Motor Matt's Century" Run"

dy,

in sich a tarnal hurry. What am I

How can you expect to fly wi

understand this thing.

plans an' I put th

d in the papers, mine goes

ing-pin. The invention is yours, and all I did was to put it together. But you'r

progress, which'll go a good ways to'rds makin' up fer the past. I'm plumb hungry, Chub, to hear folks say: 'That there flyin' machine is the biggest thing o' the twentieth century, an' Welcome Perkins done it. He used to be a howlin', cut-an'-slash despe

much longer, Perk, somebody'll come. You wa

wn come out an' see me cuttin' figger eight's in the clouds. 'It can't be that one-legged feller up there is Welcome Perkins, the ole ex-pirate o' the plains as has be

erk; go ahead an' fly. Don't

back yit, an' nobody

out here, but there's no tellin' how long we'l

d an old, one-legged gentleman surrounded by a lot of canvas wings. There was a canvas tail behind to be depressed or lifted, according as the old gentleman wanted to fly up or down; and there was a propeller just

he ground was Chub McReady-who was something of an inventor himself

ground at the foot of the pole. Thereupon Welcome pushed into the manhole of the flying machine and began hoisting himself

ane so'st the governor kin have a chanst to look out o' the cupola winder an' thank me fer this boon to the human race. Mebby I'll perch on top o

you're afraid to start, Perk,

er it. I wisht you'd stuck the 'Merican flag on the machine, some'rs, but I won't stop fer th

me made a few more up and down moveme

machine, of course, for Chub had O. K.'d the plans, so it must

twenty-five feet; then the canvas fabric turned itself inside out, and, with a wild yell, the old

Clipperton rushed into sight and darted for the canal to give Welcome a he

ing in the race for the canal,

round the corner to see the show. Foolish business, Chub

would fly, but I headed him for the canal, so if a

loundering, was tangled in the wreckage. He had sense enough left to catch the rope, and Ma

to get the water out of his ear, "the very last time, Chub McReady, I'm goin' to try

othering a laugh, now that he was certain Welcome h

sness is b'ilin' around inside o' me, an' I'm goin' to git right out! Instid o' helpin' progress, like I was intendin', I'm goin' to cut loose, out there in the hills, an' give it a back-set. You hear me? Wow! L

wooden pin viciously into the ground with every step, and leaving a watery trail

We thought we was havin' this experiment entirely private, an' I guess Perk thought I'd g

t. "I couldn't figure out what he was trying to do, at

m!" snickered Chub. "The old

d Clip. "May have been a good t

man volcano, an' he's got to have an eruption just about so often or he can'

our motor-cycles," answered Matt. "

s fac

"Hang it all, Matt it can'

ut at the last moment I generally run into something that interferes with my plans. Clip has bou

had a motor-cycle I'm hanged

your father is getting to work developing his mine. You'll have to h

wo or three times with his start for Denver, and just t

e ears of the boys. Whirling around, they stared across th

the blood racing

n two pairs of wheels connected by a "reach." As the vehicle leaped and swayed from one side of the road

that wagon!" crie

, and her dangerous situation appealed to Matt and aroused a

ome out of the canal and darted for the gate in front of the house.