"We'll talk that over next time you come, Uncle Tom," interrupted Matt. "Just now I'm anxious to have a few words with Carl."
"Sho'ly, sho'ly. Well, Marse Matt, Ah wishes yo' good ebenin', an' Mistah Carl good ebenin'. Ah'll root fo' bofe ob yo' when Ah gits back home. Yo'-all kin expec' somethin' tuh happen in de mawnin'."
The genial old fraud let himself out and closed the door carefully behind him.
"Chiminy Grismus!" muttered Carl, as soon as he and Matt were alone. "Vat sort oof a game iss dot Slocum feller drying to blay? Und vy iss he blaying it? Uncle Dom has shtirred oop somet'ing, I bed you."
"It's a conundrum to me, Carl," mused Matt, leaning back in his chair. "That card of his was genuine enough, but, of course, it wouldn't be difficult for a man to get hold of one of Colonel Plympton's cards. Still, the fellow didn't look as I imagined Colonel Plympton looks."
"Der offers vat he made vas fine und pig," said Carl glumly. "Meppy dot vas pecause he don'd got der righdt to make dem. Aber vy he do dot?"
"Another thing," went on Matt, following his own line of thought, "it wouldn't be likely that Colonel Plympton would come around looking me up. I want the job, and I'm the one to go to him. I ought to have suspected something, just from that."
"Vell, you peen hired, anyvay. I vonder how dot Slocum feller vill oxblain vat he dit to der Sdark-Frispie peoples? Meppy dey hired him to come aroundt? Led's be jeerful, anyvays, undil ve know dot Slocum vas blaying some crooked games. He say for you to come aroundt in der morning und he vould gif you a ledder py der masder-meganic vere der race iss to run. In der morning, Matt, you vill findt oudt all aboundt it."
"That's right, Carl," answered Matt, throwing off his worry as well as he could; "in the morning, when I call on Colonel Plympton, I'll find out if anything is wrong, and just what it is. Now let's tumble into bed, pull covers, and try to forget that anything has gone wrong."
The boys had had a hard day, and Carl was snoring almost as soon as his head struck the pillow. Matt, however, lay awake for some time, thinking over all that had happened since he and Carl had reached Denver. They had been in town only a few hours and yet Matt's enemies had lost no time in beginning their treacherous work.