The Motor Scout: A Story of Adventure in South America

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BOMBASTES FURIOSO
One hot sultry afternoon in June, the population of the little town of San Rosario in the Peruvian Andes was struck with sudden amazement at the sight of a motor-bicycle clattering its way through the main street with some risk to the dogs, poultry, and small boys who had been lazily disporting themselves there. It was not the bicycle itself that evoked their wonder: that was an object familiar enough. Nor was it the youth seated in the saddle, and steering it deftly past all obstacles. It was a second figure, mounted uneasily on the carrier behind: a rotund and portly figure, which shook and quivered with the vibration of the machine as it jolted over the ill-paved road, maintaining its equilibrium with obvious difficulty. Children and women shrieked; the men leaning against the walls took their cigars from their lips and gasped; and the noise of the engine was almost smothered by the mingled din of barking dogs and screaming fowls. It was the figure of the gobernador himself: land-owner, chief magistrate, and father of a family.
The wondering populace might have supposed that the gentleman had taken leave of his senses--for surely no one of his mature years and serious responsibilities would have risked so much if he had been sane--had it not been plain to them that he was in desperate distress. His head was bare; his swarthy cheeks were shining with perspiration; his eyes rolled with fright; and his fat hands were clasped about the waist of the boy in the saddle with the convulsive grip of a man clinging for dear life. The face of the boy was, on the contrary, beaming with delight. His lips were parted in a wide smile; his blue eyes were dancing; and his mop of tow-coloured hair waved joyously in the breeze that the motion of the vehicle created.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
THE GOBERNADOR RIDES
CAPTURED BY BRIGANDS
HORSEMEN ON THE TRACK
TIM LEADS A CHARGE
THE HOLE IN THE FLOOR
A CHECK AT THE CAVE
MAP
CONTENTS
1. BOMBASTES FURIOSO
2. COMINGS AND GOINGS
3. BENEVOLENCES
4. GAS
5. PARDO DISMISSES HIMSELF
6. TIM IS HELD TO RANSOM
7. THE PREFECT MOVES
8. SUSPENSE
9. FLIGHT TO THE HILLS
10. CINCINNATUS O'HAGAN
11. THE MOTOR-CYCLE
12. FREE WHEEL
13. A COMMISSION
14. HIS FATHER'S HOUSE
15. THE RAID ON SAN ROSARIO
16. A SIEGE AND A SORTIE
17. IN POSSESSION
18. THE ORDER OF THE NASTURTIUM
19. PARDO SCORES A TRICK
20. PARDO LOSES A TRICK
21. RUN TO EARTH
22. A PUNCTURE
23. A LEAP FOR LIFE
24. FROM DAN TO BEERSHEBA
25. THE RAVINE
26. HANDSOME ACKNOWLEDGMENTS