Motor Matt's Queer Find; or, The Secret of the Iron Chest

by Stanley R. Matthews

  CHAPTER VI.

  FOUL PLAY.

  Matt was greatly worried over the way that experience with the boat andthe chest had worked out. Dick knew enough about handling the air shipto be able to look after her in ordinary weather, but those shiftingair currents had bothered even Matt. It was so easy for some littlething to go wrong and either wreck or cause irreparable damage to anair ship. In that respect, an air ship was totally unlike any othercraft.

  But there had been no other way out of the dilemma and Matt, facing thesituation with all the grace he could muster, dropped on the midshipthwart, seized the oars, and headed the skiff upstream.

  Fortune favored him a little, for a lugger from the oyster beds camelurching up the river, all sails set and bound for the landing. Matthailed the lugger and the oysterman took him aboard.

  He said nothing to the lugger's crew as to how he had happened to be inthe skiff. Had he done that, one explanation would have led to anotherand it would have been necessary to speak of the iron chest--a subjectwhich it was well enough to keep in the background.

  When the lugger tied up at the landing, Matt left the skiff with hercrew and went ashore. His object now was to find Carl, Dick, and the_Hawk_, and he made his way along the river front in the direction ofCanal Street. He could see nothing of the _Hawk_ in the air, but alongthe wharves he encountered several groups of roustabouts who weretalking excitedly about the "flying machine" that had recently passedover the town.

  By making inquiries, he learned that the _Hawk_ had settled earthwardin the vicinity of the Stuyvesant Docks. Instructions were given him asto the best way for finding the docks, and he hurried on.

  Fully three hours had passed since the chest had been recovered and the_Hawk_ and Matt had parted company. A good many things could happen inthree hours, and Matt continued to feel worried.

  As he was passing the Morgan Line Docks he saw Dick bearing down onhim. The look of elation in Dick's face was indirect evidence that allwas right with the _Hawk_.

  "Hooray!" shouted the Canadian. "You were so long turning up, matey,that I was afraid something had happened to you. I hope we won't everagain part company like we did down there on the river. Confound thisLouisiana wind, anyhow! It never blows twice from the same direction,seems like. You didn't row all the way to town against the current?"

  "If I had, Dick," answered Matt, "I couldn't have got here beforenight. A lugger picked me up. Where's the _Hawk_?"

  "Safely berthed on the big dock. I gave the dock watchman a five-dollarnote to look after her and keep curious people away. We've stretcheda rope around the air ship and no one can get within a dozen feet ofher. She's as snug as possible, and there couldn't be a better placefor her. Why, the dock's better than that old balloon house in SouthChicago!"

  "Where's Carl?"

  "He went away with Bangs, and----"

  "Bangs? Who's Bangs?"

  "Why, he introduced himself to Carl and me as soon as we got the_Hawk_ moored. He's a friend of Townsend's and has been hanging out onthe levee looking for us ever since Townsend sent that telegram askingus to come. He was there by Townsend's orders, and was to tell us whereto berth the _Hawk_ and where to go our selves."

  "I should think Townsend would have been there to meet us," observedMatt.

  "Oh, that's all right--Bangs explained that point. Townsend is full ofbusiness, these days, and asked Bangs as a favor to watch for us."

  "What did you do with the iron chest?"

  "Bangs and Carl took it away in an express wagon. As soon as Carldelivers the chest to Townsend, he's coming back to the docks. I toldhim that, by that time, you'd probably be there, and that we could allgo up to see Townsend. Bangs said that Carl would surely get back tothe docks by noon."

  As Dick finished speaking, the noon whistles took up their clamor.

  "Did Bangs identify himself in any way?" asked Matt.

  "Why, no," answered Dick, puzzled. "It was identification enough, Ithought, to have him meet us, tell us all about Townsend, and sayTownsend had sent him to watch for us."

  "That might be a yarn, Dick, with not a particle of truth in it."

  "But he was on the levee----"

  "Everybody up and down the river front could see the _Hawk_, so youwere known to be coming. Well, maybe everything is all right. Carl wentwith Bangs and the chest, anyhow. He'll see that the chest is properlydelivered."

  "Bangs insisted on either Carl or me going with him to see Townsend,"pursued Dick, "and that gives the whole business a straight look. Ifthere was anything crooked about Bangs he wouldn't have wanted any oneto go with the chest, see?"

  Dick was so honest himself that he was rarely looking for treachery inothers. Matt made no response to what he had just said, but turned thesubject, as they walked together in the direction of the StuyvesantDocks.

  "Did you have any trouble making a landing, Dick?" he asked.

  "There was a big freight boat alongside the docks and she blanketed usagainst the wind. If it hadn't been for the freighter, Carl and I mighthave had more than we could attend to. We just grazed the steamer'sstacks, ducked under the dock roof, and rounded to as neat as youplease. We were lucky rather than skillful, you see, for it would havebeen an easy matter to smash the _Hawk_ into smithereens."

  The boys continued on along the levee, and on every hand the queercraft that had dropped out of the sky was the topic of conversation.Not many people were allowed on the dock where the _Hawk_ was moored,but there were a few curious ones clustered around the guard rope andsurveying the craft.

  Carl Pretzel, however, was not in evidence.

  "He's probably been delayed," suggested Dick. "We'll just hang aroundand wait for him."

  While they were waiting, the watchman came up to them.

  "It's none o' my business," said he, "and I reckon you'll think Ihaven't any call buttin' in, but that feller that drove away with yourfriend, in the express wagon, hasn't got a very good character in thistown."

  "Is that straight?" queried Dick.

  "Straight as a plumb-line. He's as crooked as a dog's hind leg. Proctorused to run a boat on the river, but he took to drinkin' an turned'shady,' an' now he's not much better than a loafer. I'd have toldyou before, only I supposed you knew what you was doin' an' that youwouldn't thank me to interfere. I heard Proctor say, though, that yourfriend would sure be back here by noon. Well, it's noon, an' he ain'there. That's why I'm talkin' now."

  "Proctor?" cried Dick. "Why, he said his name was Bangs."

  "He's been known to change his name before now, so I ain't surprised atthat. But his real name is Proctor."

  The watchman went on about his business, and Matt and Dick withdrew bythemselves in no very easy frame of mind.

  "Dowse me!" growled Dick. "Can't Carl and I be away from you for a fewhours, old ship, without making fools of ourselves? But Bangs told sucha straight yarn----"

  "If a trap was laid, Dick," interposed Matt, "it was a clever one andI don't see how you could avoid dropping into it. It's a pretty safeguess, I think, that there has been foul play. This fellow Proctor, orBangs, wanted the iron chest and laid his plans to get it."

  "But how could he lay his plans?" muttered Dick. "Sink me if I canunderstand that part of it. First off, he couldn't have known we hadthe iron chest, seeing that we fished it out of that skiff so recently."

  Matt listened thoughtfully. He was trying to figure the matter out inhis own mind, but it was a difficult problem.

  "Then, again," continued Dick, "Bangs was here watching for us. If hewasn't a friend of Townsend's how could he have known we were coming?"

  "From what we knew of Archibald Townsend," answered Matt, "we can bankon his being honest and square. If that's the case, he'd hardly havea friend like Bangs, would he? And certainly, if he knew Bangs, he'dhardly trust him to meet us, as Bangs told you he had done."

  "I'm a swab," growled Dick, with profound self-reproach, "and Carl'sa swab. We've dropped into a tangle of foul play, and it don't makeit any br
ighter because we can't understand where Bangs got theinformation that enabled him to carry out his plot. I had an idea thatI wouldn't let Bangs touch that iron chest until you got here, buthe told such a straight story that I was argued out of my originalintention. Oh, keelhaul me!"

  Dick fumbled in his pocket for a handkerchief. When he drew it out, abit of crumpled newspaper came with it.

  "Ah," muttered Dick, picking up the bit of paper, "maybe Carl will havesome luck. He unwrapped that little parcel Yamousa gave you as we wereleaving the bayou. What do you think we found in it?"

  "A rabbit's foot?"

  "No, a dried frog! Carl, before he started away in the express wagon,put the frog in his pocket. He said he'd try it out before he turnedit over to you. If we're right in thinking that Bangs is playing atreacherous game, then Carl will have plenty of chance to find out whatthe charm is good for."

  "We've got to be doing something, Dick," said Matt. "We can't hangaround and wait for the dried frog to help Carl."

  "We might slant away and look up that expressman," returned Dick. "Hecould probably tell us where he took Carl, and Bangs, and the box."

  "A good tip!" exclaimed Matt. "We'll go on a still hunt for theexpressman."

  After reassuring himself that the _Hawk_ would be safely looked afterby the watchman, Matt and Dick left the docks and began hunting for theman who had been hired by Bangs to take the iron chest into the town.