By STANLEY R. MATTHEWS.
[CONTENTS]
[CHAPTER I. BAD BLOOD.]
[CHAPTER II. THE UNEXPECTED.]
[CHAPTER III. DACE SHOWS HIS HAND.]
[CHAPTER IV. WELCOME SHOWS HIS HAND—WITH SOMETHING IN IT.]
[CHAPTER V. DACE PERRY'S CRAFTINESS.]
[CHAPTER VI. THE TRY-OUT.]
[CHAPTER VII. THE MAJOR'S SURPRISE.]
[CHAPTER VIII. THE RABBITT'S FOOT.]
[CHAPTER IX. MATT SHOWS HIS COLORS.]
[CHAPTER X. A CHALLENGE.]
[CHAPTER XI. FOUL PLAY.]
[CHAPTER XII. COOL VILLAINY.]
[CHAPTER XIII. THE BLUEBELL.]
[CHAPTER XIV. COMING OF THE "COMET."]
[CHAPTER XV. THE FLIGHT OF THE "COMET."]
[CHAPTER XVI. MOTOR MATT, KING OF THE WHEEL!]
[THE MAN-HUNTER.]
[THE RAT CRUSADE.]
[CHAPTER I.]
BAD BLOOD.
"Hello, peaches!"
The girl in the calico dress turned quickly. There was a startled look in her brown eyes, and she drew back a little from the gate.
The laughing words had been flung at her breathlessly by a boy who was trotting along the road—a boy in running-togs with "P. H. S." in red letters across the breast of his white shirt. He came from the north, and the girl had been leaning upon the gate and looking south, across the bridge that spanned the canal and led into the town of Phœnix.