CHAPTER IV.
THE MYSTERY DEEPENS.
The effect of Matt's announcement on Carl was startling. The Dutch boy,of course, might be supposed to evince some surprise at finding the bagof pearls, but his amazement went so deep it left him speechless. Morethan that, his astonishment grew rather than lessened.
"Bearls!" he whispered, as soon as he could find his voice, staringstrangely at Matt over the side of the tonneau. "Iss dot vat you say,Matt--bearls?"
"Yes," answered Matt excitedly, counting the contents of the bag."There are twenty of them, Carl, and I know that black pearls bring abig price."
"Veil, by shinks und den some!" wheezed Carl. "Vouldn't dot knock youslap-sited? Bearls! Und vat vas dot t'ing I findt me in Pringle's room.Say, Matt, I got to shpeak mit you, righdt avay!"
"We've got to take care of the man, Carl," returned Matt, closing thesilk bag and stowing it carefully in his pocket. "This is a big thingwe're up against, and we've got to handle it right. Make the man ascomfortable as you can. I'll go back after his hat and then we'llhustle him into Ash Fork."
Carl went about his work mechanically, his face full of wonder. Mattreturned to the place where the man had been found, picked up hisautomobile-cap and gave a hasty look around for anything else thatmight have been dropped. Failing to find anything, he returned quicklyto the car.
"You better stay in the tonneau, Carl," suggested Matt, "and keep theman from being jarred off the seat."
"I vant to talk," said Carl; "py chimineddy, I got to shpeak mit youaboudt vat has habbened mit me. I don'd ged der time since der Chinksblayed tag mit me, und----"
Matt was cranking the machine. As he came around and crawled into thefront seat, he looked back to see that everything was all right.
"You can talk while we run into town, Carl," said he, throwing in theclutch and manipulating the side lever.
"Pefore you ged to going too fast," said Carl, leaning over the back ofthe seat and pushing a scrap of paper under Matt's eyes, "read dot."
There were only a few words on the sheet, and Matt read them almost ata glance. What he read thrilled him on the instant.
"Pearls on the way. Break loose and meet us as per letter sent you at Albuquerque."
It was the one word, "pearls," that sent an electric shock throughMatt's nerves.
"Where'd that note come from?" he asked, keeping his eyes ahead on theroad.
"Dot's all vot Pringle left pehindt," answered Carl, putting the noteback in his pocket. "Ven he flew der coop he took mit him der trunkmit eferyding else vat he hat. Yah, so. Ven I knocked py his room inder morning, I don'd ged no answer. I knock some more, und den I findtme der door vas oben, und I valk in mit meinseluf. No Pringle. Notrunk. No nodding aber schust dot paper lying on der floor. Pringle hatvamoosed. He took vat money dere vas, und my shdreet clodings, so I hatto vear my stage make-oop."
"Where were you and Pringle at the time?"
"Py Flagstaff."
"What were you doing in Flagstaff?"
"Ve vas a knockaboudt moosickal team. Yah, so. Ve use a shlap-shtick,und make some monkey-doodle pitzness, und I blay der zillyphone, undder drompone, und der moosickal glasses, und der sleigh-pells. Pringlehe blow der horn und plinkety-plunk der pancho. Ve vas vorkin' ourvay agross der gontinent py San Francisco, vere ve blay a circuit invaudeville. Aber Pringle he pull out mit himseluf, und I vas left insome lurches. I go on py Ash Fork, and t'ink meppy Pringle come up fromPhoenix, so I vait py Ash Fork. Vell, he leaf me doo shirts und dreepairs oof socks, und vile I peen in Ash Fork vaiting, I dake dem pyHop Loo. Ach, I haf some pooty pad dimes vile I vait for Pringle, aberI vas jeerful. Now I t'ink meppy he don'd vas in Phoenix ad all, unddot he vas in Tenver. Dere iss somet'ing in dot note aboudt bearls. Vefindt bearls in dot leedle pag. Funny, ain't dot? For vy iss id, Matt?"
Matt couldn't answer that question. The mystery was deepening.
"Somebody sent that note to Pringle, Carl, and he cut loose from you."
"Yah, so. He cut loose from me und he dook eferyt'ing vat I haf. He vasa pad egg, you bed you. Oof I ketch him vonce, I make him t'ink he vashit mit some cyclones!"
"The fellow who wrote that note may not have meant that these pearls inthe bag were 'on the way.'"
"Meppy nod, aber it looks doo keveer for a habbenchance. It gif me acholt, Matt, ven you saidt dose t'ings vas bearls, und I recollectionedvat vas saidt in der note about bearls. Meppy Pringle und some odderpad egg dry to holt dis feller oop und dake der pag avay from him."
"That may be. How is the man now?"
"Aboudt der same like he vas."
Matt had been driving the car at a smart clip, and they had taken theturn in the road and were reaching out for the main street of the town.
There was a doctor's office across the street from the hotel, and Mattdrew up in front of it. Some loungers on the sidewalk, observing theunconscious form in the tonneau, began crowding around the car andasking questions.
"I don't know what's the matter," said Matt. "We found this car runningaway and picked up the man from the roadside. Is the doctor in?"
The doctor himself looked from a second-story window and answered thequestion. Some of the bystanders helped remove the man from the tonneauand carry him up the stairs to the doctor's office. Matt and Carlfollowed.
"Keep quiet, Carl," whispered Matt to the Dutch boy; "don't tell any ofthese people what we've found. That information will have to go to theofficers."
"Sure t'ing," returned Carl, with a wink. "I know more as you t'ink,Matt. Ve ought to ged a rake-off on dot pag. Id vould be easy to bejeerful mit a rake-off."
The unconscious man was laid down on a couch in the doctor's office,and the room was cleared of all the morbidly curious people. Only Mattand Carl were left with the doctor.
The latter, busily stripping away the blood-stained bandage, kept up arunning fire of talk as he worked.
He wanted to know all about the runaway car, how it had been stopped,just where the man had been found, whether he had been unconscious eversince he was picked up, and so on.
Carl let Matt answer the questions, and Matt was glad that none of thedoctor's remarks brought up anything about the pearls.
"His injury is not serious," said the doctor. "His forehead has beengrazed by a bullet. A tight squeak, but in a case like this a miss isalways as good as a mile."
"Why is he unconscious?" queried Matt.
"Just weak from loss of blood. We'll bring him around in a jiffy, andthen he can tell all about what happened to him."
The doctor proceeded to cleanse the man's wound, and to put on a freshbandage. Then, holding up his head, he forced a stimulant between hislips.
"He must be a wealthy man," remarked the doctor, his eyes on thewatch-chain and the good clothes. "But what does a wealthy man want tobe pounding around the country for--especially a country like this--allby himself?"
Before either Matt or Carl could hazard a guess, the man gave a slightstart and opened his eyes. For an instant he stared blankly into thefaces of the doctor and the boys, muttered something, and tried to getup.
"I wouldn't do that," said the doctor. "You're weak, yet. Wait tillyou get a little strength. Here, drink some more of this."
The man took another swallow of the stimulant, and seemed to get bettercontrol of himself.
"How did I come here?" he asked.
Matt, obeying a gesture from the doctor, told how the car had beenstopped, and how he and Carl had gone back along the road and found theman unconscious among the bushes.
For a minute or two after hearing Matt's explanations the man laysilent and thoughtful.
"If you did all that," said he to Matt finally, "you must know how torun a car."
Matt nodded.
"I used to work for a motor company in Albany," he answered, "and theyhad me give demonstrations. I had to know all about cars and take out alicense."
A queer gleam arose in the man's eyes.
"I am James Q. Tomlinson, of Denver,"
said he, "and have been touringSouthern California and Arizona for my health. With my chauffeur, Icame up from Yuma in the 'Red Flier,' and the chauffeur was taken sickat the Needles. Am expecting to pick up a friend in Flagstaff. Thefriend is waiting there for me, and I thought I would drive the carthrough to Flagstaff from the Needles myself. I found I didn't know asmuch about it as I thought I did. However, I managed to peg along.
"Early this morning, about twenty miles out of Ash Fork, I was setupon by three masked men. They ordered me to stop, but I opened upthe machine and made a run past them. The scoundrels fired at me, andone of their bullets grazed my head. I was stunned for a moment, butmanaged to keep my senses and hold the automobile in the road. Had anidea that I could get to Ash Fork, but somehow I kept growing weakerand weaker. It became hard for me to manage the steering-wheel, soI tied it with a rope; then, all at once, the car tilted, and I wasthrown out.
"I can remember falling into the road, and crawling to some busheswhere I could be out of the hot sun. After that my wits left me, and Iremember nothing more until now."
A knock fell on the door of the outer office. The doctor excusedhimself for a moment and went out, closing the door of the privateoffice behind him.
As soon as he was gone, Mr. Tomlinson's manner changed quickly.Thrusting a hand into his pocket, he withdrew it with a cry of alarm.Then he fixed upon Matt and Carl a suspicious look.
"Did you boys see anything of a bag, a little green silk bag?" hedemanded.
Matt took the bag from his pocket and handed it to him.
"It dropped out of your coat as we were lifting you into the car," saidhe.
A gasp of relief went up from the man.
"Do you know what it contains?" he queried, opening the bag withtrembling fingers.
"Pearls," said Matt, "twenty black pearls."
Assuring himself that the pearls were all in the bag, Tomlinson closedit and pushed it into his pocket.
"These pearls are worth thirty thousand dollars," said he, in a guardedtone. "You boys are honest, and will be rewarded, but say nothing toanybody about the bag. Understand?"
Matt nodded, and just then the doctor came in with a roughly dressedindividual whom he introduced as a deputy sheriff.