Motor Matt's Triumph; or, Three Speeds Forward

by Stanley R. Matthews

  CHAPTER XI.

  RUNNING DOWN A CLUE.

  Chub McReady had no very clear idea why Carl was displaying so muchhostility toward Slocum. The bell-boy had mentioned Slocum's name inconnection with carrying the pitcher of water to Matt's room, and Chubsupposed Carl was to do some questioning along that line. The drawingof the revolver not only surprised Chub, but led him to believe thatSlocum had a guilty conscience and was ready to go any length indefending himself.

  "This is an infernal outrage, by gad!" cried Slocum. "What do you youngruffians mean by setting upon me like that?"

  As he spoke he picked up a newspaper and threw it over the table. Itwas an odd move for a man to make at such a time.

  "Vat do you mean py making some moofs mit a gun?" demanded Carl.

  "Why, you pie-faced Dutchman, why shouldn't I pull a gun when I'm setupon like that? I was just leaving my room to go down to breakfast whenyou began to climb all over me. What's the matter with you, anyhow?"

  "Pie-face!" gasped Carl; "you call me dot! Py chincher, you haf got aface like some hedge fences, und you haf a heart vat iss so plack unddricky as I can't dell. Vat you do ven you meed der poy pringing somevater py Modor Matt's room lasdt nighdt? Tell me dot!"

  "Do? I sent him down to see if there was any mail for me. What businessis that of yours, anyway? Give me that gun and get out of here, both ofyou!"

  Slocum gave the paper another hitch on the table. Chub was alreadyguessing about the moves he had made with that paper, and what he sawnow brought his guessing to the suspecting stage. Stepping to thetable, he cast the paper aside. A small bottle, half-full of some drug,lay on the table. Slocum, with a quick sweep of his hand grabbed thebottle away.

  "He's got somet'ing he don'd vant us to see!" exclaimed Carl.

  "I'm next to that, all right," said Chub. "Put it back on the table,Slocum," he added sharply. "Don't be a mutt. I'm from Arizona, and wedon't speak twice when we back up our first talk with a gun."

  "This is my property!" faltered Slocum, peering shiftily into Chub'ssteady eyes.

  "You're so blamed careful of it that I'd about made up my mind itbelonged to you. Anyhow, drop it on the table. Last call!"

  Slocum laid the bottle down.

  "By gad," he blustered, "somebody'll pay for this!"

  "Look out it ain't you," grinned Chub. "Pick it up, Carl, and we'lltake it down to the office, where we can look it over."

  "Take that away from here," fumed Slocum, "and I'll----"

  As Carl picked up the bottle Slocum made a grab at him.

  "Steady!" warned Chub. "Now duck, Carl. We've found out all we can inthis place."

  With the bottle in his hand Carl walked out of the room. Chub backedout. Taking the key out of the door, he dropped the revolver on thecarpet, jumped into the hall, slammed the door and locked it on theoutside.

  "That's to give him a chance to get over his mad spell before he triedto shoot," Chub grinned as he rejoined Carl and they took their waydown-stairs.

  "You don'd know aboudt dot feller und Matt," said Carl, "und I villdell you. Den you vill know vat I know und ve can guess oudt der resdttogedder."

  They went out on the porch and took a couple of chairs; then Carltold how Slocum had called on Matt, in Denver, claimed he was ColonelPlympton and, by trickery, got him to sign a paper that had lost himthe opportunity of driving a car for the Stark-Frisbie Company.

  Chub scowled.

  "I sized him up for bein' pretty low-down," said he, "but I hadn't anynotion he'd pull off a trick like that. What did he do it for?"

  Carl went on with an account of the doings of Sercomb and his gang.Chub's wrath had been mounting by swift degrees.

  "That's a fine lay-out!" he growled savagely. "The gang has donesomething to Matt, that's a cinch. But what? Matt goes off by himself,bag and baggage, at midnight, looking like he was locoed. Queerestthing I ever heard of!"

  Before Carl could make any comment, Mr. Trueman came up the porch stepsand started toward him.

  "Matt was to meet me at the garage this morning at eight o'clock," saidhe, "and we were to talk over some important matters. Why didn't hecome, Carl?"

  "Dot's vat ve don'd know, Misder Drooman," answered Carl gloomily."Modor Matt don'd been aroundt der hodel since mitnighdt."

  Trueman stood as though stunned.

  "Matt hasn't been at the hotel since midnight?" he repeated blankly.

  "Dot's vat's der madder. Dere has peen some keveer pitzness going on indis blace, you bed my life, und vere Matt iss ve don'd know."

  Trueman drew a handkerchief from his pocket and passed it across hisface; then he dropped into a chair.

  "If anything has happened to King, now," said he, "it will be prettynearly the last straw. Tell me all about this thing--give me the wholeof it, and be as quick as you can."

  Between them Carl and Chub contrived to give Trueman a fairly lucididea of what they had done and what they had discovered.

  Trueman, an ominous frown on his face, took the bottle which Carl hadbrought away from Slocum's room. The label contained but the two words,"_Cannibis indica_."

  "It's a drug of some sort," he muttered, holding the bottle up betweenhis eyes and the light and shaking it. "Matt has told me all aboutSlocum's double dealing, and how the fellow is working with Sercomb andhis gang. Do you suppose Slocum merely sent the bellboy down after themail for a bluff?"

  "Bluff!" echoed Chub. "What kind of a bluff?"

  "Why, so he'd be alone with the pitcher of water long enough to emptysome of the contents of this bottle into it."

  Carl and Chub were astounded.

  "Dot's vat he dit, und I bed you anyt'ing vat I got!" cried Carl.

  "He doped Matt's drinking-water," averred Chub, "and that's thestraight of it. I move we go upstairs and lay the tin-horn by theheels. If he's doing that sort of business he ought to be in thecalaboose."

  "We'll go up and have a talk with him," said Trueman. "Unless he cangive a good explanation of what this bottle of stuff is for, we'll walkhim over to the jail and land him behind the bars."

  A hurried trip was made to the second floor, but Trueman and the boyswere too late. Slocum had got someone to open the door for him and hewas gone.

  "Ach, plazes!" said Carl angrily; "ve ought to haf pud some ropes onhim so dot he couldn't ged avay. Dot's vere ve vas lame, Chub. Now howve going to findt oudt vere iss Modor Matt?"

  "Slocum, guilty or innocent, wouldn't be able to help us find Matt,"spoke up Trueman. "The thing for us to do is to hunt up a doctor andfind out just what effect this _cannibis indica_ has on a person. Itmay be that we're on the wrong track entirely."

  There was a doctor in the office building next the hotel. His name wasDavis. He was an old doctor, but a knowing one.

  "_Cannibis indica_," said he, "is a drug that has a very powerfuleffect upon the brain. It is not dangerous if taken in a small amount.A small dose of it would not induce a state of lethargy, but would bemore apt to unhinge a person's mind and cause him to do things of whichhe would have no remembrance when the effect wore away."

  "How long would the effect last?" asked Trueman anxiously.

  "That would depend altogether upon the amount that was taken. In thiscase, two or three days, perhaps."

  When Trueman and the boys left the doctor's office the mystery wascleared as to the cause of Matt's sudden departure, but was as deep asever concerning his present whereabouts.

  "For several days," said Trueman, "Matt's enemies have held back. Isuppose they planned this thing so as to work it at just the right timeto keep Matt out of the race. If he doesn't get back here before longI'll raise Cain with the scoundrels who had a hand in the work. I'mgoing to see the authorities and have them telegraph and telephone tothe surrounding towns. While I'm busy about that, you boys return tothe hotel, get a duplicate key of the room, and take the pitcher ofwater you find there over to Dr. Davis. Ask him to find out if any ofthe _cannibis indica_ was mixed with it. I'm fairly positive as to whathis answe
r will be, but this is a case where we've got to be sure ofevery step."

  By noon the telegraph and telephone had carried their alarm into theneighboring country. The town was being searched, not only for Matt,but also for Slocum. Dr. Davis had declared that the water in thepitcher had contained a strong solution of the drug. Circumstantialevidence connected Slocum with the administering of the drug so thatthere was not the least shadow of a doubt.

  But Slocum could not be located; and neither could Matt. An afternoonof miserable anxiety passed for Carl and Chub, to be followed by a noless miserable and uneventful night.

  Monday, the day before the great race, came, bringing crowds of peopleby every train--but Motor Matt was not among them.

  Carl, as Chub expressed it, had "gone off the jump" entirely; and Chubhimself was not much better off.

  Trueman, grimly resenting what had happened to his driver, was firmlydetermined, if Matt did not present himself before the race wasstarted, to arrest every one of the Stark-Frisbie drivers.

  If the Jarrot car was to be kept out of the race for lack of a driver,Trueman would see to it that some of the other cars were left in likecondition. In levelling their contemptible plot against Motor Matt, theguilty drivers would find that they had launched a boomerang.

  This was the condition of affairs up to midnight, Monday night, and thefirst of the racers was to be started at eight sharp, Tuesday morning.