CHAPTER X.
A DARING ESCAPE.
There had been so many ups and downs for Chub during the few hours heand Matt had been fighting for the claim that his discouragement nowtook a philosophical turn.
"There goes our last chance, Matt," said he, with a grim laugh. "It'swhat they call stealing your own thunder, ain't it, when a swift bunchof toughs act like that?"
Matt was mad clear through. His eyes snapped vindictively as he watchedthe exultant ruffians.
"The recorder closes his office in Phoenix at six o'clock?" he asked.
"Yes."
"Then Jacks has played his trump card. The only way that locationnotice could be got to Phoenix in time to be recorded to-day wasby sending Perry on the motor-cycle. When we left Delray, he saidsomething about lending us a gun. I don't believe in guns, as ageneral thing, but if we had borrowed Delray's we could have met thesescoundrels in their own way."
Matt's voice was low, but it throbbed with a fierce desire to dosomething--anything--which might still win the day for the McReadys.
"The biggest steal on record, that's what it is!" breathed Chub.
"You could prove it in any court in the country, Chub. With yourfather's testimony, and ours, you'll have a good case against Jacks andHawley."
"It takes money for lawsuits," said Chub bitterly, "and the McReadyshave been living from hand to mouth for more years than I care to thinkabout. There's no use talking about a legal fight, Matt. Possession isnine points of the law, and the man who files his location notice firstalways holds the ground. We'll just sponge the 'Make or Break' off theMcReady slate right now. For the rest of it, all I'm worrying about isdad."
"If you fellers hev got through with yer confab," shouted Jacks, "ye'lljest turn face-about an' jog fer that scooped-out place in the foot o'the hill, right behind ye."
Matt looked around. The spot mentioned by Jacks was a jagged notchamong the rocks, twenty-five or thirty feet long by a dozen wide, andwith precipitous walls on all sides, except, of course, at the openingin front.
"What are you driving us into that hole in the rocks for?" demandedMatt.
"We like yer comp'ny so all-fired well," answered Jacks, with a hoarselaugh, "that we're goin' ter keep ye with us all night. Arter it gitsdark, we kin hang onter ye easier if ye're bottled up in that cut-out."
"You're a nice pair of grafters--I don't think," flared Chub."Somebody's goin' to settle for this business, and the more you pile iton the more you'll pay."
"We're able ter pay all we'll have ter," grinned Jacks, "but jest nowyou're follerin' my orders, _sabe_? Chase 'em in, Bisbee," he added, tohis companion.
"Shoo!" said Bisbee, and started forward, waving his weapon.
"You're a couple of cowards!" yelled Chub, doubling up his fists. "Youwouldn't dare shoot!"
"Come on, Chub," said Matt quietly, taking his chum's arm and leadinghim into the notch. "We'll have our innings later."
"But I don't want to be hung up in here all night," demurred Chub."There's no tellin' what kind of a fix dad is in. We ought to behunting for him."
"Don't fret. They've left your father so he'll be all right until youcan find him, even if you can't take up the hunt until to-morrow. Justlet 'em think their bluff is working, that's all."
Bisbee, with the revolver on his knees, had taken up his position atthe front of the notch. From this position, even after it grew dark, hewould be able to keep the boys from emerging from the cut-out.
Matt and Chub sat down on a couple of stones and leaned back againstthe steep wall behind them. Through the opening they could look outtoward the claim and see Jacks taking Perry's horse to the spring.Saddle and bridle were stripped from the horse, and the animal wassecured with a long rope and picket-pin. After taking care of thehorse, Jacks went back to McReady's camp, started a fire, and begangetting supper.
"Consarn 'em!" growled Chub, "they're taking everything in sight."
"We'll not make any kick," answered Matt, "so long as they give us oursupper. I feel as though I'd been through a famine. Besides, we needfood for our night's work."
He dropped his voice, to make sure Bisbee could not hear.
"Night's work?" echoed Chub. "About all the work we'll do to-night,Matt, will be to sit on these boulders and try to sleep."
"That's where you're wrong. When it's dark enough, and everything'squiet, I'm going to climb out of here, fix up the _Comet_, and takethis location notice to Phoenix."
"Shucks! What's the use? Even if you succeeded, you couldn't reach townbefore to-morrow. The other notice will have been recorded long beforethen."
"I'll not say we're beaten until the recorder himself tells me it's toolate."
Admiration for his chum rose in Chub's eyes, although he shook his headhopelessly.
"That's your style, Matt--you never seem to know when you're down andout. How're you goin' to get out of here?"
Matt called Chub's attention to one of the side walls of the notch.There was more of a slope to the wall there than anywhere else, andMatt had already marked out his foot and hand holds, fixing half adozen projecting stones and two or three straggling bushes firmly inhis mind.
"In broad day," said Chub, "that climb would be hard enough, but atnight you'd be sure to fall and break your neck. Cut it out."
"I'm going to make a getaway to-night," declared Matt firmly.
"Why couldn't the two of us get the better of Bisbee? We could dropon him during the night, and if we worked it right, that gun of hiswouldn't cut any figure."
"I'd thought of that," said Matt, "but I've got to skirmish around thecamp a little, you know, and tinker with the _Comet_. All that willhave to be done secretly. My way's the best, I think."
"You'll have to excuse little Chub from prancing up that precipice. Hethinks too much of his neck to risk it on any such fool stunt."
"When I'm ready to go I'll set up a yell. That will draw Bisbee andJacks after me, Chub, and you can walk out of this hole in the hill asneat as you please."
That ended their talk for a while. Just then Jacks came to the openingof the notch, and set down a tin cup of coffee and a plate of soakedhardtack and fried bacon.
"Ye'll hev ter eat out o' the same dish an' drink out o' the same cup,"said he. "This hotel's kinder short on plates an' cups. Howsumever, Idon't reckon ye're anyways partic'ler."
He withdrew with a jubilant flourish, and the two chums fell to ontheir food. After it was eaten, both of them felt a hundred per cent.better.
Night comes suddenly in that part of the Southwest. One minute it isdaylight, and almost the next the stars are out and the coyotes yelping.
As night advanced a deep quiet fell over the captives and theircaptors. The horse and burro could be heard tramping around the spring,but these sounds, and the occasional bark of a coyote, were all thatbroke the stillness.
Bisbee, sitting by the entrance into the notch, was as upright andsilent as a black statue. Jacks, with a blanket under him, was lyingacross the entrance and snoring. Midnight was passed and the hour hadcome for Matt to make his attempt, so he reached over and touched hischum on the shoulder.
"I'm off, old chap!" he whispered, his lips close to Chub's ear. "I'vetied my shoes together by the laces and they're hanging around myneck--I can climb better and make less noise in my stocking-feet."
Chub reached out his hand and wrung Matt's fervently.
"I think it's foolish for you to try to get that notice to Phoenix, oldchum," he answered, "but I appreciate what you're tryin' to do for theMcReadys, just the same. If ever a fellow was true to his friends, it'sa cinch that it's Motor Matt."
"I hate to pull out and leave you, Chub," went on Matt, "but there'sonly one motor-cycle, you know, and, besides, you can't leave hereuntil you find out about your father."
"That's all to the good. We've got to separate. Good-by and good luck."
"Be ready to run when you hear me yell," finished Matt. "So-long, Chub."
It was as dark as a pocket in t
he notch, and Chub could not see Matt ashe moved noiselessly across to the other wall. Presently, by straininghis ears, Chub could hear muffled sounds--a sifting downward of sand,the faint crunch of a loose stone under a stockinged foot, a stifledbreathing, as of some one working hard and trying to work quietly.Steadily the sounds mounted up and up. Chub, holding his breath, fixedhis eyes on the blank darkness and waited. He almost fell off hisboulder when he saw the blurred form of Bisbee lean forward, and heardhim call:
"What ye doin' in thar, you two?"
"What's the matter with you?" retorted the quick-witted Chub. "We'retired out and want to sleep. Move over a little, Matt," he added, asthough speaking to his chum, "you're takin' up more'n your half of thewall."
The blurred form straightened again, and once more Chub began tobreathe. The sounds on the wall had ceased, and Chub began to count theseconds and mentally to check off the minutes.
Five minutes--ten--fifteen. Chub wasn't at all sure he was reckoningthe time properly, but he began wondering what had become of his chum.The opposite side of the notch was the slope of the hill itself, andonly child's play for Matt to get down. If he had got down, where washe?
Chub reckoned up fifteen minutes more. His nerves were in rags and hewas imagining all sorts of wild things, when a booming shout came fromthe distance.
"Good-by, Jacks! You thought you had us, but you've got another guesscoming!"
Bisbee leaped to his feet with a yell. Jacks broke off his snoressuddenly and lifted himself up.
"What's the matter?" he demanded.
"Them kids hev got away!" cried the startled Bisbee.
A clatter of hoofs, rapidly receding in the direction of thepack-trail, could be heard.
"They've took the hoss!" yelped Jacks. "Consarn 'em, anyways! Whydidn't ye watch, hey? Come on! Mebby we kin stop 'em yit!"
Bisbee and Jacks scampered off into the shadows, talking and snarlingat each other as they ran. Chub, losing no time, laughed softly tohimself and hurried out of the notch.
It tickled him to think that Motor Matt's daring had won out, eventhough there wasn't much hope of his getting to Phoenix in time to savethe claim. But why had Matt taken the horse? Chub had been expectingthe explosions of a gasoline motor rather than the patter of hoofs.