CHAPTER XVI.
A BIT OF A BACKSET.
The preparing of the a?roplane for loading was not a difficult matter.The small front planes were removed, and lashed between the two largerplanes. This narrowed the machine sufficiently so that it could beloaded into the car especially prepared for it.
After the machine had been safely stowed, the two tired lads went totheir section in the sleeper. Burton was there, sitting under a lampand hastily running over the contents of the basket.
"I guess it's all here," said he, dumping the silver and bills into thereceptacle and closing the lid. "Anyhow, I'm too much fagged to botherany more with the stuff to-night. It's about time we all turned in,don't you think?"
"I'm Ready's whole family, when it comes to that," yawned McGlory."Talk about your strenuous days! I think this has been a harder onethan that other day we put in at Lafayette, Indiana. What do you say,Matt?"
"We seem to have worked harder than we did then, and to have less toshow for it," said Matt.
"Less to show for it!" repeated Burton. "I don't know what you mean bythat, son. It isn't every day you save your flying machine from a madelephant and wrestle with a cobra on the _Comet_, in midair!"
"And it's not every day the Big Consolidated is held up, thievescaptured, and _dinero_ recovered, all before we leave town,"supplemented McGlory.
"It was exciting enough," said Matt, "but it all seems so useless."
"The hand of Ben Ali was behind it all," remarked Burton, pulling offhis shoes. "That villain ought to be run down and put behind the barsfor ninety-nine years. You'll not be safe a minute, Matt, until he'slocked up."
"I guess," ventured the king of the motor boys, "that Ben Ali, afterthis lesson, will keep away from me."
"I wish I could think so," said Burton.
"What'll you do with Dhondaram?" inquired McGlory. "You can't send himto jail in any other town for an offense he committed in Jackson."
"Sending him to jail is the last thing I'm thinking of," was Burton'sresponse. "What I want is to induce him to talk. He may give us aline on Ben Ali that will enable Matt to keep away from the wily oldvillain."
"Don't hang onto Dhondaram on my account," said Matt. "I've told BenAli what to expect if he ever comes near me again."
"That's you!" exulted McGlory. "All your scare-talk, Burton, goes cleanover Matt's head."
The showman pulled off his coat and leaned back in his seatreflectively. He did not seem to have heard McGlory's observation.
"I've got a notion," began Burton, "that----" He paused.
"What's the notion?" urged the cowboy. "It ain't like you to hang fire,Burton."
"Well," pursued Burton, "it's this way: I've got an elephant on myhands that can't be handled by any white trainer in the show. Dhondaramcan handle the brute to the queen's taste. What's the answer?"
"You don't mean to say," expostulated Matt, "that you're going to keepDhondaram with the show just to take charge of Rajah?"
"It's either that or sell the elephant," declared Burton.
"Then, sufferin' cats!" cried McGlory, "sell the brute. You're morekinds of a bungler, Burton, than I know how to lay tongue to. KeepDhondaram with the show, and he'll do something, before you're throughwith him, that will hurt."
"I'll sleep on it," muttered Burton. "I've only got four elephants, andI need Rajah."
"Schust a minid, oof you blease," came the voice of Matt's Dutch pardfrom the aisle of the car.
Matt, McGlory, and Burton turned around and saw not only Carl, but Pingas well.
"What is it, Carl?" asked Matt.
"I vant to know somet'ing," Carl went on, "und dot iss, was I innocendor guildy? Vat you say, Misder Purton?"
"Oh, splash!" exclaimed Burton, "that was settled a long time ago.Andy Carter, the ticket man, admitted that he and the Hindoo were thethieves."
"Den Modor Matt don'd haf to vork four veeks for nodding, schust forme?"
"Of course not."
"Dot's all I vanted to know, oxcept somet'ing else."
"Well, what?"
"Der Hintoo brisoner iss in der blace vere Ping shleeps. Ping vants togo to ped, und I am to haf der ubber bert'. Vat iss to be dit mit derHintoo?"
"Roll him into the aisle and let him lie there," replied Burton. "Put ablanket under him, if you want to, and give him a pillow."
"T'anks," said Carl, and the boys started away.
"Wait, Carl," called Matt. "There's a little something I want to know.How are you and Ping getting along together?"
"Finer as silk," grinned Carl. "He likes me pedder der more vat heknows me, und it's der same mit me. Shinks iss hardt to ondershtand,but I'm schust gedding ondo Ping's curves. He made a misdake in me,und now he feels pedder aboudt it. How iss dot, bard?" finished Carl,turning to the Chinaman.
"Awri'," answered Ping, although not very enthusiastically.
"That's the talk!" cried Matt heartily.
Two hours later, the second section of the show train was loaded andspeeding on its way. All was quiet in the sleeping car, save for thesnores of the tired men who occupied the bunks.
Perhaps it was two o'clock in the morning when an uproar filled thesleeper. There were yells, a revolver shot, the slamming of a door, andthen a measure of quiet.
Matt thrust his head out of his berth and saw McGlory, equally curiousand excited, looking out from the berth overhead. All up and down eachside of the car were other heads.
"What's the matter?" asked Matt.
Boss Burton, in his underclothes, was standing in the aisle, a smokingrevolver in his hand.
"Confound the luck!" he sputtered. "The Hindoo has made a getaway.I happened to wake up and to think about him, and took a look alongthe aisle from my berth, just to make sure he was safe. I thought Iwas dreaming, or had the blind staggers, or something, when I saw himsitting up. His hands were free and he was taking the rope off hisfeet. I grabbed my revolver from under my pillow and rolled into theaisle. Dhondaram had started for the door. I blazed away, did nothingbut smash a window, and the Hindoo jumped from the train."
"Are you going to stop and put back after him?" inquired Archie Le Bon.
"I guess I won't, although losing the fellow is a bit of a backset,"observed Burton regretfully.
"The show can stand all the backsets of that kind that come its way,Burton," said Harris.
"What will we do for somebody to manage Rajah?"
"Oh, hang Rajah!" said another of the Le Bon brothers. "I hope thefirst section runs into the ditch and smashes the brute. He came withinone of killin' Archie, back there in Jackson."
It was the general opinion, as the occupants of the various berthsdrew sleepily back into their beds, that it was a good thing Dhondaramescaped.
"Wonder just how much that bit of a backset means for us, pard?"McGlory inquired of the king of the motor boys before dropping back onhis pillow.
"Nothing, I hope," was the response.
"We'll know for sure, I reckon, before we're many days older," mutteredthe cowboy as he straightened out in his bed and returned to his dreamsof cobras and charging elephants.
THE END.