Motor Matt's Engagement; or On the Road with a Show

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  MOTOR STORIES

  THRILLING ADVENTURE

  MOTOR FICTION

  NO. 27 AUG. 28, 1909

  FIVE CENTS

  MOTOR MATT'S ENGAGEMENT

  OR ON THE ROAD WITH A SHOW

  _STREET & SMITH PUBLISHERS NEW YORK_

  _Motor Matt, as he coaxed the last ounce of speedfrom the motor, shouted encouragingly to the terrified girl on thetrapeze._]

  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. 27. NEW YORK, August 28, 1909. Price Five Cents.

  Motor Matt's Engagement;

  OR,

  ON THE ROAD WITH A SHOW.

  By the author of "MOTOR MATT."

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER I. "ON THE BANKS OF THE WABASH." CHAPTER II. IN THE CALLIOPE TENT. CHAPTER III. AN EAVESDROPPER. CHAPTER IV. QUEER PROCEEDINGS. CHAPTER V. MOTOR MATT PROTESTS. CHAPTER VI. ABLAZE IN THE AIR. CHAPTER VII. WAS IT TREACHERY? CHAPTER VIII. A CALL FOR HELP. CHAPTER IX. BLACK MAGIC. CHAPTER X. THE MAHOUT'S FLIGHT. CHAPTER XI. THE PAPER TRAIL. CHAPTER XII. CARL TURNS A TRICK. CHAPTER XIII. THE LACQUERED BOX. CHAPTER XIV. THE HYPNOTIST'S VICTIM. CHAPTER XV. "FOR THE SAKE OF HAIDEE!" CHAPTER XVI. THE RAJAH'S NIECE. SAVED BY A FALLING TREE. How They Captured the Python. ON THE ROAD TO MANDALAY.

  CHARACTERS THAT APPEAR IN THIS STORY.

  =Motor Matt King.=

  =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.

  =Ping=, a Chinese boy who insists on working for Motor Matt, and who contrives to make himself valuable, perhaps invaluable.

  =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.

  =Ben Ali=, an elephant driver; a Hindoo gifted in the arts for which his country is famous and infamous. The uncle of Margaret Manners, he revenges himself upon his brother, the rajah, in a way that proves his own undoing.

  =Aurung Zeeb=, another elephant driver, and a friend of Ben Ali, assisting in his scoundrelly work.

  =Haidee=, whose real name is Margaret Manners, a girl from India, who becomes the hypnotic subject of Ben Ali, and is saved from him by Motor Matt and Carl.

  =Boss Burton=, manager and proprietor of the Big Consolidated Shows. A man who tries to be "square," in his own remarkable way.

  CHAPTER I.

  "ON THE BANKS OF THE WABASH."

  Strange, how a few harmless ingredients, thrown together and mixed,will set the trouble pot a-boiling.

  Saltpeter is an innocent and useful product, and so is charcoal andsulphur; but seventy-five per cent. of the first, fifteen per cent. ofthe second, and ten per cent. of the third, when properly mixed, willmake gunpowder--an explosive that has slain millions, made kingdomsover into republics, and changed the map of the world again and again.

  So, on this beautiful morning, with the banks of the Wabash River for asetting, fate was juggling with a few trifling elements for the purposeof combining them and manufacturing trouble.

  The Big Consolidated Shows were pitching their tents near that part ofthe river, and two of the ingredients that helped form the dangerousmixture were connected with the "tented aggregation."

  One was the big elephant, Rajah, who had a tremendous thirst and waswabbling along toward the river for a drink; the other was a Chineseboy, dipping a couple of pails of water from the stream for the steamcalliope. The third element--the one having no connection with theshow--was a German youth with a weakness for bursting into song.

  The elephant, dryer than the desert of Sahara, was making big and rapidtracks for the brightly gleaming water, the Chinaman was leisurelyfilling his pails, and the German was strolling along the bank, dustyfrom a long tramp and with a stick over his shoulder from which swung abundle bound up in a knotted handkerchief.

  If the German had known how to sing he would not have attracted theattention of the Chinaman; and if the Chinaman had not looked andgrunted his disgust, the German would not have become hostile; and ifRajah, the elephant, had not possessed such a playful disposition, theGerman and the Chinaman would probably have separated with no more thana few mongrel words of personal opinion. But fate was working overtimethat day, and had an eye for weird combinations.

  "Ach, der moon vas shining pright upon der Vabash, From der fieldts dere comes some shmells oof new-mown hay, Droo der candlelight der sycamores vas gleaming, On der panks oof der Vabash, righdt avay!"

  This was the German's song, and it sounded as though it had been playedon a fish horn. The Chinaman could be seen to shiver as he depositeda pailful of water on the bank, straightened erect, and looked at thesinger. There was that in his slant eyes which brought the German to ahalt.

  "Don'd you like der song, shink?" demanded the Dutchman, pushing outhis chin in an irritating way.

  "Woosh!" snorted the Chinaman, "you makee sing all same like poodle dogmakee howl."

  "Py shiminy," cried the Dutchman, "I fight pedder as I sing. I don'dlet no monkey mit a pigdail make some foolishness mit me."

  "Dutchy boy clazy," declared the Celestial.

  "I nefer liked der shinks anyways," went on the other, dropping hisstick and his bundle. "Dey vas sheap skates, you bet you, und vasalvays taking avay goot shobs from American fellers. I vill tie you oopin some bowknots mit your pigdail und trop you py der rifer. Yah, so."

  "Dutchy boy makee spell 'able,'" and the Chinaman, with supremecontempt, picked up his empty pail.

  "You peen afraidt mit yourseluf!" shouted the Dutchman.

  "My plenty busy; makee cally water fo' calliope. No gottee time tofight. Come 'lound after palade, China boy makee Dutchy boy suppa' fo'lion."

  "Dot's me," breathed the Dutchman, picking up his stick and bundle."I'll be aroundt after dot barade, you bed my life, und I don'd makesome subber for der lion, neider."

  He started on slowly.

  Unnoticed by either of the boys, the mahout on Rajah's neck had keptthe elephant close to the river bank. The mahout was dozing, and Rajahwas filling the piece of hose, more generally known as his trunk, withWabash water and squirting it into his open mouth.

  Now, Rajah was an eccentric elephant. There were times when he was fullof mischief and playful, and other times when the wild jungle blood gotthe upper hand of him and he became dangerous.

  On two or three occasions, when Old Ben, the African lion, had triedto mix things with the royal Bengal tiger, Rajah had been called in toseparate the fighters with a well-directed stream, hurled with catapultforce from his trunk.

  Rajah's cunning little eyes had been taking in the quarrel between theDutchman and the Chinaman. Something prompted him to elevate his trunkand throw a stream after the retreating Dutch boy.

  The lad was knocked off his feet, his stick going one way and hisbundle the other. He jumped to his feet, spluttering, and whirledaround.

  Rajah was innocently squirting a dozen or more gallons of the riverinto his capacious throat, but the Chinaman, the empty pail still inhis hand, was laughing so that he almost fell off the bank.
>
  It was the most natural thing in the world for the Dutch boy, in theexcitement of the moment, to lay the whole blame on the Chinese boy'sshoulders.

  The Dutchman had not seen Rajah use his trunk, and the Chinaman had. Itwas very laughable, and the Chinaman's cackling mirth was unrestrained.

  The Dutchman saw only the empty bucket in the Chinaman's hand, and itseemed certain the deluge of water had come from the bucket.

  "I gif you fits for dot, py shiminy!" whooped the Teuton.

  "No can do!" declared the Celestial.

  The Dutchman came on with a bound, his dripping clothes sprinklingeverything in his vicinity.

  The Chinaman threw the bucket. The other dodged. The bucket sailed onthrough the air and struck Delhi, Rajah's mate, a sharp rap on her big,fanning ear. Delhi trumpeted loudly and started furiously after theboys.

  Both the Chinaman and the Dutchman, their faculties completely wrappedup in their quarrel, gave no attention to the elephants. Comingtogether like a thousand of brick, they clinched and wrestled back andforth on the bank.

  Delhi, wild with anger, gave no heed to the fierce prodding of hermahout, but rushed onward, her trunk stretched eagerly ahead of herand twitching and curving in its desire to lay hold of the strugglingyoungsters.

  For a second the prospect was very dark for the Teuton and theCelestial. What would have happened to them is problematical if Delhihad had her way. But the big brute was not allowed to work her will.Rajah interfered; not out of any desire to be of help to the boys, butrather to assist his mate in securing vengeance.

  Quickly Rajah aimed his trunk and hurled a stream of water. The jetstruck the two boys, lifted them from their feet, and hurled them intothe river. The lads were tossed from the bank in just the nick of time.Hardly were they clear of the spot where they had been wrestling whenDelhi's disappointed trunk swept over it.

  Rajah's mahout, of course, had aroused himself, and he and the otherman got busy bringing the elephants into subjection.

  The Dutchman and the Chinaman had fallen into deep water. It wasnecessary to disentangle themselves from each other in order to swimand keep from being drowned.

  As Delhi backed away from the water's edge, under the blows of hermahout's sharp, steel prod, she flung the Dutchman's bundle and stickat the thrashing forms in the water, and followed these with thebuckets.

  "I can do oop a shink mit vone hand," gurgled the Dutchman, as hisdripping head appeared above the surface of the river; "aber ven agoople oof elephants iss rung indo der game, den I don'd---- Wow!"

  The handkerchief bundle, hurled with terrific force, struck him on thehead and sent him under.

  "Dutchy boy no good!" spluttered the Chinaman. "Him velly fine falsealarm---- Woosh!"

  One of the buckets hit the Celestial in the small of the back andhe vanished in a flurry of bubbles. When he and the Dutchman againreappeared, Delhi and Rajah were under control and no further dangerthreatened.

  "What's the matter with you two kids?" cried Delhi's mahout, excitedand angry.

  "Der shink drew some vater on me," answered the Dutchman, "und mademore monkey-doodle pitzness dan I vould shtand for."

  "Him no savvy," declared the Chinese. "El'fant makee thlow water."

  Rajah's mahout was a Hindoo. In a queer jargon of broken English, hedescribed the way Rajah had hosed down the Dutchman as the latter waswalking off.

  The other mahout lost his wrath in a flood of merriment.

  "It's all a mistake!" he called. "Come out o' the wet and stop yourfoolishness. If ye try to do any more fightin', I'll set Delhi onto youag'in."

  The Dutchman labored ashore with his stick and his bundle, and theChinaman followed with his buckets.

  "What do you s'pose Motor Matt would think of this, Ping?" went on themahout. "If he----"

  But what the mahout was intending to say was lost in a roar ofamazement and delight from the Dutchman.

  "Vat's dot? Modor Matt? Vere he iss, anyvay? Say, I vas his bard, und Ipeen looking for him efery blace, longer as I can dell. Shpeak, vonce!Vere iss Modor Matt?"

  "China boy Motol Matt's pard," spoke up the dripping Ping. "My workeefo' Motol Matt; Dutchy boy no workee."

  "Py shiminy, I dell you some more dot I peen Carl Pretzel," shoutedthe Dutchman, "und dot I vas looking for der show, und ditn't know Ivould findt Modor Matt at der same dime. Vere iss he, misder?" and Carlappealed anxiously to the mahout.

  "He's travelin' with the show, youngster," answered the mahout, "an'doin' a flyin'-machine stunt twice a day. If ye want to find him, hikefor the show grounds."

  Without paying any further attention to Ping or the elephants, Carlgathered in his cap--which lay at the water's edge, and was the onlything belonging to him that was not dripping wet--and laid a rapidcourse for the top of the bank.

  Ping, filling the pails, started after Carl, worrying not a little overthis new pard of Motor Matt's who had appeared so unexpectedly on thescene.