CHAPTER IX. A DARING PLOT.

“Let me assure you, in the first place,” said Tibbits, still keeping his revolver prominently displayed, “that no harm is intended either of you lads. You are to remain here in these comfortable surroundings for a week. At the end of that time you will be released, and can make your way back to New York.”

“Guess again about that,” spoke up the cowboy. “There are important doings for me in New York Wednesday, and we’ll have to tear ourselves away from you by to-morrow afternoon, at the latest.”

“You’ve got to stay here a week,” insisted Tibbits.

“You don’t understand,” went on McGlory. “There’s a meeting at the office of Random & Griggs Wednesday evening, and I’ve just got to be there. That’s all there is to it.”

Tibbits fixed his glittering eyes on McGlory for a moment.

“That excuse won’t do,” said he. “You can’t make up a yarn like that out of whole cloth, and expect me to swallow it.”

“Sufferin’ blockheads!” grunted McGlory. “There, read that.”

Jerking the colonel’s letter from his pocket, McGlory tossed it to Tibbits.

The latter removed the two folded sheets from the envelope. After glancing at one, he stooped down and pushed it under the door. The paper was caught and drawn from sight by some one in the hall.

“The order for the bullion!” called Tibbits. “Got it, Dimmock?”

“Yes,” answered Dimmock, from the other side of the door.

Tibbits placed the other sheet in the envelope and flipped it back to McGlory.

“Much obliged,” said Tibbits. “It’s hardly necessary to read the letter from the colonel. I heard Motor Matt read it aloud to you in the hotel, this morning.”

Both boys were dazed by the light that suddenly dawned upon them.

“You blamed tinhorn,” cried McGlory, “are you making a play to get hold of those two bars of bullion?”

“And you never thought of it!” laughed Tibbits. “What else did you suppose we were going to all this trouble for? You wanted to call at the bank, and I didn’t want you to. If you had gone there, the bank officials would have seen you. That would have made it difficult for me to palm off another Joe McGlory in your place. I am obliged to you for giving up the order for the bullion with so little persuasion on my part.”

The cowboy’s wrath was so great that he fairly hopped up and down.

“You think you’re going to get away with this,” he shouted, “but you’ll be fooled. You’re nothing more than just a common thief, eh? And you live in a place like this!” The cowboy looked around the room.

“I don’t live here--not regularly,” said Tibbits. “My uncle lives here, and I’m taking care of the place while he and his family are in Germany.” A sly leer accompanied the words. “It was only by chance that I happened to be in the hotel, this morning, and also by chance that I overheard Motor Matt reading that letter from Arizona. It looked like a fine opportunity to get hold of some easy money. I’m a black sheep. My uncle, who owns this place, thinks I’ve reformed, but he’s mistaken. When opportunity knocks at my door, she finds me hospitable. How long did it take me to find Dimmock after I learned the contents of that letter, discovered what Joe McGlory was going to do, and where he was to meet Motor Matt after he had done it? Just fifteen minutes, by the watch. Dimmock--his real name is not that--is a gentleman of fallen fortunes. Wall Street ruined him. He was as anxious as I to pick up a little ready money, and he and Pearl entered heartily into the spirit of the adventure. Dimmock knew Sanders. In happier days, Sanders used to be Dimmock’s chauffeur. I left Dimmock, Pearl, and Sanders to take care of Motor Matt, while I gave my attention to McGlory. I had to have a car and a chauffeur, but I knew where to find them. Pearl is to play the rôle of Joe McGlory, and I’ve a lad for the part of Motor Matt. They will dress themselves in your clothes, call at the Merchants’ & Miners’ with the order, and get the bullion. They’ll not have any trouble. The colonel has written the bank telling the cashier to hand over the gold when McGlory comes for it with his written order. It will be easy. Dimmock and I will clean up nine thousand dollars, net, divide it equally, then leave for parts unknown. You boys will be kept here for a week, and then released. Dimmock, Pearl, and I will be out of the way, long before that time. Rather clever, I call all that. Don’t you?”

Certainly there was a fiendish cunning in it all, but it was not the sort of “cleverness” that appealed to the motor boys. They were awed by the very audacity of the scheme, and by the facility with which the rest of the plot could be carried out. Simply by keeping Matt and McGlory cooped up in that house, Tibbits could have Dimmock’s daughter and some one else play the parts of the motor boys and secure the gold.

“You’re one of these tinhorns, Tibbits,” observed the cowboy, “who’d stand up a stage or snake a game of faro.”

“I’m not taking any money out of _your_ pocket,” said Tibbits.

“You’re robbing me of a fortune! If that gold isn’t produced at the meeting in Random & Griggs’ office, the deal for the ‘Pauper’s Dream’ mine may fall through. I’ve got a hundred shares of stock in the ‘Pauper’s Dream.’”

“The deal won’t fall through just because the two bars of bullion have been taken,” asserted Tibbits, “that is, not if Random & Griggs’ men really mean business.”

“You don’t know anything about that, Tibbits,” put in Matt. “But, no matter whether the deal falls through or not, you needn’t think that McGlory is going to agree to let you do what you have planned with that bullion.”

“What will McGlory do?” chuckled Tibbits; “what _can_ he do? You boys are safely bottled up here. Dimmock and I and Pearl and the other young fellow go back to New York to-night. Some time to-morrow, before the bank closes, we will have secured the bullion. You boys will be here, and the rest of us will be--where you can never find us.”

“It’s a pretty small stake to run such a risk for,” said Matt.

“Beggars can’t be choosers,” said Tibbits coolly. “But time presses. There”--and Tibbits pointed to the clothes he had brought into the library--“is something for you lads to put on. I’ll take the garments you’re wearing now, if you please.”

“You’ll _take_ ’em, all right,” answered McGlory defiantly, “if you get ’em at all.”

“Come, come,” continued Tibbits impatiently. “I have men enough to take the clothes by force, but I don’t want to get them that way. Strip!”

Neither Matt nor McGlory made any move to obey the command.

“Oh, well,” observed Tibbits, “if you’re going to force a rough and tumble, that’s your lookout. Dimmock!” he called.

“What is it, Tibbits?” came Dimmock’s voice from the hall.

“Come in, and bring Sanders and Riley.”

“Wait a minute,” called Matt. With four armed men against him and McGlory, Matt saw the futility of resistance. “We’ll give you our clothes, Tibbits, but under protest.”

“I’ll put the protest on file,” grinned Tibbits. “Never mind bringing Sanders and Riley, Dimmock,” he shouted.

“I’m going to fight this out,” flared McGlory. “If they get my clothes, they’ll get ’em in rags. What’s the good of taking ’em, anyhow? The bank folks have never seen either of us, Matt--Tibbits took precious good care they shouldn’t see me.”

“As for that,” said Tibbits, “we want all the corroborative detail we can give the rôles Pearl and the young fellow are to play.”

Matt stepped over to McGlory.

“It won’t do any good to hang out, Joe,” he counseled, in a low voice. “They’re too many for us. Let them go ahead with their plan--we can’t stop that part of it--but there may be something else we can do.”

“They’ve treated us like a couple of wooden Indians,” sputtered the cowboy, “and----”

“And we’ve acted like a couple,” finished Matt. “Why, we never guessed what their scheme was until Tibbits told us. Take everything out of your pockets, and let them have your clothes. I’m going to do the same.”

With that, he began stripping his pockets of personal property and laying it on the table. McGlory followed suit. Then coats, trousers, and hats were thrown in a heap, and the boys got into the garments Tibbits had brought.

In point of quality, the clothes the boys now put on were far and away better than the ones they had taken off. And the fit of them, too, was passably good; but it chanced that McGlory’s outfit was a full dress suit, and Matt’s was a Norfolk jacket outfit--a get-up he cordially detested.

Tibbits remained until the boys were decked out in their borrowed gear.

“I didn’t use much discrimination, in McGlory’s case, and that’s a fact,” said Tibbits, with a laugh, “but I brought what I could find in uncle’s wardrobe that looked as though it would fit. I trust,” he added, with a regret that was undoubtedly feigned, “that you lads won’t cherish any hard feelings?”

“We’ll do all we can to block you,” answered McGlory, “and will be tickled to death to see you behind the bars. That’s the way we stack up.”

“You can’t get out of here, remember that,” proceeded Tibbits, the clothes over one arm. “Try the windows, and you’ll stop a bullet; break down the door, and you’ll run into the same sort of trouble.”

He knocked on the door.

“I’m through in here, Dimmock,” he called. “Let me out.”

The door opened.

“Good-by,” said Tibbits mockingly, and faded into the hall.

McGlory roared wrathfully, and shook his fist at the locked door. Motor Matt lowered himself into a chair and grew thoughtful.