New Mexico state record. (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1914-19??, 1918-06-14
COPTRiChLI0Ie
SIXTH EPISODE
The Mysterious Motor Car.

The tide was coming and the five
mile stretch of beach was hard and
glistening. Christopher Race could
hardly have chosen IL better place fol-
a speed trial, to test the success of u
new invention, nor a better time than
the earliest hint of dawn.
lie was excited, for an experiment
which had absorbed we weeks of his
time, and many coins Of his hard.
earned money, was proving Il success.
So excited and sclf-abSorbed was he
that, when Scarlet Runner had de-
voured four sandy miles out of the
delicious five-mile course, only annoy
ance, unmiXed with curiosity, was
aroused in his breast at sight Of a
knot of men standing at II distance,
Knee-ueep in the sea. If they were
fishermen, their present occupation
had apparently nothing to DO with
their calling. For Il moment he saw
nothing suggestive In the grouping of
half a dozen eager men round some OBJ
ject, half engulfed in water, which they
were striving to drag out. But, in fact,
Christopher had some Excuse for his
temporary self-absorption.
His latest client had finished q we'd
ding trip zen automobile" whcreupOn
Race had returned to London and been
thrown into the society Of Il fellow-en-
thusinst for mOtors-a young engineer
who had designed a new invention. 1t
was a very clever invention, for ut a
stroke 1t revOlutioniZed all existing
systems Of transmission, and did AWAY
with gear-box, pinions, and clutch.
The idea had instantly caught
Races fancy and in the hour he de-
cided upon adopting the proposed
plan. Scarlet Runner, thus regenerat-
ed, had come out of u London work
shop only two days ago, and now here
was Christopher with his scarlet darl-
Ing, heart and engine both beating in
the hope of n long. satisfactory trial,
with the sea and the rising sun as sole
witnesses.
Within thirty yards of the group in
the water Race Slackened speed, and
would have turned, sacrificing the last
mile of the five, had not one Of the
men seen him and begun to shout and
beckon. At the same men several
others broke away from the group to
hurry across the sand towards the
approaching motor; and Christopher
saw, to his extreme surprise, that the
thing they had surrounded was Il half
submerged automobile.
She was, to the eye Of ar expert in
such matters, Enthusiastically a Hansard,
Of II pattern now superseded.
Here vas a mystery which made q
list.
'Halloa! What's happened herew
exclaimed Christopher to the man who
met Scarlet Runner. "This looks a
queer business"
THAT 1t does, sir" answered a
brown old fisherman. "And as to
what's happened, We don't know no
more than YOU"
"Better send for the police before
trying any amateur detective work"
"We have sent for the police from
TiltOn-on-Sea, sir" said the elder man.
"My boy and I were the first to catch
sight of this ere, and we got together
some mates to help drag her out of
the water before the tide gets up. But
she's stood where she Is so long, her
wheels have sunk into the sand, and
we can't % her"
HT1l holm with thot uork 10 cnno L
Of you will hitch a rope round her
front ANKLE" Christopher volunteered.
"My car can tow her. But here comes
a policeman now"
A blue-clad man, hastily dressed at
n summons, was approaching, guided
by a boy. He stared gravely at the
automobile, murmured that 1t looked
like murder or suicide. and began
scribbling notes in a book produced
from his pocket, while the derelict was
being rescued.
Evidently the man read other than
local papers, for he glanced up with
interest when Christopher Race gave
his name and address,.
At his request Christopher made a
examination Of the derelict,
and announced with certainty that it
was q Hansard, of a date about four
years old, but deliberately altered and
modernized. He peered into the geer-
box, saw that the pinions were clean
and new, and said that the motor had
not run many miles since
repaired. Another point to which
he drew the attention of the constab.e
was that the number of the motor ha1
been carefully chiselled off, and that
number-plate of the car itself was
This showed that its abaI-
Comment had been an act of delibera-
lion.
Christopher had the curiosity to re-
for ar hour or two at TiltOn-on-
Sea, after towing the Hansard there.
IN the hope Of sCme calculation of the
mystery. But no unknown motorist
had stayed at the hotel there, or at
any other nea by to which inquiries
we're sent. No such car as the rescued
had been noticed by anyone /:
and at last, little wiser than when he
mad first seen the squat shape rising