The Phantom Motor | Page 5

So they
scattered themselves along a few hundred feet apart and waited. That
night the phantom auto didn't appear at all and twelve reporters jeered
at Hutchinson Hatch and told him to light his pipe with the story. And
next night when Hatch and Baker and Bowman alone were watching
the phantom auto reappeared.
Like a child with a troublesome problem, Hatch took the entire matter
and laid it before Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen, the master
brain. The Thinking Machine, with squint eyes turned steadily upward
and long, slender fingers pressed tip to tip, listened to the end.
'Now I know of course that automobiles don't fly,' Hatch burst out
savagely in conclusion, 'and if this one doesn't fly, there is no earthly
way for it to get out of The Trap, as they call it. I went over the thing
carefully - I even went so far as to examine the ground and the tops of
the walls to see if a runway had been let down for the auto to go over.'
The Thinking Machine squinted at him inquiringly.
'Are you sure you saw an automobile?' he demanded irritably.
'Certainly I saw it,' blurted the reporter. 'I not only saw it- I smelled it.
Just to convince myself that it was real I tossed my cane in front of the
thing and it smashed it to toothpicks.'
'Perhaps, then, if everything is as you say, the auto actually does fly,'
remarked the scientist.

The reporter stared into the calm, inscrutable face of The Thinking
Machine, fearing first that he had not heard aright. Then he concluded
that he had.
'You mean,' he inquired eagerly, 'that the phantom may be an auto-
aeroplane affair, and that it actually does fly?'
It's not at all impossible,' commented the scientist.
'I had an idea something like that myself,' Hatch explained, 'and
questioned every soul within a mile or so but I didn't get anything.'
The perfect stretch of road there might be the very place for some
daring experimenter to get up sufficient speed to soar a short distance
in a light machine,' continued the scientist.
'Light machine?' Hatch repeated. 'Did I tell you that this car had four
people in it?'
'Four people!' exclaimed the scientist. 'Dear me! Dear me! That makes
it very different. Of course four people would be too great a lift for an -'
'For ten minutes he sat silent, and tiny, cobwebby lines appeared in his
dome-like brow. Then he arose and passed into the adjoining room.
After a moment Hatch heard the telephone bell jingle. Five minutes
later The Thinking Machine appeared, and scowled upon him
unpleasantly.
'I suppose what you really want to learn is if the car is a - a material one
and to whom it belongs?' he queried.
'That's it,' agreed the reporter, 'and of course, why it does what it does,
an(l how it gets out of The Trap.'
'Do you happen to know a fast, long-distance bicycle rider?' demanded
the scientist abruptly.
'A dozen of them,' replied the reporter promptly. 'I think I see the idea,
but - '

'You haven't the faintest inkling of the idea,' declared The Thinking
Machine positively. 'If you can arrange with a fast rider who can go a
distance - it might be thirty, forty, fifty miles - we may end this little
affair without difficulty.'
Under these circumstances Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen,
Ph.D., LL.D., F.R.S., M.D., etc., etc., scientist and logician, met the
famous Jimmie Thalhauer, the world's champion long distance bicyclist.
He held every record from five miles up to and including six hours, had
twice won the six-day race and was, altogether, a master in his field. He
came in chewing a toothpick. There were introductions.
'You ride the bicycle?' inquired the crusty little scientist.
'Well, some,' confessed the champion modestly with a wink at Hatch.
'Can you keep up with an automobile for a distance of, say, thirty or
forty miles?'
'I can keep up with anything that ain't got wings,' was the response.
'Well, to tell you the truth,' volunteered The Thinking Machine, 'there is
a growing belief that this particular automobile has wings. However, if
you can keep up with it-'
'Ah, quit your kiddin',' said the champion, easily. 'I can ride rings
around anything on wheels. I'll start behind it and beat it where it's
going.'
The Thinking Machine examined the champion, Jimmie Thalhauer, as
a curiosity. In the seclusion of his laboratory he had never had an
opportunity of meeting just such another worldly young person.
'How fast can you ride, Mr Thalhauer?' he asked at last.
'I'm ashamed to tell you,' confided the champion in a hushed voice. 'I
can ride so fast that I scare myself.' He paused