"Great! Everybody's talking about it. I'm proud of you."
"Somethin' more we can't understand," growled Welcome. "What's great? What's everybody talkin' about? Where'd you come from, anyway?"
"Matt was racing for town with Perry," went on Clipperton. "Perry had Penny's motor-cycle. Matt had the Comet. Matt was overhauling Perry at every jump. He'd have beat him in and filed the McReady location before Perry filed Jacks' and Hawley's. But Matt stopped to catch a horse that was running away with a girl. Perry's machine scared the horse. Catch him stopping! That's why Motor Matt lost out. Claim or no claim, everybody's proud of Matt."
"Did you do that, Matt?" asked Susie, a soft light in her wide, brown eyes as she looked at him.
"Why, yes," said Matt. "I couldn't get out of it."
"I'm proud of you, too," said Susie quietly. "What you did was worth a dozen claims."
"Money's money," growled old Welcome. "I ain't got no use fer dad-binged sentiment when it's so hard fer the McReadys to scrub along."
"There's more to it," said Clipperton. "I've got something else to tell."
"What's that, Clip?" queried Matt.
"The girl you saved was Edith Hawley. Dirk Hawley's daughter."