MARCH 7.1914 TIP TOP — . os SEs iin aa ~_ seneal i An Ideal Publication For The American Youth Issued Weekly. Entered as Second-class Matter at the New Vork Post Office, according STREET & SMITH, 79-89 Seventh Ave., New York. Copyright, 1914, by STREET & SMITH. to an ae: of Congress, March 8, 1819. Published by G. Smith and G. C. Smith, Proprietors. Terms to NEW TIP TOP WEEKLY Mail Subscribers. (Postage Free.) Single Copies or Back Numbers, 5c. Each. 3 months,....-. © BSC. OME YOAL sores crcsce secscevecces $2.00 4 MONEHS, ...0a,.seececseresees 85C, 2 COPies One year... vcectevs 400 MEMEO <5 bog anced abeadasae $1.25 1 copy two years.......-........ 4,00 see How to Send Money—By post-office or express money order, regis- tered letter, bank check or draft, at our risk. At your own risk ifsent by currency, coin, or postage stamps in ordinary letter. Receipts—Receipt of your remittance is acknowledged by proper change of number on your label. Tf not correct you have not been properly credited, and should let us know at once. . : No. 84. NEW YORK, March 7, 1914. Price Five Cents. Owen I i C 4 7 f ¢ SOus;,, ~! 4 By BURT L. eas Ld CHAPTER I. ‘ THE MYSTERIOUS ROBBERY. “What's the matter, Wynn? Your face is twice as long as it ought to be, and you’re as blue as a whet- stone. Cheer up—maybe it isn’t so.” _ Pingree, the sheriff, dropped into the office of the Square-deal Garage and made his jesting remarks to Lafe Wynn, one of the proprietors. Wynn, with his chin esting in his hand, was humped over the office desk in _ a most dejected attitude. “T have cause to feel worried, Pingree,”’ declared Wynn, straightening up in his eee and turning to face his visitor. “So have I,” replied the county official, dropping into the first seat that offered, “but there’s no reason to be sour about it.” He chuckled. “You tell me your trou- bles, and I'll tell you mine,” he finished, “and we'll see which has the best excuse to be in a taking.” _ “T’ve been running this garage alone for a week,” grum- | pled Wynn, “and it has kept me on the jump until I’m i Blngres, who was a sod friend of Clancy’s, was immediately very much interested. His face took on a erious look, and he pushed forward in his chair. “You mean to say the motor wizard has pulled out,” asked incredulously, “without ever saying a word to ‘ (ag “That's not what I mean to say, Pingree. There’s quite little to the matter. If you have time to’ listen——” ‘Time?” Pingree laughed. “I have slathers of time. ; ~ At: + he Motor Wizard’s Trail in the Clouds. STANDISH. Clancy and the Air Pirates; to cool my fevered brow and figure a way out of a batch of professional trouble, office suddenly struck on my eyes. window, and there sat you, as badly puzzled and in as big a quandary as I was—if I was any judge. So, in spite of the lateness of the hour,” and the sheriff looked at the clock which indicated eleven-thirty, “I just turned the knob and walked in. and I’m anxious to hear what you have to say about Owen Clancy.” “He has been gone a week to-night, Pingree.” “A week! If you didn’t know, and if he just heap: peared and you were afraid he had met with foul play, why didn’t you report this to me before?” “T didn’t think he had met with foul play. You sec. I had a note from Owen, telling me not to worry, and that—— Oh, well, I might as well begin at the begin- ning, Pingree. A week ago my partner took a car out in the evening for one of our patrons. When return- ing to the garage, about ten o’clock, he took a short cut through the Mexican quarter, heard a call for help, stopped the machine, and jumped at once into an exciting row.” The sheriff smiled and nodded. “That’s like the wizard,” he commented. for help was all he needed.” “Well,” proceeded Wynn, Three greasers had jumped an Americano. was holding the fort, two policemen came along and the greasers ran away. Owen brought the Americano on to the garage. The fellow’s name was Ray Norton.” Wynn’s face clouded. “He was a mysterious sort of Dees ‘son, Pingree, and I didn’t like him.” “Why didn’t you like him?” when the bright light in this I looked through the Oh, I have plenty of time, son, % “The calle “the fight didn’t last long. While Owen 2 3 NEW TIP TOP WEEKLY. “i Besides, he is back of He wanted Hie was too much of a puzzle. Claney’s strange absence, I am e¢onfident. Clancy to go out with him into the hills and work a week, installing a motor engine, but he wouldn't say where the work was, nor go into details about it, He just wanted Claney, and offered to pay him a thousand dollars for his week’s work.” “That sounds suspicious,” put in the sheriff. “It did to me, and, I think, to Qwen, tego, At any rate, Owen refused Norton’s offer. Norton would hardly take no for an answer, but at last he had to, and went away. A little while after that, Owen and I started for our sleeping quarters. We don’t lodge in the same place, and we walked as far as we could together and then separated. That was the last I saw of my partner. When I opened the door and came into the office next morning, Isfound this lying on the floor.” Wyna pulled a piece of paper from his desk and handed it to the sheriff. The letter read as follaws: Am going out into the hills with Norton, Barton “DeaAR LAFE: after all. Don’t worry. Will be back in a week. ean everhaul Swingle’s car; he'll have to, anyhow, if it’s done in our shop during the next few days. Hastily, “OweEn.” “So he did go with Norton!” exclaimed Pingree, hand- ing. back the note. “Thought he’d take a chance to pull down that thousand. Well, you couldn’t blame the boy. A thousand’s a thousand, and he wouldn’t stand for any- thing crooked. I don’t. think, Wynn, that you have a thing to worry about. Clancy’s week is up to-night—and he'll be back.” ; “T don’t think he will,” returned Wynn apprehensively. “’m afraid he won’t, and that’s what is worrying me.” “Anyhow,” counseled Pingree, “I wouldn’t begin to worry until to-morrow morning. Then, if Clancy is not here, you'll have some cause. If I didn’t have anything more than you have to fret me, I’d consider myself mighty for- tunate.” “What's on your mind?” asked Wynn, coming out from behind his own cloud of trouble to take a look at the sheriff's. “Three days ago a man was robbed of twenty thousand dollars, out by the Indian school," Pingree answered, “and tracking the thieves is like tracking a lot of phan- toms. I’m ‘up a stump,’ for fair.” “Twenty thousand dollars!” murmured Wynn. “Twenty one-thousand-dollar bank notes.” “Whew!” and Wynn whistled. “A man is a fool to carry a roll tike that around with him.” “Exactly, but that isn’t the point. The money was stolen and I, as head of the county law-and-order forces, am supposed to get right on the job and recover it. But how is anybody going to find a lot of specters? I can’t, and there’s no two ways about that!” “How was the man robbed?” “Here are the details. The man’s name is Updyke, James Updyke. He was coming to Phoenix on a seeret mission that necessitated the use of twenty thousand in cash, He also was riding horseback from Wickenburg, preferring to come that way instead of by train. While he was riding along the Cave Creck Road, nearly eppe- site the ranch known as La Vita Place, a masked man stepped out from behind a cottonwood and poked a re- volver in his face. Updyke was armed, but had no time "Cash e” to draw. The highwayman made him dismount, then another masked man took the thousand-dollar’ notes out of Updyke’s coat and tied him to the cottonwood. Both masked men vanished. Updyke yelled: until they heard him at the ranch and came out and released him. My office was caijled by telephone, and I rushed out te La Vita Place in an automobile with one of my deputies. I waited there until morning, then investigated antl made up my mind that the work had been done hy spooks.” “Spooks?” echoed Wynn, “That’s foolish.” “Of course it’s foolish,” agreed Pingree cheerfully, “but there is no other rational explanation.” “What is so mysterious about the robbery?” “Well,” the other explained, “the dust of the road held the imprints of three pairs of feet-one pair belonging to Updyke, and the other two pairs to the thieves. My dep- uty and I trailed the thieves down the road for half a mile, then across a fence into an alfalfa field. There the hoafprints sort of cluttered around two straight lines in the alfalfa. The ground had been irrigated two days be- fore, and the earth was soft enough to hold the marks. It looked as though a stone boat had been hauled straight across the field. At the start, there was the clutter of footprints, then, evidently, the thieves got on the stone boat and rode, for the straight marks continued and the footprints vanished. But what hauled the stone boat? No animal was hitched to it.” “Possibly it was an automobile!” exclaimed Wynn. “Oh, possibly,’ said the sheriff, with a sarcastic grin, “Those thieves may have lifted an automobile over the irrigation ditch, at the side of the road, then over the fence and into the field. But why should they put a motor car into a fenced inclosure? Let us suppose, how~ ever, that that is what they did. What became’ of that automobile, Wynn? The marks of the wheels can be traced for a hundred yards through the alfalfa, and after that they go up in smoke—just simply fade out and vanish.” “That’s queer!” mused Wynn. “So queer that/ I’m getting a brain storm, just thinking it aver! De you wonder that I think spooks have been at work?” “Tt didn’t see anything of this in the papers, Pingree. ¥ou say it happened several days ago?” “Three days ago. I’m keeping it out of the papers. After I catch the two thieves the press of the city is weleome to the details.” “Where’s Updyke?” “At one of the hotels. He had tq telegraph Denver for funds, and is waiting for the money. to arrive. He has been asking for a man named—let me see.” Pingree pulled a memorandum book from his pocket. “The man Updyke wants to find is Ray Norton - Wynn exclaimed loudly, and jumped to his feet. “The same man who was breught to this garage a week ago by Clancy!” he eried. “Ry Jupiter!” muttered the sheriff. “Is it possible the trails are going to cross? Norton is the man who offered Clancy a thousand dollars for a week’s work. Why does Updyke want Norton? Who is Norton, anyway? Perhaps, if we knew——” “Maybe I can tell you something about Norton, Pin- gree!” The voice came from the street entrance, Pingree and Fees te in ric go ch co an +S A, zs ee mi OE oe NEW TIP TOP WEEKLY. Wynn turned in that direction and saw Owen Clancy, a broad smile on his homely face, standing in the open door. “Owen!” cried Wynn, with a long breath of. relief. “Back again, Lafe!” laughed the motor wizard. “I’ve been gone just a week, and have earned a thousand dol- lars for the firm. There’s the money—count it.” Clancy threw a roll of bills down on the desk. CHAPTER II. THE MAN WITH THE SCAR. “Wynn was far less interested in the thousand dollars than he was in Clancy. “Never mind the money,” said he. “Tell us where you've been, and what you’ve been doing.” Clancy closed the door and stepped farther into the office. He was a bit surprised to see the sheriff there at that hour. “Didn’t you get my note, Lafe?” he asked. “Yes.” : “Then you know that I finally accepted Norton’s offer.” “In doing that, Owen, you blew hot and cold in a way that isn’t like you. Usually, when you say no, you stick to it.” “T couldn’t stick to it in this case. I changed my’ mind at the point of a gun.” ‘ “The point of a gun?” repeated Wynn excitedly, while the sheriff pricked up his ears. “Exactly,” went on Clancy. “After I left you, a week ago, two. fellows came at me in the dark, threw a cloth over my head, and toted me off—abducting me in the most approved fashion. I was carried off to the Hassayampa River, and there I was unbound and the cloth removed from my head. When I got to my feet, I was face to face with Ray Norton.” “The scoundrel!” cried Wynn indignantly. “Don’t call him names, old man,” protested Clancy. “Norten is all right, even if he did use me a trifle rough. He had a flying machine on the level ground near the tiver bank, and made me get aboard. We flew through the night seventy-five miles to Spanish Peak. Norton - has a camp under the summit, and there I installed. the engine for him. To-night, Norton’s daughter, Bella, brought me back to town in the aéroplane, and half an _hour ago I was put down by the river. We were a little over an hour getting here from Spanish Peak.” Pingree and Wynn stared at Clancy, then they stared at each other, The motor wizard unconcernedly took a chair. “You came seventy-five miles from the Peak in a little over an hour!” gasped Pingree. “Yes,” said the young motorist. “The trail lies over the roughest country out-of-doors! A horse couldn’t travel it in two days.” , “But I didn’t take a horse,” explained Clancy. in a flying machine.” The sheriff looked dashed, and Wynn seemed astounded. “Clancy,” observed Pingree, “you talk about taking a ride in a flying machine a good deal like you’d mention going. over a trail in a mountain wagon. Flying ma- chines aren’t so thick, in this p¥rt of the range, as all that comes to. I’ve lived in Phoenix some sort of a while, and haven’t seen one yet.” The motor wizard laughed. “I was surprised myself,’ he answered, “to find there “T rode & were any aéroplanes in this part of the country. But, dur- ing the last week, I have seen three.” “Regular flock,” quizzed the,sheriff, beginning to recover somewhat from the surprise aroused by Clancy’s recital. “What the deuce were you doing, out at Spanish Peak?” demanded Wynn. “Installing a motor in a new aéroplane: It was a very particular job, Lafe. You see, Norton is an inventor. He’s not a poor inventor, either, but has plenty of money. He’s trying to forward the cause of civilization by con- structing an aéroplane that will be safe and dependable for commercial uses. He’s a practicable birdman, too, and both he and his daughter are accomplished aviators.” “You finished your work?” “Sure. The new machine, the one that is to revolu- tionize the art of flying, was all ready for a trial when I left. Norton is recovering from a sprained ankle. As soon as he gets over that, he will take the Acme out.” “There’s not much in your information, Clancy,” said the sheriff, “to help me in my own particular difficulty.” “What's the difficulty?” “T was just telling Wynn, and now I'll go back and give you the gist of it.” Thereupon the sheriff recited the fact concerning Up- dyke, the loss of the twenty thousand dollars, and the fact that Updyke had come to Phoenix to see Ray Norton, but would tell no one what his business with Norton might be. The motor wizard listened with absorbed attention to the sheriff, then, in a flash of inspiration, he went right to the heart of the matter that. had been troubling Pin- gree. “Those two thieves,” said he, “had a flying machine in that alfalfa field. The straight marks in the soft ground were left ‘by the wheels, as the aéroplane gathered head- way for a lift into the air. The clutter of footprints you mention, Pingree, were made by the thieves in cranking the engine and getting ready for flight.” “By gorry!” murmured the sheriff, opening his eyes very wide. “And I'll bet a farm,” went on Clancy, enthused at the way his deductions were getting him over the ground, “that I can name the two thieves!” “Not Norton and his daughter?” “Norton and his daughter? I should say not. That eliminates one of the airships. It’s the other machine, the Bat, that must have helped the robbers. Anton Roth- erick owns the Bat.” “Who is Anton Rotherick ?” “He is an enemy of Norton’s. At one time he was Norton’s partner, and was to have a half interest in the new aéroplane, but he tried some underhand work, and he and Norton separated. Rotherick is an aviator, and a good one, but he’s a crook from the ground up. Ever since Norton cut loose from him, Rotherick has been trying to steal the plans for the new flying machine. He set the Mexicans upon Norton that night, a week ago, in the Mexican quarter, Lafe,” added Clancy, turning to Wynn. “Why should Rotherick rob Updyke?” Wynn asked. “Why should he rob any one with twenty thousand dollars? Because he wanted the money, and because he is an air pirate.” “How did he know Updyke had the money?” put in Pingree. “That’s the point. Updyke -is on a secret mis- sion of some sort, and he was keeping it quiet.” po 4 NEW TIP TOP WEEKLY. “You say he wants to find Ray Norton?” “Yes.” “Then I’m going to make a guess,” said Clancy. “Maybe Updyke is here to investigate Norton’s new aéroplane, to make an offer for an imerest in the invention and to pay over enough cash to bind the bargain.” “That red head of yours is a wonder, Clancy!” declared the admiring sheriff. “Tt’s full of imagination,” laughed the motor wizard, “and maybe that is all it amounts to. If I have guessed Updyke’s business in Phoenix, then we. have something to guide us in connecting Rotherick with the robbery— sothething besides the fact that Rotherick is a crook, and owns an aéroplane. Rotherick has been keeping track of everything connected with Norton’s work, and it’s a fair inference that he knew about Updyke.” “Tt’s a good guess, Clancy,” said Pingree, “so good that J am tempted to think you’ve put your finger on the right button. But has this Anton Rotherick got any nerve? It takes nerve, of course,” he added hastily, “to go up in an airship, but it takes another sort of nerve to defy the law and be désperate and crooked.” “Rotherick has plenty of nerve of that kind,’ returned Clancy. “Norton had trouble with the fellow the night we went to the camp at Spanish Peak. It seems that Rotheritk and two of his men had taken advantage of Norton’s absence from the camp and had alighted there in their aéroplane. They went hunting for the plans of the new flying machine, but failed to find them, The Bat left the Peak just as we arrived, but she left Rotherick and oné of his greaser aids, Esteban by name, behind. Dur- ing the night Rotherick and Esteban entered the house, and, at the point of the revolver, forced Norton to give them the model of the Acme.and the plans. Bella and I, with the hélp of a Chinaman, who works fort the Nortons, man- aged to recover the stolen property the next day, and the Bat came back after Rotherick and Esteban and _ sailed away with them, I saw enough of Rotherick, during all this trouble, to know that he has plenty of nerve for anything.” “Norton had his trouble with Rotherick when you first reached Spanish Peak, Clancy?” “Yes. That was a week ago. Since that time, Roth- erick has discovered that Updyke was coming with the money and arranged to consummate the robbery.” “You speak about recovering the Norton’ stolen prop- erty from Rotherick in terms that are altogether too gen- eral to suit me,” complained Wynn. “I'll bet there’s a good story back of it, Owen, and that you risked your neck more than once. Can’t you give us the whole of it?” “It’s too late, Lafe,” smiled Clancy, “and I want to go to my room and get to bed. Who overhauled Swingle’s car?” “Barton. Swingle wanted you on that job, Owen, but he couldn’t wait.” “Barton did it just as well as I could. Anyhow, I made a thousand in cold cash for the firm. That’s more than I could have made here in two months.” “This thousand isn’t the firm’s money, Owen,” protested Wynn, “It’s yours.” “No, you don’t,” said Clancy firmly. “I took the firm's time and so the firm gets the money. I won’t have it any other way. Stick it in the safe for the night, Lafe, and then. deposit it to-morrow. When are you going home?” \ Before Wynn could auswer, the outside door. of the office opened and a Mexican stuck his head into the room. “Me, I want fi’ gallon gasoline, sefior,” he called. Clancy was standing at one side of the room where he could not be seen by the Mexican. Across from Clancy, however, was a looking-glass. By looking into this he had a good view of the Mexicani’s face. “Got a machine outside?” asked Wynn. , “No. I want gasoline in can,” and the Mexican held up a five-gallon can as he spoke. “All right, T’ll get it for you. Wel tap the filling station out in front.” be Wynn crossed the office, and went out. The moment he ahd the Mexican weré gofie, and the door closed, the motor wizard whirled on Pingree. “By George, Pingree,” he whispered, “you're playing in great luck to-night.” “How so?” asked the startled official. “Notice that scar on the Mexican’s face? I saw it in the mirror, over there on the wall. The fellow is Esteban, Rotherick’s helper. He wants gasoline, and brings a can for it. I'll bet something handsome Rotherick sent him, and that he’ll carry the fuel to the aéroplane. All we have to do, Pingree, is to follow Esteban cautiously when he leaves here. Get the idea?” CHAPTER Iii. } ON THE TRAIL OF ESTEBAN. “You're positive this Mexican with the scarred face is the one who helped Rotherick?” the sheriff asked quickly. “T can’t be mistaken, Pingree,” Claticy replied emphati- ¢ally. “I had a good look at him in the mirtor.” “T don’t know what we could do, in case he should lead us to Rotherick. It’s only a guess that this air pirate had anything to do with the robbery of Updyke.” “You could arrest Esteban and Rotherick, and maybe you could find out something that would connect them with the robbery.” “On what grounds could I arrest them ?” “Fort their high-handed work at Spanish Peak.” “Spanish Peak isn’t in this county, Clancy, it’s out of my bailiwick.” “Then arrest them for attempting to rob Notton in the Mexican quartér.” “What had Rotherick to do with that?” “Esteban was working for him.” “Well, we'll follow the Mexican, anyhow, and see what comes of it.” Just at that moment Wynn entered the office. “Lafe,” said Clancy, “that greaser was Rotherick’s con- federate. I recognized’ him the moment I saw his face reflected in the looking-glass. I believe he’s taking the gasoline to the Bat, Rotherick’s aéroplane. Pingree and I are going to trail the fellow.” “Seems like you might put in one quiet night, after being away a week,” grumbled Wynn. “The night will be quiet enough, after we get back.” “Sure you’re not making a mistake, Owen?” “There’s no chance for a mistake. How did the Mexi- can take away the can of gasoline?” “In a wheelbarrow. The axle of that push wagon needs oiling, and you can hear it squeak for two blocks,” Wynn was right about the rusty axle of the wheelbar- “~— the road. » Said the sheriff. NEW. - row.’ Pingreé and Clancy had no sooner stepped into the street and closed the door behind them than they _ heard the distant screech of the turning wheel. Every time the wheel made a revolution the axle complained ~ loudly. "Tt will be easy to follow that fellow,” chuckled the sheriff. “A blind man could keep on his trail.” - They proceeded in the direction ftom which the noise came, turned a corner, and presetitly had a glimpse of Esteban, trundling his wheelbarrow down the center of He was moving rapidly, and, apparently, had no idea that he was being followed. The streets, at that hour, wefe deserted, and there was no one around to question Esteban even if his move- ments had excited suspicion. But the Mexican was wary. Keeping well in the outskirts of the town, he made a de- -tour‘and caine, finally, into the angling street known as Grand Avenue. He followed the avenue until he had passed the last house in the outskirts of town, then pushed the wheel- batrow close to a fence, and tinloaded the gasoline can. _A moment later, he began lifting the can over a fence. _“He’s getting into a pasture lot, Clancy,” murmured Pin- -greé, as he and the motor wizard halted under the deep shadow of a cottonwood. “Somewhete in that lot we'll find the Bat,’ returned Clancy confidently, “and when we find the Bat we'll find - Rotherick, the fellow who stole Updyke’s money.” “I hope so,” said the sheriff, but not in a tone that suggested he was at all sanguine. There were no trees in the lot. As in most cases where land is irrigated, the trees bordered the fetices—in some cases, actually forming the fences, and serving as for the barbed wire. _ To cross the pasture in the moonlight without being seen by the Mexican would have been impossible. There was absolutely nothing which could be used as a screen. “The thing for us to do,” said Clancy, make “our way around the pasture fence, and come as close to the Bat as we can.’ “T reckon that’s right,” replied the sheriff, want to scare our birds into sudden flight.” They moved to the left along the fence that edged the toad. Every step in this direction, of course, took them farther arid farther away ftom Esteban, but when they turned the corner and came down the side of the pasture, they began gaining on the figure that toiled onward with the heavy gasoline cai. “Look, Pingree!” whispered Clancy suddenly. As he spoke, he caine to a halt and pointed out across \ the field. A vague shape could be seen in the distance, posts “is to “unless we ut it would have been hard for an uninformed person determine what it was. “Has something the appearance ofa haystack, “What do you guess?” “Tm not guessing, I know it’s an aéroplane.” Not being on intimate terms with aéroplanes, I'll take our word for it. So that’s the sort of machine that took away the thieves after they had robbed Updyke, eh?” I feel pretty sure it’s the same machine, Pingree.” ell, it certainly left a trail that went up into the . A phantom trail it was, Clancy, if I ever saw one. “dgeiagebre and 1— What's that?” the sheriff asked, “son,” TIP TOP WEEKLY. was brought out _ moment. Clancy mut- the sheriff by the plane. The face of the man who held it sharply against the gloom tered an and arm. “It’s just as [ thought!” Pingree. for a exclamation gripped he whispered. “That's Roth- erick, Now’s your chance to capture the fel- low.” “{ haven't a revolver with me, so will have to be done quickly.” “Make a fun to the aéroplane!” wizard. whatevér we do suggested the motor “Maybe we can take both Rotherick and Este- ban by surprise.” The air pirates seemed to be busy about the machine. It was impossible to see what théy were doing, but the fact that they were busy appeared to offer an opportunity to Pingtee and Claricy. “All right,’ said the sheriff. “Put your best foot for- watd, son, and we'll try to round tp this pair of pirates.” They started across the field side by side. Before they had covered half the distance that separated them from the “ flying machine, Rotherick and Esteban discovered them: Rotherick shouted something in Spanish. A wild “Si!” — from Esteban, and Clancy’s hopes went down a couple of notches when he heard the sputter of the Bafs — efigitie. Esteban was crankifig. “Halt!” cried Clancy. The sheriff also roared the word, but no attention was paid to it. The propellers began to croon shrilly as they flew faster and faster, and the popping of the motor — settled into a steady hum. A figure ran around the side of the machine and lost itself in the shadow, then the big, ungainly blot began to shake itself and to gather motion. Lurching and swaying, and gaining speed with every foot of its passage, it bore down directly upon Clancy and Pingree. The shetiff planted himself firmly, as though he would seize the oncoming flyer, grasp it with his hands, and bring it to a standstill. . Crack! A tongue of fire licked the dark, faded instantly, saat a piece of lead buzzed through the air between the motor wizard and the sheriff. burst “You blamed coyote!” roared the sheriff, you out of your skyscraper, just for that!” “pit snakes “Get out of the way, Pingree!” cried Clancy. “Do you want to be killed?” rat... “U’'ll stop the scoundrels! They can’t——” \ The motor wizard hurled himself headfirst at the reckless sheriff. The latter was knocked off his feet and fell sprawling to the ground. Quick as a/flash Clancy grabbed Lim by the shoulders, and, with a heave, got him to one side just as the lurching planes of the flyer drove past, ee With a screech and a roar the Bat jumped into the air. For an instant ne moon silvered her wings, and sic ee aia then the machine rocked out of sight among a The sheriff, sitting up on the ground and Epa to — in the night sky. “Well,” he murmured wonderingly, “Pl ‘be b swoggled !” LS dint , 6 “You thought you could: stop that machine with your hands, didn’t you?” queried Clancy. “It looked easy.” “You'd have been knocked galley-west, Pingree, and maybe you’d have been killed if I hadn’t butted you out of the way.” “T believe you—now! The Bat went past us like a train of cars. We made a bobble of that, Clancy, principally because I didn’t take this pasear with a gun at my hip. When we called on that chap to halt, he only rushed prep- arations for getting/ away.” “He had a guilty conscience, and was afraid to wait for us to come up with him. I guess that pretty nearly proves that he knows he is wanted.” “A good chance gone,” mourned the sheriff. “I won- der if I’ll ever get another? Personally, I don’t see how in Sam Hill the law can ever touch a robber who jumps into the air every time he makes a get-away. This Roth- erick has the bulge on me, Clancy. Do you know where the fellow hangs out? He must have a headquarters down below somewhere—he can’t be overhead all the time.” “He has a hangar some place for the Bat, but I don’t know where the place is.” “Ts there any way to find out?” “I might learn something by talking with Ray Norton. Next time I get a chance, Pingree, I'll see what’ I can discover.” “Have you any idea when you'll get a chance, Clancy?” “No.” “Then,” said the sheriff, getting to his feet and starting toward the road, “the game is up in the air indefinitely. But I’m glad to have found out just who robbed Updyke, and just how they got away. It was bothering me a heap.” Slowly the two retraced their way along Grand Ave- nue in the direction of town. missed fire, but he did not seem to be particularly dis- couraged. CHAPTER IV. NEWS OF DISASTER. The motor wizard had enjoyed a romantic experience at Spanish Peak. The spice of adventure had’ been added to the glamour of novelty, and the week had been a happy one for Clancy. He had tackled a knotty problem for Norton, but it was just such a problem as he loved to solve. Anything that concerned gasoline motors always “made a hit” with the young motorist, and it was a pleasure for him to work successfully out of the difficulty the “sky pilot” had put before: him. : Then every day Bella had given him lessons in avid- tion. The girl was adept in the art of handling an aéro- plane, and she had taught Clancy all she knew. Nor was Clancy slow at learning. He absorbed’ with remarkable quickness the rudiments of the art, and ma- nipulating the various levers seemed to come to him al- most as an instinct. After such a week in Camp Aéro, under the summit of Spanish Peak, the motor wizard found the garage work rather humdrum and prosy. But it was his busi- ness, and he set himself to it resolutely, and strove to put behind him the joyous experiences at the Peak. On. the second day after his return, James Updyke The sheriff's plans had NEW TIP TOP WEEKLY. called to see him. Updyke was a middle-aged man with the commercial instinct snapping and sparkling in his nar- row eyes. To Clancy, it would have seemed impossible to pry twenty thousand dollars away from Updyke with a crowbar. “I came here, Mr. Clancy,” said Updyke, “to find a gen- tleman named Ray Norton. Pingree, the sheriff, tells me that you know such a man.” “T do,” answered the motor wizard. “He’s an aviator?” “ves,” “Also—er—an inventor?” “Yes, Mr. Updyke, he is also an inventor.” “What has he invented?” queried Updyke craftily. “Do you know?” “T ought to know—having been helping him for a week out at his camp. He has invented a new aeroplane, which is designed to make flying as safe as automobiling.” “Ah! And does this new machine accomplish its pur- pose?” “It will,” declared Clancy confidently. . “Norton has not tried out the Acme yet, but I shouldn’t be surprised any day to see him sailing over Phoenix in the new machine.” “If the new machine is finished, why is the trial de- layed ?” ’ “Norton sprained his ankle last week, and he’s awaiting to get over that a little before he puts the Acme to the test.” “How do you think the test will result?” “Successfully. I don’t see how the new machine can possibly fail.” Updyke seemed pleased at this. “If you can get word to Norton, in any way,” said he, “I wish you’d let him know that I am here.” “There’s no way of getting to Camp Aéro, short of using an aeroplane. I think you'll have to wait, Mr. Updyke, until some one from the Peak comes to town.” “Does that happen often?” “Not very often.” Updyke took a thoughtful turn up\Sand down the ga- rage, “Clancy,” he went on, “Pingree says you have a well- defined theory concerning the robbery in which I was relieved of a large sum of money. Would you like to undertake the work of recovering those stolen funds?” “I'd like to, yes,” returned Clancy, “but the work would be too much of a gamble. I’m needed here at the garage.” “I would make it worth your time. I am willing that you should keep twenty-five per cent of all moneys that you recover. That means, in case you got back the whole twenty thousand dollars, that your bonus would be five thousand dollars. Isn’t that worth working for?” “Yes,” laughed the motor wizard, “if there wasn’t a string tied to it.” “A string tied to it? What do you mean by that?” “How much would I get if I worked for a month and didn’t recover any of your lost money?” “Why, nothing.” “There you are, Updyke. Rotherick might be captured without the money, or the money might be recovered without capturing Rotherick, but I’ve an idea that Roth- erick will be wise enough to save himself and keep his loot. He has an aéroplane of his own, and it is hard to lay hands on a man who can run away from you by the overhead route. Anyhow, it’s almost a week now since et ee | | be ‘NEW TIP TOP WEEKLY. Rotherick it would be may have spent the impossible to recover it in the robbery occurred. - money, so that “any event.” “He hasn’t spent the money,” “dently , “Why are you so sure of that?’ “It is hard to get rid of thousand-dollar bills. You can’t step into a store, pay for a bag of tobacco with one, and ask for change. Bills of that denomination, *in a country like this, are about as useful as souvenirs.” “I guess you're right about that,” said Claney. | “My offer holds good: Out of all the stolen money that you recover you may keep twenty-five per cent.” “T’d advise you not to buy any gold mines or cattle ranches with what you are expecting me to get back for you,” said the motor wizard dryly, “I don’t want to get meddlesome, Updyke, but may I inquire what your business is with Ray Nortonf” “You may inquire,” answered Updyke, and turned ¢ ‘his heel and left the garage. _ Clancy stared after him, whistled, and then gave vent to a low laugh. “He's willing enough to ask me leading questions,” he muttered, “but he’ll not answer any that I ask him. Five thousand dollars!” he exclaimed. “That’s a neat little _yake-off, and it would help out mightily in paying off Schnitzelbaum, who holds the mortgage on this garage. ‘If I could——’ He paused, putting his reflections aside abruptly. “Oh, that’s a dream!” he growled. ‘Later in the day, when work was a bit slack in the big -toom, the motor wizard walked into the office, and _ dropped into a chair. “Wynn,” he remarked, “how'd you like to haye a hangar next door to the garage—on the, same lot, in fact?” “Who wants to get strung up?” inquired Wynn, look- “ing around from his work. “Strung up?” echoed Clancy, bewildered. “Why, yes,” laughing. “A gallows is the only ‘hanger’ 1 know anything about.” “Police!” called Clancy. “The hangar I refer ta is a shed for housing aéroplanes.” _ Wynn dropped his pen, and fell back in his chair, aghast. , For the love of Mike!” he gulped. “What in Heayen’s _name.do we want of a shed for housing ‘aéroplanes?” declared Updyke confi- ‘Why not go into the flying business—ryn it in connec- tion with the garage?” Wynn waved his hands in front of his face, apparently fighting for air. “Go see a doctor, Owen,” he suggested faintly. “You're not right, somehow. How long has this been coming Clancy got up, with a laugh. “Oh, I’m all right, Lafe,” he answered. “I merely sprung y idea tog soon, that’s all,” _“Abottt a hundred years tao soon,” said the other. “We can’t do a paying livery business with aéroplanes t a while, I’m afraid, Owen, that you corralled a lot of foolish ideas at Spanish Peak.” ' “T certainly corralled a lot of ideas. Among the lot is is, that flying will soon be as safe as running a motor ~-and a lot more valuable, commercially. 4 ; ‘Bosh! Flying is a sport, of the kind insurance com- aes call extra hazardous. It will newer be anything se, Possibly flying machines are valuable in war, but Y are too uncertain for commercial PUFROHES. | Every aviator is bound to lose his life at the later.” “I think you’re wrong, Lafe,” “laney earnestly. “Maybe I Owen, but that is my candid opinion. You’re banking on Norton, aren’t you?” ‘Was game, sooner or said am, “You think that new machine of his is going to be a winner, and revolutionize things?” “I’m positive of it.” “Enthusiasm runs away with your judgment. The earth is man’s domain, the air belongs to the birds, and the sea to the fishes. Don’t forget that.” Wynn returned to his books with the air of one who has said something weighty and worth while, and Clancy went out into the big storage room with a tolerant smile on his homely face, “Lafe doesn’t know Norton as I do,” he thought. “li he did, he’d have more confidence in that inyention of his.” Stepping through the wide garage doorway, Clancy searched the sky in the direction of Spanish Peak. He was expecting, any moment, to see Norton in the new machine come winging out of the horizon. But he could not see him at that moment. He saw some ene else, however, as he turned to go -back into the garage. It was the slender, trim figure of a girl, and she was hurrying along the walk and calling to Clancy as she came. The motor wizard was astounded. But he was pleased, too, and happiness shone in his face. “Bella!” he cried, starting toward the girl with band outstretched. “This is.a surprise, and no mistake}. you and your father sailed into: town in the Acme?” There was sadness in Bella’s face. then, for the first time. lips quivered as she tried to speak, “Is—is anything: wrong, Bella?” the young motorist queried, with-a sinking heart. ? Bella sank “Father,” she began, “father tried to She choked, a film of tears rose in her eyes, and she hid her face in her hands.. “What has happened to your father, Bella?’ ae urged. “He tested the Acme this afternoon,” “The machine crumpled up as though made of cardboard, and father was thrown to the ground and badly injured. Owen, this—this is the worst thing that ever happened to us! | verily 3 believe that the failure of the deme would have killed Lee and I brought him-in to a dog¢tor. dad, even if he had not been injured in the fall.” Clancy’s heart grew as heavy as lead. The Acme had failed! He could scarcely believe it, CHAPTER Y. THE SKY PILOT’S WATERLOO. “How is your father, Bella?” the motor wizard asked, half stunned by the girl’s terrible news. the doctor say?” jie “Father would get over his physical injuries,” the girl auswered, that the icine had proved a failure. The doctors say x down on a bench in front of the culate \ “What does ‘if they were not oyershadowed by the fact Have © Clancy noticed it, She clung to his hand, and bige's Ke Bella answered. 2 8 NEW. TIP. TOP’ WEEKLY. Clancy was in a position to understand how terrible a disappointment it must have been to the sky pilot to have the new machine fail when put to the test. Norton was not in good health at the time of his accident, and it seemed to Clancy as though the mishap was bound to go hard with him, no matter what his mental condition might be. “Where is your father, Bella?” the young motorist asked. “At the hospital.” “And Lee?” “He is watching the Eagle.” “You and Lee must have had a hard time, bringing your father to town in the Eagle.” “It was the hardest flight I ever made in my life, Owen!” said the girl. “My nerves were in pieces, and | felt as though I just could not drive the machine. But it had to be done.” “Is your father conscious?” She nodded. “He knows all that’s going on around him,” said she, “but he takes no interest in anything. I came to see if you would not go to the hospjtal and do what you could to arouse him? Can you spare the time, Owen? You helped him on the new machine, you know, and perhaps he would pay some attention to you where he would not listen to any one else.” “Of course I’ll go,” returned Clancy promptly. “I'll walk back with you, Bella, if you’ll wait a minute for me.” “Tl wait,” she answered wearily. Clancy turned, ran through the garage doorway, and hurried into the office. “T’ve got to go over to the city hospital, Wynn, he, getting out of his greasy overclothes. “Some one there whom you know?” “Yes—Ray Norton.” Wynn turned in a flash. “What’s the matter with Ray Norton?” he asked. “He tested the Acme, and—and something went wrong.” Wynn did not say “I told you so.” The words may have been in his mind, but they did not pass his lips. “Is he badly hurt?” “I’m afraid so,” Clancy answered, putting on his cap and starting for the door. “His daughter, Bella, is out- side. She is the one who brought me word.” “Well,” said Wynn, “I hope you won’t find Norton so badly off as you seem to fear.” Clancy went out, rejoined Bella, and together they made their way toward the hospital. As they walked along, the girl gave further details regarding her father’s acci- dent. It seemed that Norton’s ankle felt stronger, and he had resolved to make the trial flight much sooner than he had expected at the time Clancy left the Peak. The machine was brought out of the workyard in which it had been built, and Norton climbed aboard, while Lee Song, the Chinaman, pulled the propellers and turned over the engine, The Acme started easily and gracefully. There was a brisk wind blowing, but the machine mounted into the teeth of it without a lurch or pitch of any kind. It ap- J said peared to balance steadily and firmly, and to defy the con- trary air currents. Norton put about, as soon as he was in the air, and flew low over the camp. Then it’ was that the accident So far as Bella could see, there was abso- Everything was going smoothly, happened. lutely no cause for it. when, utterly without warning, guy wires snapped, planes crumpled, and the machine came down on a heap of stones in the center of the plateau. Norton’s fall was not great. If it had been, he would have been killed outright. Bella and Lee pulled him out of the wreck, and did what they could for him that night. Next day, owing to his mental condition, the girl and the Chinaman decided to bring him to Phoenix for medical treatment.: It was a little story, told in a hundred words, and yet in it there was wrapped tp volumes of disappointed hopes. Bella’s heart was almost breaking. “Have you any idea, Bella,” asked Clancy, “why the machine went to pieces like that?” “No,” answered Bella. “Something queer about that, strikes me. Do you think your father was well enough to drive the flyer? Isn't it possible that he was not fit for the work, and that he made some mistake with the levers and caused the crash?” “No, Owen,” said the girl, “he was just as capable. of handling an aéroplane as he ever was in his life. | watched him carefully, and I know. The cause of the accident is a mystery. The only thing that is certain is that father’s invention is a failure.” “Perhaps not, Bella.” “He designs a machine that is to make flying absolutely safe, and is nearly killed in making a trial flight with it. Why isn’t the invention a. failure, Owen?” “Something may have been wrong with the material of which the aéroplane was constructed. That wouldn’t prove that the invention was a failure.” “No one will think of that,” said Bella sadly. “The Acme was built, and the Acme was wrecked during the trial flight. That is all people will consider. I am sorry this happened just when it did. Father was expecting a man to look into the invention, and, if satisfied, buy an interest and put the new machines on the market.” “Was the man’s name Updyke, James Updyke?” queried Clancy quickly. “Yes,” was the answer. “How did you know, Owen?” “Well, Updyke was robbed of twenty thousand dol- lars, out by the Indian school, a few days ago. Circum- stances connected with the robbery led me to believe that he was here to investigate the Acme.” “T am sorry he lost the money,” said Bella. “He would never have paid it over to dad for a half interest in the invention, after the disaster that happened to the Acme, but I regret that he brought it here for that purpose, and then had it stolen from him.” Clancy did not go into further details regarding Up- dyke and the robbery. At that instant they reached the hospital, and, a few moments later, were conducted to the ward where the sky pilot lay stretched out on a white, iron bed. Always slender, Norton seemed but little more than a shadow now. His eyes were open, but they were staring vacantly upward at the ceiling. “Dad!” Bella whispered, kneeling beside the bed. The aviator must have recognized the voice, for he slipped a bandaged hand across the coverlet and rested it on one of the girl’s, but he never lowered his eyes. “Dad,” went on Bella eagerly, “I have brought ‘some one here to see you! Do you know who it is?” flciepaen aman guiled by Bella’s words, however. NEW TIP TOP WEEKLY. __ ee ae stepped close to the bed. Norton was not be- He made no attempt to Clancy look at the motor wizard. a 1 -yention has failed, Norton,” The young motorist motioned for Bella to give her place to him, then he pulled up a-chair, sat down, and leaned over the quiet form of the sky pilot. “This is Clancy, Norton,” said he. “How are you feel- ing?” The aviator’s lips moved, but no sound issued from them. “What's that?” asked Clancy., The lips did not move again, and Clancy veered around on another tack. “The wreck of the Acme doesn’t mean that your in- said he. - “What does it mean?” asked Norton, distinctly enough. “Tt may not have installed the motor properly.” “You did a good piece of work, Clancy. I know.” , “Then some of the other material in the framework may have been faulty.” “T inspected every scrap of material that went into the -machine, and I built the machine myself. There was no faulty material.” - “Your idea is all right. It is splendid, and bound to ‘revolutionize flight in heavier-than-air machines. Don’t be discouraged, Norton. The wreck of the Acme doesn’t mean the wreck of your hopes.” “Tt does—unless you, or some one else, can prove other- - wise.” “Then,” said Clancy, a fine fire in his eyes. “it!” , A wan smile hovered around Norton’s pale lips. At that, and for the first time, he looked at Clancy, reached for his hand, and gave it a faint pressure. “You're a good friend, Clancy,” murmured the sky pilot, “but there are some things you cannot do—no 6ne can do—for me.’ The doctor, standing at the foot of the bed, “T’ll prove lifted a z hand to signify to the motor wizard that his interview with the patient had lasted long enough. Clancy got up, and, with Bella, followed the doctor out of the ward. _ “What are his chances?” the young motorist asked, drawing the doctor aside. _ “He has no chance,” was the reply, “unless you can’ con- vince. him that the wrecking of the Acme was due to something else besides his invention. Disappointment will ill him, where physical injuries would heal without dan- . It is a strange condition, but by no means rare.’ Clancy turned away, and Bella walked with him to the “What do you think, Owen?” she asked anxiously. “1 think I shall go out to Spanish Peak and look the ground over, Bella,” was the answer. “Where is the “Tn a vacant lot near where the Cave Creek Road crosses the town canal.” “Will you give me an order for the machine?” “Of course! Wait just a minute.” She went back into the hospital office, tly with a folded paper, and gave it to Clancy. Lee will honor that order, Owen,” said Bella. returned pres- “In , even What are you ipaking. ‘of Baise t ‘Beak isn’t in my county?” parture from the hospital. He did not return at once to the garage, but laid a course in the direction of the court- house plaza and the sheriff's office. CHAPTER VI. ENLISTING THE AID OF PINGREE. As luck would have it, the sheriff was in his office. He greeted the motor wizard cordially. “Glad you dropped in, Clancy,” said he. “I’ve got something to show you.” He started toward his desk, — but paused. “You thought the machine that got away from us, the other night, was the Bat, didn’t you?” “T know it was the Bat,” declared Clancy. “Don’t be too sure of that, son,” laughed the. sheriff. “l’m going to prove to you that it was the Eagle, and not the Bat.” He turned, went to the desk, pulled over a drawer, and removed a small Stillson wrench. He came back to Clancy holding the wrench behind him. “You're pretty sharp, my boy,” said he, “but you'll par- don the egotism when I say that I’m no slouch myself at digging. up a few hidden facts. I went back down Grand Avenue next morning after the flying machine got away from us, and I found this wrench in the pasture, just about where the aéroplane stood. There’s a name stamped on the handle. Look at it.” Page The sheriff brought the wrench around in front of him _ and handed it to Clancy with a triumphant air. The lat-— ter examined it, and found the name of the Eagle just as the official had told him he would. “What do you think of that?” queried Pingree, study- ing Clancy’s face closely. “Well, for one thing,” returned the puzzled motor wizard, “T know the Bat when I see her, and that was the machine that got away from us the other night.” ‘ “How does the Bat happen to have the Eagle’s Stillson $ wrench !” : “Tt would be possible for the Bat to have it. Don’t for- get, Pingree, that I saw Rotherick, the Bat’s owner. plainly, and recognized him. As for the wrench, it is one [ used in the workyard at Spanish Peak, while in- stalling the motor for Norton.” “Have you any idea how hands ?” “No. That is something, though, that we may be able — to discover—if you will help me.” i “Help you? In what way, Clancy?’ , ; “Have you heard about Ray Norton having “been brought to the hospital, here in Phoenix?” “Yes,” said Pingree. “Information of that sort rarely gets past me. He was trying out his new machine, and it failed to make good. Norton got a bad fall, and now it’s a question whether he ever recovers from it. Well, maybe it serves him right. If it was intended that a man should fly, son, he would have been equipped with a pair of wings.” ; paid no attention to this false philosophy of the it came into Rotherick’s Clancy sheriff's “I want to look the ground over at Spanish Peak, Pin- gree,” said he. “Will you go out there with me?” “Tn Didn't I tell you that the an official capacity? “I don’t care what capacity you travel in. I want you io NEW. TIP along for company.’ I’ve a hunch that something will turn up and make you glad you went.” The sheriff pondered the matter’ for a space. “How’'ll we go?” he asked presently. “In an aeroplane. The Eagle, which was used in bring- ing Norton to town, is at our disposal.” Pingree gave a. startled jump. “Me? Ride in one of those things? joking ?” “'m in dead earnest, Pingree.” “Who’s going along to run the Eagle?” “T'll attend to that.” “Then, you number flying among your other accom- plishments?” the official asked wonderingly. “I took lessons while J was out at Spanish Peak.” The sheriff coughed, and once more pondered. Finally he remarked: “Clancy, | reckon you had better get some one else for a traveling companion. 1’m not exactly afraid to go with you, but it seems the part of wisdom to stay out of that Always did get dizzy if 1 got up too Clancy, are you flying machine. high,” Clancy was disappointed. “You may be able to couple business with pleasure, Pin- gree,” he urged. ‘There’d be no pleasure in the flight for me, If you can show me where I could accomplish any business, I’ll sidetrack the qualms and tremors, take my life in my hand, and go along.” “I’m hoping we can get on the trail of Rotherick,’ said the motor wizard. “An air trail!’ muttered Pingree skeptically. “How in Sam Hill are you going to pick it up and run it out?” “Maybe we can pick it up at Spanish Peak. As for running it out, we can do that with the Eagle.” The young motorist had made an impression on Pin- gree. There was no doubt of that. The sheriff walked up and down his office, and at last halted in front of his caller again. “Clancy,” he asked, “just how much do you know about running an aeroplane?” “J don’t know as much as I wish I did,” was the reply, “but I think I know enough to keep the machine afloat, and right side up.” “When do you want to take this fool trip? No night flying for me! Mind that! If I’m going to break my neck, | want to do it in broad daylight, so I can see how and where.” , “It would be impossible for us to land at Camp Aéro, on Spanish Peak, without a beacon to guide us. And there’s no one there to light the fire and keep it going. But for that, we could start this evening. As it is, however, we'll have to get away bright and early in the morning.” “By thunder! I reckon you've hooked me. I always was locoed when it came to fooling with things a sane man should keep out of. Where am I to meet you, and when ?” “Meet me. at six in the morning, at the place where the Cave Creek Road crosses the town ditch.” “Buenos! Ill be there.’ It was nearly six o'clock when Clancy got back to the garage. Wynn was putting away his books and prepar- ing to go to supper. “How’s Norton?” he asked. TOP WEEKLY. “He’s in pretty bad shapé, Lafe,” Clancy answered. “Should think he would be~after dropping out of an aéroplane. The wonder is that he lived to get to a hospital.” “His physical injuries aren’t so bad as you imagine. He would get over them, the doctor says, if he hadn’t any mental trouble.” “What sort of mental trouble has he got?” “This new aéroplane is the result of years of study and experiment on the part of Norton. He built up a good many hopes on the success of that invention, and now that the Acme is wrecked the blow proves a hard one. It’s disappointment that is playing the deuce with him.” “The machine was a failure. I knew it would be, the moment you told me about ii. It’s something that can't be helped.” ‘l’m still of the opinion, Lafe,” said Claney quietly, “that the invention is not a failure.” Wynn opened his eyes very wide, at that. “The fact that the invention is a failure has been proved,” he declared. “The machine dropped, and went to smash—and Norton was in it, and demonstrating that it was ‘perfectly safe.’ I can’t understand you lately, Owen,” Wynn added, knitting his brows. “J believe the material in the aéroplane was faulty, or that something was wrong with the motor, or that some unforeseen and unavoidable thing happened to cause the wreck. Not until I investigate the wreck will I admit for a moment that Norton’s idea was at fault.” “That sounds as. though you were getting ready to take the bit in your teeth, Owen, and do something reck- less.” “If you call it reckless for me to go out to Spanish ‘Peak and investigate the remains of the Acme, all right. But I don’t call it that, Lafe. I look upon.it as an act of plain justice to Ray Norton. If I can discover that the machine was wrecked through no fault of the invention, it will be the saving of the sky pilot.” . “So you're going out to Spanish Peak, are you?” There was an unwonted sharpness in Wynn’s voice. “Why, yes,” answered Clancy, with a puzzled glance at his partner; “I’m going, and Pingree is going with me.” “In an aéroplane?” “Certainly. That’s the only way to get there.” “In that case, I admire’ Pingree’s courage a good deal more than I do his judgment. Don’t you. think it abont time, Clancy, you stopped whooping it up around the country and gave a little more attention to this garage?” The motor wizard was thunderstruck.. Never, in all the course of his association with Wynn, had language of that sort been used before. “What do you mean?” said Clancy. “I was away a week, and the firm profited a thousand dollars by it. I guess it’s a good thing for us if I ‘whoop it up’ around the country once in a while.” f “But we’re rushed. Swingle wanted you to work on his car, and he was mad because he had to take Andy Barton.” “Barton is an At mechanic, and Swingle has no kick coming. Wynn, I’ve got a chance here to do a little favor for a friend. Maybe I can accomplish something, and maybe I can’t, but I’m going to begin seeing what | ¢an do to-morrow morning. If you're getting tired of hav- ing me for a partner, just say so, and we'll see what we can do to change matters to your liking.” NEW Wynn's hostility evaporated in a twinkling. “You know blamed well I couldn’t get along without you, Owen,” said he, in a more friendly tone. the one who has made this garage a success. If I said anything that hurt, forget it. It pesters me to see you ‘running around and risking your neck for people who hardly give you a vote of thanks after you are through. But that’s your business. No hard feelings?’ “Of course not, Lafe,” Clancy laughed. “Then, shake!” and Wynn offered his hand. The motor wizard, however, had been disagreeably sur- prised by his partner’s show of temper. It had come like lightning from a clear.sky. Several days passed before “You are Clancy could get the occurrence out of his mind. CHAPTER VII. CLANCY’S DISCOVERY. Promptly on the morning Clancy and Pingree met each other on the bridge over the canal, out along the Cave Creek Road. “Tf | hadn’t given you my promise, Clancy,” ‘the sheriff, “hanged if 1 wouldn’t have backed out! The ground has always been good enough f for me, and [ don't dike the idea of getting away from it. Where’s this fly- ing machine?’ “It’s on a vacant-lot, “motor wizard answered. we can locate it.’ < A brief survey of the surroundings showed them the Eagle off to the right of the road. and started toward the machine, ously as they drew near. A form rolled out from under the wing tips, on the right, and slowly straightened itself. It was the form of ~ Lee Song, the Chinaman, the planes for the night. “Hello, Lee!’ called Clancy, “Whoosh!” murmured Lee, rubbing his eyes. eh? My heap su’plished. Why you makee walk alound so ully in the mo’nin’, huh?” “Got a little business on hand. “Allee same.” “Then read that.” Clancy handed him the order for the aéroplane. Lee spelled it out very slowly. ~ “You wanchy alloplane, huh?” he inquired. “Yes,” said the young motorist. “Awri’, Eagle all leddy fo’ good, long tlip, Clancy.’ “Plenty of gasoline and oil?” “Have got.” “We're going to Spanish Peak.’ “Savvy dilection? Savvy how you go, huh?” -“T savvy the general direction. We won't have to go very far before we see the peak. I don’t see how I can miss it, Lee,” Clancy climbed through the wires and braces into the _driver’s seat. “Get in, Pingree,” he called, as he adjusted himself and began reaching for the levers. The sheriff ran his eye over the fragile framework. He was as close to being.nervous as Clancy had ever seen him. “Bound to go, are you?” Pingree asked. “Certainly. That’s what we're here for.” am here because I’m crazy, I reckon,” muttered Pin- stroke of six next town confided somewhere near this point,” the “We'll look around and see if They climbed a fence. Pingree eying it dubi- who had bunked down under in a friendly way. “Clancy, You read English, Lee?” TIP TOP WEERLY. floundering into the seat at Clancy’s right. do I hang on to to keep from falling out?” “Plant your feet on the foot rest. There are holes beside the seat where you can hang on with your hands.” gree, The sheriff drew a red cotton handkerchief across his xe forehead. “Don’t go up very high, son,” pretty well. the ground.” “Ready ?” “TI reckon I’m as near ready as I ever will be.” “All right, Lee!” cried Clancy. The Chinaman began to pull at the propellers. pop, pop! sputtered the engine. A moment later the crescendo note of the propellers began, and the great blades thrashed the air at constantly increasing speed. In a little time the framework felt the thrust, and began to move across the level ground. The lurching and swaying tossed the sheriff about. This, the deafening scream of the propellers, was anything but reassuring. He yelled, but his words were submerged in the clamor of the laboring Then, just as he seemed on the, point of fling- ing himself out of his seat, the Eagle started into the air. The rough lurching ce: ‘ased as if by magic. The shriek of the propellers continued, but it was mellowed and soft- ened in the wind of the flight. The aéroplane was climbing skyward. he begged. “Keep down It will be sort of reassuring if I’m close to Pop, accompanied as it was by machine. Fences, trees, ranch houses all dropped away from the mounting flyer. But Pingree, who was always dizzy when he climbed to high places, experienced no vertigo whatever. This sur- prised him. z His fears also gradually oozed away. “Everything seemed perfectly safe. A thrill of pleasure ran through his nerves. — A buoyant sensation filled his whole body. He laughed out — of sheer delight. c Clancy, however, was not paying much attention to his — companion, He had taken lessons in Alying, and he had managed a machine all by himself, but never before had — he been loaded up with the same responsibility that bur-_ dened him then. When a thousand feet in the air, he shifted the eeadk ‘ rudders horizontally, and brought the Eagle to an even keel. Presently he caught sight of Spanish Peak in the dim distance, and manipulated thé rear rudders so as to lay a straight course for it. "4 Everything was working smoothly. The wind was light, and no treacherous currents manifested themselves. With no untoward incident to mar the flight, the Bagle, under Clancy’s ’prentice hand, roared its way toward Camp Aéro. The sheriff wanted to talk, but the constant howling of the propellers rendered anything like a sustained conver- sation impossible. Unable to use his voice, Pingree used — his eyes, and watched the familiar country race rearward > beneath him. For both passengers in the machine the time siete quickly indeed. The novelty of the experience brushed aside the minutes for the sheriff, while Clancy was so- taken up with the management of‘his levers that he took no account of the passing time. aN eg ‘ Spanish Peak seemed to rush at them. In almost no’ time at all the plateau of Camp Aéro was in sight, and the motor wizard was getting in shape to ee a landing. ae to earth gracefully and securely was a point “What 3 I2 NEW which Clancy had not yet thoroughly mastered. He shut off the engine and volplaned downward; but, by a shght miscalculation, he struck the ground too hard, The cushion springs eased the shock, but it was tre- mendous. Pingree took a header out of his seat and came down on all fours. Clancy hung to his post by gripping the levers with all his strength, and, after a short run, the aéroplane slowed to a halt. Getting out of the machine quickly, he went back to see how his companion had fared. “All right,. Pingree?” the young motorist queried. The sheriff was sitting up on the ground, rubbing his knees. *Yes,” he answered, “I reckon I’m all right.” “Think I know how to fly?” “You know how to fly a heap better than you know how to come down. You'll have to learn how to go to roost easily and comfortably before I do much air trav- eling with you, son. I had a jolt that almost sent my spine out through the top of my head.” He got up lamely, then picked up his hat and gathered in a revolver that had been jarred out of his helt. “Seventy-five miles!” he murmured,’ looking away in the direction of Phoenix. “We covered all that territory almost in less time than it takes to tell it! Clancy, this is certainly wonderful! I didn’t get dizzy a mite,” “They say a person never does get dizzy in a balloon or a flying machine.” “You've given me a trip that I’ll never forget as long as I live. But we'll discuss that later, and put in our time now attending to business.” He turned slowly and made a survey of the surround- ings. On three sides the plateau was walled with cliffs. In its center, near. the point where the Eagle had landed, there. was a pile of bowlders. Close to these bowlders lay the wreck of the Acme. “There’s what an aéroplane looks like when it drops out of the air and hits the ground,” went on Pingree. “Jupiter, but it’s a wreck! It doesn’t seem possible that Norton could ever have been in that mess, and yet have been taken out alive.” With mingled feelings of awe and regret, the motor wizard gazed silently at the twisted planes, the rent can- vas, the splintered woodwork, and the snapped guy wires of the machine upon which Norton had built so many fond hopes. It was a melancholy sight, the wreck of that beau- tiful airship. Clancy, after his first survey, stepped close and began a more thorough inspection, He was anxious to find some fault in construction materials which would shift the blame of the wreck from the invention itself to the means by which it had been exploited. He picked up one of the tibs of the upper plane. It had been broken, but the break showed that the bit of timber was sound, and in no way responsible for anything that had happened. Next he considered the rubberoid fabric that covered the planes. Although ripped and torn, it had, neverthe- less, been strong and dependable. “What are you looking for, son?” queried Pingree. “Looking for an excuse,” Clancy answered. “An excuse?” “Yes, an excuse to take the curse off of Norton’s idea and place it on something else where I’m sure it belongs. As yet I——” Clancy paused. He had picked up a waving guy wire, TIP TOP WEEKLY. and had run it through his hands down to the point where it ended in a turnbuckle. There, just below the turn- buckle, he saw something that caused him to stare, After looking for a moment, he dropped the wire and picked up another. After that, with feverish eagerness, he examined wire after wire. Finally, with horror and anger in his eyes, he drew away and stared at the sheriff. “Discovered something?” asked Pingree. “I should say so!’ the motor wizard answered, in a husky voice. “Fiendish work has been going on here, Pin- gree. Somebody filed every guy wire on the Acme, cut- ting each one almost in two. The filing was done near the turnbuckles, where it was least likely to be noticed. When Norton took out that machine, it was almost as though he was sitting on a powder mine and touching a match to it. When one guy wire snapped, they all went. No wonder the machine was wrecked!’ Wrath and indignation showed in the sheriff's face. “What black-hearted scoundrel could have tampered in that way with Norton’s machine?” he asked. “Rotherick—or Esteban, the Mexican,” answered Clancy, “How do you know?” “That Stillson wrench, which you found on the spot where we saw the Bat the other night, proves it!” CHAPTER VIII. SETTING A TRAP. The sheriff was nonplused. “Your reasoning may be good, Clancy, but I can’t fol- low it,” said he. “See that workyard over pointed to a high stone wall, “Inside that high-walled corral is where the Acme was built. Norton kept the machine always under lock and key. 1 worked there when { installed the Acme’s motor. I told you, didn’t I, that the small Stillson wrench was one I had used in the corral? Now, listen: Some one must have got into the workyard after I finished installing the engine, and before Norton gave the flyer a trial. The person who got into the yard used a file on all the guy wires. Follow me?” “Yes,” nodded Pingree. “Now, you find the Stillson wrench, which I used while working on the Acme, at the place where Rotherick and Esteban got away from us in the Bat. How could they have the wrench if they did not get it from the workyard, some time after I finished mstalling the engine? And one or the other of them must have been in the yard to pick it up. The one who was in the corral weakened the guy wires with a file.” “By thunder!” exclaimed the sheriff. there, Pingree?” Clancy “It’s circumstan- tial evidence, Clancy, but it would convict Rotherick and the Mexican im any court in the land.” “The evidence becomes stronger when you know the truth about Norton’s dealings with Rotherick. Rotherick has tried to steal the sky pilot’s invention; failing in that, he has tried to ruin the work and kill Norton. Pingree, it’s—it’s infamous!” “Right you are, son }” “If I can prove to Norton that the Acme did not fail because his idea was not suceessful, it will go a long way teward helping him recover his health.” “I reckon you can prove that, all right. That little evi- dence furnished by the Stillson wrench, and supplemented with an exhibit of the filed wires, ought to be enough.” ey otets a ner NEW ‘Possibly it would; but 1f Rotherick were captured and -made a confession, that would be the best evidence of all.” “lf Rotherick is the sort of juniper | think he is, Clancy, he'll never be captured; and, if he-was captured, he’d never - confess. He’s too hardened a criminal.” “You're probably right, Pingree,” said Clancy, moving off. “Let’s have a look-see around the camp before we start back to Phoenix.” The sheriff assented to this suggestion, and followed the motor wizard to the workyard. The gate leading into the yard was open, and they passed, unhindered, into the inclosure. _. Clancy’s work had finished the Acme. The tools he had _ used were laid out neatly on a bench, just as he had left them. “Tt was from that bench,” said Clancy, “that the Still- son was taken. You.can see the place where I left it. Oh, we've got a cinch on this Acme mystery, Pingree!” The sheriff stooped and picked up something from the - ground, “A double cinch, son,” he returned. ‘that was used in weakening the wires.” It was a small, three-cornered file. Clancy remembered having used it while installing the motor. “They didn’t take the trouble to put the file back on the bench,” observed Clancy. “That may have been because they were in too much of a hurry to get away.” “How could they come to this place without arousing Norton? Their aeroplane must have made a lot of noise.” “Tl show you how they could come,” the motor wizard answered. “Come outside the yard, Pingree.” _ They walked out upon the plateau, and Clancy pointed to the top of the hundred-foot wall back of the camp. _ “The crest of that wall is the top of the peak,” he ex- ii plained. “There’s a way to get up and down the cliff. Rotherick could land up there in the Bat, come into the camp, climb the corral wall with a ladder, cripple the Acme, and then steal away again as he came. That could all be lone without arousing any one in Camp Aéro. Suppose we ‘go to the house, Pingree, and see how things are there.” _ They crossed to the other side of the plateau, and en- _ tered the stone-walled house. In the front room there ‘“Here’s the file “You say there’s a way to get up and down that cliff, Clancy?” he observed. “It hardly seems possible, to , so I’m going to take a look through the glasses.” ’ Clancy directed, “then cross the top of overhang to the left, and angle the glasses to the up the cliff.” ” said ranges. with the binoculars to his eyes. TIP TOP WEEKLY. “Oh, it’s not so hard,” de over the path several times.’ “Rotherick could land on top. of the peak, easily wiiinaetes and then climb down to this plateau. The climb, accord- ing to my notion, would be the hardest part of the whole undertaking. But what a rascally, murderous piece of business it was! Rotherick must be a_ black-hearted wretch.” The sheriff continued to look through the binoculars, trailing them along the top of the cliff, then over the side walls. Suddenly he started, shifted the glasses to the blue of the sky, and stared. ; “Well, what do you think of that!” he gasped, lowering — the binoculars and peering at the motor wizard. “What have you found?” queried Clancy excitedly. “Take the glasses and look for yourself—right over there,” and the sheriff pointed. Clancy lookedlooked hard for a moment—then dropped the binoculars te his side in astonishment, as Pingree had — done. . “The Bat!” he exclaimed. “It’s a flying machine, and no mistake, but whether it’s — the Bat or not is more than T can tell.” % “It is the Bat! I know it, Pingree. Rotherick and Es- teban are aboard, and they are coming this way!” “Think they'll stop here?” Pingree inquired, his face hardening. oe “They might, if they did not see our aéroplane.” “Let’s get it out of sight, then! We can trundle it into the corral before they get close enough to see what we are doing.”’ The sheriff started toward the workyard, but Clancy” caught his arm and held him back. a “That won’t work, Pingree,” said- he. “The pa ; couldn’t hide the Eagle from the eyes of two persons in an aéroplane. There’s no place on the plateau where the Eagle can he hidden away.” Bs “Can’t we set a trap of some kind?” cried Pingree, toss- | ing his hands impatiently. “This is too good a chance to — let slip. Use your wits, Cianey. See if you can’t think of — something.” “ve thought of something,” turned, with a laugh. I'll tell you about it.” “But we haven't any time to waste palavering. If any- thing is done, it will have to be done immediately. The Bat is drawing close to the peak.” : “The only thing we have to do is to get imside the house,” continued Clancy. The sheriff could not catch Clancy’s drift, but he fol- lowed him into the house. As soon as they were Boe inside, Clancy closed and locked the door. Se “Now, then,” he chuckled, “let’s sit down near the win- dows overlooking the plateau and watch and wait.” “What's the trap? I may be pretty thick, Claney, hanged if I can see it.” urred Clancy. “I’ve been the young motorist re- — “Come into the house, Pingree, and © The motor wizard sank into a rocking-chair and ede ‘ himself comfortable. He wore a broad smile, so koowi that it rather tantalized the sheriff. “Rotherick and the Mexican will see the Eagle when they come close to the plateau,” said Clancy. “Yes,” grumbled Pingree, “they'll see the mean: some one is here, and sheer off.” “That's what I thought, at first. I’ve changed as T4 NEW -FTIP TOP WEERLY. though. Who’ll they think is here when they see the Fiagle?” The sheriff was silent. “If they know Notton has been taken to Phoenix,’’ on Clancy; “they'll think the Chinaman and the girl have come back. They won't fear Lee and Bella. The fact that they are here, I think, will rather tempt Rotherick to come down. If he hasn’t been here since the accident, he’ll probably be anxious to learn how well his dastardly went plot has succeeded.” “I reckon your trap is a good one,” said Pingree, sitting down and peering through a window. “We'll watch and see how it works, anyhow.” Already the Bat, swinging along swiftly and grace- fully, was almost over the camp. Presently it passed en- tirely over. “No go!” growled the sheriff. “Rotherick didn’t bite.” “Wait a minute,” returned Clancy. The Bat was coming back again. She proceeded to cut a figure eight over the plateau, while those aboard made their observations, and settled upon a plan of action; then down came the machine, in a smooth, gliding descent. “Theyre walking right into the trap, Pingree!” mur- mured Clancy. “Right-o!” was the answer. “The next question is how the trap’s to be sprung.” “Wait till Rotherick and the Mexican come up to the house. If they try to get in, we'll open. the door and take them by surprise.” “Correct! We'd better be getting away from these win- dows, | think. We don’t want to be seen, you know.” When they left the windows, Rotherick and Esteban had got out of their ‘aéroplane and started toward the front door of the house. Just inside the locked door, Clancy and Pingree crouched and waited breathlessly. CHAPTER IX. SPRINGING THE TRAP. Two pairs of feet could be heard crunching the sandy earth in front of the house. The feet halted at the door, and a hand tried the latch. The door, of course, refused to yield, and a set of knuckles drummed bluffly on the panel. Pingree looked sharply at Clancy. The latter placed a finger to his lips in token of silence. Again the fist drummed on the panel. Still no answer was given ‘the summons. A harsh voice—Rotherick’s— cried out: “We know you're in there, and we’re going to have a talk with you before we gd away. Open the door, Bella!” A hand gripped the latch and shook the door furiously. Then, when the rattling stopped, Rotherick’s voice cried again : “Is that you in there, Lee?” “Allee same,” chirped Clancy, giving an excellent imi- tation of Lee Song’s pidgin English. ? “Where’s Bella Norton?” “Missy Bella not alound!” “I think you’re lying, you yellow-skinned cub! this door or we'll break it down!” Open “No bleakee do’!’”’ begged Clancy, in a voice of tearful appeal. You “We’re going to get in, no two ways about that! and the girl took Norton to town?” “Allee same.” “Is he going to get well?” “Plaps.” “Small loss if he doesn’t. His new aéroplane is smashed into a cocked hat, and no one will ever take any stock in that idea of his after this. Norton is dished for good! The fellow who was coming here with twenty thousand in cash to buy a half interest in the machine, manufacture them, and put them on the market, has lost his money. I got it. I hope the girl is where she can hear that! Updyke will never buy any interest in the new invention, take it from me.” There’was a pause. Clancy had nothing to say, but he was willing to let Rotherick go as far as he liked. “Where are Norton’s plans?” the air pirate next de- manded. “No have got,” said Clancy. “Another lie! I'll bet you’ve got ’em, fast enough. When you saw us coming, you rushed into the house and locked the door. But you needn’t think that will keep us out. Are you going to open up? Last call!’ Clancy motioned to Pingree to get ready for a rush. As he did so, he put his hand on the bolt and made ready to push it back. “Awri’,” called Clancy. Snap! went the bolt. The door, under Rotherick’s weight, crashed inward. Clancy was thrown backward against Pingree. Both were overturned. As they went down, Rotherick fell on top of them. At that particular moment Esteban was nowhere in sight. Evidently he had hung back for some reason or other, and had not approached the front door with Roth- erick, or, if he had—as the approaching footsteps had seemed to suggest—then he must have moved away again during Rotherick’s parley with the supposed Lee Song. Rotherick was not a heavily built man, but he was wiry and quick as a wild cat. Pingree, as he lay on the floor, grabbed at the aviator. The two rolled over and over, while Rotherick recovered from the shock of surprise he must have experienced. As soon as he regained his wits and his voice, he began to yell for Esteban. Like an eel, the rascally aviator slipped through the en- compassing arms of the sheriff, grabbed a revolver that had fallen from the sheriff’s hand, and leaped erect. “Tried to trick me, hey?” he shouted. “Now the boot’ll be on the other leg!” “Not so you can notice it,’ spoke up the motor wizard. He had already regained his feet. As he shouted his answer to Rotherick’s defiant words, he leaped at the sky- man’s back. The force with which he struck the man’s shoulders flung him to the floor again. Clancy dropped on top of him, and there followed a lively scrimmage. While it was going on, the Mexican arrived in a hurry. He carried a revolver, and tried to use it the instant he got inside the door. Pingree was not very quick, but he was quick enough to grapple with Esteban before his finger could flex on the trigger. Everything might have gone well if Clancy and Rotherick had not rolled against the sheriff and knocked his feet out from under him. Pingree fell with a crash, striking his head against the “Don’t bleakee do’—my open.” PE Sr er =e NEW _. corner of a fireplace. The blow stunned him, so that he -—-was out of the fighting for a time. Had Esteban not done a very peculiar thing at that moment, Clancy would have had his hands a little more than full. The sight of the sheriff, where the Mexican had expected to see only a Chinaman and an American girl, must have filled the swarthy scoundrel with panic. He fied, slamming the door shut behind him as he went, “Esteban!” roared Rotherick, in a panting voice; “come back here! What in the fiend’s name has got into you?” Clancy put forth every effort to get the better of Rotherick before the Mexican should return. He had noted, with alarm, the accident that had placed Pingree hors de combat, and he felt that all responsibility had sud- denly devolved upon him. He fought with desperate determination, but Rotherick ‘was active and strong, and it was hard to conquer him. Springing suddenly clear of the aviator, Clancy grabbed _ the sheriff’s revolver from the floor and bounded to his feet. In a twinkling he had the weapon turned upon Roth- erick. There was a gleam in the motor wizard’s eyes that plainly meant business, and caused Rotherick to surrender promptly. A coil of light rope hung on the wall. to. it. “Take down that rope!’ he ordered. “What business have you got meddling with blustered Rotherick. _ “I’m helping the sheriff,” explained Claney. “The sheriff hasn’t any right to lay hands on me.” “Tt think he has. A minute ago you were bragging . about Updyke’s twenty thousand dollars. You admitted taking the money.” | “That was a joke and——” _ “It won’t prove much of a joke for you! _ Rotherick, and be quick abont it.” ‘Sullenly the air pirate stepped to the wall and took down the rope. ~ “Now what?” he in a choking voice. _ “Now stretch yourself out, face down, on the floor. “your hands behind you.” _ “Going to tie me?” “What do you think I’m going to do with you?” “See here! If you'li——” “No useless talk!” you, Rotherick !” Again the gleam in Clancy’s eyes proved that he meant business. The aviator did not debate the order further, ‘but placed himself on the floor as directed. “Esteban !” he shouted; “help, Esteban !’” “That will be about all of that,” said Clancy. Dropping down on the prostrate form of Rotherick, he proceeded to bind his hands, and then to take a half hitch of the rope about his ankles. When he had finished, he oved over toward Pingree. The sheriff, however, sat up n the floor before Clancy could reach him. ‘V’m glad to see you stirring, Pingree,” remarked the iotor wizard. “I was afraid something serious had hap- pened to you.” “My head hit the edge of the fireplace as I fell,” an- — the sheriff, “and it stunned me. I’m all right now, Clancy pointed me?” Get that rope, demanded, Put cut in Clancy sternly. “Down with TIP TOP WEEKLY. “You seem to be a good way from being all right,” said Clancy. “A little dizzy, that’s all. It was quite a crack 1 got when I hit the edge of that fireplace.” . The sheriff walked over to the chair by the cot, picked up the basin, and filled it from an olla that hung in one corner of the room, Then he bathed his head in the cool water, and the effect was almost instantaneous. “I’m as good as éver now,” he declared. “Where’s the greaser ?” “He hustled away as soon as he discovered that the sheriff had grabbed him.” J “But you got Rotherick! That’s fine, Clancy. He’s the leader in this work against Norton, and he’s the one who robbed Updyke.” The sheriff walked over to the bound prisoner and stared down on him with something like contempt in his face. “You're a murderous cur!” he exclaimed. “Maybe you're fit to live, but I doubt it. Filed the guy wires on Norton’s machine, didn’t you? Fixed things so he would have an accident when he took the Acme out on a trial flight, eh? Well, if Norton doesn’t recover, I reckon you can figure about where you get off.” A sudden pallor ran through “You've got this wrong,” he protested. who tampered with Norton’s machine.” “Who did tamper with it, then?” “It was the greaser.” “Esteban ?” “Yes.” “Among. your other shining virtues,” said the sheriff contemptuously, “you’re an informer, eh? If the Mexi-_ can filed those guy wires, I’ll bet he did it because you told him to.” “IT hadn’t a thing to do with it!” “And you hadn’t a thing to do with taking Updyke’s money, either, eh? You admitted that. Where's tlie twenty thousand?” . “In a satchel, aboard the Bat.” The clamor of a gasoline engine, just going into ‘ac- . could be heard outside at that moment. Rotherick’s face. “I’m not the one tion, “Esteban is getting away in the Bat!” cried Clancy, rushing for the door. See “Stop him! If Rotherick is telling the truth, the greaser is making off with Updyke’s money!” And Pingree fol- lowed Clancy from the house at top speed. CHAPTER X. THROUGH THE CLOUDS, When Clancy and Pingree reached the outside ot the house, the Bat was just sliding across the level plateau toward the brink of the précipice. his revolver 6ut of Clancy’s hand. “Stop!” he roared. The desperate Mexican paid no attention to the com- mand. Pingree fired. The bullet could be heard to stri something, but no damage that was noticeable had b done the Bat. Before the sheriff could fire a second time, the machi tipped over the edge of the precipice and vanished. | * -“Has he dropped?” cried Pingree, sperinaner ke to the br of the cliff. Ge The sheriff grabbed 16 NEW The. motor wizard followed, and the two, staring down- ward, saw Esteban maneuvering the flyer, and gradually mounting skyward. “We'll have to follow him, Pingree!” cried Clancy. “The quicker we can take his trail with the Eagle, the better our chance of overhauling him.” “Jove!” exclaimed the sheriff. “Can we do it?” “T don’t see why we can’t. If we’re to take Roderick’s word, Esteban has Updyke’s money with him. I’d like to recover that twenty thousand!” While talking, they were proceeding at speed in the direction of the Eagle. her beak pointed toward the brink of the cliff, required only a moment. Clancy sent the sheriff to his place in the machine, and then cranked the engine. As the propellers thrashed the air, the motor wizard hurried to the front of the airship, and took his place at the wheel. At first slowly, then with rapidly increasing speed, the Eagle flung herself at the precipice. It was a situation well calculated to try the nerves, but Pingree gritted his teeth and hung with both hands to his seat. Before reaching the brink, the Eagle took to the air, flying high up over the rocky sides of the peak. Both Clancy and Pingree were scanning the horizon for the Bat. The sheriff was first to sight the fleeing machine, and he pointed toward the distant speck. Clancy aimed the Eagle in the Bat’s direction, and the chase was on. “Which is the faster machine?” The sheriff yelled this question three times at the lad at the wheel before the words were grasped. Clancy shook his head. It was a question he could not answer. Never before had the two aéroplanes been pitted against each other, so that their relative speed could be determined. But before that chase was done the question would be settled. The Bat was a larger machine than the Eagle. The smaller a machine is, generally speaking, the faster it can travel, for there is less resistance to the wind. If the Eagle had the advantage in this respecty however, it was at a disadvantage in another way. It carried two, while the other, aéroplane carried only one. Clancy, getting the last ounce of power out of the beau- tifully running engine, hung to the Bat’s aérial trail. Slowly the Bat began to grow larger to the eyes of those in the machine behind. “We're gaining!” whooped the sheriff. Clancy nodded his head, while a grim smile played around his lips. “What're we going to do when we overhaul the Mexi- can?” yelled Pingree. That was a point which Clancy had not considered To capture Esteban while he was in the air was a physical impossibility. The Eagle might overtake the Bat, and sail along neck and neck with her, but that did not put the handcuffs on the Mexican. Suddenly Esteban began to cut a wide half circle. Had the motor wizard known the Mexican was going to make a complete half circle of it, he could have cut across and made a big gain. But this Clancy did not know, so he had to change his course just as the machine ahead changed. In a few minutes both flyers were doubling back on their course. They were high in the air, and the Bat began dropping toward a pointed mountain, aif OP To turn the flyer around, so that ' WEEKLY, “He’s looking for a place to land!” yelled Clancy. Pingree managed to catch the meaning of this. ing sideways, and bringing his lips close to the motor wizard’s ear, he answered: “What ails him? The Bat doesn’t seem to be flying very steadily.” This was a fact. Clancy himself had noticed it. There was a peculiar jerk and wabble to the machine ahead. “He’s in distress,” cried Clancy. “Maybe that bullet of yours hit a vital part, and is just beginning to take effect. The Mexican would like to land on that pointed moun- tain.” ' There was no doubt about Esteban’s desire to come down. But he could not descend unless he found the right sort of a place. His eyes showed him no safe spot for a landing, and he winged on across the pointed moun- tain and into the distance. 30th machines were now headed back toward Spanish Peak. The Bat was crippled, and it behooved Esteban to get solid ground under him as quickly as possible. He might be captured, but better that than the certainty of being destroyed by a fall with the aéroplane. Lean- > The peculiar motions of the machine were growing | worse and worse. The whole fabric plunged and rolled like a ship in a storm. The speed of the Bat lessened, so that the Eagle was . able to come very close. Then Clancy saw what was the trouble. The sheriff’s bullet had evidently smashed into one of the propeller blades. The lead had weakened the wood so that the violent whirling had thrown off the blade. The screw had only half its power, and was exerting itself against the propeller on the other side of the machine. “] see what’s the trouble!” roared Pingree in. Clancy’s ears. The motor wizard ‘nodded. “Think he’ll go to smash?” asked the sheriff. Clancy shook his head and nodded toward Spanish Peak. It was as though he had said: “There'll be no wreck if he can get to the. peak before that propeller goes out of business entirely.” Esteban was looking everywhere for a place to come down. The ground below was rocky and rough, and most unpromising. Evidently he made up his mind that for him it was Spanish Peak or nothing, for he pushed heroically onward, rising higher, so that, if good luck served, he could glide down to the Peak’s crest. Clancy steered the Eagle to rise above the Bat. Poised overhead, the two in the Eagle could look down on the face of the Mexican. Terror was traced vividly in the countenance of the Bat’s driver. It was a terror, however, that kept Esteban to his post, fighting for life with all the courage and resource- fulness at his command. Beside him, lashed to the lower plane of the machine, Clancy and Pingree could see a small satchel. — “Vll. bet that grip belongs to Rotherick,” shouted the sheriff to his.companion, “and that Updyke’s money is inside.” Clancy nodded full agreement with Pingree’s surmise. As the Eagle dropped rearward, and again assumed its former position with respect to the Bat, the Mexican gave Clancy a wild, despairing look. It was awful to be so near a person who was threatened + : i ; i y i B i 4 { NEW TIP TOP WEEKLY. with destruction, and yet be powerless to give any help. This was the case with Clancy and Pingree, however, so far as Esteban was concerned. At any moment the crippled propeller was liable to give out completely, When this happened, nothing on earth could save the Mexican. He must have firm ground under him, and quickly, if he was to live. Wabbling and rolling, the Bat made its way toward the top of Spanish Peak. She crossed the edge—passing the danger point—then settled downward, and came to an awk- ward halt. At the same moment, Clancy manipulated his rudders and shut off his engine. The Eagle landed almost as quickly as the other machine. Perhaps Esteban considered his narrow escape from death as a good omen. At any rate, no sooner did he find himself in safety on top of the peak than he leaped out x of the aéroplane and scurried at top speed for a nest. of ~ rocks. Clancy and Pingree saw that he had the satchel under his arm. “There he goes,” cried the sheriff; out to the very last!” “We're sure to get him, though,” returned Clancy. can’t get away from us.” They got out of their seats and stood on the ground be- side the Eagle. Their eyes were upon the rocks behind which the Mexican had screened himself and taken refuge. “We must keep him from getting down that ladder chiseled in the cliff’s face,” said Pingree. “He’s a good, long distance from the top of the lad- r,” Clancy answered. “In order to get to it he would : have to cross the peak right in front of us.” “Well, let’s rout him out.” _ The sheriff was armed, and led the assault. Before he Cand Clancy had taken half a dozen steps, a revolver barked behind the stones, and a bullet bit the earth and threw up a jet of sand at the motor wizard’s feet. “Stop that, you villain!” roared Pingree. “What are you fighting for? You can’t get away from us!” “bound to fight it “He “You let Esteban go if he give up the dinero?” came- ‘a shout from behind the rocks. “Certainly not!” answered Pingree. “You're my pris- oner, Esteban. I know what you have done. You stole into Camp Aéro and filed the guy wires of the Acme so _ that Norton had a bad fall. If Norton dies, it will be nuy malo for you.” a “Tt not do that!” flung back Esteban wildly. is the one who filed the guy wires!” _ “He says it was you.” “Then he lie! He steal the dinero from Updyke, too. That was not me.” “Tf what you say is the truth, you had better walk out ere and surrender. Give up the money and—— “No, I never surrender !” Simultaneously with the yell, the Mexican broke from he rocks and made a dash toward the path leading down he cliff to the plateau. Clancy, who happened to be earer the fellow than Pingree, rushed forward to block his attempt at escape. The two came together with a crash, and began a strug- gle on the very edge of the cliff. A wild cry broke from 'Pingree, and he ran toward the wrestlers to do what he ould to keep them from going “over the brink and anni- ating each other “Rotherick CHAPTER XI. ESTEBAN YIELDS. For one dread moment Owen Clancy found himself rub- bing elbows with death. He was balancing, with the — Mexican, on the edge of the cliff. Below, he could see the rocks of the plateau. The fall measured a hundred feet, and the cliff stood sheer to. Esteban’s gripping hands were pulling at him, and for one awful second the motor : he was wizard felt that he was going. Then, suddenly, caught and heaved backward to safety. “Greaser,” roared the exasperated Pingree, flinging the a two combatants well away from the brink, “you don't seem to have a grain of sense! What good is all this — doing you? Break away, now, and put out your hands!” The sheriff's gleaming eye peered at Esteban over the sights of his revolver. Sullenly the Mexican drew back from Clancy, and put out his hands, wrists together. “Take those, son, and see how quick you can get them — on him.” Pingree threw a pair of handcuffs at Clancy. The latter picked them up, stepped forward, and snapped them around the prisoner’s wrists. ; “T reckon that robs him of any chance to make under- hand plays,” went on the sheriff. “There’s the satchel, Clancy, just where he dropped it when you and he came — together on the cliff’ spdge. Pick up the grip and see what © it has inside.” The motor wizard lifted the satchel and opened it. There was nothing inside. ; “Empty!” exclaimed Clancy. “Empty!” repeated Pingree. “What’s the good of tot- ing around an empty satchel? I'll bet the thing hasn’t been — empty very Jong. Look through the greaser’s clothes, son. See what he’s got on him.” The first pocket Clancy reached into contained a packet | of bills. He pulled them out, and a roar of exultation escaped the sheriff. “Oh, you tricky whelp! Took the dinero out of the satchel, eh, and hoped to fool us! Well, ~we’re not so easily fooled.” : Clancy handed over the package of money to Pingree. The latter took his gun under his arm, and proceeded to count the bills. “Whoop !” cried the sheriff exultingly. “There are twenty shiriplasters here, and théy are all of the thou-_ sand-dollar variety. I reckon this is one time my cantcen — was wide open when it rained luck. You're in on this— good thing, too, Clancy. Whatever comes out of it, we'll share together. Eh? You know, son, I’m out of my baili-— wick—but there hadn’t ought to be any limits to a man who’s working for law and order. What do you think?’ “Because we're in a county that belongs to another sheriff,” Clancy answered, “I don’t see why that’s any rea-— son for you to hold your hand.” 5 “Nor I. The main thing is to capture these pirates of the air and recoyer Updyke’s money. We've done that with ground to spare.” He whirled on Esteban. “What have you got to say for yourself, greaser?” he asked. The Mexican, a sorry figure in his manacles, had dropped: to his knees. The V-shaped scar on his face showed pare : agai ainst the swarthy oes % w ee acea. “Por Dios, I not file the guy wires.” ener did it?” 18 NEW TIP TOP WEEKLY. “Sif” answered Esteban. ‘‘Rotherick he want to wreck Norton’s new machine, he want to kill Norton—what you eall, put him out of bee¢sness—so we come in the Bat to this place by night, and go down the cliff by the path after we lower a ladder. With the ladder we climb the wall of the corral, then Rotherick light a lantern, take a file, and began to make weak the guy wires.” “And you hadn't anything to do with that,. eh?” inquired the sheriff sarcastically. “No, I do nothing at all: Sefior, | swear!” “Don’t swear. 1 wouldn’t believe you any quicker if you did, Esteban. When was it you crippled the Acme?” “The day after Sefior Clancy put in the engine.” “You were in town the other night—the night you bought five gallons of gasoline at the Square-deal Garage and wheeled it away in a stolen wheelbarrow. Why did you come to Phoenix that time?” “Rotherick, he want to learn if Norton try the flying machine yet, and he not like to fly around Spanish Peak to discover.” “T see. Were you with Rotherick when he waylaid Updyke by the Indian School and stripped him of his money ?” “Si,” answered Esteban; “I was along.” “Even if you didn’t do any of the thieving, or tamper- ing with Norton’s aéroplane, you were right in the thick of it.” Pingree turned away Clancy. “How are we going to take both prisoners back to town, son?” he asked. “I don’t suppose the Eagle will carry four, will she?” “No, and three will be hard to manage,” from the Mexican and faced Clancy an- swered. “I'll have to make two trips between the peak and town, Pingree. The first thing is to get down to the plateau.” “I'd rather go down there in an overloaded aéroplane than to try to climb down the face of the cliff. But why do you have to stop at the plateau?” “We've got to have more gasoline.” “Take the gasoline out of the Bat.” “T’ve looked in the Bat’s reservoir, and there isn’t enough _ to get us to Phoenix.” “All right, then we'll try to fly to Camp Aéro.” The sheriff chuckled. “I’m getting to have a lot of confidence in your ability to run that aéroplane. Son, J don’t believe there’s anything you can’t do, and do well. The more I see of you, the more I think you’re a wonder.” “Much obliged,” said Clancy. “Climb aboard with Es- teban, and we'll try to drop over the edge and alight on the plateau.” The Eagle had carried three passengers more than once. Clancy knew this, and he was not alarmed at making the attempt to fly to the plateau with Pingree and Esteban. As soon as the prisoner and the sheriff were loaded, Clancy started the propellers, and climbed aboard. The aéroplane was a bit slower in feeling the thrust of the propellers, and she went over the wall before the lift under the planes caught her and buoyed her up. For, a moment, as the craft toppled from the brink, the motor wizard’s heart was in his throat. But he held his nervés firmly in hand, remembering that Bella had once told him that the quickest way for an aviator to meet with disaster was by getting rattled. A little quick manipulation of the levers brought the Eagle to an even keel, and she soared out over the plateau, cut a wide half circle, returned, and dropped safely to a landing. Pingree was mopping the perspiration from his face with a red cotton handkerchief. “My confidence in your ability was badly shaken for a moment,” he murmured. “I came near standing on my head and going out of the machine.” “The Eagle is hard to manage when heavily loaded,” ex- plained Clancy. “I noticed she didn’t obey the helm, or something. I reckon, son, that you had better make three trips instead of two between the peak and Phoenix. By doing that, only two will have to ride each trip. I believe I'll feel more comfortable if you and I are alone in the machine. Get your gasoline, and then we'll make a start.” — While Clancy went to the place where the gasoline was kept, Pingree proceeded to the house for a reassuring look at Rotherick. The motor wizard had no more than filled a five-gallon can from the underground tank than a yell from the house called his attention. Pingree was standing in the front door, waving his arms wildly. “What's the matter?” “Come here,” Clancy shouted. was the answer, “on the run!”’ The young. motorist knew that something pretty serious must have happened to throw the sheriff into such a state of mind, and he ran at once to the house. Pingree “You put the ropes on. Rotherick, didn’t you?” asked. “Yes,” Clancy answered. “How did you put ’em on? So they'd stay?” “The only way Rotherick could get out of those ropes would be by somebody helping him.” “That’s where you’re fooled, Clancy. He got the ropes off his hands and feet, and has left the camp.” “Left the echoed Clancy. “Why, Pingree, he couldn’t leave the camp. There was no ways” “That’s what happened, all the same.’ Clancy ran into the house. On the floor, where Roth- erick had been left, lay the rope with which he had been bound. Rotherick had not slipped it off his hands, but it had been untied. The motor wizard was amazed, “Some one has been here,” he declared. “Where are they now, then?” asked Pingree. “Who else, in these parts, has a flying machine? You say the only way to come and go from Camp Aéro is by aéroplane. What aviator has been here, during our absence, and set Rotherick free?” “He may be still on the plateau,” “We'd better look before we leave, “So do I.” They began by searching the house. one there—of that they were confident. camp ?”’ said the puzzled Clancy 1 think.” There was no Leaving the house, they carried their search to the overhang, around to the workyard, and then to every other spot where a human being might possibly hide. When they had finished, they were satisfied that Rotherick was not upon Spanish Peak. fellow? ~ “This is one of the biggest mysteries I ever heard of!” declared Clancy. “It’s baffling, and no mistake,” agreed the sheriff. But what had become of the “What ate ES = ’ ttn lie igo tenn anon fash ie tsitnrpaana pate ig pone Y S ni WwW ay dc su ba Ws pe Sic tio the wr no aer Ea tur: hel doct abot cost NEW | hate about it is that the man who did most of the law- less work has got away from us. We've captured Este- ban, but he’s only a tool. Rotherick is the fellow we should have. I reckon it’s up to the Eag/e to carry three on the trip to Phoenix, Clancy. I wouldn’t dare leave Esteban behind, and I’m noways anxious to stay behind myself. Get the flyer in shape, and. let’s be going.” “T’ll be ready in fifteen minutes,” said Clancy. “While I’m filling the tank with gasoline, Pingree, I wish you'd get some of those filed wires from the wreck of the deme. | want to show them to Bella and her father.” “All right, son, I’ll get the wires. Meanwhile, see how quickly you can get the Eagle in) shape for the return trip. [ have twenty thousand in my Clothes, and it worries me.’ CHAPTER XII. THE TURNING POINT. The afternoon was drawing to a close. In the emer- gency ward of the hospital, the life of Ray Norton seemed also to be drawing to a close. The sky pilot lay in his bed just as he had lain ever since he had been carried into the institution. His face was upturned, he did not move, there was a growing pallor in his cheeks, and a glassy expression to his wide-open eyes. A nurse tiptoed into the ward and spoke to him, Not the flicker of an eyelash told that he had heard her voice. She tiptoed away again. A few minutes later, several people came into the ward. The doctor in charge of the hospital preceded the party. After him followed Bella Norton, her fair face flushed with hope and gratitude; then came Owen Clancy, Pin- gree, with the sullen-visaged Esteban, and, finally, the nurse. Clancy carried a few short pieces of wire, each - with a turnbuckle on the end. This little party grouped about the bed of the sick aviator. The doctor stepped to the head of the bed, bent down and spoke the sky pilot’s name. He had no better success than had met the attempt of the nurse. back, he motioned to Bella. The girl, kneeling at the side of the bed, brought her warm, trembling lips close to her father’s ears and whis- pered his name. Half a dozen times she spoke, but the sick man paid no heed. Then, fearful and apprehensive, she gave place to the motor wizard. “Mr. Norton,” said Clancy, speaking in a -conversa- tional tone, “I have been out to the peak, investigating the accident that happened to the Acme. I find that the wreck was caused through no fault of yours, and through no failure of your plans in building a safe and dependable aéroplane. Treachery caused the wreck of the Acme. Each guy wire had been filed half in two, just below the turnbuckle. When you tried out the machine, the wires held for a short time, then, when one of them gave way, all the others followed suit.” - Clancy paused. If Norton heard and understood what he was saying, he gave no sign. A look of disappoint- ment ran through every face but that of Esteban. | Clancy,” spoke up the eens mind. Tell us “If Norton won’t listen to you, . from the foot of the pel, Moving: TIP TOP WEEKLY. ee “It was like this, doctor,” he went on. “A man named Anton Rotherick has always been an enemy of Norton’s ever since Camp Aéro was established on Spanish Peak. The sky pilot, in spite of Rotherick, succeeded in building his new aéroplane and in making it ready for the trial flight. I was taken out to the peak to install the engine. After my work was finished, and I had gone back to Phoenix, Rotherick landed on the peak in his own flyer, the Bat. ; “Rotherick came at night, and with him came his right- | hand man and chief helper, Esteban, the Mexican. He is the prisoner the sheriff has here. “Rotherick and Esteban landed on tap of the peak. They brought. a ladder with them and lowered it down the wall, back of the camp, then came down the path to the plateau themselves. With the help of the ladder they scaled the wall of the workyard, got inside, and began filing into the guy wires of the new aéroplane. . “They did their work carefully and well. When they had finished, they stole away from the plateau and the peak as quietly as they had come. Norton did not hear them, and neither did his daughter nor Lee Song. “Later, when Norton got ready to try his new aéro- plane, the gates of the workyard were opened, and the machine was brought out. No one noticed that the wires had been tampered with. Owing to the cunning with which the dastardly work had been done, it would have been difficult for a person to see how dangerous a con- dition the machine was in. “The sky pilot got into the aéroplane, and, for a few minutes, everything went well. For the brief space of time that the wires held together, the Acme behaved just as Norton felt sure she would. Then, without warning, the guy wires snapped, and the whole fabric crashed to earth.” Clancy finished, and stole a side glance at Norton. The aviator had not moved. His eyes were still fixed on va- cancy, and there was nothing in the expression of his_ face to show that he had heard a word. Out of the deep silence that followed Clancy’s recital came the voice of the doctor. ; “Your statement is plain enough, Clancy, and yet it is a bare statement such as any one might make in the hope of affording mental relief to Norton. What we want, at this time, are facts supported by incontestible proof. How do you know the guy wires were treacherously tam- pered with?” “IT went out to Spanish Peak with Pingree, the sheriff, and made an examination.” “Mr. Pingree, do you substantiate the words of the motor wizard regarding the guy wires?” “T do,” answered the sheriff. discovered that every broken half.” “Your word,” went on the doctor, “goes far with me. But we ought to have even more proof. Why did you bet out to the peak with Clancy?” “Iwas present when he wire had been filed in “We were in hopes of locating the Ae who, a fo days ago, robbed a man named Updyke near * the Indian’ School.” ; “Who were those thieves?” “Rotherick and Esteban, the Mexican.” “How much money did they secure from’ Updyke?” ie ie? te? er reptomes ba 4. SO. Aye, 20 NEW TIP “Twenty thousand dollars, all in thousand-dollar bills.” “Did you find the thieves at Spanish Peak and recover the money?” “We did. This is how we happen to have Esteban with us, now. Rotherick was also captured, hut he got away from ug mysteriously.” “Have you some of the guy wires with you now, Clancy?” the doctor asked, facing the motor wizard. “T have,” Clancy replied. “Let me examine them.” Clancy passed the handful of wires over to the doctor. “Fach wire broke below the turnbuckle, doctor,” said the young motorist. “Look carefully at.the break and you will see that the wire had been filed in half. In many cases, the marks of the teeth of the file will be found on the wire.” “You are right,” said the docter, after a lengthened “The wires certainly seem to have been 3ut all this, of course, might have examination. gnawed into with a file. been manufactured evidence.- Had you so desired, Clancy, you and Pingree could have taken a file and fixed up that lot of wires. I don’t think you would do such a thing but —well, Norton’s recovery seems to hang on the question of what caused the wreck of the Acme. If an inventor’s idea was at fault, then the blow is one which Norton can- not survive. On the other hand, if treachery of an enemy caused the disaster, then there is no reason in the world why the sky pilot should not speedily get back his health. How are we to know, Clancy, that this evidence is not manufactured ?” “Esteban is here. He was with Rotherick when the Acme was tampered with. Ask him what happened.” The doctor turned to the Mexican. “Esteban, do you know about the filing of the wires?” “Si,” was the sullen response. “Who did it?” “Rotherick.” “When was it done?” “The day after Sefior Clancy install the motor.” “You make that as a positive statement?” “Sefior, I swear !’’ The doctor had been ministering to a mind diseased. AH this categorical questioning was staged for the express benefit of Ray Norton. It was the one chance of saving his life, for the crisis was on at that moment and the ttirning point had been reached. . Patiently, hopefully, the little drama had been carried through. Even when it seemed most certain to fail, the various actors held resolutely 1o their plans. Now, sud- denly, they secured their reward. Norton started up to a sitting posture on the bed. His thin, haggard face was fulk of happiness, and his eyes were shining. “My inyention was not to blame!” he murmured. “It was-the work of an enemy that caused the failure of the Acme! My ideas will live, and they will yet make the air lanes of the world safe for the argosies of commerce! Bella! Do you hear? The name of Ray Norton, like that of Abou Ben Adhem, will yet be written on the scroll! The—name—of——” The words died on the inventor’s lips. He felk back on his pillow and lay silent and still. But this time his eyes were closed. It seemed for a moment as though the would-be savers eee = — TOP. WEEKLY. of Norton had overreached themselves. [Fearful looks passed from one to another of those in the room. The doctor stepped quickly to the side of the bed, peered into Norton’s face, and touched light fingers to his putise. He drew away with a reassuring smile, and motioned those about the bed to follow him from the ward. When they were out of earshot of the sick man the doctor remarked : “He is sleeping as peacefully as a child. And it is the first sleep he has had since being brought to the hospital. We have won our fight, and the sky pilot is going to get well. Clancy,” and the doctor turned and took the motor wizard warmly by the hand, “our success is due almost Tt was your faith and pluck that carried Allow me to entirely to you. the investigation to a happy conclusion. congratulate you!” Clancy’s homely face flushed. The color deepened even more when Bella, with a low cry of happiness, threw her arms about his neck and gave him a kiss. “We shall never forget the debt we owe you, Owen!” she declared. “Never mind that,” said the motor wizard hastily. “I felt sure that the Acme could not fail, and that the ma- terial, in some way, was responsible for the accident. That’s. why I investigated.) “Father said he was going to do something for you,” went on Beila, “and I think that something might as well. be done here and now. Clancy, it is father’s wish that you accept the Eagle as a testimonial of friendship—and of gratitude—from us. It is a good machine, and it is yours.” Clancy was thunderstruck. He opened his lips and tried to speak, but no words came. After a while he left the hospital, but he was still far from realizing the good luck that had come his way. A good aéroplane was worth several thousand dallars—and now Clancy was not only an aviator, but he had a ma- chine! CHAPTER XIII. DIVIDING WITH THE SHERIFF. On the morning after Clancy and Pingree returned to Phoenix in the Eagle, bringing Esteban with them, Lafe Wynn was early at the garage to greet his partner. The words Wynn had spoken—words which hinted at an ugly feeling on the part of a business partner—had by no means faded from Clancy’s memory. He recalled them as he looked into Wynn’s face and saw him stretch out his hand. “You and Pingree pulled off a great piece of work yes- terday!” Wynn eried, in an admiring tone. “Congratula- tions, old man!” “Thanks,” returned the motor wizard quietly. “I’m glad, Wynn, that you think I ‘whooped it up’ yesterday to some purpose.” As Wynn dropped his partner’s hand, he looked at his face keenly. “Oh, forget it!” said he. “You know I don’t. mean to find fault with you, Owen. I’d like to know what this business would amount to if you weren’t connected with the garage. Everybody in town is talking about you. Your various exploits are making you the most popular fellow in Phoenix, and your popularity naturally helps ar habe +m ita abil retains ic: et a ee ny ntti sl a of all do) anc diy Ree She: SO *) “WI tion Ba and Eagi rr Cl; ‘P yeste “H et Y twent Ww every! the fiy for < tO. say glad + morte; NEW TIP TOP WEEKLY. Go ahead and star yourself just as much It all benefits the firm.” our business. “as you can. _ Clancy detected, or thought he detected, an insincere note in Wynn’s voice. It may have been his imagination, for that is always the way when’a little wedge of ill _ temper begins prying apart a friendship—one is apt to find slights where no slights are intended. “Your feelings seem to have undergone a change,” said Clancy. Wynn dropped a hand on Clancy’s shoulder. - “Old chap, can’t you cut out the suspicion?” he asked. _ “We're friends, as well as partners in business.: We always _ have got along swimmingly, and why can’t we keep right on getting along? I’ve been worried about you some- times, and I'll admit it got on my nerves, but nothing could ever shake my confidence in you.” _ “When you come at me in that tone of voice, Lafe,” said Clancy, throwing an arm about his partner’s shoulders, “I just have to tumble off my high horse. There are no ill feelings on my part, if there are not on yours. If you're agreeable, we'll proceed to forget what happened. We will——” The telephone bell jingled its warning. Wynn answered “Some one for you, Owen,” said he. The motor wizard went to the phone and discovered the sheriff at the other end of the wire. e “Good morning, my red-headed friend,” said Pingree. Do you know that you are five thousand dollars better y biow’s that?” asked Clancy. “T’ve seen Updyke. He says he offered you twenty- «five r * cent of all the stolen a you recovered. It. has ; Half of the money goes to you, Pingree.” _“Updyke says not, and that his offer was made to you, and to you alone. That cuts me out of it. You can 1? i ; et your spurs I'll divide, Pingree!” cried Clancy. _ “What’s more, if you want me to, I'll go out and elec- i tione oneer for you.” ever mind that, Clancy. I know you're on my side, that’s enough. Next time you take a ride in the ill, . Good-by.” Jancy “hung up,” and turned around to his partner. Pingree tells me I have made five thousand dollars by .” he announced. ell, you seem bound to make a big winning out of erything you go into. But there’ll be no division with ne firm this time. You can salt away that five thousand or Schnitzelbaum. You bought this garage property ve the firm, and had to go deeply into debt. Pm « to see — getting the funds together to pay off the “This five thousand is a case of pure luck, Lafe, Clancy. “And pluck—as usual,” added Wynn. And the motor wizard laughed protestingly. ” said THE END. “Qwen Clancy’s Peril; or, The Motor Wizard’s Winged — Victory,” is the title of the next story of this series. You will find it in next week’s issue of this weekly, No. 85, out — March. 14th. TROUBLE TO LOAN. By R. KEENE THOMPSON. SYNOPSIS OF PRECEDING CHAPTERS. Barlow, a country chap from the West, is seeking a job in New York. One day he stops a runaway. pleasant-faced stranger, who has witnessed the action, — addresses him, and offers him a job to take care of some — horses on their way West. om Barlow, who has been “touched” for his pocketbook — with all the money he possessed, is forced to accept. va He meets in a restaurant a little chap who tells him how his pocketbook was stolen, and Barlow in return — tells him of his new job. Barlow starts with the horses, after some queer proceed- ings at the depot. He suddenly Aacovets that somebody else—he cannot see well in the darkness—is with him and the horses in the box car. ; CHAPTER V. A BEWILDERING TALE. Perhaps it was a desperate tramp, who might be armed. Barlow dared not strike a match to pierce the pitch black- ness that walled him in, for fear of making himself a target. At the chill thought that any second might bring a tailed his way out of the fearsome dark, he began moving, cau- tious to make no noise that would rise above the rattle — of the train and give him away. He sidled around in a ignorance of where his feet took him, thinking only of being constantly in motion, so that at least he would pres sent a shifting mark for a chance shit. With hands outstretched gropingly before him, he had gone perhaps a dozen side steps, when—— He encountered an obstacle that was soft and sfietitiy yielding to the push of his approach. On the instant he hurled himself upon it, flat against one side of the car. “Cheese, cull!” panted a piping voice. Just then the light from a semaphore flashed in through a slat-blind window. And Barlow looked down into the distorted face of the little fellow in the plaid cap. into the center of the car. stared at him. “Vou! y? voice sounded : “Bet yer boots it’s me!” low picked it up and relighted the wick. ome “How on earth did you get in ere?” he “a “Nebding the Pate feet % gnod Pitta tas eripee : 22 NEW. 1riP FGP: WEEARLY. The midget was still struggling for breath. “De next time yuh bump into me, Alfred, in de gloam- in’,” he puffed, “I on’y hope there'll be a rubber wail or a@ mattress in back o’ me. I’m half squoze t’ death!” “How did you get in here?” Barlow repeated. “Clum in!” “When?” “Aw, before de train started,’ the little chap replied. “{ wuz in here before yuh come aboard.” “But if you’ve been here all the time, why didn’t I see you till just now?” The other. grinned.. “Why didn’t I discover you when I hunted high and low around the car a little while ago?” Barlow asked. “T was pretty well hid,” the small one answered, still grinning. “I had a bunk among them horses. Up on the backs of two of ’em, me shadder sorta melted in with ’em, an’ you passed me by.” “But weren’t you afraid?” the other exclaimed. “You might have been trampled if you’d fallen, crushed if you’d slipped, either one!” “Naw!” sniffed the diminutive individual contemptu- ously. “Not me—a feller that’s been a jockey all his life!” “A jockey !” Barlow looked at him with interest. “Is that what you are?” The other’s face took on an expression of craft. “That’s what I was,” he said. “What are you doing in this car?’ Barlow went on. “You haven’t explained that yet.” “Stealing a ride,” was the reply. “What for?” “Gee, ‘cause I can’t ride no other way!” “You haven’t got any money?” Once more the jockey favored him with a cunning glance. “Stony broke!” he replied cheerfully. “But—you were eating dinner in a restaurant, the last time I saw you!” “I spent my last cent fer it, though!” said the other. “J on’y had a few pieces o’ change in me kick then. I ex- pected to meet a frien’ an’ make a touch. But I didn’t!” “How did you happen to run so low in funds?” asked Barlow interestedly. “Well, I’ll tell yuh, bo, just how it was.” He sat down beside the other on the pile of bedding. “I’m a jockey, as I told yuh. Jones is the name, Biff is the handle to it that me frien’s grips—if I’ve got one to call me own. “Twelve year I been up, ridin’ as many winnin’ mounts as the next, if I do toot me own horn to let yuh know what’s in front of yuh. Well, see, I go to the Saratoga track this season. I just come from there, by the way— and I’m part of the stable of a hick that’d oughter be ' woikin’ the second stories or an out-an’-out stick-up route.” Barlow checked him, bewildered. CHAPTER VI. WHITHER BOUND? “What's all that jumbled-up mess of words?” Barlow de- manded. “It’s Greek to me. Explain.” “Woikin’ the second stories is ordinary plain English fer common boiglary; a stick-up route can’t mean nothin’ but the dark alleys where folks is waylaid at the point of a cannon an’ frisked fer their change, can it?” he an- swered impatiently. “I was tryin’ to tell yuh that me boss this season is a crook. Are yuh wise now?” “Go on.” “This here boss o’ mine, then, he comes to me no longer ago that yestiddy. ‘Biff,’ he says, ‘git yer instruc- tions fer the handicap t’-morrer,’ he says. ‘It’s this,’ he says, ‘you'll ride Black Joe, who’s the heavy favorite; an’ you'll throw the race so’s Alsace’ll win.’ “It’s the first time I’m ever asked to play crook, yes- tiddy, mind. I don’t want to double cross the bettin’ pub- lic. But I’m up against it. If I refuse the boss’ orders, I'll be fired. An’ I can’t git another mount, fer that same boss o’ mine’ll spread the reports around that I’m a bum in some way, queerin’ me ferever. “T agree to pull the race. But [ makes up my mind that it’ll be the last ride that I’ll ever take. [ll be in on this killin’ an’ fix myself right so’s | won’t never need to woik no more. “Takin’ the sock outer ¢old storage, | put up every kopec, every last sou markee I’d saved, on Alsace. The odds was twelve to one; I stand to win a little forchune, or lose ail I own. “Well, I ain’t tellin’ you no racin’ yarn as a serial story, Luke. I’ll skip: details, an’ let yuh know right off that Black Joe runs.away with me, beats it down the track faster than I can pull him back, an’—trims Alsace by two lengths. Whereupon I go broke. Curtain!” “By golly, that’s tough!” Barlow broke out warmly. “Hard as nails,” the jockey nodded. The other thought over his story. ; “Where are you going now?” he asked, adding: “Trying to go, I mean, in this car?” “I’m bound fer the Vailsburg track.” “But you can’t go there.” “Why not?” “Because this car isn’t headed that way.” “Tt ain’t?” “No.” He bent closer. “Where is it bound fer?” he asked eagerly. “Out West—Minnesota.” His lips set. “Vil stick,” he said matter-of-factly. ‘Maybe the owner of these horses’ll let me ride ’em.” “For pleasure?” “Business.” “But,” Barlow pointed out, “your business is that of a jockey. You can’t ride horses unless——” “Unless they’re racers?” he put in. “Well, these horses are race-track nags. Didn’t you know it?” “Not till now.” The jockey stared at him, frowning. “That’s funny!” he said. “This is the job,” Barlow explained, “that I told you I was going to take to-night.” The other set his lips. “Well, let me ride along with you, Pete, will yuh?” he asked. “Maybe when yuh get to de end o’ yer run yuh can put in a good woid fer me wid de feller ye’re deliverin’ them horses to.” Barlow scratched his chin. “You'll be stealing a ride,” he said slowly. “But it can’t cost the railroad company anything.” f NEW TIP TOP WEEKLY. He was thinking what a break in the monotony of his long journey the companionship of this quaitit fellow would make. “All right,” he decided, “Gee!” said the jockey. He turned around. “There's room enough fer the two of us on this here pile 0’ beddin’, ain’t there?” he asked. “Wel, since we both put in such a restless night so far, 1 move dat we hit de hay now. What?” “A good idea.” ‘Just before they fell asleep: “Biff,” called Barlow, sitting up, Did you knock it off the hook?” “ “Yep; I fumbled fer it while you was in dreamland,” he anriounced drowsily. “I was tryin’ to git it down offen “ae wall to git a close look at yer face. It slipped.” (“All right,” the other yawned. “Good night!” “Sweet dreams!” said the jockey And, if they weren’t sweet, they were sound for Bar- low, at least, till morning. s” you can stay. “Thanks!” ‘ “about that lantern? ~ When he woke it was to find his eyes fixed on the partly _ opened door of the car, which must have been unfastened from the inside by “Biff” Jones, since Barlow was alone. ‘The freight had stopped; wondering where his companion had gone, the young man got to his feet and walked over to the door. ‘Looking out, he saw a small way station right before him. Just then a door opened at one side of the build- "ing. And the missing jockey stepped forth—from the telegraph office. ‘What had he been doing there? Telegraphing for money? It was impossible, for he claimed to be without cent, and, being unknown to the operator, could not send wre collect. Barlow stepped back behind the door as he heard the ‘other’s footfalls drawing near. Then the latter sprang up ‘onto the floor of the car, his arms filled with bundles. “Just been out rustlin’ food!” He nodded at Barlow. “You bought it?” Barlow asked coldly. “Didn't I tell you I was flat?” The jockey shook his lead, “These here things is hand-outs—I boned ’em off ee roy seen ae bey ond nae station a ways. | Sot I saw you come out That Say? he said.“ fifteen seconds ago!” f the telegraph office, not The bundles slipped out of his grip. One by one they attered to the floor, while the jockey eyéd the other with htening color, and said never a word for a good full CHAPTER VIL. THE COLOR OF MONEY. ll, yuh wasn’t mistaken,” said Biff. “Who you saw out o” that etter bee was me?’ -and shoved them out of sight in his pocket. “T was going to mention about that telegraph offi,” said Biff, “a little later on.’ “T asked you point-blank whether you had ‘been any — place,’ Barlow shook his head. “Why didn’t you tell me ~ then ?” "i “Tt was a slip o’ the tongue when I told yuh ‘no’ when you asked me dat, on de level!” He made the assertion with smiling assurance of the other’s belief. “Besides that, I on’y just simply kind o’ merely passed through dat West- — ern Union dump, y’know.” 3arlow snorted. “Passed through it?” he said. “It was a roundabout — route you took to walk through the station to get back here to the car. Do you mean to tell me you didn’t go into the place for a purpose?” “Sure I did!” “Well, what was it?” “TI wanted to send a message.” “Without any money? How could you?” Biff chuckled. ; “The foist birthday present 1 ever got wuz from me — mother,” he said. “The gift of gab. Understand? Later — on I got another gift on one o’ me birthdays. A solid gold stick pin. By handin’ out as*choice a bunch o’ talk as ever you heard, to the operator back there, | got him to stake me to a ten-woid message to that friend I missed seein’ in N’ York, who’s got money. An’ the stick pin Te give to de cloik as security. D’ye git me drift?” Barlow wondered whether the fellow was lying. Anyway, he was hungry, and the sight of the bundles the jockey had dropped reminded him that he hadn't eaten 7 since noon of the day before. “Pick up your packages,” he said, “and let's see what kind of a forager you are—what you've got.” 3iff gathered together the bundles, and began untying them. Cold chicken, bread, some butter, a whole pie, and — a bottle of still warm coffee was revealed. Sitting down on the floor, with their feet hanging over the edge at the open door, the two munched away for ten minutes or so. Together they rose, brushing away the crumbs. As Biff stepped back inside the car, au old nail in the wood beside him caught the opening of one of his trousers pockets, fastening itself in the lining. He pulled back abruptly, and the nail drew the pocket inside out. Whereupon there dropped on the floor at Barlow’s féét "4 a flat roll of bills! paren Swiftly stooping, the jockey recovered the greenbacks, | Bat not be- fore Barlow had seen the size of the wad of money. “T suppose the clerk at the telegraph station gave you. that for your stick pin to boot?” he said sarcastically. - “Besides trusting you for a message to your friend for more money ?” The other had disentangled his clothing from the ‘aad and turned to face Barlow. ast “What're yuh talkin’; about?” he asked blandly. “Them green. cigar-store certif’ cates I just dropped? I don’t know what I keep carryin’ ’em around in my pocket fer, iu swear I don’t. I’m rere meanin’ to throw ‘em away.” ; But, just the same, he made no ener rr to do so! - Now, what was the frieanitty of es fellow’s ae be- eer nee suddenly wondered. oe hi , 24 NEW TIP lied, if not twice, and maybe more times; at least he had deceived the other once. Barlow had eyes in his head, and he knew the color and appearance of money when he saw it. But why, if the jockey was well fixed for funds, was he riding on a freight train? Why had he told a story of misfortune, and been so eager to stay in this car, where he had hidden himself. away at the start? He could have traveled to Stillwater in state, if his only object was ‘in getting to that out-of-the-way place. It couldn’t be that he wanted the experience of living like a tramp, could it? That was nonsense, as a look at the fel- low’s rather hardened, if jovial, face revealed him for one who already knew about all there was of the rougher side of life. If the little sawed-off meant any harm to him, or to the horses in his charge—— But, Barlow thought, what could he do to either? Not while he was watched. And that was just what the latter made up his mind to do for the space of time it would take them to get to the next stop toward which the train had already got under way—keep his eyes on his companion. Then, when they came to the next way station, he would rid himself of the liar once and for all. So for the present he said simply: “I’ve got to feed and water the horses,” and turned away. “Lemme help yuh!” offered the other. “No, thanks !” Biff looked at him, and shrugged. “All right, Bill!” he said. “Then, i guess T’ll just lay down here an’ take a little snooze in the sun.” Pulling the door shut to within a foot, he reclined at full length on the floor, his body stretched out in a bar of sunlight before the narrow aperture, like some faithful guardian of the portal against a passage either in or out of the car. Closing his eyes, in a minute he seemed to be asleep. CHAPTER VIII. AN EDGE OF WHITE. Barlow went about his ministrations to the steeds. A look at them by daylight revealed their identity as racers, sure enough. And another question which he could not answer rose in his mind. ; Why, since there was no race track in his home town, were the horses being shipped to Stillwater? For what purpose could Smith, the man who had hired him as their caretaker, be sending the animals so far away? Coming out into the space that was reserved fer his occupancy at the rear of the car, he walked over to the pile of stuff on which he had slept the night’ before. And here he made a discovery. Part of the heap was composed of cast-off clothing. Man’s clothing. Picking up a coat, a vest or two, and an old pair of trousers, to satisfy his curiosity as to the owner’s identity, he went through the pockets. Nothing but a corncob pipe, very much smoked, and several loose matches, rewarded his investigation. Then his eye fell on a coat which hung on the hook beside the dead lantern. Into ‘one pocket of this newer garment, not bad looking at all, he thrust his hand. And at once he drew out some- thing of interest. It was an old envelope—old, that is, TOP WEEKLY as to frayed edges and soils; but the date stamp upon it was Only three days past due. He read the superscription: “B. J. Williamson, Care- taker Box Car of Horses, Saratoga Springs) N. Y.” The envelope in a pocket of the coat in this car must have belonged to the man who had filled Barlow’s job as watchman before him. He wondered why his predecessor had left. Turning the garment around on the hook, he searched the pocket on the other side. Four dollars and sixty-five cents in loose change and bills! What an odd thing for a man to leave behind him. When the fellow in whose shoes Barlow figuratively stood had been discharged, or quit of his own accord, thus leav- ing the vacancy he now filled, was it possible that he could have gone off in such a huff that he had left a perfectly good coat, with money in the pocket, behind? Peeping from an upper breast pocket of the garment in question, he now saw an edge of white. Pulling it out, he found it to be a letter, only half finished, which was writ- ten on cheap, blue-lined paper, in a most erratic hand. Robbed of its blots, the screed read: “Deer Katy: I take my pen in hand to answer yrs. of August twenty znd. whitch came too hand while i was in Saratogga in reply wud say am glad you and childern stay so wel and i am the same. “i am riteing this on car as it stands on tracks in jersie City yds. we pul out for Valesburg in a litel wile. Wen i git ther i wil rite. “Somebuddy has just nocked on the door an caling me. i think it must be the boss. He sed he wud be around at It is now quarter two. wil continue wen i git back. , Sevin. he’s nocking agen Here the letter ended. With it in his hand, Barlow stared straight into space. This was why the caretaker whose place he occupied had departed, leaving behind his money. He hadn’t been dis- charged, nor had he thrown up his job. Lured by that “knocking on the door,” he had met with foul play! As though to put the seal of authenticity to this sus- picion, just then Barlow saw something embedded in the side of the car over his head. Reaching up, he picked away at it till there dropped out in his palm—~a bullet. He wheeled around. And his eyes fell on the slumber- ing—or feignedly sleeping—form of Biff Jones. A dark thought entered Barlow’s mind on the instant. The jockey had told him that he came into the car before he—Barlow—entered it. Knowing that there was a watch- man on duty inside, and wanting to board the car for some desperate purpose as yet unfathomed, maybe he had done the knocking to draw the caretaker out where he could put him out of the way. On tiptoe, Barlow crossed to the prostrate form on the floor. He watched the figure at his feet intently for sev- eral moments. Then, stooping, he turned back the flap of his coat. If the jockey was only pretending to be asleep, he could not open his eyes for fear that his companion in ‘the car would be looking at him at the particular second and catch himsin the deception. Trusting to this, and the increased shake and rattle of the train as it slowed down, Barlow carefully explored ; . du ing car One alo ing very feet _tum ‘cree post boat that a ro coul: Th each descr heart NEW TIP TOP WEEKLY. . the little fellow’s hip pocket. His fingers encountered a bulge. Deftly he drew out a revolver. A thirty-two. The bullet he had found lightly stuck into the car side was of the same caliber. And there was just one empty cartridge in the chamber of the jockey’s - weapon! TO BE CONTINUED. THE DAY OF PERIL. By THEODORE D. CG. MILLER A few years ago—I do not remember the exact num- ber—it was my good fortune to be wandering in the cold latitude of Norway, enjoying the many pleasant days and beautiful landscapes of that far clime. I was journeying for my health, and, therefore, had much spare time, which a business life would have wholly engrossed. I spent the days in hunting and fishing, visiting the most bewitching scenery imaginable, and viewing the sweet pictures of nature and art most ravishingly displayed. Those who have never visited the sunny dells and ro- mantic mountains of Norway, can get but a faint concep- tion of its arctic splendor; but the supreme loveliness one beholds’on treading those classic shores, time can never efface. The lofty and smiling hills delight the trav- eler’s heart, and the silvery “fjords,” or “fiords,” or small inlets, w hich abound along the rocky coasts of Swe- den and Norway, and noted for their wild and indescribable magnificence. They are often hemmed in by huge moun- ~tainous rocks, which are wild and rugged in their upward flight, often reaching from one to five hundred feet in height. The water is usually as clear as crystal; but when the storm demon, in maddened fury, bursts forth, and the é howling tempest usurps its dangerous sway, the foaming ; waves are fiercely rushed against the frowning precipice, and madly seethe and trail in their fiery caldron. Then is the power of the Almighty vividly displayed. One beautiful spring morning I wished to ascend the Bakke fiord, to meet a companion who was to accompany me upon a hunting excursion into the interior. My prep- - They must first have a lunch; so the “flad-brod” was pro- duced, and into it they went, like so many half-starved men. Their appetite was soon appeased, and, after wash- ing it down with a white fluid which the natives always andi we proceeded on our journey. The boat was a good one, and the men being stout and muscular, we passed Bons with great rapidity. The landscape, as we shot along, was wild and frown- ig; but there seemed to be something romantic in its ery awfulness. The rugged rocks, towering hundreds of - posure I was in, and the nearness of eternity. But the boatmen laughed at my melancholy words, and declared d not be now. “his somewhat allayed my fears; but, I confess, that | time I gazed upon those dreary heights, the same in- Hours passed away; a light breeze sprang up, whee: seemed to grow more fierce as time continued. The — hitherto clear, smooth water began to hiss and foam, the solitary rocks began to have a more dark and frowning aspect, and everything seemed to indicate the near ap- proach of the fierce storm king. I noticed my compan- ions; they had stopped their merry conversation, and seemed uneasy, often sadly gazing toward the northeast. “Think you there is any danger of a coming tempest?” I asked of the nearest youth, for whom I had formed e strong attachment. “If yon black cloud speaketh the truth, friend; but Einar Legree knoweth not what the result may be.” I gazed in the direction indicated, and saw a cloud more dark, dense, and fierce than any I had ever before witnessed. It seemed to be traveling with lightning ve- locity, and-each moment it grew more dense and terrible. I was almost paralyzed with fear, and could not take my gaze from off that wonderfully moving panorama of nature. around seemed as black as midnight. The very elements seemed to be in a terrible conflict, and the howling tempest _ began to dash the waves furiously about. Consternation — was depicted upon the countenance of each of my com- panions. “It is coming! What shall we do?” said one of the © boatmen, falling upon his knees. There is nothing that the natives of Norway fear as they do the howling tempests that dash in maddening fury from off the sea; and as that black cloud approached our frail bark, the native’s firmness forsook him, and, perfectly paralyzed with fear, he had no thoughts of escape from destruction. x “Fie, Kund; you are less a man than I supposed, to show such weakness! Come, display some courage; stand firm at your post, and everything will pass off well!” said my young friend imploringly. At length his companion arose, and took his place at — the oars; but his merry mood had completely vanished, and bitter melancholy had left her marks upon his manly brow. What a sudden and wonderful change! A few moments passed, and the storm burst forth with great violence, the thunder rolled, lightning flashed in zig- zag course through the sky; trees were torn up by the roots, and the rocks fell from the frowning cliff in great numbers and with terrible swiftness. The air was oppres- sive, and we could scarcely breathe. \ “Something must be done,” said I to my companion; “we | cannot endure these perils much longer, for, see, the fiord is rising, the rocks fall thicker and faster, and we shall surely be engulfed in the furious waves.’ “Nonsense! We'll find some cave in the rocks into — which we will climb,” said the youth; “thou must continue - patient, all will end for the best.” “Heaven knows I hope so!” was my reply, in no very hopeful mood, however. ea We had gone a mile, perhaps, when the boat, under the youth’s guidance, shot up to the shore, and in an instant — was securely fastened. ah ae “There is a small cave about twenty feet above us,” said — Einar. “We must climb to it, for it is a safe place, and will keep us from the furies of the tempest.” I gazed upward, and over one of the most rugged and dangerous-looking rocks I had yet seen was a dark hole, F which I knew must be the mouth of the cave. On it came, swifter and faster, until everything — NEW “How shall I get up there? I have neyer climbed so high!” said I, in amazement, “I. should positively fall from the giddy height, and dash my brains out upon the rocks below.” “Easy enough, I reckon,” said Einar; and before I was aware of his intentions, he had me upon his back, in much the same position as men ride upon horses, and began cutting clefts in the solid rock with his jackknife. “Pad work, boy!” said one of his companions; “’tis a dangerous path, and you cannot well carry double.” But, although I added my desire with that of his com- panion, to be put down, he took no heed, and continued his course. Cleft after cleft was cut, wedge after wedge driven in, and up we went, the youth having a strong de- termination to succeed in his perilous undertaking. He would grow weary, take a moment’s rest, then continue his arduous toil. His companions had reached the cave, and were anxiously waiting for him to get near, that they might render some assistance. Brayely he toiled, slowly he ascended; and just one hour from the moment he had conceived the mad project, we stood at the. mouth of the cave. We were then out of danger, and every heart was thankful and light. We could see the perilous path we had ascended, and our blood ran cold as we thought of the many dangers that surrounded us. But they were safely passed, and we were joyful again. The storm increased in violence, and the rocks continued to tumble into the foaming waves below with terrible swiftness. The natives were astonished; they had never seen such a storm before, and seemed to have more fear than I possessed, especially after reason convinced me that we were safe. At last the tempest passed away; but it was many hours before the fiery nature of the waves was subdued, so that the boatmen thought it safe to continue on our journey. We reached our boat in the same way that we had as- cended the rock. The water was clear and beautiful, and there were no indications perceptible of the fierce tempest that had lashed its waves into fiery madness. I’ safely reached Kongsberg at the day’s decline, and found my friend in ‘a tumult of anxiety for my safety. I did not wonder at his fear; for as I thought of the past it seemed almost like a dream. A HINT FOR TRAVELERS. It is impossible for many people to realize that there is anything which they do not affect, and that their conse- quence in any case is not the thing which decides the course of events. One of these persons, an elderly and rather stout lady; was not long since riding in a train. Phe old lady was nerveus about a certain bridge, a yery high one, of which she had seen pictures, and which she had made up her mind was not fully to be trusted. She kept inquiring when the train would come to it, until it was a wonder that the patience of her fellow pas- sengers held out. At last she was told that the bridge in question was at hand. “Well,” the old lady said, with pathos, “I don’t know whether we shall get over aliye or not, but if we don’t it shall not be my fault,” She settled into the corner of her seat with a determined ait, and a closely puckered up mouth, which were only less droll than the general air of responsibility which hes eee WEEKLY. brooded over her. During the passage of the bridge she could not be persuaded to say a word, but seemed to, be holding her breath. “There,” the gentleman opposite to her said, “we are over it safely.” The old lady heaved an explosive sigh. “Well,” she said, “if we had gone to the bottom I should have died with a clear conscience, for it wouldn't have been my weight that did it. -I bore up so that I know I just really made the train lighter than it would have been without me.” FACTS ABOUT DROWNING. The current and popular belief that a drowning per- son necessarily rises and sinks three times before life be- comes extinct is quite groundless. - The specific gravity of the human body is so near that of water, that’a com- paratively slight effort will suffice to bring a sinking per- son to the surface again. In a case of drowning, the individual first sinks to a certain depth, and then ascends to the surface of the water, where, if not a good swimmer, he struggles to clear his lungs and mouth and obtain fresh air. A& water is generally taken in with the in- spired air, he sinks for a short distance, and then by his exertions again succeeds in reaching the surface. These struggles are repeated until the lungs and stomach are filled with water, with the result that the general specific gravity of the body is increased, and the body sinks to the bottom. The duration of this contest for life varies according to the sex, age, strength, and general condi- tion of the individual. The drowning person who stc- cumbs to cramp or exhaustion sinks at once. PRIMITIVE HORSES. In the Desert of Dzungaria, south of Siberia, in small a> ’ herds, roam horses which apparently represent the primi- tive stack of the domestic horse. : The wild horses live in herds of from five to fifteen individuals, under the direction of an old stallion. They are very suspicious, and rarely allow themselves to be ap- proached within gunshot. Being extremely swift, they easily escape the best-mounted hunters. The remains of one which, after many fruitless pur- suits, Prejevalski succeeded in capturing, are now in’ the museum of the Academy of Sciences at St. Peters- burg. The mane is short and straight, and the moderately long tail is terminated by a tuft of long hair. This horse has warts on the hind legs as well as on the fore legs, a peculiarity of the horse, distinguishing it from other species of the genus, which have warts only on the fore legs, The hoofs are like thase of the horse, and not com- pressed as in the other species; and, unlike the other species, the lower parts of the leg are furnished with long hair falling to the crown of the hoof. The external appearance of the animal is very like that of a small horse or pony. There are, among the representations of equide of the quatenary epoch, engraved by primitive men on fein- deer horn and ivory, some yery clearly representing a horse with a bushy tail and short ears, like those of the Prejevalski horse. tl tl fit 1 Fs her ith ‘nal nall the ein- g a the aitpiaitais ews Fro Finds the New Series Refreshing. While I have read the Merriwell. stories in Tip Tor for many years, and have grown to feel as if the Merriwells and many of the other characters told about in them are real friends of mine, still I am greatly enjoying the change to another set of characters. I find that the change is very refreshing, and the stories are certainly mighty interesting. I do not think that I would go as far as to say, however, that I would not want to hear of the Merriwells again. Martin WELLS. Binghamton, N. Y. . It is pleasant to hear that you like the change, Martin, and we want the readers to give us their honest opinion of the stories, just as you have done. Atout the Manly ‘Act of Selfedefedse. Proressor FourMEN: Will you please tell me what you think about boxing as an exercise? I will be very much obliged to you if you can give me this information, as there is much difference of opinion in our section about it. Richmond, Va. GrorGE WILLING. Boxing is a fine exercise, George, and besides being a fine exercise for the body it is a fine exercise for the mind, and a great teacher of self-control. It is, perhaps, the best exercise to teach self-control, for once let a boxer lose his head, his adversary has him at his mercy. There can be no question about the advantages of being able to box well. Apart from its usefulness when called upon to defend yourself, the manly art of boxing, if properly practiced, will bring the muscles into play, and in a short time transform a weak man into a muscular specimen of his race. A course of boxing lessons will bring grace, elasticity of movement, and, best of all, will make a man sturdy, good-tempered, and healthy. As*to Things of Interest that Happen to You. I am very much pleased to learn that once more you find that you are able to publish letters from the readers in the New Tip Top Weexty. In this way I am sure lots of us will get much entertainment and information from you and from other readers. Now, what I want to ask you is this: Would you print interesting incidents that happen to your readers if they send them in to you in the form of letters? I had a very interesting thing happen to me not very long ago, and I feel sure that many of the other readers of Tip Top would like to hear about it. G. M. Scranton, Pa. Send it along, G. M., and we will be, pleased indeed to print it. We would also like to tell the other readers that we would like them to send in accounts,of anything of interest, from a strange dream to a baseball game, that may have happened to them. Fact is stranger than fiction, you know, boys, and lots of you must have a lot of mighty interesting adventures. It doesn’t have to be thrilling to be interesting, either. A simple account of how you like best to amuse yourself would be mighty interesting, I am sure. How strange and entertaining would be the account of a Canadian boy’s winter pastimes to a boy living in Florida, a place where snow is never seen. You Are in the Bantam Ciass. ProFessor FourMEN: I weigh one hundred and ten pounds. In what class would I come under in a boxing contest? Also, would you be kind enough to tell me what the weights are for the different classes? Thanking you for any trouble you may take in this matter, I am, Wilmington, Del. A ConsTANT READER. You are in the bantam class. lows: Men of 116 pounds and under are called bantam- weights; men of 126 pounds and under are called feather- weights; men of 140 pounds and under are called light- weights; men of 158 pounds and under are called middle- weights. A man over 158 pounds is called a heavyweight; but in any division all the lighter weights are eligible. Thus, a man of any weight can compete for the heavies; a featherweight, or a lightweight, may go in for the mid- dles, and so on. - The classes aré as fol- War Relics Found Buried. A large number of relics of the Revolutionary War have been discovered in Philadelphia in a secret vault on the site of the residence occupied by the provost marshal ” during the occupation of that city by the British under Lord Howe. Workmen laying a water pipe for an apart- ment house uncovered the vault in the rear of the old house, and were surprised to find a large quantity of swords, muskets, and other military paraphernalia” There were also several British and Hessian uniforms in the vault. bee Great Success of Auto-plow Invention. “Breaking” snow roads in Maine at the rate of fifteen miles an hour is the feat that has been accomplished by William Sibald, of Skowhegan, this winter with his auto- plow invention. Sibald made a snow plow and fastened it to the front of an old automobile. After he had broken roads through 28 NEW the town, followig two showstorms of a foot each, the machine became in great demand, and it has been used of1 sidewalks and in doorpards as well as on the high- ways. the snow for purchase power. the beak of the plow, bent upward, prevents the plow from beitig injured by any obstacles in the roads. Large chains on the tires keep the wheels on A flat piece of steel on Doherty to Re-enter Game, H. L. Doherty has almost decided to reénter the. ranks of tennis contenders. Not since 1907 has he been seén if af international contest. Nevertheless, the L. Doherty, together with that of his brother, R. F., will be remembered by tennis players of all continents. As a trué spottsman, as well as an expert of rare ability, H. L. name of H, won an undying feputation. Doherty has written several matiuals on tennis, which até considered the best compositions of theit kind if existence. How well the Doherty brothers’ theory of the game worked otit was showti huridréds of times in their international matches aS well as play at home on the Eng- lish courts. H. L. Doherty’s greatest feat was to defeat Bill Larned when the latter was at the top of the gatne 3,332,200 Came in Ships. A total of 1,332,200 passengers arrived in the port of New York from foreign countries during the year ended December 31, 1013, accotding to the official figures just completed by William C. Moore, the landing agent at Ellis Island. Of this number, 952,834 catne in the steerage and were distributed all over the United States. In addition to these steerage passengers the steamships of twetity-six passenger lines brought 148,956 first cabin and 230,410 second-cabin passengers. The North Ger- man Lloyd Company leads again in the number of pas- sengers cafrried, and also in the ntitmber of sailings—126, as against 106 sails of its nearest competitor. This means that the company cartied 20 per cent of the first-cabin traffic, 15.66 per cent of the second class, and 20.08 per cent of all the steerage traffic into the port of New York. County Must Fight Snakes. Rattlesnakes infesting a county where ftoad work is being ddne constitute an “industrial hazard,” and a work- man bitten by a snake is entitled to compensation from the State Industrial Insurance fund, according to a rul- ing contained in the report of the Washington State In- dustrial Insurance Commission. The commission granted a claim for injury benefit. Cancer Increasing. While there can therefore be’no doubt as to the actual increase in the death rate from cancer, the interpretation of this phenomenon is not quite clear. While some au- thors believe it a real increase, others believe it to be only apparent, due to improvements in diagnosis and to better registration. It is pointed out by some authors—especially by Bash- ford—that the increase in the death rate is found mainly in internal cancers which are difficult to diagnose. The increase cohcerns to a great extent cancer in the alimen- tary tract. This increase is found especially in persons more than 60 years of age Now in children cancer not rarely attacks internal organs, and still no noteworthy increase is reported in those cases. Furthermore, errors iP’ OTOP WEEKLY: in diagnosis would equally prevent physicians from diag- nosing as cancer cases Which are not cancer as well as from attributing to other causes deaths really due to cancer. Furthérmore the same increase has been noted in the well-conducted autopsies in the Charite Hospital, in Ber- lin, where the diagnostic methods have not to any con- siderable extent changed within the last thirty-five years, According to Professor Orth, in autopsies on persons over 20 yeats of age cancer was found from 1875 to 1885 in 4 per cent, in 1904 in 10.7, in 1909 in 19, in 1911 in 208 of all the cases. It is, therefore, probable that a certain factor which is potent in the production of cancer has been gradually changed within the last fifty years, causing a general increase in the cancer rate, while at the same time there has been a marked decrease in the death rate from tubetculosig in the corresponding period.-Doctor Leo Loeb, in The Popular Science Monthly. Fut Instead of Feathers. Elliot Herbine, a poultry fancier, has a freak hen, which is covered with a growth of fine fur about five inches lotig, in lieu of feathers. In all other respects the hen is of the Rhode Island species. Herbine will endeavor to breed hens with fur. The hen, when exhibited at 4 poul- try show at Boyertown, Pa., recently, attracted consider- j y y able attention. Does Not Believe in Shoes and Stockings. George Pence, 60 years old, believes it is healthful to go barefooted even in cold weather, and he demonstrates that he is really in earnest by going about without stock- ‘ings or shoes, despite the fact that it is quite cold, Pence, a Ohio farmer, lives in Concord Township. A Striking Example. It is generally agreed that the State of Pennsylvania will be a big loser and the National Baseball League a great gainer when John Kinley Tener, who now presides over the destinies of the Keystone State, devotes his time to baseball. Those who with tongue and pen have proclaimed that the great national game makes better citizenship can point to a striking examaple in the man who recently was selected president of the oldest major league. Tener made good as a ball player. Then he made good Next he made good in politics, which is harder than playing third base on a trough diamond with the’ opposing team hitting at a .300 clip. Now he has been selected to handle executively all the teams in the National League. Will he again make good? His friends answer by declaring that the National Leagtte under his experienced eye is in for the most prosperous period of its career. Tener is expected to be the savior of the league. Not that there was any imminent danger of this body being disrupted, but baseball is a scrappy, aggressive game. It has scrappy, aggfessive managers (with apologies to one Jawn McGraw). And when an aggregation of this kind gets together to agree on some one who will be their boss the session invariably is a stormy one. And that was the situation when the National League magnates got together at its last meeting. Then Tener’s name was flashed before the pugnacious magnates. Immediately there. was a cessation of dissen- as a business man, aaa ain ole d hi eir rot DUS en- NEW TIP TOP. WEEKLY. 29 sioh. Tener was governor of the great State of Penn- sylvania. Would he accept the presidency of the léague? When he finally declared that he would the magnates’ meeting became a love feast rather than a bear garden. To show their appreciation of his acceptance they elected him for a term of four years at an annual salary of $25,000. A Canine Partner. A dog that does real work about a store, is able to say “Mamma,” walks a rope, performs many other tricks, and has a bank account is the property of C. C. Corey, of Mutual, Okla. Cute is the dog’s name. Cokey is proprietor of a candy store, and Cute is with him there all day. The dog keeps the floor clean by carrying out paper and other rubbish, and sees to it that the door is always closed, Cute has $13.50 in. the bank, hav- ing collected the money by carrying a basket around after ’ performing tricks. Nutsed Injured Bird Back to Strength. President Woodrow Wilson stood on the veranda of his cottage at sunset, at Pass Christian, Miss., and, at the request of a little -brown-haired schoolgirl, released a white dove whose broken wing she had nursed back to strength. The bird fluttered for a moment, thén paused on a heavy-limbed oak, as if preparing for a long flight, and soon was lost in the evening shadows. The incident was a sequel to the president’s motor ride through Gulfport. School children lined both sides of the main street singing “America,” and people came flock- ing from stores and shops as the president’s car slowed down. A child of twelve handed the president a box and a letter which she asked him not to open until he reached home. When the president arrived, he read the following : “Dear Mr. Presipent: You will find in this box a real, live dove. It flew in the door and btoké its wing several months ago. We have cated for it, and, now that it is well, my mamma says we must give it freedom. If you will do me the honor to open its prison and let it fly away to find companions of its kind, I shall be very grate- ful. Lovingly, W. G. “P. S$.—Just a little Tennessee gifl enjoying the beauti- ful Southland.” The president asked Representative Harrison, who was riding with him, to find out the little girl’s name, as he wanted to write that he had complied with her wish. After diligent inquiry the congressman learned that the little girl was Willa Green. She had modestly signed her initials, because, as she afterward said, she did “not want anybody to know anything about it.” Colorado’s Convicts to Play Baseball and Football. The Colorado State Penitentiary, at Canon City, is to have a great amphitheater. Warden Thomas J. Tynan ordered the purchase of the fair ground buildings near the city, and will use the lumber for the stadium, which will be constructed inside the walls of the penitentiary. There will be a grand stand for spectators, principally among whom, of course, will be the convicts. Warden Tynan said that he believed Colorado to be the first State to authorize such a building for the enter- tainment of its felons. He expects the amphitheater to a be completeth by spring. There is abundant room within the prison walls for all outdoor spotts, including base- ball and football. West is Best for Lawyers. The fees of a lawyer during his first year of practice average ofily $664; his earnings after two years amount to an average of $5,000, accordifg to a compilation of the incomes of recent graduates of the Harvard Law School, annouhced by Richard Ames, secretary of the school. Earnings of young lawyers west of the Mississippi were found to be cofisiderably greater than those of graduatés locating in the East. Average earnings of these graduates in New England were found to be less than in any other section. Olympic Fund Failute. The Duke of Westminster’s appeal for $500,000 for the Olympic games fund has falien flat. Less than $50,- 000 has been subscribed up to date, and the rate at which the subs¢riptions are coming in is steadily slackening. The fund committee announced that unless. $125,000 was subscribed by the end of the year the scheme will be abandoned. Liéutenant Blair, secretary of the committee, said : se “A serious condition has already arisen as regards our trainers on account Of this lack of money. The best of them have beén approachéd by foreign nations with definite offers for their servicés, and therefore they will not only be lost to us, but employed in training our rivals unless the public makes a speedy decision. “The sum of fifty thousand dollars is practically use- less. The organizations which we must assist cannot be helped by such a stim. Whén they ask five thousand dollars a year for four years, there would be no earthly use in offering them three hundred dollars.” England, no doubt, will be represented at the games, but there doesn’t seem to be the slightest chance of get- ting from the public anything like the sum asked for. Active attacks on the scheme have failed, not because the opposition has been overcome, but because the scheme seems to have been killed and public opinion in general has arrived at the conclusion that a true amateur team canngt be trained for four years at the public ex- pense. ' Steams Thtough Canal. The first passage of a vessel from ocean to ocean through the Panama Canal was completed with the crane boat Lavalley’s arrival at the Pacific entrance on January 6, 19%4. The trip was not made in one day, but in stages, show- ing the practicability of navigation of the canal. No passengers were carried, only Captain Harper and his crew. Colonel Goethals would not allow any others aboard. The Lavalley is 100 feet long and has 40 feet beam, with a draft of 15 feet. Invented Knock-outs. Virtually ali of the so-called “knock-outs” are on paper, prize fighting or boxing is not a “brutal sport,” Charles Eyton, referee of the Jess Willard-“Bull” Young match, in which the latter met his death, testified in the trial SNe reer SS ad EW PEP TOP Witter & of Willard and nine others on a charge of prize fighting’ be used, but I think that it is bad policy to adopt the in violation of the laws of California. Eyton testified that boxers*did not always try to knock out their opponents, and said Packy McFarland was an example of a man who seldom won by a knock-out. When the prosecution read a list of men whom Mc- Farland was reputed to have knocked out, defending coun- sel conferred with Harry Gilmore, once manager for McFarland, and then announced that Gilmore had just told him that he had invented most of McFarland’s_rec- ord of knock-outs to make it look formidable and to make the boxer a drawing card. Eyton described the fight by rounds, saying that he, as well as the spectators, considered it a farce until the eighth round, when Young became the aggressor. The blow which knocked Young out, he said, did not travel more than six inches, and came as a surprise to the spec- rule of sacrificing every time the first man up in an inning gets to first base.” Boys’ Fun Ends in Smash, Leon Zaccaro, who is fifteen and lives at No. 3194 Villa Avenue, the Bronx, New York, gathered four of his com- panions one afternoon and the five borrowed without ask- ing a buggy from a shed near their homes, The buggy was horseless, but Leon suggested that the hill on Park view Place would furnish the motive power, so the boys dragged the buggy to the top of_the hill, got into it, and started on a snowless coasting trip. / The hill is about three blocks long, and the buggy, going fast, collided at the bottom with a Webster Avenue trolley car in which was a few passengers. What was left of the buggy is not worth describing; many car windows were smashed. tators. The Marquis of Queensberry rules were intro- duced as evidence of the rules governing these contests. Doctor Collossi took Leon to Fordham Hospital. The McCarr testified that before any fight was started in boy had internal injuries and a possible fracture of the the Vernon Arena the text of a decision by Superior skull. The other lads ran away. Judge Frank R. Willis was read to the principals. This decision is the principal hope of the defense, as it holds Vice President Marshall Laughs at His Job. : that Ad Wolgast and George Memsic in their bout two Two members of the Wilson administration occupied years ago took part in a “boxing contest,” and not in a pulpits in Washington churches recently. Vice Presi- | prize fight. dent Marshall delivered a sermon in. the Metropolitan Church, and Secretary of the Navy Daniels was the speaker ; Had Two Perfect Heatts. at the Grace Methodist Episcopal Church. E When a hog, recently butchered, was dressed, it was “We do not need more laws, more battleships, and a t discovered that the animal had two hearts, both per- larger standing army,” said Vice President Marshall. a fectly formed, although one was a sort of auxiliary to the “What we need is men with backbone enough, who are I other. Although the porker was stabbed through the not too busy making money, to stand up for high ideals.” . jugular Vein, it did not die for several minutes. Mr. Marshall aroused laughter when he made this ob- i servation : b, Phillies Will Go Light in Hit Play Next Season, “T do not blame proud parents for wishing that their Although the Phillies made more sacrifice hits last sea- sons might become President of the United States. But ” son than any other club in the National League, Man- if I sought a blessing for a boy I would not pray that he ager Dooin has become convinced that such a plan can become vice president.” be overlooked. If Charlie can get one or two men speedier Discussing Christian faith Secretary Daniels said: than he had last season the chances are that he will cut “The most dangerous foe the church has ever confronted ha down on his orders to sacrifice next year. is the present indifference. I sometimes think that per- wi “The sacrifice-hit play, in my opinion, should not be haps we are in danger of thinking too broadly.” re worked very often. Here is the way I figured it out,” me Dooin says. Swallows One of His’ Teeth, bir “We get a man on first base with no one.out, The Because he swallowed a tooth, while lying in a dentists wh next man sacrifices and puts the runner on second; then. chair, Albert Kelley, of Claremont, N. H., became the , has the next man has to hit it safe. If he doesn’t you have victim of a severe case of blood poisoning and may die wasted two of your men, and it is up to the last chance as a result. of the inning. In each case after the sacrifice is made Kelley recently visited a dentist and had a bothersome ; % and the man is advanced the percentage is against the tooth removed. Another tooth also was opened and by We batsman by one chance in three. Even with two outs the automatic motion of the muscles of the mouth was ' ling left you have only two chances out of three to drive in carried down the windpipe and lodged in one of the his the run. lungs. Blood poisoning developed, and all efforts made by pe “On the other hand, with a runner on first and no one surgeons to remove it were unavailing until Kelley coughed oF. out on the run-and-hit a fast man can very often get from _ it out. M first to third on an infield out at first base. In that case tor you have advanced your man to third base instead of to Duck and Cow Friends. Mau second, and you still have only one out. There is 2 man in Winsted, Conn., who has a national fore “Should the runner get only as far as second base reputation as a writer of nature stories, but most news- pe. you are just as well off as if the batsman sacrificed. On papers keep a sign posted in their editorial rooms that foun the other hand the batsman may hit safe and you have nothing is to be printed from Winsted without affidavits, they the other: fellow in a hole with no one out. Of course blue prints, diagrams, footholds, and proper specifications. 1; Ut there is the danger of a double play being made on a State Senator Carl Wallace came into Minneapolis one oe ” line drive, but that’s one of the risks of the game. day with a story about a duck and cow, or a couple of : Be ‘i “Of course there are times when the sacrifice hit should cows, in fact, and the duck, he claimed, was wilder than Pet MEWOTIP TOP WEERLY. << 0 Se OP ay the story he narrated. But. the senator went’ the Winsted man one better in the affidavit line, and produced photo- graphs of the two cows and the wild duck, although some were unkind enough to suggest the same picture could have been produced easily with a couple of gentle cows and a wooden decoy duck. - The story told at. the time was that the duck had as a duckling formed a strange friendship for two cows, the property of D. M. Tallman, well known in the State’s financial circles, and the owner of a summer home at Will- mar, Minn. Senator Wallace declared the cows woyld wade out into a pond on the Tallman Farm, where a - duek would swim about them and keep the summer flies and bugs away. _ Then the cows, to proye their friendship, would go out in the adjacent field, rip up the turf with their horns and locate worms for the duck. And, so ran the narration of the truthful senator, the trio never separated. - The second chapter, as recited by Senator Wallace re- cently, shows the duckling grown to a big fat mallard, and still making his home with the two cows, despite the thousands of other ducks that, high in the air, have _ quacked to him to join them in their Southern migration. _ Then enters a new chapter in the guise of a big chickett hawk, with a burning ambition ta enjoy a good duck dinner, but the sagacious mallard, when pursued. too closely, runs and hides under one of the two cows, which ‘ - protects the web-footed friend while the other drives the hawk away. Senator Wallace says ‘it is all true, and produces in ¥erification a letter from “Jim Hill,” Mr. so-called because he once built a fty-foot deihiray for a boat’ out of fence planks, to prove it. The letter alleges the facts about the same as told the senator. The cows are to be taken to Mr. Tallman’s city home, and Senator Wallace says the duck is coming with them. Young Women Form Good Habits Club. A Good Habits Club, composed of young women who have taken a vow to decline the attentions of young men who swear, smoke, drink intoxicating liquors, or gamble, as organized formally in Dodge City, Kan., with forty members. A clause of the vow taken by the young women nds them not to-attend any party or social gathering to hich any young man not meeting the cluh’s requirements s been invited: Use Uhlan as Saddle Horse. ‘Uhlan, the great trotter, will be one of the first cham- ms to be used as a saddle horse. When C. K. G, Bil- igs, his owner, takes the wonderful black gelding for saonins in his rides through the New York parks he will Setting a new fashion that has aroused the ‘interests Of horsemen in many: localities. + Many great trotters have been withdrawn from the track tr driving purposes, some of the mogt famous being ude S., 2.0834, and Sunol, 2 210834. In the old days be- re the automobile fortunes were spent in buying teams trotters for friendly brushes, and retired champions 1 their way into the stables of millionaires. But oe never used as saddle horses. hlan is nine years old, and has been in training since wae four. He aM never been ric sen on the track, 1:58 to sulky, 2:00 ta wagon, 2:0314 in team with Lewis — Forrest, 1:54% with running sate and 2:0234 to sully with running mate. “Batting Eye” a Myth. People who think a batsman keeps his eye on the ball from the moment the pitcher delivers it until he connects or misses are badly mistaken, says Cobb. A man hits a baseball by instinct. He sees the ball leave the pitcher’s hand, of course, but he doesn’t keep his eye glued on it until he hits. If he did his batting average would be minus zero or thereabouts. A man hits by instinct in the game of baseball. The natural batsman is the chap who doesn’t have to worry about hitting the ball. He simply steps up and biffs away. The light hitter seldom improves, no matter what he does : is to increase his efficiency. Unique Water Vessels. Of 2,345 pitchers, which Mrs. James A. Hensley, of Knoxville, Tenn., has colleeted from different countries and climes, including 102 that came to her as 1913 Christ- mas presents, the most unique is one that automatically whistles when it has been filled to the brim. The whistle is caused by an air current, due to water pressure. It is said that this piteher makes no difference in its response, regardless of whether water, whisky, beer, or hard cider is used in filling it. .Mrs. Hensley’s collection of pitchers includes many of odd shapes and designs, but none quite equal to the whistling pitcher. Taking Dividends in Good Will, Henry Ford, president of the Ford Motor Company, of Detroit, astonished the indystrial world by the announce- : ment of his plan to share $10,000,000 of 1914 profits with — employees. There was nothing about his demeanor to in- dicate that he thought that he had done anything remark- rs able, In his low voice, the man who was a working ma- chinist himself a few years ago made it plain that he looked upon the division of $10,000,009 among 30,000 work- : ing men and women merely as a method of t taking diyi- dends in good will. “When all else has been gained or lost,” he said, “good will is the only thing left. It is the only thing that counts, © after all.” Mr. Ferd laid emphasis, however, dn the fact that he did not consider his oie sharing plan as a work of philanthropy. “The increase in pay which our employees will receive,” he said, “is neither charity nor wages. It is simply profit sharing. In a way it is a piece of efficiency engineering, too. We expect to get better work, more efficient work, as one result. And that is one reason why we decided — to make the distribution now—in estimated profits for the year to come rather than in a mere promise of in- crease at the end of the year. When you haye given a man something, you know, fhen you can talk to him. You : haye a basis to go on,” “We were anxious also to begin the eight- -hour-shift plan with twenty-four-hour operation,” continued Mr. Ford, who expects to manufacture 300,000 automobiles this year. for some time, and we have been contemplating a profi sharing plan of some kind fer a geod while, also. Log ing out of the window and seeing a good id men idle “We have wanted to get to the eight-hour shift 3? NEW TIP we felt that this was the psychological moment, and the particular plan announced was decided upon in about forty-eight hours. We are getting up to maximum pro- duction, you see, and turning out more than 1,100 machines a day.” There is no reason, Mr. manufacturing concerns should not do done, and he cannot see why his action should cause any condition of upheaval and industrial unrest in other fac- tories as has been prophesied, Of this phase of the matter Mr. Ford said: “Any one may put a similar plan into operation. There is nothing new about profit sharing. It can be done in proportion to the size of the plant by any manufacturer. When you come to look at it, what we have done is not so very big. It looks big in the aggregate, but you must remember that the division applies to more than 30,000 persons, and the individual increase will not be large. The plan applies, you see, not only to the Detroit factory, but to our factories and assembling plants all over the world; the Long Island City plant, the English plant, all of them.” When he was asked how the floor sweepers and men employed in like capacity could earn the minimum wage of $5 for each eight-hour day, which they are to receive under the new plan, Mr. Ford replied: “They are not floor sweepers long. They begin at that, perhaps, but we have a special department which teaches them in two weeks to make some particular portion of the finished machine. They thus become mechanics. In two weeks they are specialists—for us. If they do not succeed at first, we try them again in some other depart- ment, until either we find what they can do, or find that they are hopelessly inefficient. “The increase applies to all wage earners as distinguished from salaried employees. Some question has heen raised about making the minimum for women less than that for The proportionate wage in this regard will not differ from the present rate. Our present minimum for women is forty dollars a month. No girl is hired for less than that. Many are making sixty dollars and seventy dollars or more. Under the new plan women will share with men in the increase—proportionally—save that in the case of women with large families dependent upon them the minimum will be five dollars a day.” Mr. Ford paused a moment, and then, as if summing up the whole matter, said: “It’s just good will.” soon will be Ford believes; why other large as his company has men. Yacht “Defiance” to Have Mahogany “Skin.” A mahogany “skin” in two thicknesses will be used, in- stead of bronze or steel to cover the hull of the Defiance, the yacht to be built at Bath, Me., for a syndicate of New York, Philadelphia, and Boston men as a candidate for the defense of the America’s Cup. Members of the syndicate: believe the wood will give the hull a smoother finish than could be obtained from thin bronze plates exposed to the possibility of buckling away from rivets. Workmen are now finishing the mold for the hull, and early delivery of the steel for the frames has been prom- ised. United States Leads African Imports. The success that has marked the efforts of American manufacturers to establish markets for their exports in the union or South Africa, long considered to be ex- TOP WEEKLY. clusive provinces for foreign traders, completely refutes the assertion that foreign competition is driving Ameri- cans from the field of export trade, according to a state- ment made public by the department of commerce. The rapid strides of American exporters into the field of foreign trade has caused a note of warning to be sounded throughout the United Kingdom against Ameri- can aggressiveness in South Africa, the department as- serts. Statistics are cited by the department showing that for the first time in more than five years the United States in 1912 outranked all other foreign countries in the imports into South Africa. Inroads of American commerce can be successfully made in the field of export trade wherever the American manufacturers set themselves “to the task,” says the state- ment. To substantiate this assertion, it is pointed out that “in spite of the fact that there is a fortnightly steamer between Hamburg and South African ports; that there are large investments of German capital in the in- dustries of the country, and that German manufacturers send out numerous travelers in an attempt to secure a larger share of business, the United States has exceeded Germany in the trade.” Left Side is Still Right. With a view to changing the rule of the road from the left to the right, in order to make the system conform with the practice in the State of Washington, a popular vote on the question was taken at Vancouver, B. C. Twelve thou- sand people voted, and decided, by a majority of 400, to retain the present rule, which is turn out to the left. A Monumental Aqueduct. The great Catskill Aqueduct, part of New York’s new $162,000,000 water system, is now open from the Ashokan Reservoir near Kingston to the terminal station in Flat- bush, Brooklyn. A blast of dynamite goo feet underground in Harlem removed the last barrier, completing the tunnel. This was accomplished without mishap, but three laborers were killed when a platform under Ninety-third Street on which they were working was struck by an ascending bucket and collapsed. They fell fifty feet. Two hundred men have met death in the construction of the aqueduct. work on which was begun nine years ago. Three thou- sand men have been employed daily. The tube is the longest water tunnel in the world, ex- tending 111 miles, from the Ashokan Dam, at Esopus. N. Y., to Brooklyn,.and when in operation, two years hence, will supply New York with 500,000,000 gallons of water daily. The reservoir is a natural basin west of the Hudson River. It is about thirteen miles long and a mile wide. The water is gathered from Esopus Creek, which is fed by springs in the Catskill Mountains. Awe SHIP on APPROVAL without a cent deposit, prepay the freight and allow 10 DAYS FREE TRIAL. iT @NLY COSTS one Seont to learn our : ee of prices and eee offers aa hest de 1914 BRI bicycle Ne eyORY PRIGE ‘Do not buy a bicycle or a pair of Mi YP anyone at any price until you write for our large Art Catalog and ae our wonderful proposition on fixst sample bicycle going to your town. 4 RIDER AGE NTs everywhere are making big i ae A AG and S our bicycles, Wve Soll cheaper than any other factory. “ TIRES, Coaster-Brake rear wheels, lamps, repairs and all sundries at Aalf usual prices, Do Not Wait; write coday for our special offer. MEAD CYCLE CO. Dept.F345 GHICAGO a oa tina «Siena linen canst ate Mndi, tnaili i hi pI aS ae a Sade at Ce ee . | SOME OF THE BACK NUMBERS OF W TIP TOP WEEKLY BE SUPPLIED 07—Dick Merriwell’s Gambol. 08—Dick Merriwell’s Gun. 09—Dick Merriwell at His Best. 0—Dick Merriwell’s Master Mind. 1—Dick Merriwell’s Dander. 2—Dick Merriwell’s Hope. 3—Dick’s Merriwell’s Standard. 4—Dick Merriwell’s Sympathy. 5—Dick Merriwell in Lumber Land. 6—Frank Merriwell’s Fairness. 7—Frank Merriwell’s Pledge. 8—F1 9—Frank Merriwell’s Return Blow. 20—F rank Merriwell’s Quest. 21—Frank Merriwell’s Ingots. 22—-Frank Merriwell’s Assistance. we 9 ‘ank Merriwell, the Man of Grit. 1 1 1 1: 1 1 1 1 1 1 > 3—F rank Merriwell at the Throttle. 4—-Frank Merriwell, the Always Ready. 25- —Frank Merriwell in Diamond Land. 6—Frank Merriwell’s Desperate Chance. Ti rank Merriwell’s Black Terror. 28—Frank Merriwell Again on the Slab. 729—Frank Merriwell’s Hard Game. 730—Frank Merriwell’s Six-in-hand. 731—F rank Merriwell’s Duplicate. 732—Frank Merriwell on Rattlesnake Ranch. 733—Frank Merriwell’s Sure Hand. 734—Frank Merriwell’s Treasure Map. 735—Frank Merriwell, Prince of the Rope. - 736—Dick Merriwell, Captain of the Var- sity. 737—Dick Merriwell’s Control. 738—Dick Merriwell’s Back Stop. 739—Dick Merriwell’s Masked Enemy. 740—Dick Merriwell’s Motor Car. 741—Dick Merriwell’s Hot Pursuit. 742—Dick Merriwell at Forest Lake. 743—Dick Merriwell in Court. 744—Dick Merriwell’s Silence, 745—Dick Merriwell’s Dog. 746—Dick Merriwell’s Subterfuge. 747—Dick Merriwell’s Enigma. 748—Dick Merriwell Defeated. 749—Dick Merriwell’s “Wing.”’ 750—Dick Merriwell’s Sky Chase. 751—Dick Merriwell’s Pick-ups. 752—Dick Merriwell on the Rocking R. 53—Dick Merriwell’s Penetration. 75 —Dick Merriwell’s Intuition. 755—Dick Merriwell’s Vantage. 756—Dic k Merriwell’s Advice. 757—Dick Merriwell’s Rescue. 758—Dick Merriwell, American. 759—Dick Merriwell’s Understanding. 760—Dick Merriwell, Tutor. 761—Dick Merriwell’s Quandary. 762—Dick Merriwell on the Boards, 763—Dick Merriwell, Peacemaker. 764—Frank Merriwell’s Sway. 765—Frank Merriwell’s Comprehension. 766—Frank Merriwell’s Young Acrobat. 767—Frank Merriwell’s Tact. 768—Frank Merriwell’s Unknown. 769—Frank Merriwell’s Acuteness. 770—Frank Merriwell’s Young Canadian. 771—Frank Merriwell’s Coward. 772—Frank Merriwell’s Perplexity. 773—Frank Merriwell’s Intervention. 774—Frank Merriwell’s Daring Deed. 775—Frank Merriwell’s Succor. 776—Frank Merriwell’s Wit. 777—Frank Merriwell’s Loyalty. - 778—Frank Merriwell’s Bold Play. 779—Frank Merriwell’s Insight. 780—Frank Merriwell’s Guile. 781—F rank Merriwell’s Campaign 782—Frank Merriwell in the Forest. 783—Frank Merriwell’s Tenacity. 784—Dick Merriwell’s Self-sacrifice. 785—Dick Merriwell’s Close Shave. 786—Dick Merriwell’s Perception. 787—Dick Merriwell’s Mysterious Disap- pearance. 788—Dick Merriwell’s Detective Work. 789—Dick Merriwell’s Proof. » “National PRICE, FIVE CENTS PER COPY. your news dealer, they can be obtained direct from this office. 790—Dick Merriwell’s Brain Work. 791—Dick Merriwell’s Queer Case, 792—Dick Merriwell, Navigator. 793—Dick Merriwell’s Good Fellowship. 794—Dick Merriwell’s Fun. 795—Dick Merriwell’s Commencement. 796—Dick Merriwell at Montauk Point. 797—Dick Merriwell, Mediator. 798—Dick Merriwell’s Decision. 799—Dick Merriwell.on the Great Lakes. 800—Dick Merriwell Caught Napping. 801—Dick Merriwell in the Copper Coun- try. 802—Dick Merriwell Strapped. 803—Dick Merriwell’s Coolness. 804—Dick Merriwell’s Reliance. 805—Dick Merriwell’s College Mate. 806—Dick Merriwell’s Young Pitcher. 807—Dick Merriwell’s Prodding. 808—F rank Merriwell’s Boy. 809-—Frank Merriwell’s Interference. 810—Frank Merriwell’s Young Warriors. 811—F rank Merriwell’s Appraisé ul. 812—F rank Merriw ell’s Forgiveness. 813—Frank Merriwell’s Lads. 814—Frank Merriwell’s Young Aviators. 815—Frank Merriwell’s Hot-head. 816—Dick Merriwell, Diplomat. . 817—Dick Merriwell in Panama. 818—Dick Merriwell’s Perseverance. An ~Dick Merriwell Triumphant. 820- _Dic k Merriwell’s Betrayal. 891 — Dick Merriwell, Revolutionist. 822-——Dick Merriwell’s Fortitude. 823—Dick Merriwell’s Undoing. 824—Dick Merriwell, Universal Coach. 825—Dick Merriwell’s Snare. | 826.—Dick Merriwell’s Star Pupil. ah eee Merriwell’s Astuteness. 828—Dick Merriwell’s Responsibility. 82 »9—Dick Merriwell’s Plan. 830—Dick Merriwell’s Warning. 881—Dick Merriwell’s Counsel. 832—Dick Merriwell’s Champions. 33—Dick Merriwell’s Marksmen. 834—Dick Merriwell’s Enthusiasm. 835—Dick Merriwell’s Solution. 8836—Dick Merriwell’s Foreign Foe. 837—Dick Merriwell and _ the Warriors. 838—Dick Merriwell’s Battle for the Blue. 839—Dick Merriwell’s Evidence. 840—Dick Merriwell’s Device. 841—Dick Merriwell’s Princeton nents. 842—Dick Merriwell’s Sixth Sense. 843—Dick Merriwell’s Strange Clew. 844—Dick Merriwell Comes Back. 845—Dick Merriwell’s Heroic Crew. 846—Dick Merriwell Looks Ahead. 847—Dick Merriwell at the Olympics. 848—Dick Merriwell in Stockholm. 849—Dick en! iwell in the Swedish Stadiu 850—Dick Merriwell’ s Marathon. Carlisle Oppo- NEW SERIES. New Tip Top Weekly 1-—Frank Merriwell, Jr. 2—F rank Merriwell, Jr., in the Box. 8—Frank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Struggle. 4—Frank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Skill. 5—Frank Merriwell, Jr., in Idaho. 6—F rank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Close Shave. 7—Fra 7 Merriwell, Jr., on Waiting Or- aers. 8—Frank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Danger. 9—Frank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Relay Mara- thon. 10—Frank Merriwell, Jr., at Ranch. 11—F rank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Golden Trail. 12—F rank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Competitor. 18—Frank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Guidance. the Bar Z '48—Frank Merriwell, Jr. 76—Frank Merriwell, Jr.’ 14—Frank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Scrimmage. 15—Frank Merriwell, Jr., Misjudged. 16—Frank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Star Play. 17—Frank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Blind Chase. 18—Frank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Discretion. 19—Frank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Substitute. 20—F rank Merriwell, Jr., Justified, 21—F rank Merriwell, Jr, Incog. 22—Frank Merriwell, Jr., Meets the Issue. 23—Frank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Xmas Eve. 24—Frank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Fearless Risk. 25—Frank Merriwell, Jr., on Skis. 26—F rank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Ice-boat Chase. 27—Frank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Ambushed Foes. 28—F rank Merriwell, Jr., and the Totem 29—F rank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Hockey Game. —Frank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Clew. 31—— rank Merriwell, os ’S; Adversary. —Frank Merriwell, ’s, Timely Aid. —~Frank Merriwell, Jr., in the Desert. —Frank Merriwell, Tris, Grueling Test. Frank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Special Mission Frank Merriwell, Jr.'s, Red Bowman. Frank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Task. —Frank Merriw ell, Jr.’s, Cross-Country Race. 39—F rank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Four Miles. 40—F rank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Umpire. sae ‘rank Merriwell, Jr., Sidetracked. a2 ‘rank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Teamwork. 3- pram Merriwell, Jr.’s, Step-Over. 44 Frank Merriwell, Jr., in Monterey. = Frank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Athletes. 6—Frank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Outfielder. 47 7—Frank Merriwell, Jr.’s, ‘‘Hundred.” ’s, Hobo Twirler. 49—F rank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Canceled Game. 50—Frank Merriwell, Jr.'s, Weird Advyen- ture. 51—Frank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Double Header. 52- -Fré rane Merriwell, Jr.’s, Peck of Trou- , ble. 58—Frank Merriwell, Jr., Doctor. 54—Fr ank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Sportsmanship. 55—Frank Merriw ell, Jr.’s, Ten-Innings, 56—Frank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Ordeal. 57—Frank Merriwell, Jr., on the Wing. 58—Frank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Cross-Fire.” 59—F rank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Lost Team - mate, 60—F rank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Daring Flight. 61—Frank Merriwell, Jr., at Fardale. 62—Frank Merriwell, Jr., Plebe. 63—Frank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Quarter-Back. 64—Frank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Touchdown, 65—F rank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Night Off. 66—Frank Merriwell, Jr., and the Little Black Box. 67—F rank Merriwell, Jr.’ 68—Frank Merriwell, Jr.’s, emy. 69—Frank Merriwell, Jr., and the “Spell. 4 70—Frank Merriwell, Jr.’s, Gridiron Honors. 1—Frank Merriwell, Jr.’ 2—F rank Merriwell, Jr.’ 38—F rank Merriwell, Jr.’s, cation. 4—Frank Merriwell, Jr., Wolves. rank Merriwell, Jr., and the Spook s, Classmates. Repentant En- s, Winning Run. s, Jujutsu. Christmas Va- and the Nine on the Border. s, Desert Race. 77—Owen Clancy's Run of Luck. ~-Owen Clancy’s Square Deal. 79 Owen Clancy’ ’s Hardest Fight. 80—Owen Clancy’s Ride for Fortune. 81—Owen Clancy’s Makeshift. Dated Februar y 21st, 1914. 82—Owen Clancy and the Black Pearls. Dated February 28th, 1914 883—Owen Clancy and the Sky Pilot. Dated March 7th, 1914. 84—Owen Clancy and the “a Pirates. Dated March 14th, 1914. 85—Owen Clancy’s Peril. T5—F If you want any back numbers of our weeklies and cannot procure’ them from Postage stamps taken the same as money. Street & Smith, Publishers, 79-89 Seventh Ave., New York City