A frowsy-looking clerk bestirredhimself and leaned over the counter, his curious gaze
centring on Lorry.
"Gee Christopher!" he exclaimed, "is that you, Mr. Thompson?"
"Give me the key to my room," snarled Lorry.
The key was handed over, and Lorry led the way out of the room and upa flight of narrow stairs. A hall was traversed, and near the end ofit Lorry unlocked a door, and bolted across the threshold. McGloryrushed after him, and when Matt stepped into the bare little room, thecowboy was jerking a revolver out of his cousin's hand. The drawer of abureau, at one side of the room, was open.
"Now what do you think!" cried McGlory, whirling away and pushingthe revolver into his pocket. "He yanked this pepper box out of thatdrawer, Matt, and turned it on himself. With all his highfalutin' airs,that cousin o' mine hasn't got the backbone of a jellyfish. Look athim! Did you ever see any one of his age and size with less manlinessin his make-up?"
Matt turned and looked at Lorry. The next moment Lorry stumbled to thebed and fell on it at full length, burying his face in the pillow.
Motor Matt's Launch; or, A Friend in Need Page 5