CHAPTER VII.
TRAPPED.
Matt saw that McGlory had managed, like himself, to stay with thecar, then both motor boys had a flash-light glimpse of the marinerricochetting through the atmosphere and striking earth right side up bythe track. But Bunce did not remain in an upright position. The forcewith which he had been thrown launched him into a series of eccentriccartwheels, and when he finally stopped turning he was in a sittingposture, with his back against a bowlder.
Apparently he had escaped serious injury, which was a remarkable fact,in view of the circumstances. A broken neck might easily have resulted,or, at the least, a fractured arm or leg.
"Shiver me!" gasped Bunce, dazed and bewildered by the suddenness of itall.
Then Motor Matt's and McGlory's shocked senses laid hold of anotherdetail of the situation which was most astounding.
The green patch had been shaken from the mariner's head, and he waspeering around him with two good eyes!
"Tell me about that!" roared McGlory, pointing. "Look at his lamps,Matt! He's got two!"
"I see," answered Matt grimly. "Suppose we approach closer, Joe, andfind out about this."
Bunce watched the boys descend from the speeder and advance upon him,but there was still a dazed gleam in his eyes which proved that he wasslow in recovering his wits.
"Are you all right, Bunce?" asked Matt, reaching the mariner's side andbending down.
"That--that craft must have--have turned a handspring," mumbled Bunce."Purty tolerable blow we had, mates, an' I was snatched away fromthe bench, an' tossed overboard. It was done so quick I--I hardlyknowed what was goin' on. By the seven holy spritsails! it's a wonderI'm shipshape an' all together." He got up slowly and began feelinggingerly of his arms and legs. "Nothin' busted, I guess," he added.
The ground where he had landed was cushioned with sand. To this fact,more than to anything else, he owed his escape from injury.
McGlory picked up the green patch.
"Here's an ornament you dropped during that ground-and-lofty tumbling,you old tinhorn," said he. "What did you wear it for, anyhow?"
"Blow me tight!" exclaimed Bunce, staring at the patch with fallingjaw. "Ain't that reedic'lous?" he added, with a feeble attempt to treatthe matter lightly.
"It is rather ridiculous, Bunce, and that's a fact," answered Matt."You've a pair of very good eyes, it seems to me, and what's the goodof that patch?"
The mariner grabbed the bit of green cloth and pulled the string overhis head.
"I never said I'd lost one o' my lamps," he averred, settling the patchin place. "Off Table Mountain, South Africy, a cable parted on the ole_Hottentot_, an' I was hit in the eye with a loose rope's end. For awhile, I thought I was goin' blind. But I didn't, only the eye has beenweak ever sence, an' needs purtection. That's why I wear the patch."
"You've got it over the wrong eye, Bunce," observed McGlory. "You'vebeen wearing it over the left eye, and now it's over the right. Haveyou got any clear notion which eye was hit with that rope's end?"
Bunce hastily changed the position of the patch.
"I'm that rattled," said he, "that I'm all ahoo, an' don't rightly knowwhat I'm about. I----"
For an instant he stared up the track, breaking off his words abruptly;then, without any further explanation, he whirled and rushed for thetimber.
With a yell of anger, McGlory started after him.
"Come back, Joe!" shouted Matt. "Here come some men who seem to havebusiness with us."
The cowboy whirled to an about face, and followed with his eyes thedirection of his chum's pointing finger.
Four men in flannel shirts and overalls, and carrying spades, picks,and tamping irons, were hurrying up the track in the direction of thecurve.
"The section gang!" muttered McGlory.
"A good guess," laughed Matt. "We've been trapped."
"Trapped?"
"That's the way it looks to me. We were seen coming down the mountainand those men, recognizing the speeder, laid the tie across the railsto catch the thieves."
"Sufferin' kiboshes, but here's a go! This comes of trying to fill thebill for an old tinhorn like Bunce."
"Ketched!" yelled one of the approaching men, flourishing a tampingiron; "we've ketched the robbers that run off with Mulvaney's speeder!Don't you make no trouble," he added, slowing his pace and coming morewarily.
The other three men spread out and then closed in, barring escape forthe motor boys in every direction.
"You've made a mistake," said Matt.
"Oh, sure!" jeered the section boss, "but I reckon we'll take ye toCatskill, an' let ye tell the superintendent all about the mistake."
"Don't be in a rush about taking us to Catskill," threatened McGlory."You listen to what Motor Matt says, and I reckon he'll make the layoutclear to you."
"Motor Matt!" returned the boss ironically. "Why don't ye say ye're thegovernor o' the State, or somethin' like that? Ye might jest as well.Motor Matt ain't stealin' speeders an' runnin' off with 'em."
The king of the motor boys had become pretty well known in theCatskills through his previous work in recovering the ruby for TsanTi. Even these section men had heard of his exploits. Matt, seeing theimpression his cowboy pard's words had made, resolved to prove hisidentity in the hope of avoiding trouble.
"What my chum says is true, men," he declared. "I am Motor Matt. Wedidn't steal the railroad speeder. That was done by the man who waswith us--the fellow who ran away. You saw him, didn't you?"
"Sure we saw him," answered the section boss, "but I wouldn't try toput it all off onto him, if I was you."
"Sufferin' blockheads!" rumbled McGlory. "Use your brains, if you'vegot any, can't you? Do we look like thieves?"
"Can't most always tell from a feller's looks what he is," returned theboss skeptically. "And this other chap can't be Motor Matt, nuther, orhe wouldn't have stole the speeder. That there speeder has been missin'for three days, an' orders has gone out, up an' down the line, for allhands to watch out for it. When I seen it comin' down the grade, Iknowed we had ye. All we done was to throw that tie acrost the track,an' the trick was done. Ye'll have to go to Catskill, that's all aboutit."
"Are you men from Catskill?" inquired Matt.
"No, Tannersville, but Catskill's the place you're wanted. We'll put yeon the passenger, when it comes along."
"But we don't want to go back to Catskill just yet," Matt demurred."We've got business here, and it can't be put off."
Matt believed that Bunce had run to get away from the section men, who,he must have realized, had caused the speeder's mishap in the hope ofcatching the ones who had stolen the car. There was yet a chance, Mattthought, to overhaul Bunce and find Grattan. To go back to Catskill,just then, would have been disastrous to the work he and McGlory weretrying to do under the mariner's leadership.
"Sure ye don't want to go to Catskill," went on the section boss,"right now, or any other time. But ye're goin', all the same. Grab 'em,you men," and the boss shouted the order to the three who had groupedthemselves around Matt and McGlory.
"Hands off!" shouted the cowboy.
Matt saw him jerk the revolver from his pocket, and aim it at the manwho was reaching to lay hold of him. The man fell back with an oath ofconsternation.
"Don't do that, Joe!" cried Matt.
"Oh, no," sneered the boss, "you fellers ain't thieves, I guess!What're you pullin' a gun on us for, if ye ain't?"
"I'm not going to argue the case with you any further," Matt answeredshortly. "We're going back to Catskill after a while, but not now. Whenwe get there we'll report to your superintendent and explain how wehappened to be aboard the stolen speeder. I was intending to return thecar to the railroad company as soon as we had got through with it, andthen----"
"Sure ye was!" mocked the boss. "Ye wasn't intendin' to do anythin' butwhat was right an' lawful--to hear ye tell it. We got ye trapped, an'I ain't goin' to fool with ye any longer. Put down that gun, you!" andhe whirled savagely upon M
cGlory. "We're goin' to take ye, an' if youdo any shootin' ye'll find yerselves in a deeper hole than what ye arenow."
"You keep away from me," scowled McGlory, still holding the weaponleveled, "and keep your men away from me. Try to touch either ofus, and this gun will begin to talk. We're not thieves, but that'ssomething we can't pound into your thick head, so we're going to attendto our business in spite of you."
The section boss was a man of courage, and was resolute in hisintention to take the boys to Catskill. Certainly, so far asappearances went, he had the right of the matter, and Matt didn't feelthat he could explain the exact situation with any chance of having hiswords believed.
"Here's where I'm comin' for ye," proceeded the section boss, "an' ifyou shoot, you'll be tagged with more kinds o' trouble than you cantake care of. Now----"
The section boss got no farther. Just at that moment the rumble of atrain coming up the grade could be heard. Instantly the attention ofthe section boss was called to another matter.
"The passenger!" he cried, jumping around and staring at the speederand the tie. "There'll be a wreck if we don't clear the track. Come on,men! Hustle!"
The peril threatening the passenger train banished from the minds ofthe section men all thought of the boys. All four of the gang ran toremove the obstructions from the rails.
"Come on, pard!" said McGlory; "now's our chance."
Matt, with a feeling of intense relief, bounded after his chum, andthey were soon well away in the timber.
Motor Matt's Mariner; or, Filling the Bill for Bunce Page 7