CHAPTER XI.
"ADVANCING THE SPARK."
"I'm not going to stand around and let you be rough with him," assertedNewt, finishing his dressing and taking another drink from the bottle.
"Nobody asked you to stand around," said Murgatroyd. "When I'm readyto get rough, you can go down to the river and stay there till I'mthrough."
"Why did you jump on him like that?"
Considering what he himself had done toward Matt's capture, Newt'sstand was hardly consistent.
"I'll tell you," and, with that, Murgatroyd went on to relate thenumber of times his trail had crossed Matt's, and the circumstances.
Newt's eyes widened as the recital proceeded, and when the end wasreached it found him moody and preoccupied.
"From all that," went on Murgatroyd, "you can see just how much I am inMotor Matt's debt."
"He saved my life," said Newt doggedly, "and I'm not going to let yoube rough with him."
"Don't make a fool of yourself, Newt," scowled Murgatroyd.
"He did me a good turn," insisted the other, "and I'm not going to lethim get the worst of this."
"Sit me up in a chair, can't you?" asked Matt. "I want to talk alittle, and I'm not very comfortable, lying here like this."
"It's nothing to me," snarled Murgatroyd, "whether you're comfortableor not."
Without a word, Newt went to the prisoner and helped him get to hisfeet and drop into a chair.
"Leave his ropes alone," called Murgatroyd sharply.
"I'm not touching his ropes--yet," returned Newt. "What have you got tosay?" he asked, facing Matt.
"How many I O U's for gambling debts did you leave in Jamestown,Prebbles, when you left there?"
A lighted bomb, hurled suddenly into the shack, could not have startledeither of the two men more than did this question.
It was a random shot on Matt's part. He wanted both Newt and Murgatroydto understand that he was well equipped with information.
"I didn't leave a single gambling debt behind me," asserted Newt, withrising indignation.
The broker became visibly uncomfortable.
"He's talking wild, Newt," said he.
"Then," continued Matt, "how did it happen that Murgatroyd had severalduebills, signed by you?"
"He didn't have any signed by me."
"Of course not," agreed Murgatroyd, laughing derisively, but there weredemons rising in his sharp eyes.
"Too bad your father didn't know that, Newt," said Matt. "He's beenslaving, and denying himself necessities of life, to take up a lot ofI O U's which, Murgatroyd told him, had been given by you for gamblingdebts."
Newt, his face full of rage, whirled on the broker in a fury.
"Is that the truth?" he cried.
"Not a word of truth in it," answered the broker coolly. "From whatI've told you about Motor Matt, Newt, you ought to understand that he'scunning. He's working some sort of a dodge, now. Don't let him foolyou."
Newt was quieted somewhat but not convinced.
"Who told you about those duebills?" he demanded.
"Your father."
"When did you see him? And how did he happen to tell you anything likethat?"
"Just a minute," said Matt, playing with the spark before he advancedit fully. "There's a point about George Hobbes that I'd like to havesettled. Which of you uses that name? Or have you a partnershipinterest in it? Newt plays cards at the Tin Cup Ranch as George Hobbes,and Murgatroyd does business in that name and receives letters inBismarck when they are so addressed. Now----"
With a hoarse exclamation of astonishment and anger, Murgatroyd flunghimself from the chair and started toward Matt. Newt jumped in front ofhim.
"You'd better sit down, Murg," said Newt.
The two men stared at each other, the broker furious, and the youngerman defiant.
"He knows too much!" flared Murgatroyd.
"He says so much I know to be true that I'm inclined to believeeverything he tells us. We'll hear him out, and if you try to lay yourhands on him you'll settle with me."
The spark was working splendidly. It would not be long, now, before itset off an explosion.
"You wrote a letter to Murgatroyd, Newt," said Matt, "and posted it inSteele, North Dakota. Murgatroyd hasn't found it healthy to be in hisJamestown office for some time, and the only person there, when yourletter was received, was your father. He recognized your handwriting,and he opened the letter and made a copy of it before he sent it on toMurgatroyd, in Bismarck."
The broker's face became fairly livid. He tried to talk, but the wordsgurgled in his throat.
"Your father knew I was a friend of his," pursued Matt, "and he came toFort Totten to see me. He got there yesterday afternoon, driving overfrom Minnewaukon in a heavy rain. When he showed me the copy of yourletter, I started for this place in the a?roplane."
"What were you intending to do here?" inquired Newt.
"I was hoping to persuade you to go back to Totten and see your father.He wants you."
Newt shook his head.
"It won't do," he answered. "The old man and I had a tumble, and it'sbetter for us to keep apart."
"You don't _dare_ to go!" stormed Murgatroyd. "What have I been payingyou, for? Tell me that. You'll stay away from Fort Totten, Newt. I'vebrought money enough to take you to South America, and that's whereyou're going."
Newt's eyes brightened a little.
"I wonder if you really mean to shell out enough to take me that far?"he asked.
"Yes," cried the broker, "and I'll pay you well for going, too."
"You won't go, Newt," put in Matt. "You're not going to let thisscoundrel wheedle you into leaving the country just to get you out ofthe way and prevent you from telling what you know about the accidentto Harry Traquair."
Silence followed the launching of this bolt, silence that was brokenonly by the startled breathing of the two men. Both of them kept theireyes riveted on the prisoner.
"Traquair, the inventor of the a?roplane," continued Matt, "tried outhis machine in Jamestown, several weeks ago, and an accident happened.Some part of the mechanism broke. Why did it break?" Matt's voice grewsolemn as he turned his eyes on Murgatroyd. "Why did it break?" heasked, again.
The broker's face turned ashen. Drops of sweat stood out on hisforehead, his hands clinched spasmodically, and his lips moved withoutsound.
"Murgatroyd," Matt pursued mercilessly, "had a mortgage on HarryTraquair's homestead, in Wells County. For some reason of his own,Murgatroyd wants that piece of prairie land. If Traquair had lived, hewould have sold his a?roplane to the government, and have paid off themortgage. But he didn't live, because a _supposed_ accident happened tohis a?roplane."
The broker's lips were dry, and again and again he moistened them withhis tongue. The demons grew harder, and brighter, and more merciless inhis eyes.
The spark was doing well, but it had not yet been advanced to thelimit. It was the spark of friendship, but it was coming into itsown through devious ways. The friendship was to be between poor oldPrebbles and his son; but it was to result in something else betweenNewt and Murgatroyd, and prove powerful enough to force the two apart.
"Murgatroyd has been paying you money, Newt," resumed Matt, "to keep inthe background and remain silent about what you know. Is the scoundrelworth protecting? Is it worth while to take hush money from him? Thebribes he has been giving you, he collected from your father by meansof duebills to which he had forged your name."
Fierce anger flamed in Newt's face. Matt, seeing that an explosion wasclose, hastened on.
"Your father is now lying ill at Fort Totten. It is doubtful whether hecan live--and he certainly cannot unless you go back with me and be tohim what you have not been in the past--a son."
The red faded from Newt Prebbles' face and a deathly pallor came in itsstead. Stepping over to Matt, he dropped both hands on his shouldersand looked him steadily in the eyes.
"Motor Matt," said he, "are you telling me the truth about my fath
er?He is dangerously sick at Fort Totten? Don't you lie to me," he warnedfiercely.
"I am telling you the truth."
"And those forged I O U's--where did you learn about them?"
"From your father, as I have already told you."
"It's like Murgatroyd," said Newt, between his teeth. "He did wantTraquair's homestead, because he happened to discover that there iscoal under the soil, and the railroad company will buy the hundred andsixty at a fancy price and run a spur track to it, so----"
The explosion came, at that moment, but it was not as Matt expected.While Newt Prebbles stood facing Matt, his back to the broker, therecame the sound of a blow.
Pain convulsed Newt's face for the fraction of a second, his eyesclosed, and he dropped senseless, overturning Matt and his chair withthe force of his fall.
Lying bound and helpless, Matt heard sounds of quick footsteps, and sawMurgatroyd bending down over him.