CHAPTER VII.
WAS IT TREACHERY?
"Where's Haidee?" asked Matt.
"Oh, bother the girl!" cried McGlory savagely.
Matt turned on him with a surprised look.
"What's the matter with you, pard?" he asked.
"Well, it's apples to ashes that I was never so badly shaken up in mylife before as I am this minute. Sufferin' Judas! Say, I'd never havebelieved it."
The crowd was dense. Some of the people were moving off toward thecity, some were making for the side-show, and others were trying toget close to the king of the motor boys. Matt, having just finished asensational flight, was an object of curiosity and admiration.
Neither he nor McGlory paid any attention to the demonstration aroundthem, but moved briskly onward toward the calliope tent.
"I can't rise to you, Joe," said the puzzled Matt. "What's on yourmind?"
"Something more'n my hat, and you can bet your moccasins on that."
"Where did Haidee go?"
"That leather-faced tinhorn uncle of hers grabbed her and took her awaythe minute she dropped from the trapeze."
"She wasn't hurt, was she?"
"I didn't take any trouble to find out. She walked off spry enough."
McGlory was gruff to the point of incivility. It was evident to Mattthat he had been mightily stirred.
"What's the matter with you?" demanded Matt.
"Wait till we get into the calliope tent, and out of this crowd and thedust--then I'll tell you."
"Didn't you discover the trick Boss Burton played on me with the helpof Haidee and Le Bon, Joe?"
"Oh, speak to me about that!" snarled the cowboy. "Nary, I didn't,pard, until it was too everlastin'ly late to stop the run of the cards.Burton! We've got a bone to pick with him; and, after it's picked, Ifeel like cramming it down his throat. He was bound to have the girlgo up, and he worked it in his sneaking, underhand way! I don't likethis layout, Matt. You've had the closest call that's ever come yourway since you took to flying. Sufferin' cats! Say, my heart was in mythroat all the while I was looking on. I was expecting that any minutethe fire would reach the gasoline, that both tanks would let go, andthat you, and the girl, and the _Comet_ would all be wiped out in a bignoise and a splotch of flame."
By this time they had reached the calliope tent, and were able to duckinside and get away from the crowd.
The calliope was there, and filling the larger part of the interior.The big steam organ was shrouded in a canvas cover, and only the lowerrims of the wagon wheels on which it was mounted were to be seen.
Matt dropped down on a heap of straw and leaned back wearily against aside pole. McGlory threw himself down beside him, his face thoughtfuland angry.
"I hadn't any notion Burton was running in a rhinecaboo," said thecowboy presently, "until the _Comet_ had jumped into the air and I hadlooked back and seen Le Bon near the place from which the machine hadstarted. When I turned and looked at you and the _Comet_, there was theHaidee girl perched on the lower wing, throwin' kisses to the crowd. Iknew then that Burton had turned his trick, and I lammed loose a yell;but there was too much noise for you to hear it. I kept my eyes on thea?roplane and the girl and--and I saw something then that made my haircurl later when the fire broke out."
"What was it?" asked Matt.
"Haidee, pushing something out on the left-hand wing and jabbing itdown there with a hatpin, so it would stay."
"We must have been three or four hundred feet away from you, Joe,"returned Matt, "and how could you see it was a hatpin?"
McGlory sat up, opened the front of his coat, and drew a blisteredhatpin out of the lining.
"I hunted around under the machine, while we were fighting the fire,"he explained, "and picked up that. So, you see, I know it was a hatpin."
A frown crossed Matt's face.
"What do you make out of that move of Haidee's?" he asked.
"She pinned a ball of something soaked in oil to the wing and touchedit off," averred McGlory. "It smouldered for a while and then blazed upand set fire to the canvas."
"Joe," returned Matt incredulously, "you must be mistaken. I've alwaysbeen a friend of Haidee's. Why should she want to destroy the _Comet_,or me? When you come to that, why should she want to take her own life?That's virtually what it would have amounted to if the fire had reachedthe gasoline tanks."
"Who could have started the fire, if it wasn't the girl?" demandedMcGlory. "She was the one."
Matt was nonplused. His cowboy chum seemed to have drawn a correctinference, but the supposition was so preposterous the king of themotor boys could take no stock in it.
"We've got to use a little common sense, Joe," insisted Matt. "The girlwouldn't have the least motive in the world for trying to do such athing as set fire to the _Comet_!"
"We've got to bank on what we see," answered McGlory, "no matterwhether we want to believe our eyes or not. Look at it! Haidee comesto the a?roplane for the parade like a wooden figure of a girl, movinglike a puppet worked by strings. Suddenly she flashes out of her locoedcondition and pulls a lever that slams the _Comet_ against Rajah'sheels. Well, we protected the girl from that because we believed shewas having one of her 'spells.' She came out of the spell all of asudden and lopes down to where the a?roplane stands ready for thestart. She seems as well as ever, and begs to go up on the trapeze. Atrick is played on us, and she _does_ go up. Then, once more, she getsthe _Comet_ into trouble. I can't savvy the blooming layout, but I'mkeen to know that some one is starting in to do us up. And Haidee isone of our enemies."
Just then Boss Burton pushed into the tent. He was nervous and castfurtive glances at Motor Matt.
"Great business!" he exclaimed. "Le Bon got juggled out of theascension, after all, and Haidee, the sly minx! did her stunt on thetrapeze, just as she had planned. How in the world did the machine takefire? Crossed wires, or something?"
"You need not try to dodge responsibility, Burton," said Matt sharply."You put up the trick that was played on me."
"On my honor, King----"
"Don't talk that way," interrupted Matt. "Come out flat-footed andadmit it."
"Well," grinned Burton, a little sheepishly, "if you put it that way,I'll have to acknowledge the corn. But the girl was clear-headed,wasn't she? She didn't fall off the trapeze, and she pulled off somehair-raising tricks on that flying bar that set the crowd gasping. Itwas the biggest novelty in the way of an act that any show ever put up.Results will show at the ticket wagon this afternoon. Too confoundedlybad, though, that the thing should have been marred by that fire. Howlong will it take you to fix up the machine? Can you do it in time foran ascent to-night? I've planned to have Haidee shoot off skyrocketsfrom the trapeze, and Roman candles, and all that."
"You'll have to cut out the fireworks, Burton," said Matt dryly. "Itwill take a full day to repair the _Comet_."
Burton "went up in the air" on the instant.
"Think of the loss!" he exclaimed. "You've got to repair the machine intime for the ascent this evening. If it's a matter of men, King, I'llgive you a dozen to help."
"It's not a matter of men," said Matt. "Joe and I are the only oneswho can work on the _Comet_. And listen to this--I mean it, and if youdon't like it we'll break our contract right here--Haidee has gone upwith me for the last time. I'll take Archie le Bon, or any one else youwant to send, but not Haidee."
"Is this what you call treating me square?" fumed Burton.
"Sufferin' Ananias!" grunted McGlory. "You're a nice lame duck to talkabout being treated square! You've got a treacherous outfit, Burton,and Pard Matt and I are not beginning to like it any too well."
Matt, thinking McGlory might tell what Haidee had done, gave him arestraining look.
"You're responsible for the trouble that overtook the _Comet_, Burton,"proceeded Matt.
"Me?" echoed the showman, aghast. "Well, I'd like to know how youfigure it."
"Through your schemes, and over my protest, Haidee made the ascent withme."
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"I'll admit that."
"If she hadn't made the ascent, there'd have been no fire."
"Do you mean to say----"
"Now, don't jump at any conclusions. I know what I'm talking aboutwhen I tell you that there'd have been no fire if Haidee hadn't madethe ascent with me. That isn't saying, mark you, that the girl is toblame for what happened. Would she want to burn the a?roplane and dropherself and me plump into the show grounds? If----"
Just then a weird thing happened. The calliope gave a sharp clatter ofhigh notes.
All present in the tent gave astounded attention to the canvas-coveredmusic box.
"Spooks!" grinned Joe.
"There was enough steam left in the calliope to play a few notes,"suggested Burton.
"But the notes couldn't play themselves," said Matt, and made a rushfor the calliope.
The keyboard was in one end of the calliope wagon, and the canvas wasdraped over the chair occupied by the operator when the steam wagon wasin use.
With a pull, Matt jerked aside the canvas that covered the rear of thecalliope, and there, crouching in a chair, was Ben Ali!