CHAPTER III.
THE MAN AT THE ROADSIDE.
Back past Hop Loo's adobe Matt drove the car, and on into the opencountry. For five or six miles the road ran as straight as an arrow,and was almost as level and smooth as a boulevard. Ahead of them, asthey moved forward, the boys could see the marks left by the wheelswhen the car had passed over the road headed toward town. No otherpneumatic tires had left a trail in the dust.
"I bed you somet'ing, Matt," remarked Carl, "dot dis car don'd pelongpy Ash Fork."
"There's only one car owned in Ash Fork," said Matt, "and that belongsto the cattleman I came to the town to see. From the looks of the road,no car has come into town or gone out of it for several hours, exceptthis one. Keep a sharp watch on your side of the road, Carl. We've gotto find the place where the car stopped while the driver was lashingthe wheel and getting out."
"Py shinks, I haf peen vatching as sharp as some veasels, aber I don'dsee nodding."
Matt was covering the back trail slowly, so that no clues which mighthave been left in the road could get away from his keen eyes.
For a long time neither he nor Carl saw anything of importance; andthen, suddenly, when they were about four miles from town, Matt's sharpglance showed him something that caused him to bring the car to a quickstop.
"Vat it iss?" asked Carl excitedly.
"Get down and I'll show you," answered Matt.
When they were both in the road, beside the car, Matt pointed to a spotclose to the wheel-marks left by the car on its trip into town.
"Py shinks," muttered Carl, pushing his fingers through his carrotyhair in a puzzled way, "dot looks schust like some feller had t'rowed abag der car off. Dose marks in der dust look schust like dey vas mademit some pags."
"It must have been a bag that could move, then," said Matt.
"Huh?" queried Carl, his bewilderment growing.
Matt showed him how the broad mark in the dust had moved toward theroadside.
"And that bag, as you call it, Carl," continued Matt, "wasn't thrownout. If I'm figuring this thing right, it _fell_ out."
"Hoop-a-la!" exulted Carl admiringly, "you vas some Sherlock Holmes,I bed you. How you make dot figuring, anyvay? I know as mooch as you,meppy, oof I could only t'ink oof it. You tell me somet'ing, und den Iknow."
Matt stepped toward the side of the road opposite from that where thebroad, flat mark ran toward the edge.
"You see, Carl," he explained, "this road isn't quite so level here.There's a bit of a ridge, and when the car came into town, the wheelson the left side went over that ridge, tilting the machine to theright. What you call the bag dropped over the right side and into theroad."
"Yah, so! Und ven it hit der road it moofed mit itseluf. Funnypitzness. Der furder vat ve go, der less vat ve know, hey? Vat next,Matt?"
"We'll follow the trail and see where it leads."
"Sure! Aber ve don'd vant to go too far avay from der car. Somegoot-for-nodding fellers might come along und shnook it on us."
"I don't think we'll have to go very far, Carl."
"Veil, be jeerful. Vatefer ve findt, Matt, schust be jeerful. Oof Ican't go py Tenfer in dot car it vill be a plow in der face; aber vatchund see how I took it."
Low bushes lined the roadside. Matt, not paying much attention toCarl's last remarks, was moving off in the direction of the bushes,following the strange broad trail.
Parting the branches at the outer edge of the thicket, he moved intothe tangled undergrowth. Carl, who was pushing along behind him,saw him stoop down and disappear below the tops of the bushes. Thenext moment, the Dutch boy heard a startled exclamation, and Mattstraightened up quickly. His face, which he turned toward Carl, hadgone suddenly white.
"Come here, Carl!" he called.
"You findt der moofing pag, hey?" asked Carl, floundering through thebrush.
Then, a second later, Carl's face also blanched.
Coming close to Matt, and looking down, he saw the form of a man curledup in a little cleaned space in the thicket. The man's hat lay besidehim, and about his forehead was tied a blood-stained handkerchief. Hisface was pallid and deathlike, and his eyes were closed.
"Himmelblitzen!" whispered Carl. "Iss he deadt, I vonder?"
Matt knelt down and laid a hand on the man's breast; then, lifting upone of his limp wrists, he pressed his fingers against the pulse.
"He's alive," said Matt.
"Den it vasn't a pag vat tropped oudt oof der car----"
"It was this man," cut in Matt. "He was sitting in the driver's seat.When the car pitched to the right he was too weak to hold himself in,so he fell into the road."
"Und hurt his head ven he fell!"
"No, he must have hurt his head before he fell. It wasn't so very longago, Carl, that he took his header from the car, and that bandage musthave been around his temples for two or three hours, at least."
"Den vat? Oof he vas too veak to shtay py der car, how he tie der veellike vat it vas?"
"He must have been running the car and steering. Feeling his strengthgoing, he lashed the wheel in order to keep the machine on a straightcourse. Probably he hoped the car would get him into town."
"How you t'ink he vas hurt?"
"Give it up. It looks like foul play to me."
"Ach, blitzen! Dot's schust vat I say: Der more vat ve hunt aroundt derless vat ve find oudt."
The man was well dressed, and thirty-five or forty years old.
"Anyhow," said Matt, "he must have been the owner of the car. Ishouldn't wonder if some one had robbed him."
"Den der roppers didn't know deir pitzness, Matt," returned Carl. "Seedot pig, goldt chain in his vest! Und look at here vonce." Carl bentover and pulled a fine gold watch from the vest pocket. "Vat vas derroppers t'inking aboudt ven dey held der feller oop und didn't takedis? Und den, again, dere iss der car. Vy didn't dey shdeal dot, hey?No, I bed you, it vasn't roppers. It vas somet'ing else vat gif dotpoor feller a crack on der headt."
"Some one may have _tried_ to rob him, Carl," said Matt. "The car is afast one, and it's easy to guess that he got away."
"Vell, meppy. My prain vas all in kinks und I don'd know noddingsaboudt it."
"The quickest way to find out what happened is to get the man to AshFork and into a doctor's hands. We ought to do that, anyway, and thequicker we do it the better. Let's take him and put him in the tonneau."
"Dot's der talk!"
Matt stepped to the man's head and started to lift him by theshoulders. As the limp form was slowly raised something dropped out ofhip pocket.
"Py chimineddy!" exploded Carl. "Vait a leedle, Matt. See vat iss dis."
Matt waited while Carl stooped and picked up an object that glitteredin the sunlight.
"A revolver!" exclaimed Matt
"Yah, so! Der feller vent heeled mit himseluf. Meppy he vas expecdingdrouble?"
"That may be! or, if he was touring through this part of the country,it would only have been a wise policy to carry arms. Any bullets in thegun, Carl?"
The Dutch boy examined the weapon.
"Dere iss doo empty shells und four goot vones," he announced. "He musthaf fired a gouple oof dimes."
"Well, drop the gun in your pocket and let's get him to the car."
Thereupon the unconscious form was picked up and carried out of thethicket and into the road. Close to the car the burden was laid downwhile the tonneau door was opened.
"After the man fell from the car," said Matt, "he had to drag himselfinto the bushes."
"Vy vas dot? Oof he hat shtaid in der roadt somepody who vas passingvould haf seen him."
"He may have had his reasons for getting out of sight. Anyhow, the onlyway for us to get to the bottom of this thing is by taking the man totown and having a doctor look after him."
When Carl had opened the door and thrown the two packages of laundryfrom the seat into the bottom of the car, the boys picked the man upagain and heaved him into the tonneau.
While he was being lifted s
omething else dropped out of his pockets andfell on the foot-board with a muffled _thump_.
"Iss dot anoder gun?" puffed Carl, who was in the tonneau and fixingthe man on the seat.
"Not exactly," answered Matt, taking the object from the running-boardand holding it up.
It was a small green bag.
"See vat iss inside alreaty," suggested Carl. "Meppy it vill gif us aline on who der feller iss."
The bag was of heavy silk, and its mouth was closed with a silken cord.To open the bag took only a moment, and Matt thrust in his hand anddrew out several small spheres about the size of so many peas. Theywere dark in color and cast off a lustrous gleam in the sun's rays.
Matt stared at the little objects in amazement.
"Chee grickets!" grunted Carl. "Vy he vas carrying pills in a silk pag?He must be a great feller!"
"Pills!" exclaimed Matt. "You're 'way wide of the mark, Carl. These arenot pills, but pearls--black pearls, the rarest gems that come out ofthe sea. There--there's a fortune in this green bag!"
Motor Matt's Mystery; or, Foiling a Secret Plot Page 3