“All right, then. Seeing you prefer unvarnished facts to classic lore, here goes,” was the smiling rejoinder. “Jack, there, secured a most valuable chauffeur for us,—but this was quite unintentional on his part,—the morning we started from Flagstaff. In fact, we could not have had a better man for our purpose, than the driver of the car that sped us along the trail to Montezumas Castle.
“Bill Beldon, that’s the chauffeur’s name, seemed to have a hunch that we needed speed to reach the old Farview Ranch before Father Time could arrive there. So he kept his foot upon the gas without letting up, until we struck a spread of gravel and that introduced our vicissitudes. First Alex. ran up against a bit of gravel as large as his head, and, his head being softer than the stone, he showed results in a vast swelling. Then Fuzzy tried to dent the car with his forehead, and immediately his head began to puff up. I waited for a better opportunity to dent something, and I found it while stooping over Alex. Unfortunately for us both, the chauffeur tried the same stunt at the same time. Result: two more swelled heads. Now, girls, picture us four men, each one nursing a great black and blue lump about the size of an orange!”
At the mental picture portrayed, every one present laughed merrily; then Jack added: “I bet you won out in your plans, or you wouldn’t sit there giving us the funny details of the first stage of the trip.”
“Jack, my boy, you are too bright for your age,” commented Mr. Fuzzier. Mr. Dalken paid no heed, but resumed his story.
“While we were trying to stand Alex. upon his feet, Bill explained how he had learned who we were, and how a man by the name of Dunlap had been anxiously waiting for us at Williams, where he thought we must appear on the way to Grand Canyon. He also told us how the chauffeur of Dunlap’s hired car, Jim, by name, was a chum of his, and how Jim had driven Dunlap to Flagstaff twice that week to study the register of the hotel and assure himself that his quarry had not been there, and, perhaps, escaped him by another way.
“That was all we needed to make us forget heads and tires, and we urged Bill to get busy with the gas, or he’d be a dead man.
“Needless to add, Fuzzy, here, assuaged the driver’s grief over the damage the car would be sure to receive on that reckless trip from the main road to Sedona, by promising him two new cars—or the price of them—if he got us to the ranch before others woke up to the fact that we were within a hundred miles of it.
“Well, Bill Beldon won his prize money, but it was touch and go at the last. I’m anticipating the finale of the tale in order to quiet Jack’s nerves—I see he wants to know if we won out.”
“Hurrah!” cried Jack, clapping his hands at the news. “That means you go on with the South American project, and I can go down there with the rest of the men to work on the development.”
Mr. Dalken smiled indulgently, for he thought he knew Jack well enough to believe him incapable of serious application to work of any kind. Then he continued his story.