Chapter XII: "uncle Sam" Takes Hold

"Them fellers stopped me," said Jake, "an' was allowin' to unload the flyin' machine. What could I do agin' the lot of 'em, and armed like they was? But the fust I knowed they intended ter smash the thing was when Siwash begun talkin' with you. He'd have shot ye, too. I know him, an' I know he's desprit, so I took a chanst with the blacksnake. Gosh-all-hemlocks, but I shore made a good throw of it."

"You certainly did," said Matt, "and I'm much obliged to you."

Matt turned away from the wagon to talk with the officer in charge of the troopers. The soldiers had come to a halt, and one of them, in the uniform of a lieutenant, had spurred forward.

"What's the ruction here?" he demanded. "Benner rushed up to the fort and said some one had stolen the Traquair aëroplane. He showed us a telegram he had received, told us he had started Jake for Oberon with the machine, and that a couple of young fellows had happened along, pronounced the telegram a forgery, and had started in pursuit of Jake in an automobile. Are you one of the lot that chased up Jake?"

"Yes," said Matt. "Harry Traquair was killed in Jamestown----"

"That's stale news," interrupted the lieutenant, sitting back in his saddle and taking Matt's sizing at his leisure.

"Well," went on the king of the motor boys, "I've come to Totten to try out the aëroplane for the government."

"You?" The lieutenant laughed. "Why, my lad, the machine will do for you just as it did for Traquair. Who are you?"

"Matt King."

The lieutenant almost fell out of his saddle.

"Not Motor Matt?" he asked.

"That's what I'm called more often than anything else."

"Well, this certainly takes the cake!" muttered the lieutenant, pulling at his mustache. "My name's Cameron, and I'm a lieutenant in the signal corps. By a coincidence, I'm here to watch the trials of the aëroplane for the government."

"Where does the coincidence come in, lieutenant?" asked Matt.

"Do you remember a young fellow called Ensign Glennie?"

"Remember Glennie?" cried Matt. "Well, I guess I do. Why, he went around South America with me in a submarine."

"Representing the government, wasn't he?"

"Yes."

"Well, Glennie's my cousin, and he wrote me all about you and that trip in the submarine. So that's where the coincidence comes in. He watched your work with the submarine for the government, just as I'm to watch your work with the aëroplane. Give us your hand, Motor Matt! I feel as though we were old friends."

Matt was delighted. It was one of those meetings which sometimes happen, and which make a fellow overjoyed with the occasional workings of fate. McGlory, Black, and Ping were introduced, and then Matt took the lieutenant off by himself and narrated the events that had taken place, and which had led up to the villainous work of Siwash Charley.

Lieutenant Cameron was properly indignant.

"Siwash Charley's a whelp," he averred, "and this Murgatroyd is a thoroughbred scoundrel. But the aëroplane seems to be safe, and you'll have no further trouble with those villains. From this on, Motor Matt, you and your friends and the Traquair aëroplane are under the protecting wing of Uncle Sam. We'll have the flying machine guarded, and you and your friends will stay at the fort with us. There's only a handful of boys at Totten, now, but we're more than enough to look after Siwash Charley."

The lieutenant rode over to the wagon.

"Jake," said he, "you'd better drive back with that machine."

"That's what I was calculatin'," grinned Jake. "Somebody hand up my whip."

McGlory gathered in the blacksnake, and tossed it to the teamster.

"Sergeant," called the lieutenant to one of the troopers, "you and the rest will convoy the aëroplane back to Totten. If Siwash Charley or any of his gang show up, shoot them on sight."

"All roight, sor," answered the sergeant, touching his cap.

"Ride back with us in the car, lieutenant," suggested Matt. "One of the troopers can bring in your horse."

"I'll go with you," said Cameron promptly.

He dismounted at once, and turned his horse over to the Irish sergeant. He and Matt rode in the tonneau, with Ping, where they could talk to better advantage, and McGlory mounted to the front seat alongside of Black.

"My orders instructed me to be of all the assistance I could to Traquair," remarked Cameron, when they were sliding off toward the hills on the return trip; "so, of course, now that you represent the Traquair interests, I consider it my duty to help you."

"Glad of that, lieutenant," responded Matt. "After I get the aëroplane together I'll not need much help. You see, I've got to learn to run the machine. There's a knack I've got to get hold of."

"You'll get hold of it, never fear. A fellow like you can learn whatever he sets out to."

"But I've only got two weeks," laughed Matt, "and there's a fair chance, according to a good many people, of breaking my neck."

"That's what I was thinking, when I heard Traquair had been killed, and that there was an advertisement in the newspapers for a man of nerve. But, somehow, I feel pretty confident of the outcome, now that I know you are to boss the air flights. Let's see. I think Glennie wrote me you had had some experience with a dirigible balloon?"

"Yes, I served my apprenticeship at that sort of flying before I tied up with the submarine."

"Then you can't be called a new hand at the game."

"Sailing a dirigible balloon is a whole lot different from driving an aëroplane."

"Learn it well, Motor Matt, whatever you do. According to conditions governing the aëroplane trial, you've got to stay in the air two hours, make not less than thirty miles an hour, and carry a passenger. I'm to be the passenger."

So long as Matt had only his neck to think about, the situation was tolerably clear; but, now that he knew he had to carry the lieutenant along, he began to worry a little.

"I didn't know that part of it before," said Matt gravely.

"Don't fret, pard," put in McGlory, turning around in his seat. "If the lieutenant hasn't got the nerve, why, I'll go with you. And I reckon you know about how much I enjoy the prospect of flyin'."

"You can't cut me out of that, McGlory," declared Cameron. "Why, if Mrs. Traquair hadn't found some one to navigate the aëroplane, I was thinking seriously of offering to do it myself. I was attached to the balloon corps, for a while, but I'm handicapped by a very imperfect knowledge of gas engines. You're the fellow for the job, all right, Matt, and you can bet something that I'll not pass up the chance of flying with you. Know anything about the Traquair aëroplane?"

"Only what I've found out from a study of the model. Apart from that, I've been looking into the subject of aëroplanes for some time. It was the hope of adding to my knowledge of the subject that brought me to North Dakota."

"And you dropped into a villainous conspiracy right at the start off!" exclaimed Cameron. "I'll send a message to Oberon, just as soon as we reach the post, and see if Siwash Charley and his mates can be headed off."

"It won't do any good to send a message, lieutenant," said Matt. "Siwash knows enough to make himself scarce. Better let the matter drop--for the present, anyhow."

"But there's Murgatroyd. He's got himself into a pretty kettle of fish. You can go after _him_."

"I don't want to bother with him, nor with any one nor anything else but the aëroplane for the next two weeks."

"I guess your head's level on that point," mused Cameron. "However, if Siwash Charley shows up on the reservation while you're at work, we'll lay him by the heels and throw him into the guardhouse. When are you going to put the aëroplane together?"

"This afternoon," replied Matt. "There's no time to lose."

An hour later they were at the post. Black had made up his mind to remain over until the following day, and Matt paid him his fifty dollars, and thanked him for his work with the motor car.

Following a late breakfast at the post, Matt went down to meet Jake and superintend the unloading of the aëroplane. Selecting a favorable site for the experiments with the aëroplane required time, and dinner was ready at the post before Matt and Cameron had picked out a spot which they considered most favorable for the initial trials.

Following dinner, Matt and McGlory, in their working togs, and accompanied by the lieutenant, hustled down the hill to begin work with the aëroplane.