CHAPTER X.
A NEW PLAN.
"Get away from that machine!" cried Matt, leaping into the barn.
He had grabbed up a club on the way, and as he spoke he advancedthreateningly upon Sercomb and his friends.
All four were in the car or around it. What they were trying to do Mattdid not know, but he felt pretty sure they had not broken into the barnwith harmless intentions concerning the Red Flier.
Sercomb turned away from the front of the machine and the others gotout.
"What are you intending to do with that club?" Sercomb demanded.
"That depends on what you're trying to do to that car," answered Matt.
"This is my property and the car has no business here. We want thisplace for the other machine."
"Then leave the barn and I'll run the machine out. I don't allow anyone to fool with that car."
"There ain't one of us," struck in Mings, "that don't know more about acar in a minute than you do in a year."
"That may be," said Matt, "but I'm boss of the Red Flier, all the same."
"I've heard about you, King," went on Mings. "Dace Perry, of Denver, isa friend of mine, and he told me just what kind of a four-flusher youare--always sticking your nose into other people's business, same asnow."
"Glad to hear Perry has a friend," returned Matt amiably, "but he couldhave told you a whole lot that I guess he thought he hadn't better."
Just then Carl and Ferral flocked into the barn.
"Are they trying to scuttle that red craft, Matt?" asked Ferral.
"No," was the reply, "they're just going to run it out of the barn tomake room for the other car. I told them I'd attend to it."
"And when you get the car out of the barn," said Sercomb pointedly,"just keep going, all of you."
"We'll do that to the king's taste," averred Ferral. "I wouldn't hangaround here with you and your outfit for a bushel of sovs, Sercomb,although I'm coming back after my roll."
"Come on, fellows," called Sercomb, and left the barn with his friendsat his heels.
Matt got the Red Flier in shape, Carl climbed into the tonneau andFerral into the front seat, and they moved out of the barn.
As they passed around the house they saw Mings sitting in the othercar, evidently watching it to make sure it would not be tampered with.He scowled at the Red Flier as it passed.
"Dey like us a heap--I don'd t'ink," chuckled Carl. "I bed you dotMings feller iss vone oof der chumps vat come indo der room lashtnighdt, Verral."
"He don't like me any too well," said Ferral grimly. "And he's none tooeasy in his mind, either. He knows what I can do to him for that Lamybusiness."
"Are you really going to get an officer in Lamy and come back here?"asked Matt.
"Strike me lucky if I'm not!"
Reaching the main road, Matt turned in the direction of Lamy and thecliffs.
"We'll take you to Lamy," said Matt, "and bring the officer back. We'vethe whole day before us, though, and there's something else I'd like todo."
"Name it, mate. I'm in for anything."
"I'd like to go along the top of those cliffs and see if I can find howand where that white runabout went to last night."
"If you go along the cliffs, you'll have to walk. Why not make yourexamination from the road?"
"We can't see enough from the road, Dick. There may be something on theother side of that ridge. By walking, and staying on the cliffs, wecan see both sides. The mystery of that white auto may be the key tothe whole affair at La Vita Place. Now's the time to settle it. If wedon't, Sercomb and those other fellows will."
"Right-o! We'll leave the Red Flier somewhere and tackle the game onfoot."
"We can't leave the Red Flier alone," said Matt. "I was going tosuggest, Dick, that we run the car off the road, between here andthe cliffs, and that you stay with it. I've got to look out for themachine, you know. I came pretty near losing it, near Fairview,in Arizona, and that gave me a jolt I'll never forget. It's afive-thousand-dollar car, and if anything happened to it it would bedifficult to explain the matter satisfactorily to Mr. Tomlinson."
"I smoke you, mate," returned Ferral. "You've butted into this affairof mine, and if you were to lose the old flugee on account of it, I'dfeel worse than you. I'll stay with the thing, and you can be surenothing will happen to it. You and Carl go hunt for the spook-car. I'llwait. How far do you intend to hoof it over the cliffs?"
"If necessary, I'd like to go clear to that gully where the machineflashed into the cliff road ahead of us; but I'm particularly anxiousto look over the ground this side of the turn, at the place where thewhite car vanished so mysteriously."
"Crack the nut! If any one can do it, by jingo, it's Motor Matt."
By then they had reached a point about half-way between La Vita Placeand the cliffs. Here, off to one side of the road, there was a patch oftimber, and Matt turned the Red Flier, ran across the flat ground, anddrew up among the trees.
"Here's a good shady place for you to wait, Dick," said Matt. "Carl andI may not be back before noon."
"Take your time, mate. I'm the greatest fellow to sojer in thedog-watch you ever saw. Take your turn-to, and when you want me ondeck, just give the call."
Matt and Carl got out, returned to the road, and proceeded on towardthe cliffs.
The road was a straight stretch clear to the first turn that carried itto the edge of the precipice. Matt and Carl remarked upon this as theystrode forward.
"A pad blace for any one to come in der nighdt, oof dey vas regless,"observed Carl. "I don'd vant to go ofer dot roadt again in der nighdt,nod me."
"We won't have to go over it again with our lamps, Carl," said Matt."It won't take us long to run to Lamy, get an officer, and come back toLa Vita Place. If we get back to the Red Flier by noon, we can make theround trip to town by four o'clock, and have half an hour to get ourdinner."
"Sure! Dot's der talk. Aber I don'd t'ink ve vas going to findt dervite car, Matt."
"I'm not expecting to find the white car, but I want to discover how itmanaged to vanish like it did."
Carl shook his head gruesomely. He was still half-inclined to creditthe runabout with "shpook" proclivities, and Matt's new plan didn'tappeal to him very powerfully.
When they came to the chasm they paused to note how the road, inreaching its treacherous path along the edge, broke suddenly from astraight line into a sharp curve. Certainly it was a bad place formotoring.
In order to get to the top of the cliff that edged the road on theright, the boys had to do some hard climbing; but when they were on thecrest of the uplift, the view that stretched out around them was amplereward for their toil.
On their left they could look down on the ribbon of road, windingbetween the foot of the cliff and the chasm; and on their right theylooked away toward a swale, which made the cliff-tops a sort of divide.
"Dot gulch down dere," shuddered Carl, looking over the cliff, "issmore as a million feed teep, I bed you."
"I don't know about that," said Matt, "but it's deep enough."
"Oof Verral hat dumpled from dot push," went on Carl, "he vould hafgone clear py China."
"That swale," said Matt, pointing in the other direction, "is wherethe gully enters the hills. As the gully runs on toward Lamy it comescloser and closer to the cliff trail."
He turned and looked behind him.
In the distance he could see the clump of timber where Ferral had beenleft with the Red Flier; and beyond the little patch of woods could beseen the larger grove that sheltered La Vita Place. The touring-carwas screened from sight, and so was the adobe house. Matt was notinterested in either of them just then, however, but was working outanother problem in his mind.
"Carl," said he, "there's just a hint of a road leading out of theswale and off toward La Vita Place."
"Vell, vat oof dot?" asked Carl.
"Incidentally," answered Matt, "if one wanted to cut off a good bigpiece of that dangerous road, in going to Lamy, he could leave La
VitaPlace and follow the blind track through the swale and gully, comingout on the cliff trail just where the white runabout showed itself infront of us last night."
"Py shiminy!" exclaimed Carl. "You're der feller to vork mit yourheadt, Matt. Yah, so. Meppy dot's der vay dot shpook car come oudt onus, hey? You t'ink she come from La Fita Blace?"
"That's only a guess. The white car had to come from somewhere. Let'sgo on."
They climbed across the rugged cliff-top, and as they neared the turnwhere the white runabout had vanished the night before, the gullyangled quite close to them; then, bending with the curve of the cliffroad, went on until it merged with the face of the cliffs.
At this point the cliff was not so high, with respect to the road, andits face was not so steep. While Matt was trying to figure out how thephantom auto had made its abrupt disappearance, a sudden cry from Carldrew his attention.
"Ach, du lieber!" faltered Carl. "Der teufel is coming some more. Seehere, Matt!"
Matt, following Carl's shaking finger with his eyes, saw the whiterunabout. Apparently of its own volition, it was proceeding Lamywardalong the gully. Sometimes it darted out of sight behind a rise in thegully wall, and again it came into full view, white, gleaming, andpresenting a most uncanny spectacle.