COMING OF THE "COMET."

Matt hardly dared hope for success. There was a chance—perhaps one chance in a hundred—that everything would work as it should, and Penny arrive along the Black CaÑon road with the Comet in time for Matt to make such a run into Phoenix as was never heard of before. But when Matt thought of the many things on which success hinged, his heart stood still before the very audacity of his thought of winning out.

In the first place, everything depended on the quickness with which a number of intricate details were accomplished in Phoenix—and all these were left in the hands of a girl! True, Susie McReady was a girl in a hundred, quick-witted, and able to hustle in a pinch, but it was not to be supposed that she could do as well as Chub would have done.

Then, Susie would have to take chances getting Major Woolford on the phone. In the crowd at the park it might be impossible to find the major for an hour—and it was quite likely a loss of ten minutes would spell disaster. But if Susie could get the major on the phone, Matt knew that the energetic president of the Phoenix Club would move heaven and earth to find Penny and start him along the Black CaÑon road.

The major, too, would delay the start of the bicycle-race as long as he could. Prescott, however, if it saw a chance to pull off the race without Matt, was allowed to insist, under the rules governing the contests, that the starter bring the racers to the mark on the dot.

As the difficulties before him piled steadily up under Matt's mental view, he halted his pace, almost discouraged by the outlook. Clipperton toiled up alongside of him.

"You shouldn't have tried to chase along with me, Clip," said Matt. "You're pretty near all in, old man. Jupiter! but you've made a record this day!"

"You can make a better one," panted Clipperton. "I want you to make good. But how are you going to? Put me next."

Matt explained about Chub's wireless line, about the seven-horse-power motor-cycle which could do sixty-five miles an hour on the high speed if a rider was reckless enough and had the right kind of a road, and he finished by giving the situation at the Phoenix end of the route.

Clipperton's eyes snapped and sparkled. He had been born to champion forlorn hopes, and certainly this idea of Matt's was desperate enough to make the biggest kind of a hit with him.

"Great!" he muttered breathlessly. "If you win it will be the biggest thing on record. Won by wireless, and a jump of twenty miles on the Comet. Fine! Motor Matt, Mile-a-minute Matt, King of the Wheel. Say, you're a wonder."

"Not so you can notice it, Clip, not yet. Just now, all I can do is to hope for the best."

For some time they continued on through the hills, finally reaching a high part of the road which gave them a view of a flat stretch of desert leading away to the Arizona Canal.

There were several canals in Salt River Valley and contiguous to Phoenix, all constructed for irrigation purposes. It was the "Town Canal" that ran past the McReady home, and between that and the Arizona Canal there was still another of the artificial streams. The Arizona Canal, however, formed the outpost of the waterways.

Pausing on the "rise," Matt and Clipperton peered across the glimmering yellow sands. A fork in the road lay below them.

"The branch goes to Pedro Garcia's old jacal and beyond," said Clip. "Look!" he added excitedly.

Matt followed Clip's extended finger with his eyes. Off along the branch road, trudging slowly toward the main trail, a distant form could be seen.

"The cowboy!" muttered Matt. At that distance he could not identify the figure, but intuition told him who it must be.

"Yes," returned Clipperton grimly. "He thinks we started for Phoenix."

"What time is it now, Clip?"

"We're four miles from the Bluebell. It's taken us an hour. So it must be nearly three."

"Sixteen miles from Phoenix and only a little more than an hour left! I'm expecting too much, Clip. Susie has had an hour to find the major and get Penny started this way with the Comet. Somebody hasn't been able to make good and I guess I'm let out."

"No!" shouted Clip. "What's that coming this way? See!"

Clipperton pointed along the main road where it ran in a light streak across the desert. A cloud of dust, more like a column of smoke than anything else, was sweeping toward the hills.

Matt held his breath as he gazed. The dust cloud seemed fairly to jump at them; then, suddenly, the wind whipped it aside, and brave Ed Penny, glorious old Penny, could be seen crouching upon the saddle of the Comet. He was shooting for the hills like a cannon-ball.

"Hurrah!" yelled Clipperton, jerking off his cap and throwing it into the air. "Motor Matt is going to win!"

The Comet took the "rise" like a bird on the wing. Penny, covered with dust and half-blinded, halted only when he heard Matt's voice calling to him. Clip sprang to support the machine while Penny got off.

"That you, King?" queried Penny, dizzy and staggering.

"Yes!" shouted Matt, gripping the brave fellow's hand. "Bully boy, Penny! How's everything at the park?"

"Panic! Mile race lost because Clip wasn't there. All Phoenix wild because King is missing. Major red-headed. Jerked me out of the high-school bunch and snatched me into town in his automobile; threw me onto the Comet and offered me twenty-five dollars if I'd get the machine to you inside of an hour, and fifty dollars if you got to the park in time for the race. Jinks, but that machine is a dandy!"

Matt and Clip were lifting the Comet around. Clip held the machine while Matt rose to the saddle.

"Wait!" roared Penny; "don't start yet."

"Why not?" asked Matt.

"Hawley is coming! See that dust? Pull the Comet out here beside the road and crouch down so we can't be seen when the dust blows away. The driver of the car may take the other road at the forks."

Here was startling news—news that might snatch success out of Matt's hands just when the prospect of victory seemed brightest.

Another dust cloud was coming. As the three boys drew aside and crouched down the cloud dissipated slightly and through it they could see Dirk Hawley's motor-car, hitting nothing but high places and reaching for the hills like a streak.

"He saw the major grab me and rush me away from the park," explained Penny, referring to Hawley. "His driver and another man were in the car besides himself. They took after me. I led them by a quarter of a mile at the bridge over the Arizona Canal. They stopped there and the man in the tonneau with Hawley got out. The whole bunch means trouble! What's Hawley got to do with this, anyhow?"

"He's got a lot to do with it," muttered Matt, "but I haven't time to explain now. Ah, look at the cowboy, Clip!"

The cowboy, who was coming across fairly high ground, could be seen waving his arms. Evidently he saw the motor-car and recognized those who were in it.

"That does the trick!" whispered Clipperton excitedly. "Hawley was coming along the Bluebell trail. The cowboy is drawing them into the other road. Luck! That will clear the way so you can get past on the Comet. Wait until the car is close to the cowboy. Then make a rush."

"For heaven's sake," begged Penny, "beat him in, Matt! The Comet can do it."

"The Comet is going to do it," said Matt, between his teeth.

All three of the boys watched while the motor-car flung itself up the gentle slope toward the cowboy.

"Now!" said Clip, starting up and laying hold of the Comet.

They trundled the machine back into the road and Matt got into the saddle and laid hands on the grip-control.

"Ready?" cried Penny.

"Let her go!" answered Matt.

Penny and Clip gave him a shove. Pop, pop, pop, snapped the motor, the explosions presently coming so fast that they sounded like a dull roar. Off went the exhaust, and Motor Matt slipped down the slope like a brown streak, kicking the dust up behind him.

"He'll win, he'll win!" cried Clipperton. "The men in the motor-car see him. The cowboy is getting into the front seat alongside the driver. They can't head him! Hurrah for Motor Matt!"

Hawley and those with him had seen the sliding streak rushing down from the hill and making for the canal. There was a scramble about the motor-car, a frantic cranking-up and jumping start on the high-gear. But it was plain to the two boys on the hill that Matt would pass the forks of the road before the car and its passengers could get there.

Penny danced around excitedly.

"Why did Hawley drop that man off at the bridge?" he fumed. "That's what I can't understand. That man at the bridge spells trouble with a big T. What's Hawley butting into this game for, anyway?"

"He's been plunging on O'Day," answered Clip. "He knows O'Day loses if Matt gets to the park in time. Of course, he wants to stop him. Put two and two together, Penny."

"That's right, Clip," explained Penny. "It's up to Matt, now."

"Leave it to him. The game couldn't be in better hands."

Then, with staring eyes, Clip and Penny watched the two dust flurries. The cloud kicked up by the Comet passed the forks of the road a full minute ahead of the fog raised by the motor-car.

"Three groans for Hawley!" chortled Clip.

"But that man at the bridge," groaned Penny. "He sure is worrying me."