CHAPTER XIV.
A QUEER TANGLE.
"Waal, I'm stumped!" snorted Welcome. "Matt stops his race ter saveDirk Hawley's gal, an' Dirk Hawley wins a bonanzer mine bekase o' it.Looks to me like a put-up job. Mebby the gal was bein' run away witha-purpose."
"Welcome!" reproved Susie sharply.
"That's right," whimpered the old man. "Jump onter me. Anyways, youknow Dirk Hawley wouldn't be above doin' of a thing like that."
"They say Edith Hawley is a fine girl," said Susie, "and just asdifferent from her father as can be. I've heard that Hawley fairlyworships her, and it's nonsense to think he'd let her risk her life tokeep Matt from beating Perry to the recorder's office. But it's a queertangle, isn't it, Matt?" she added, turning to her brother's chum.
"Mighty queer," answered Matt. "I'd have stopped and helped the girl,just the same, even if I had known who she was."
"Of course you would!" declared Susie.
"You must have made a fast ride into town, Clip," said Matt.
"Hit a high place, now and then," answered Clip. "You didn't hit any."
"Why did you leave town?"
"Saw Perry's chum, Ratty Spangler. He told me where Perry had gone.Then I got a horse and started out early this morning. Didn't know whatI could do, but I wanted to do something. After you passed me on theroad I tore in behind you. A good ways behind," Clip added. "Left myhorse at the corral and hustled straight for here. It was the corralboss who told me what you'd done."
"Susie an' me hev been waitin' fer quite a spell to hear what Mattdone," complained Welcome. "We got a right to know, seems like."
"Wait till I get dinner," said Susie, "then we can talk while we eat."
"Prime idea," agreed Matt. "I was too busy to eat breakfast, and Chuband I had a mighty slim supper last night."
"I'll hurry as fast as I can," said Susie, starting into the house."You're to stay, Clip."
The loss of a fortune hadn't seemed to make much of an impression onSusie. On the contrary, she seemed pleased to think that Matt hadturned aside from the race with Perry to stop the runaway horse andsave Edith Hawley.
Clip went into the house after a bandage and a bottle of arnica, andproceeded to take care of one of Matt's shins, which had been badlyskinned when he was jerked from the motor-cycle.
Clip was a master-hand at anything of this sort, and, besides,inherited from his Indian forefathers the keen eye and subtle sensethat go to make a born tracker, whether in the woods, or on mountainand plain.
"Hawley an' Perry hev been purty thick," mused Welcome, while thebandaging was going on, "an' I'm kinder sorter wonderin' what Hawley'llsay when he l'arns it was Perry as skeered his darter's hoss."
"Perry did a big thing for Hawley by winning that race," said Clip."Hawley's all for money, no matter how it's made. He'll forget aboutPerry's scaring the horse."
"An' only to think it was Hawley's gal got between the McReadys an' afortun'," groaned Welcome. "I shore won't sleep nights thinkin' aboutit. It's goin' to ha'nt me. Mebey it'll drive me into the hills fergood an' all."
"If Delray hadn't come out of the house to talk with me," said Clip,"Perry wouldn't have got away from the Bluebell. He went like a streakwhen he came. Couldn't either of us stop him."
"Funny how things turn out sometimes," mused Matt.
"Why don't you come back to school, Matt?" asked Clip, with his usualabruptness in jumping from one subject to another. "Finish out theterm, I mean, before you go to Denver. You've got ten friends there toPerry's one."
A tinge of sadness crossed Matt's face.
"I haven't any folks that I know of, Clip," said he, "and I'm upagainst a financial stringency. I'm going to Denver and get somethingto do."
"Short on folks myself," grunted Clip. "And about as short on money.What you going to do there?"
"I think I'll get into the automobile business--driving a car, orsomething like that. I've got to be among the motors, Clip, in order tobe happy."
"I'll buy Perry's motor-cycle and go with you. Never had a friend likeMotor Matt. Don't want to let you get away."
Clipperton was as sudden in his resolutions as he was in his talk. Mattlifted his eyes quickly, and there was that in Clipperton's look whichled him to reach over and grip his hand.
"We'd hook up like a house afire, Clip," said Matt heartily, "but you'dbetter think it over."
"I've got my way to make, same as you. Let me hitch my string to yourkite. Maybe I can help. Don't have to think it over. You know theyhaven't ever made it very happy for me here," said Clipperton, his eyesflashing and chest heaving with the indignation that filled his soul.
At that moment, Susie came to the door and announced dinner. Whilethey were eating, Matt struck into the experiences that had fallento him and Chub. Beginning with the trouble caused by the freighterat the Bluebell Mine, he followed on down to the point where he hadstopped the runaway horse. That incident he glided over, and finishedby telling of his encounter with Hawley and Perry on the court-housesteps. As he very well knew would be the case, Susie began at once toworry about her father. Welcome pushed away from the table, leaving hisdinner half-eaten.
"It's up to me," said he excitedly. "I knowed it u'd come. I'll git outole Lucretia Borgia an' hike fer the mountings immediate. Jim McReady'smy pard, an' if a hair o' his head has been teched, I'll mow downJacks, an' Bisbee, an' Hawley an' everybody else that's had a hand inhis undoin'. Everybody listen to me! It's Eagle-eye Perkins, the Terroro' the Plains, what's talkin'. Don't grieve, gal," he added, turning toSusie, "I'll go out there an' I'll bring Jim back, or I'll leave my olecarkiss among the rocks."
Welcome thumped his chest--and immediately began to cough.
"Where's Lucretia Borgia, gal?" he demanded. "I been missin' 'er fer aday or two."
"Lucretia Borgia" was the high-sounding and significant name Welcomehad bestowed upon an ancient revolver. The weapon had not beendischarged in a dozen years, and owing to its rusty condition firing ithad apparently ceased to become a possibility.
"I--I threw it down the cistern, Welcome," said Susie. "The old trinketwas harmless enough, but I was afraid it would get you into trouble."
Welcome stared.
"Trinket!" he mumbled. "Throwed it down the cistern! Lucretia Borgia,with all them tur'ble recordin' notches on the handle! This here's thelast straw! I'm goin', right now, an' with nothin' on me no more'n ajack-knife with a busted blade! But I'll git Jim. He's my pard, he is,an' he's allers treated me _white_."
Welcome grabbed his hat and started for the door. Just as he reachedit, a tall man with grayish hair and beard stepped through and collidedwith him.
"Father!" screamed Susie.
"Jim!" whooped Welcome. "Waal, snakes alive! We was jest thinkin' ye'dnever git back till ole Welcome went out an' brought ye in!"
"Don't overlook me," piped the voice of Chub, as he pushed through thedoor behind his father. "Howdy, Matt! I knew you were here when I sawthe _Comet_ out in front. Clip, too! Well, well, here's a gatherin' ofthe faithful, an' no mistake."