Chapter XVI: Conclusion

As day followed day and week followed week, bringing no sign of any further trouble with the Sons of the Rising Sun, Motor Matt and his friends realized that, beyond all doubt, they had worsted their wily foes, and perhaps had taught them a lesson which they could ponder wisely.

At Panama, which was almost the same as United States soil, the boys took shore leave, turn and turn about. From this place Matt sent a cablegram to Captain Nemo, Jr., at Belize.

"On the last leg of our journey. All well and _Grampus_ as fit as a
fiddle. Telegraph me at Acapulco."

"Too bad that old canal wasn't finished," observed Dick, as the _Grampus_ left Panama, "at the time we left Belize. We could have come through it, if it had been, and saved a month's time and all that mix-up with the Japs."

"That wasn't the point, Dick," spoke up Glennie. "This trip has been in the nature of a try-out for the _Grampus_. The government wanted to see what she could do--and I guess the government will know when my log is read at headquarters."

"You're giving us a good report, Glennie?" laughed Dick.

"As good as I can make it."

"Then that means a sale of the boat, without a doubt."

"I understood that my report was to be final. I've had the cruise of my life with you motor boys, and I almost hate to reach San Francisco, because we'll have to separate there."

"You're an A One comrade, Glennie," said Matt heartily, "and you need never look for a pal while this outfit of motor boys is around."

"My sentiments to a t, y, ty," averred Dick.

"Und mine, too, py shinks!" cried Carl.

Glennie was deeply touched. At the beginning of the cruise there had been some hard feelings between him and Dick and Carl, but as they had come to know each other better the unpleasantness had worn away.

All four of the lads were now loyal friends, having undergone perils and dangers shoulder to shoulder, and so each had tried the other's and had not found them wanting.

At Acapulco Matt was confidently expecting to receive a message from Captain Nemo, Jr. In this, however, he was disappointed. There was no message for him. Matt could not understand the reason and was prone to think dire things.

"Captain Nemo, Jr., would surely have answered that message I sent him from Panama," said Matt, "providing he had received it."

"Sure he would," agreed Glennie; "and the fact that you did not get an answer is proof that the captain did not receive your message."

"Aber vy ditn't he receif id?" asked Carl.

"That's the point that alarms me, friends," went on Matt gloomily. "You know we left the captain sick at Belize; too ill, in fact, to come with us on the _Grampus_. We haven't heard a word from him since the cruise began, and it may be that his sickness terminated fatally."

This thought cast a depression over the motor boys. Captain Nemo, Jr., was a good friend of theirs, and all of them liked him. The _Grampus_ was the triumph of the captain's career, and if he was to be stricken down just as the boat, in charge of the motor boys, was to pass successfully through the Golden Gate, the elation Matt and his friends would otherwise feel must give way to dejection and sorrow.

The victory of this successful cruise was entirely theirs, but the loss of Captain Nemo, Jr., would rob the victory of all pleasure for them.

But the gloom that accompanied the submarine from Acapulco northward was lost in rejoicing at San Diego; for no sooner had the _Grampus_ anchored in the bay off the latter place than no less a person than Captain Nemo, Jr., himself, rowed out and came aboard.

The captain was well and hearty, and his delight in welcoming the boys was boundless.

He looked over the boat and complimented all hands on her efficiency after such a long cruise--the longest and hardest any submarine had ever made; and in the periscope room, until long into the night, the captain sat wide-eyed and absorbed, listening to the adventures of those whom he had commissioned to take the _Grampus_ from Belize to Mare Island.

When all had had their say, and the recital was done, there followed a period of silence. The captain was the first to speak.

"A hundred thousand dollars, my lads, is a great deal of money; but if I had been able to look ahead and learn what dangers were to beset you on your long journey, I would not have allowed you to start for a million. I had some inkling of this Japanese business, for I was offered two hundred thousand for the _Grampus_ by the Japanese government. I chose to deal with the navy department of my own country, even at a direct pecuniary loss to myself. My refusal to sell to the Japs brought a threatening letter from the Sons of the Rising Sun, but I treated it with contempt. I should have taken you into my confidence regarding this Japanese matter before you left Belize, but I thought it of no moment and hesitated to alarm you by even mentioning it."

"It's all but over now, captain," laughed Matt lightly, "and I think we are all of us better for the experience. I know I wouldn't sell the benefit that has accrued to me from this cruise for a lot of money."

"Nor I," said Dick.

"Me, neider," chirped Carl.

"Let me go on record, too," put in Glennie.

"I'm glad you all feel in that way about it," said the captain.

"By the way," asked Matt, "why didn't you answer the cablegram I sent you from Panama, captain?"

"Principally because I never received it," was the smiling response. "Where did you address the message, Matt?"

"To you, at Belize."

"Why, I left Belize a week after you did! It was my intention all along to leave Central America, work up into the States, and then meet you here and take the last lap of the cruise with you."

"It was a mighty big relief to see you come aboard at this port," said Matt. "I hadn't the least idea what was the matter."

"You had a guess that I had taken the One-way Trail, hadn't you, Matt?" jested the captain.

"I didn't know but that might have happened."

"In that event," said the captain, "I had already made a will whereby you boys were to receive the whole amount to be paid by the government. So, you see, my being alive has cost you a pretty pile."

"The money doesn't count, captain," declared Matt stoutly.

"No? Well, money usually counts in this world, Matt--in fact, it cuts a pretty wide swath in every direction."

"It is secondary, captain, to the idea of 'making good.' When we left Belize I vowed that we'd make good and prove that your confidence in us wasn't misplaced. We've all had that in mind before anything and everything else."

"It's a good trait in you," replied the captain, "and in any young man, to love a piece of work for itself, and, money apart, centre every hope on making a success of it. That's the spirit that brings its reward, not only in money, but in self-approval, which is something money can't buy. Every one who went around South America on the _Grampus_ will find, I think, that I know how to be grateful; this, while of secondary importance to the consciousness of duty well performed, will be a substantial acknowledgment of the debt I hold myself under to all of you.

"In San Francisco the _Grampus_ will be sold. The motor boys will go one way, Captain Nemo, Jr., another way, and Speake, Gaines, and Clackett still another. But I hope that this will not be the last of our associations, but that we shall sometime come together again and renew our friendships, which have been so firmly woven together by this cruise of the _Grampus_, and the persistent and successful effort of the king of the motor boys to _make good_."

With the hearty echoes this sentiment received still lingering in our ears, the hour seems propitious for taking leave of Matt and the motor boys, while they are at the threshold of another of their many victories.

THE END.

THE NEXT NUMBER (21) WILL CONTAIN

Motor Matt's Launch;

OR,

A FRIEND IN NEED.

New Friends and New Fortunes--The Raffle--Ping-pong Objects--Another
Rescue--An Odd Tangle--The Rich Man's Son--A Plan that Failed--A
Chase Across the Bay--The Lion's Mouth--The Mouth Closes--Surprising
Events--McGlory's Run of Luck--Waiting and Worrying--Ping Stars
Himself--A New Twist, by George--Another Twist, by Matt and McGlory.

MOTOR STORIES

THRILLING ADVENTURE MOTOR FICTION

NEW YORK, July 10, 1909.

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THE SPIDER WATER.

II.

On the 30th there was trouble beyond Wild Hat, and all our extra men, put out there under Healey, were fighting to Hold the Rat Valley levels where they hug the river on the west slope. It wasn't really Healey's track. Bucks sent him over there just as the emperor sent Ney, wherever he needed his right arm. Sunday, while Healey was at Wild Hat, rain began falling. Sunday it rained; Monday all through the mountains it rained; Tuesday it was raining from Omaha to Eagle Pass, with the thermometer climbing for breath and the barometer flat as an adder--and the Spider woke. Woke with the April water and the June water and the storm water all at once.

Trackwalkers Tuesday night flagged Number One, and reported the Spider wild, with heavy sheet ice running. A wire from Bucks brought Healey out of the west and into the east, and brought him to reckon for the last time with his ancient enemy.

He was against it Wednesday with dynamite. All the day, all the night, all the next day the sullen roar of the giant powder shook the forming jam above the bridge, and after two days Healey wired, "Ice out," and set back without a minute's sleep for home. Saturday night he slept and Sunday all day and Sunday night. Monday about noon Bucks sent up to ask, but Healey still slept. They asked back by the lad whether they should wake him. Bucks sent word, "No."

It was late Tuesday morning when the tall roadmaster came down, and he was fresh as sunshine. All day he sat with Bucks and the dispatchers watching the line. The Spider raced mad, and the watchers sent in panic messages, but Healey put them in his pipe. "That bridge will go when the mountains go," was all he said.

Nine o'clock that night every star was blinking when Healey looked in for the trackwalkers' reports and the railroad weather bulletins. Bucks, Callahan, and Peeto sat about Martin Duffy, the dispatcher, who in his shirt sleeves threw the stuff off the sounder as it trickled in dot and dash, dot and dash over the wires.

The west wire was good; east everything below Peace River was down. We had to get the eastern reports around by Omaha and the south--a good thousand miles of a loop--but bad news travels even around a Robin Hood loop.

And first came Wild Hat from the west with a stationary river and the Loup Creek falling--clear--good night. And Ed Peeto struck the table heavily and swore it was well in the west. Then from the east came Prairie Portage, all the way round, with a northwest rain, a rising river, and anchor ice running, pounding the piers bad--track in fair shape, and--and----

The wire went wrong. As Duffy knit his eyes and tugged and cussed a little, the wind outside took up the message and whirled a bucket of rain against the windows. But the wires wouldn't right, and stuff that no man could get tumbled in like a dictionary upside down. And Bucks and Callahan and Healey and Peeto smoked, silent, and heard the deepening drum of the rain on the roof.

Then Duffy wrestled mightily yet once more.

"Keep still," he exclaimed, leaning heavily on the key. "Here's something--from the Spider."

He snatched a pen and ran it across a clip; Bucks leaning over read aloud from his shoulder:

"Omaha.

"J. F. BUCKS:

"Trainmen from No. 75 stalled west of Rapid City--track afloat in
Simpson's Cut--report Spider bridge out--send----"

And the current broke.

Callahan's hand closed rigidly over the hot bowl of his pipe; Peeto sat speechless; Bucks read again at the broken message, but Healey sprang like a man wounded and snatched the clip from his hand.

He stared at the running words till they burned his eyes, and then, with an oath, frightful as the thunder that shook the mountains, he dashed the clip to the floor. His eyes snapped greenish, and he cursed Omaha, cursed its messages, and everything that came out of it. Slow at first, then fast and faster, until all the sting that poisoned his heart in his unjust discharge poured from his lips. It flooded the room like a spilling stream, and none put a word against it, for they knew he stood a wronged man. Out it came--all the rage, all the heart-burning, all the bitterness--and he dropped into a chair and covered his face with his hands. Only the sounder clicking iron jargon and the thunder shaking the wickiup like a reed filled the ears of the men about him. They watched him slowly knot his fingers and loosen them, and saw his face rise dry and hard and old out of his hands.

"Get up an engine!"

"Not--you're not going down there to-night?" stammered Bucks.

"Yes. Now. Right off. Peeto, get out your men!"

The foreman jumped for the door. Little Duffy, snatching the train sheet, began clearing track for a bridge special. In twenty minutes twenty men were running as many ways through the storm, and a live engine boomed under the wickiup window.

"I want you to be careful, Phil," Bucks spoke anxiously as he looked with Healey out into the storm. "It's a bad night." Healey made no answer.

The lightning shot the yards in a blaze and a crash split the gorge. "A wicked night," muttered Bucks.

Evans, conductor of the special, ran in.

"Here's your orders," said Duffy. "You've got forty miles an hour."

"Don't stretch it," warned Bucks. "Good-by, Phil," he added to Healey, "I'll see you in the morning."

"In the morning," echoed Healey. "Good-by."

The switch engine had puffed up with a caboose; ahead of it Peeto had coupled in the pile driver. At the last minute Callahan concluded to go, and with the bridge gang tumbling into the caboose, the assistant superintendent, Ed Peeto, and Healey climbed into the engine, and they pulled out, five in the cab, for the Spider Water.

Healey, moody at first, began joking and laughing the minute they got away. He sat behind Denis Mullenix, the engineer, and poked his ribs and taunted him with his heavy heels. At last he covered Denis' big hands on the throttle with his own bigger fingers, good-naturedly coaxed them loose, and pushing him away got the reins and the whip into his own keeping. He drew the bar out a notch and settled himself for the run across the flat country.

As they sped from the shelter of the hills, the storm shook them with a freshening fury, and drove the flanges into the south rail with a grinding screech. The rain fell in a sheet, and the right-of-way ran a river. The wind, whipping the water off the ballast, dashed it like hail against the cab glass; the segment of desert caught in the yellow of the headlight rippled and danced and swam in the storm water, and Healey pulled again at the straining throttle and latched it wider.

Notch after notch he drew; heedless of lurch and jump; heedless of bed or curve; heedless of track or storm; and with every spur at her cylinders the engine shook like a frantic horse. Men and monster alike lost thought of caution and drunk a frenzy in the whirl that Healey opened across the swimming plain.

The Peace River hills loomed suddenly in front like moving pictures; before they could think it the desert was behind.

"Phil, man, you must steady up!" yelled Callahan, getting his mouth to Healey's ear. The roadmaster nodded and checked a notch, but the fire was in his blood, and he slewed into the hills with a speed unslackened. The wind blew them, and the track pulled them, and a frenzied man sat at the throttle.

Just where the line crosses the Peace River the track bends sharply through the Needles to take the bridge. The curve is a ten degree. As they struck it, the headlight shot far out upon the river--and they in the cab knew they sat dead men. Instead of lighting the box of the truss, the lamp lit a black and snaky flood with yellow foam sweeping over the abutment, for the Peace had licked up Agnew's thirty-foot piles--and his bridge was not.

There were two things to do; Healey knew them both, and both meant death to the cab, but the caboose sheltered twenty of Healey's faithful men. He instantly threw the air, and with a scream from the tires, the special, shaking in the brake shoes, swung the curve. Again the roadmaster checked heavily, and the pile driver, taking the elevation like a hurdle, bolted into the Needles, dragging the caboose after it. But engine and tender and five in the cab plunged head on into the river.

Not a man in the caboose was killed. They scrambled out of the splinters and on their feet, men and ready to do. One voice came through the storm from the river, and they answered its calling. It was Callahan, but Durden, Mullenix, Peeto, and Healey never called again.

At daybreak, wreckers of the West End, swarming from mountain and plain, were heading for the Peace, and the McCloud gang--up--crossed the Spider on Healey's bridge--on the bridge the coward trainmen had reported out, quaking as they did in the storm at the Spider foaming over its approaches. But Healey's bridge stood--stands to-day.

Yet three days the Spider raged, and knew then its master, while he, three whole days, sat at the bottom of the Peace, clutching the engine levers, in the ruins of Agnew's mistake.

And when the divers got them up, Callahan and Bucks tore big Peeto's arms from his master's body and shut his staring eye and laid him at his master's side. And only the Spider, ravening at Healey's caissons, raged. But Healey slept.

THE END.

GOOD WORDS FOR THE 'GATOR.

Twenty years ago a visitor to that part of the South below North Carolina could see alligators in almost every stream and bayou, but now one may frequently spend months traveling through this region and not see a single alligator except those in captivity. The killing of the creatures for sport or for their hides has been the main cause of their great decrease in numbers. In addition thousands of the young have been killed or shipped away, while enormous numbers of the eggs have been gathered and sold as curios.

It was not until about 1855 that the demand for alligator leather became of importance. The market was not long continued. In 1869 fashion again called for the leather for manufacturing into fancy slippers, traveling bags, belts, card cases, music rolls, etc. The demand has continued to the present and many thousands of the animals have been killed, while the preparation of the skins has given employment to hundreds of people.

The output of the tanneries of this country approximates 275,000 skins annually, worth about $425,000, part of which come from Mexico and Central America. It is estimated that about 3,800,000 alligators were killed in Florida alone between 1880 and 1909, nearly 20,000 being killed in 1908.

The earliest settlers in the Southern States found alligators, or, as they were then called, crocodiles, exceedingly abundant in almost all streams, especially in Florida and Louisiana. Many marvelous tales are found in the early chronicles of the ravages of these monsters. They were said to eat dogs and pigs, and to consider the negro an especially succulent tidbit, while it was considered dangerous to go into streams where they were known to exist. When such a stream had to be crossed hours were spent sometimes in beating it to frighten off the alligators.

The researches of scientists have shown that there is very slight foundation for such stories, and it is probable that the greater number of pigs lost by the planters could have been traced to other enemies, particularly the two-footed kind, while runaway slaves would naturally encourage the belief that alligators had dined off them.

The greater part of the supply of alligator leather now comes from Florida, and owing to excessive hunting the industry is profitable only in the central part of the peninsula, in what is called the Lake Okeechobee region and in the Everglades. Here the principal hunters are Seminole Indians, who have their homes on hummocks far back in the Everglades and come to the settlements only when in need of articles which they cannot produce themselves.

The alligator is most active at night, and his days are usually spent lying on some low bank or log overhanging the water, where it can enjoy the warmth of the sun and be able to retreat to its native element at the first sign of danger. While on land alligators are very clumsy, in the water they are exceedingly active, and, being strong swimmers, are able to catch the larger fish with but slight trouble. For animals like the muskrat and otter swimming across lagoons they are always on the watch.

On seizing its prey the alligator sinks with it to the bottom and there remains until all struggling has ceased; it is then able with less effort to tear it into pieces. While thus submerged a peculiar collar at the base of the tongue prevents the water from passing into its lungs.

While the alligator is said to make very effective use of its tail in warfare, the widely disseminated story that it uses its tail to sweep animals off the banks into its jaws appears to have but slight foundation in fact.

In April or May the mother alligator seeks a sheltered spot on a bank and there builds a small mound with a hole in the middle. The foundation of this mound is of mud and grass, and on these she lays some eggs. She then covers the eggs with another stratum of grass and mud, upon which she deposits some more eggs. Thus she proceeds until she has laid from twenty-five to sixty eggs. The eggs are hatched out by the sun.

As soon as they have chipped the shell the baby alligators are led to the water by the mother, who provides them with food, which she disgorges. Papa Alligator has to be carefully watched at this time, for he highly esteems a dinner of young saurians, and is not particular whether they are his own or his neighbor's children. When by strategy or downright fighting the mother has got her family safely into their natural element it is not long before the young scatter, each to begin life on his own hook. At this period they form a favorite food for turtles and the larger fishes.

When fully grown the alligator is about sixteen feet in length. In the adult stage it is greenish-black above, having lost the yellowish color bands that belong to its earlier years. Hunters say that alligators grow very slowly, attaining the first year a length of about one foot. When two feet in length they are said to be from ten to fifteen years old, while those twelve feet long are supposed to be seventy-five or more. Their normal life is estimated at from one hundred to one hundred and fifty years.

Alligator hunting originally began as sport. Then some one tanned the skin and found that it could be put to commercial use. Carried on as it must be, at night, the hunt is picturesque.

In many places the hunters fasten bicycle lamps on their caps, and when the animal is attracted by the light pick it off by hitting it in the eye with a rifle ball. Torches are often used. Sometimes the hunter lures the alligator to the surface of the water by "telephoning to the 'gator," as it is called.

An alligator is always attracted by the peculiar grunt which the young alligators make, for there is no sort of food they love better than newly hatched 'gator. The hunter takes a long, slender pole and lets one end of it down very quietly into the water. The other end he places between his teeth and imitates the grunt of the baby 'gators. The old fellows easily hear the call and come up to feast on babies they think are there.

In catching them alive hunters frequently lasso them while asleep on the bank or on a log. When asleep in their holes in the mud they are occasionally drawn out by means of an iron hook. These holes are easily found. Sometimes the grass is set afire and the animals lassoed as they seek the water.

After the alligator is caught the hunter in sport sometimes mounts it, using the reptile's fore feet and legs as reins. It is needless to say that it is only by the exercise of considerable skill that the hunter keeps his seat through the struggles of the reptile, and if care is not used the fun may develop into tragedy.

Alligators three feet and more in length are generally killed at once and the hide removed. All of the hide except the ridge of the back, which is very bony, is used. The hide is salted, and is then in condition for sale to the buyers, who are usually storekeepers, who furnish provisions and ammunition in exchange.

The hides range in value to the hunter from 20 cents for a three-foot hide to $1.25 for a hide seven feet or more in length. The five and six-foot hides are the most desirable, as the larger hides have a hard piece of bone in the square checks on the hide, and it is impossible to sew through this. Nearly all of the tanning is done at Newark, N. J.

Young alligators are often brought in, and are worth about 8 cents apiece. The eggs are also gathered, and sell for 2-1/2 cents each. They are mainly sold to curio dealers, who either hatch them out or blow them and sell the shells. Most of the small alligators are stuffed and sold as curios to tourists, who pay from 50 cents to $2 apiece for them.

Many of them used to be shipped North alive by tourists as presents. Owing to ignorance as to how the animal should be cared for many of these soon died.

If properly cared for, the young alligator will thrive even in unnatural circumstances. Its main requirement is sufficient heat. Its diet should consist of bits of fresh meat, insects and worms. They often show great fondness for the ordinary earthworms, and will frequently refuse all food but these. The larger specimens in captivity are fed about three times a week on fresh meat or small live animals, and they require little attention other than this.

Alligators' teeth, which are secured by burying the head until they have rotted out, are of fine ivory and valued for carving into ornaments. They are worth to the hunter about $2 a pound--from fifty to seventy-five teeth. The dealers will not buy very many of them, as there is but a limited demand. At one time the paws were saved and mounted as curios, but it is impossible to do anything with them now.

Both flesh and eggs are eaten by a few persons, but it requires a very hardy stomach to stand the disagreeable, musky odor. There is nothing better, hunters declare, than the tip of the tail of an alligator which has reached, say, the pullet period. It is creamy in color, tasting a little like frogs' legs, but with a more pronounced gamy flavor, juicy--altogether tempting. The dish is a great favorite with the crackers of Florida.

Alligator tails are best at the time of the ricebird season. The big alligators float in the water with only their eyes showing. When an alligator gets near a flock of these fat, juicy little birds it dives to the bottom. Its long, wide snout scoops up some of the loam, and it floats to the surface again with just the rich soil showing.

The birds think it is an island. They alight upon it. When the whole family is there the big beast turns suddenly. Just as the birds scramble off the alligator opens its mouth once. They are gone.

The birds are neat little feeders, and the alligator is an epicure at this time of the year. The ricebird diet makes the tip of its tail tender and sweet.

In St. Augustine is an alligator farm, one of two in the United States, the other being at the Hot Springs in Arkansas. Here the alligators are kept in confinement until large enough for market.

It will probably be news to many that Florida has a representative of the crocodile family. This animal was first supposed to be confined to the West Indies and South America, but it has been occasionally captured on the peninsula of Florida. It is easily distinguishable from the alligator by its narrow snout. For many years scientists were skeptical of reports from Florida of the appearance of this animal in that State, but the capture of several fine specimens in recent years has settled all doubt.

VENOMOUS FISH.

It is curious that while so much has been written in our language on snake bites there has been comparatively little placed on record concerning the stings of fishes.

Snake bites are rare in this country, but fish stings are very common, especially among fishermen and fishmongers. The fishes that most often sting are the great and little weevers. A prick on the hand or foot from a weever causes much swelling and inflammation.

If the arm is affected the inflammation may spread to the shoulder, the swelling of the whole limb being enormous. The pain is agonizing, the patient often falling into a state of collapse or becoming delirious. Usually the inflammation subsides in about three days, followed by desquamation.

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651--The Affair of the Missing Bonds; or, Nick Carter in the Harness.

652--The Green Box Clue; or, Nick Carter's Good Friend.

653--The Taxicab Mystery; or, Nick Carter Closes a Deal.

654--The Mystery of a Hotel Room; or, Nick Carter's Best Work.

655--Tragedy of the Well; or, Nick Carter Under Suspicion.

_For sale by all newsdealers, or will be sent to any address on receipt of price, 5 cents per copy, in money or postage stamps, by_

STREET & SMITH, Publishers, 79-89 Seventh Avenue, New York

=IF YOU WANT ANY BACK NUMBERS= of our Weeklies and cannot procure them from your newsdealer, they can be obtained from this office direct. Fill out the following Order Blank and send it to us with the price of the Weeklies you want and we will send them to you by return mail. =POSTAGE STAMPS TAKEN THE SAME AS MONEY.=

________________________ _190_

_STREET & SMITH, 79-89 Seventh Avenue, New York City._

_Dear Sirs: Enclosed please find_ ___________________________
_cents for which send me_:

TIP TOP WEEKLY, Nos. ________________________________

NICK CARTER WEEKLY, " ________________________________

DIAMOND DICK WEEKLY, " ________________________________

BUFFALO BILL STORIES, " ________________________________

BRAVE AND BOLD WEEKLY, " ________________________________

MOTOR STORIES, " ________________________________

_Name_ ________________ _Street_ ________________

_City_ ________________ _State_ ________________

A GREAT SUCCESS!!

MOTOR STORIES

Every boy who reads one of the splendid adventures of Motor Matt, which are making their appearance in this weekly, is at once surprised and delighted. Surprised at the generous quantity of reading matter that we are giving for five cents; delighted with the fascinating interest of the stories, second only to those published in the Tip Top Weekly.

Matt has positive mechanical genius, and while his adventures are unusual, they are, however, drawn so true to life that the reader can clearly see how it is possible for the ordinary boy to experience them.

_HERE ARE THE TITLES NOW READY AND THOSE TO BE PUBLISHED_:

1--Motor Matt; or, The King of the Wheel.

2--Motor Matt's Daring; or, True to His Friends.

3--Motor Matt's Century Run; or, The Governor's Courier.

4--Motor Matt's Race; or, The Last Flight of the "Comet."

5--Motor Matt's Mystery; or, Foiling a Secret Plot.

6--Motor Matt's Red Flier; or, On the High Gear.

7--Motor Matt's Clue; or, The Phantom Auto.

8--Motor Matt's Triumph; or, Three Speeds Forward.

9--Motor Matt's Air Ship; or, The Rival Inventors.

10--Motor Matt's Hard Luck; or, The Balloon House Plot.

11--Motor Matt's Daring Rescue; or, The Strange Case of Helen Brady.

12--Motor Matt's Peril; or, Cast Away in the Bahamas.

13--Motor Matt's Queer Find; or, The Secret of the Iron Chest.

14--Motor Matt's Promise; or, The Wreck of the "Hawk."

15--Motor Matt's Submarine; or, The Strange Cruise of the "Grampus."

16--Motor Matt's Quest; or, Three Chums in Strange Waters.

To be Published on June 14th.

17--Motor Matt's Close Call; or, The Snare of Don Carlos.

To be Published on June 21st.

18--Motor Matt in Brazil; or, Under the Amazon.

To be Published on June 28th.

19--Motor Matt's Defiance; or, Around the Horn.

To be Published on July 5th.

20--Motor Matt Makes Good; or, Another Victory for the Motor Boys.

PRICE, FIVE CENTS

At all newsdealers, or sent, postpaid, by the publishers upon receipt of the price.

STREET & SMITH, _Publishers_, NEW YORK

Transcriber's Notes:

Added table of contents.

For this text edition, oe ligatures have been expanded to oe; the HTML edition retains the ligatures.

Italics are represented with _underscores_, bold with =equal signs=.

Page 5, corrected typo "odder" in "oder somet'ing like dot!"

Page 7, added tilde to "Madam Cousiño" for consistency.

Page 9, corrected typo _Gampus_ in "started south to meet the _Grampus_." Retained unusual spelling of "possesion" on the assumption that it is intentional.

Page 12, corrected typo "Wihtehead" ("Whitehead began its peculiar performance").

Page 14, corrected typo "Glennine" ("'Jupiter!' exclaimed Glennie.").

Page 22, corrected typo "baot" ("bore him off the boat"). Removed unnecessary quote after "six yellow men?" at end of page.

End of Project Gutenberg's Motor Matt Makes Good, by Stanley R. Matthews