Motor Matt's Make Up; or Playing a New Rôle
Stanley R. Matthews
Produced by David Edwards, Demian Katz and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (Imagescourtesy of the Digital Library@Villanova University(https://digital.library.villanova.edu/))
MOTOR STORIES
THRILLING ADVENTURE
MOTOR FICTION
No. 29 SEPT. 11, 1909
FIVE CENTS
MOTOR MATT'S MAKE UP
OR PLAYING A NEW ROLE
_BY THE AUTHOR OF "MOTOR MATT"_
_Street & Smith Publishers New York_
_"Maskee!" cried the astounded Hindoo as Motor Mattleaped at him_]
MOTOR STORIES
THRILLING ADVENTURE MOTOR FICTION
_Issued Weekly. By subscription $2.50 per year. Copyright, 1909, by_STREET & SMITH, _79-89 Seventh Avenue, New York, N. Y._
=No. 29.= NEW YORK, September 11, 1909. =Price Five Cents.=
MOTOR MATT'S MAKE-UP;
OR,
PLAYING A NEW R?LE.
By the author of "MOTOR MATT."
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I. HIGH JINKS IN THE SIDE SHOW. CHAPTER II. THE "BARKER" SHOWS HIS TEETH. CHAPTER III. THE MAN FROM WASHINGTON. CHAPTER IV. A CLUE IN HINDOOSTANEE. CHAPTER V. SOMETHING WRONG. CHAPTER VI. A BLUNDER IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION. CHAPTER VII. THE HOUSE WITH THE GREEN SHUTTERS. CHAPTER VIII. THE PILE OF SOOT. CHAPTER IX. MATT MEETS AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE. CHAPTER X. RESCUE! CHAPTER XI. BILL WILY REPENTS. CHAPTER XII. MATT LAYS HIS PLANS. CHAPTER XIII. MOTOR CAR AND AEROPLANE. CHAPTER XIV. THE OAK OPENING. CHAPTER XV. AEROPLANE WINS! CHAPTER XVI. CONCLUSION. A BRAVE DEED. A LOCOMOTIVE HERO. GEESE DROWN A SQUIRREL.
CHARACTERS THAT APPEAR IN THIS STORY.
=Matt King=, otherwise Motor Matt.
=Joe McGlory=, a young cowboy who proves himself a lad of worth and character, and whose eccentricities are all on the humorous side. A good chum to tie to--a point Motor Matt is quick to perceive.
=Carl Pretzel=, an old chum who flags Motor Matt and more trouble than he can manage, at about the same time. In the r?le of detective, he makes many blunders, wise and otherwise, finding success only to wonder how he did it.
=Ping=, the Chinese boy.
=Ben Ali=, the Hindoo hypnotist and elephant trainer, who executes a master-stroke in the matter of his niece, Margaret Manners, and finds that a letter in Hindoostanee can sometimes prove a boomerang.
=Dhondaram and Aurung Zeeb=, two Hindoos who have appeared before as confederates of the crafty Ben Ali, and who now show themselves for the last time in their villainous part, and vanish--one into prison and the other into parts unknown.
=Margaret Manners=, the niece of the rascally Ben Ali and a ward of the British nation temporarily. In her particular case, justice is slow in righting a grievous wrong--and would have been slower but for Motor Matt and his a?roplane.
=Reginald Pierce Twomley=, who represents the British ambassador, wears a monocle, and who, in a passage at arms with Dhondaram, proves himself a man in McGlory's eyes and a near-pard.
=Boss Burton=, manager and proprietor of the "Big Consolidated," who, in his usual manner, forms hasty conclusions, discovers his errors, and shows no sign of repentance.
=The Bearded Lady, the Armless Wonder, the Elastic Skin Man, the Zulu chief and the Ossified Man=, all freaks in the side-show tent, who appear briefly but brilliantly in the light of a Roman candle.
CHAPTER I.
HIGH JINKS IN THE SIDE SHOW.
"Hello, dere, Viskers!" grinned Carl Pretzel, reaching up to grab thehairy paw of the Zulu chief.
"Howdy, Dutch!" answered the chief, with a nasal twang that suggestedNew England. "By Jocks, I ain't seen yeou in quite a spell. How'stricks, huh?"
"Dricks iss fine, I bed you. Say, sheef, dis iss mein leedle shinkbard, Ping Pong. He iss der pest efer--oxcept me. Shake hants, Ping,mit a Zulu sheef vat vas porn near Pangor, Maine."
"Tickled tew death," said the chief effusively, taking the yellow palmof a small Chinaman who pushed himself closer to the platform.
The scene was the side-show tent of the "Big Consolidated," BossBurton's "Tented Aggregation of the World's Marvels." The show hadraised its "tops" at Reid's Lake, near the city of Grand Rapids. A highwind had prevented Motor Matt from giving his outdoor exhibition ofa?roplane flying, and the disappointed crowds were besieging the sideshow, eager to beguile the time until the doors for the big show wereopen.
With the exception of Carl and Ping, no outsiders had yet entered theside-show tent. Carl, having once played the banjo for the Zulu chiefwhile he was dancing on broken glass in his bare feet, was a privilegedcharacter. He had walked into the tent without so much as a "by yourleave," and he had escorted Ping without any adverse comment by the manon the door.
The freaks and wonders of the side show were all on their platforms andready to be viewed. The Ossified Man had been dusted off for the lasttime, the Bearded Lady had just arranged her beard most becomingly, theElastic Skin Man was giving a few warming-up snaps to his rubberoidepidermis, the Educated Pig was being put through a preliminary stuntby the gentlemanly exhibitor, and the Armless Wonder was sticking acopy of the Stars and Stripes in the base of a wooden pyramid--usinghis toes.
The Armless Wonder occupied the same platform as the Zulu chief. Hisspecialty was to stand on his head on the wooden pyramid, hold a Romancandle with one foot, light it with the other, and shoot vari-coloredballs through a hole in the tent roof. In front of the Wonder,neatly piled on the little stage, were half a dozen long paper tubescontaining the fire balls.
"How you was, Dutch?" inquired the Wonder, doubling up in his chair anddrawing a bandanna handkerchief over his perspiring face with his foot.
"_Ganz goot_," laughed Carl, carelessly picking up one of the Romancandles. "I vill make you acguainted, oof you blease, mit mein leedleshink bard."
"Shake!" cried the Wonder heartily, offering his right foot. "It doesme proud to meet up with a friend of Pretzel's."
"Allee same happy days," remarked Ping, releasing the foot and backingaway.
"Yeou tew kids aire chums, huh?" put in the Zulu chief, leaning down toarrange the row of photographs in front of him.
"Surest t'ing vat you know," answered Carl.
"Dutchy boy heap fine," declared Ping. "We both one-piecee pards."
"That's the talk!" exclaimed the Armless Wonder. "Too much weather forthe flyin' machine to-day, huh? Motor Matt was afeared to go up, Ireckon, Dutch?"
"Afraidt?" protested Carl. "Modor Matt vasn't afraidt oof anyt'ing.He couldn't haf shtaid ofer der show grounds, und dot's der reason hedit'nt go oop. Der vind vould haf plowed him galley-vest, und den some."
"I see. These here a?roplanes are hard things to handle, and----Holysmoke! Drop it! Put it out!"
Carl, as has already been stated, had picked up one of the Romancandles. While talking with the Armless Wonder, he leaned back againsta tent pole and clasped his hands--the candle in one of them--behindhim.
Ping had stepped back. The Roman candle, held fuse end outward, lookedmost inviting. Digging a match out of his kimono, Ping scratched it onthe pole and applied the flame unseen to the fuse.
While the Armless Wonder was talking, Carl heard a long-drawn-out hiss,a smell of smoke came to his nostrils, and a Niagara of sparks floatedaround him. Naturally he was startled, and it flashed over him thatsomething was wrong with the Roman candle. Bringing the candle aroundin front of him for examination, he had it leveled at the Wonder thevery instant the first fire ball was due. The ball was not behindschedule. Rushing from the end of the tube, it caught the Wonder in thebreast, and he turned a back somersau
lt off the platform.
Bewildered by the mysterious cause of the situation, Carl swerved thecandle in order to get a look through the smoke and sparks at the placewhere the Wonder had been seated.
A roar came from the Zulu chief. A ball of flaming red had slappedagainst his shoulder, and he jumped for the next platform on the right.Landing on the edge, his weight overturned the structure. There was ascream from the Bearded Lady and a whoop from the Elastic Skin Man, andthe next moment they landed in a tangled heap on top of the Zulu chief.
"Put it out!" the Armless Wonder continued to yell.
"Point it up or down!" bellowed the gentlemanly trainer of the EducatedPig.
"Ged some vater!" howled Carl, running back and forth and waving thecandle; "ged a pucket oof vater und I vill drown der t'ing in it!"
The Dutch boy didn't know what to do. If he dropped the candle hemight get hit with some of the balls himself, and if he turned itstraight upward he might set fire to the top of the tent. While he wasrunning up and down, trying frantically to think of some way out of thetrouble, of course the fire stick was continuing to unload.
Whizz--slap!
A wad of yellow fire hit the Pig, which squealed and bolted. Thegentlemanly attendant tried to head off the Porcine Marvel, but it ranbetween his outspread feet and knocked him off the stand. A rain oflettered blocks followed.
The frantic Pig bunted into Ping, tripped him, and hurled him againstCarl. Both boys went down, and Carl rolled over and over, dischargingred, white, and blue balls as he revolved.
Up to that moment the Ossified Man had escaped. But now his turn hadcome. He was said to have been turning to stone for thirty years, andwas supposed to be so brittle that he had to be handled with extremecare.
The first ball that struck him, however, caused him to jump off hisboard slab with a yell. From the way he rushed to get out of the tent,it was pretty certain that he was as wiry and pliable as the average.
The Educated Pig, to an accompaniment of yells, howls, and screams,and with the lurid glare of the popping balls lighting the smokyinterior of the tent, ran on blindly, overturned the stage set asidefor the Zulu chief and the Armless Wonder, showered broken glass overeverybody, and then tore through the tent wall and out into the open.
Naturally, this Bedlam, suddenly turned loose in the tent, had excitedthe wonder and curiosity of the ticket seller, the "barker," and theman at the door.
As the man at the door looked in, the last of the balls struck himbelow the belt, and he collapsed in the arms of the "barker," who wascrowding in behind him.
The last of the balls! That hollow, pasteboard tube seemed to have beena perfect mine of shooting stars. It had disgorged itself of a dozen.Carl had not counted them--he was too busy with other matters--but itseemed to him as though the tube had been fully an hour getting rid ofits contents.
A madder assortment of freaks it would have been harder to find thanwrangled and protested, there in the side-show tent, while they rubbedtheir bruises and shook the kinks out of themselves.
"It was one of the Armless Wonder's Roman candles," came in sepulchraltones from the Ossified Man as he climbed back to his slab.
"I'll quit the show, and give two weeks' notice this minute," piped theBearded Lady as she picked her way through the scattered glass, "ifthey don't cut out these fireworks. My goodness! You might just as wellbe killed outright as scart to death. Wha'ju jump onto our stage for?"and she glared at the chief, who was gently massaging his burned spot.
"By Jocks," answered the chief, "I didn't care where I jumped s'long'sI got away from the fireworks."
"It was the Dutchman done it," flared the Wonder.
"He's a freak," rumbled the Ossified Man. "Kick him out."
"I don'd peen a freak," said Carl angrily, throwing the burned-out tubeat the O. M. "Oof I vas, den here iss vere I should shday."
"Did you set that Roman candle to goin'?" demanded the "barker"fiercely.
"I don'd set him to going, py chimineddy! I hat him in my handt, und hevent off mit himseluf. Dot's all aboudt it."
"This ain't no place for them kind o' jokes," cried the Elastic SkinMan. "He's played hob with this outfit: Give him a h'ist!"
The ticket seller, the "barker," and the man on the door all threefell upon Carl. Between them they had the Dutch boy turning cartwheelsthrough the entrance.
Ping, the cause of all the trouble, slipped away quietly under thecanvas wall--but not until he had picked up something white from theearthen floor of the tent. The object lay close to where Carl had lain,and Ping conceived the idea that it belonged to the Dutch boy and thatit was his duty to recover it and return it to the owner.
