"They're on the road to Riverside," thought Joe, "and I may run into them, but if I see them I can slip into the fields and go around. Mr.

Benjamin doesn't know me, for he's hardly ever noticed me when I've been to the Harvester works to see dad. But Mr. Holdney might remember me. I can't take any chances."

Cautiously he emerged from the bushes, and looked as far down the road as he could. There was no one in sight, and he started off. A little distance farther on, the road made a sharp turn and, just at the angle stood an old barn which hid the rest of the highway from sight until one was right at the turn. It was a dangerous place for vehicles, but the owner of the barn had refused to set it back.

No sooner had Joe turned this corner than he came full upon Mr. Benjamin and Mr. Holdney standing just around the barn, apparently in deep conversation. At the sight of Joe they looked up quickly, and Mr.

Benjamin exclaimed:

"Ha! Perhaps this lad can tell us. We want to hire a carriage. Do you know any one around here who would let us take one for a short time?"

Joe, who had started back at the unexpected sight of the two men, took courage on hearing this, and realizing that he had not yet been recognized.

"I don't know any one around here," he said. "I'm pretty much of a stranger myself, but have you tried at this farmhouse?" and he pointed toward the one where the owner of the barn lived.

"Oh, we don't want a farm horse!" exclaimed Mr. Holdney. "We want something that has some speed." Then, as he looked more fully at Joe he exclaimed: "Haven't I seen you somewhere before, my lad? I'm sure I have!"

He took a step toward our hero, and Joe's heart gave a flutter. He was almost certain that Mr. Holdney would recognize him and then the next step would be to ask where he had been. The men might at once suspect that he had at least come past the place where they had been talking in secret, and they might even suspect that he had listened to them. Joe was in a predicament.

"I'm sure I've met you somewhere before," went on Mr. Holdney, in his quick, nervous tones. "Do you live around here?"

"Yes," answered Joe vaguely. "But I don't know where you could get a fast horse unless it's in town--in Riverside."

He was about to pa.s.s on, hoping the men would not further bother him, when Mr. Holdney, coming a step nearer, said with great firmness:

"I'm sure I've seen you before. What's your name?"

Like a flash a way out of it came to Joe, and that without telling an untruth.

"I play on the Silver Stars," he said quickly. "You may have seen me at some of the games," which was perfectly possible.

"That's it!" exclaimed Mr. Holdney. "I knew it was somewhere. Now----"

"I'm going into Riverside," went on Joe quickly. "If you like I'll stop at the livery stable and tell them to send out a rig for you if you want to wait here for it."

"The very thing!" exclaimed Mr. Benjamin. "Let him do that, Rufus.

Here's a quarter to pay for your trouble, my lad."

"No, thank you!" exclaimed Joe with a laugh. "I'm glad to do you a favor."

"All right," a.s.sented Mr. Benjamin. "If you'll send out a two-seated carriage and a man to drive it we'll be obliged to you. Then we can drive over and see Duncan," he added to Mr. Holdney. "We'll fix this thing all up now."

"Yes, and if it's my father you're trying to 'fix,'" mused Joe, "I'll do my best to put a stop to it. Now, it's up to me to hurry home," and telling the men that he would do the errand for them, the lad hastened off down the road, leaving the two conspirators in earnest conversation.

The livery stable keeper readily agreed to send out the carriage, and then Joe lost no time in hurrying to his house.

"Has father come home yet?" he asked of his mother, for sometimes Mr.

Matson came from the harvester works earlier than the regular stopping time.

"No," answered Mrs. Matson, "why, what is the matter, Joe? Has anything happened?" for she noticed by his face that something out of the usual had occurred.

"Oh, I don't know," he answered slowly. He was revolving in his mind whether or not he ought to tell his mother. Then, as he recollected that his father always consulted her on business matters, he decided that he would relate his experience.

"Mother," he said, "isn't father interested in some sort of a patent about corn?"

"About corn? Oh, I know what you mean. Yes, he is working on an improvement to a corn reaper and binder. It is a machine partly owned by the harvester people, but he expects to make considerable money by perfecting the machine. It is very crude now, and doesn't do good work."

"And if he does perfect it, and some one gets the patents away from him, he _won't_ make the money!" exclaimed Joe.

"Joe, what do you mean?" cried his mother in alarm. "I am sure something has happened. What is it?"

"It hasn't happened yet, but it may any time," answered the lad, and then he told of what he had overheard, and his ideas of what was pending.

"That's why I wanted to see father in a hurry, to warn him," he concluded.

"Joe, I believe you're right!" exclaimed Mrs. Matson. "Your father ought to be told at once. I don't know what he can do--if anything--to prevent these men getting ahead of him. Oh, it's too bad! I know he always suspected Mr. Benjamin of not being strictly honest, but Mr. Holdney used to be his friend and on several occasions has loaned your father money. Oh, this is too bad, but perhaps it isn't too late. If I were you I'd go down toward the harvester works and you may meet father coming home. Then you can tell him all about it, and he may want to go back and get some of his papers, or parts of the machine, from his office so those men can't take them."

"That's the very thing, mother!" cried Joe. "You ought to have been a man--or a boy and a baseball player! You can think so quickly. That reminds me; I had quite an experience to-day. Just say 'apple sauce' to me when I get back, and I'll tell you all about it."

"It can't be possible!" exclaimed Mr. Matson, when Joe, having met him just outside the harvester works, told him of what he had heard. "It hardly seems possible that they would do such a thing. But I'm glad you told me, Joe."

"Do you think they meant you, dad? I didn't hear them mention your name."

"Of course they meant me!" declared Mr. Matson. "The warning came just in time, too, for only to-day I finished an important part of the machinery and the pattern of it is in my office now. I must go back and get it. Wait here for me."

As Joe stood at the outer gate of the big harvester plant he heard the sound of a carriage approaching, and turning around he saw Mr. Benjamin and Mr. Holdney coming along in the rig Joe had had sent out to them only a little while before.

"I thought better to drive back here first, and go see Duncan later,"

Mr. Benjamin was saying, and then both men caught sight of our hero.

CHAPTER XVII

A THROWING CONTEST

"Ha!" exclaimed Mr. Benjamin. "There's that same lad again!"

"What lad?" quickly demanded Mr. Holdney. "Oh, the one who sent us out this rig. I wonder----"

"Did you want to see any one around the works?" interrupted Mr.

Benjamin. "I don't want to seem impolite, after the service you rendered, but we don't allow loiterers here."

A number of thoughts pa.s.sed rapidly through Joe's mind. He realized that his father might come out at any moment and be seen by the manager carrying off the valuable patterns. Mr. Matson ought to be warned, for Joe realized that if they were to frustrate the conspiracy it would be best that the men did not know that they were on the verge of discovery.

"I want to take a message to Mr. Matson," said Joe boldly, for this was the truth. He had quickly formed a plan in his mind, and he hoped that it would not be discovered that he was Mr. Matson's son. It was this very trick of quick thinking that afterward became of so much service to Joe in his notable career on the diamond.

"Oh, then it's all right," said Mr. Benjamin. "You may go in. You'll find Mr. Matson in his office, I dare say." He smiled at Joe in what he doubtless meant to be a friendly fashion, but the young baseball player could not help but see the hypocrisy in it.