"Is there a doctor here?" called the major; "telephone for a doctor, somebody! See if he has any broken bones, Carter. Egad, Matt, you two fellows came together like a couple of railroad-trains. It's a wonder you weren't both killed. What was that I heard just before your bicycle ducked across in front of Perry's?" "The tire blew up," answered Matt coolly. "Something funny about that," put in Splinters, who was close to the major. "Both tires are new. You didn't run over anything, did you, Matt?" "Some one fired a pistol," cried Chub; "nobody ever heard a tire pop like that! It came from beyond the lower end of the grand stand. Somebody put a bullet through that tire!" "Nonsense!" scoffed the major. "What are you talking about, McReady? Who'd do a dastardly thing like that? Besides, it would take a mighty good marksman to put a bullet into a tire moving as fast as that one was." "Look a-here," fumed Welcome Perkins, "I don't reckon there's a man in the hull Territory that's heard as much shootin' as what I have. I'm tellin' ye a gun was fired, an' by the shade o' Gallopin' Dick, it was fired at Matt there!" "Clear out!" growled the major, "you're locoed. Who'd want to take a shot at Matt King? What do _you_ think about it, my lad?" and the major turned to Matt. Matt had dropped down and Susie was pushing back his torn sleeve. "The tire went up, major," said Matt quietly; "that's all I know about it." "See here," cried Susie, holding Matt's bare forearm for the major to see, "Matt's hurt worse than Dace Perry." "You're wrong, Susie," returned Matt hastily, "it's only a cut, and not much of a cut at that. Please tie my handkerchief around it, will you?" Matt jerked a handkerchief out of his pocket with his left hand and Susie began tying it over the wound. While Perry was being pulled and prodded in a search for broken bones, he suddenly opened his eyes and sat up. There was a dazed look in his face, but he seemed to be all right. "How d'ye feel, Dace?" inquired Tubbits Drake anxiously, bending down over Perry. "I'm all right," replied Perry; "a little bit dizzy, that's all. King fouled me! Did you see him as we started down the stretch?" "Listen to that!" snorted Chub fiercely. "Some of your gang played a low-down trick on Matt, Dace Perry, or he wouldn't have got in your way." "Tut, tut!" growled the major; "that's enough of that sort of talk. It was an accident, and nothing more. King would have been an easy winner, and there wasn't any cause for him to foul Perry. You boys are lucky to get out of the scrape as well as you did. How are the wheels?" "Perry's is pretty badly smashed," reported some one who had taken a little time to look at the two bicycles, "but Tuohy's will be all right with a little tinkering. There's a hole in the rear tire, and the track is perfectly clean where the bicycles came together."