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

by Stanley R. Matthews

  CHAPTER XI.

  A BLACK MYSTERY.

  Bangs, it seemed clear, had entered the other room through a windowin the side of the house. The roof of a one-story building came closeup under the window, so that it was comparatively easy to enterRigolette's house in that manner.

  And Bangs was trying to make his escape in the same way he had come. Hejumped from the window to the neighboring rooftop and started for theedge of the roof.

  Matt and Dick, however, were upon him before he could get over theroof's edge and drop to the ground.

  Bangs fought fiercely, clawing and growling, like a wild animal. Hiseyes were wild, he was bareheaded and his hair was tumbled over hisforehead.

  "The man's crazy," said Matt.

  "Is it drink did it?" asked Dick. "Has he been topping the boom toomuch?"

  "No, it wasn't drink; it's something else. Let's get him back toRigolette's and see if he's able to give us any information."

  Getting the squirming Bangs back to the creole's was not an easymatter. However, Rigolette dropped the pieces of rope lying in the roomwhere Carl had been confined, from the window, and the boys made theircaptive's wrists and ankles secure; then they heaved Bangs upward, andthe creole caught him by the shoulders and dragged him through theopening.

  "He ees wild," chattered Rigolette; "ever'body ees wild. I was wildmyself."

  "I say, Bangs!" called Dick, kneeling beside the prisoner and shakinghim. "What's the matter with you?"

  Bangs mumbled incoherently and stared fiercely.

  "Do you think he's putting it on, mate?" said Dick, appealing to Matt.

  "No, he's not putting it on. The man's really daft." Matt turned toRigolette. "You say the boy and Jurgens were like Bangs, here?"

  "_Oui_--yes," said the creole. "Zey run from ze house; now Proctair,he ees come back by ze roof. W'y he do zat w'en he could come by zedoor? Zat ees a mystery."

  "Aye, a black mystery!" cried Dick.

  "Carl was certainly here," mused Matt; "the finding of his cap provesit. And it's almost equally clear that he was a prisoner. Somethinglocoed him, as well as Bangs and Jurgens; and Carl, in some manner,got out of his ropes. Where is he now? That's the point. And the ironchest--was that all that was in it?" and Matt nodded toward the heap ofsawdust.

  At that moment the scrap of paper, which Jurgens had dropped, met hiseyes. He picked it up.

  "What is it, mate?" asked Dick, anxiously. "Does it shed any light?"

  Matt read the paper aloud.

  "Strike me lucky!" exclaimed Dick. "That head--it must have been in thebox. Wasn't there anything else?"

  Matt dropped to his knees excitedly and began running his fingersthrough the sawdust.

  "That was all," said he, "the head of Obboney and this paper."

  Dick laughed harshly.

  "And that's the treasure Jurgens and Whistler have been hunting for!"he exclaimed. "The head of an idol--a heathen idol! I wonder whatTownsend will say to this? The Man from Cape Town seems to have pulledthe wool over the eyes of everybody."

  "Why didn't Jurgens take the head away with him if it was in the box?"Matt queried, thoughtfully.

  "Probably he didn't think it was worth bothering with; either that orelse he was too crazy to think of it."

  "Go down and get the head, Dick," said Matt. "We might as well put itback in the chest and try and deliver everything to Townsend just as wefound it."

  "Aye, aye," answered Dick, and started.

  Matt was astounded by the situation which confronted him and Dickin the creole's house. Bangs had engineered a piece of successfultreachery, but, in the end, the treachery had somehow turned againsthim and Jurgens. What had caused the death of the monkey? And what wasit that had turned the brains of Bangs, Jurgens and Carl? Bangs wasclearly demented, and if Rigolette was to be believed, so were Jurgensand Carl.

  And only that idol's head had been in the iron chest! Yes, truly, theaffair was a mystery--and a black one.

  While Matt was struggling to think of something that might help to asolution of the problem, Dick came bounding up the stairs and along thegallery.

  "It's gone!" he panted.

  Matt whirled on him in consternation.

  "What, the head of Obboney?" he asked.

  "Nothing else, old ship! It's not where we saw it and it isn't anywherein the court. The negro woman at the door says that a man answeringJurgens' description rushed into the house and out again. He hadsomething when he went out, but she couldn't see what it was. I'll betit was that idol's head, mate!"

  "It must have been!" exclaimed Matt. "Perhaps a little reason returnedto Jurgens and he came back after the head. Did he seem to be crazy, orin any manner off his balance?"

  "The woman says he looked wild, didn't say a word and went like astreak."

  "Well," said Matt, regretfully, "we've been beaten out, after all. Whatwe've got to do now is to find Carl."

  "Where'll we look for him? We can go cruising around, but this is a bigtown and, if Carl is off his bearings, there's no telling where he'llgo."

  "If he's very much off his bearings, the police will pick him up. Andthe same with Jurgens. But----"

  Matt halted and gave a glance at Rigolette, who was leaning moodilyagainst the wall.

  "Come over here, Dick," said Matt, stepping to one side. When his chumjoined him, he lowered his voice so the creole could not hear what wassaid.

  "You remember that smoke picture of Yamousa's--the one you and I saw?"

  "Dowse me, mate, if I could ever forget that!"

  "What do you think of Yamousa and her smoke pictures, by now?"

  "Why, I'm not much of a hand to believe in things like that," repliedDick, slowly, "but that first smoke picture, showing the boat and thechest, with the _Hawk_ overhead and you below--why, that was a deadringer for what happened. Blow me tight! I'm fair dazed to account forthat picture."

  "So am I," continued Matt, earnestly, "but this is what I'm trying toget at. If one picture gave a truthful forecast of what was to happen,isn't it possible that the second picture was equally truthful and tobe depended on?"

  "More than possible, Matt--_probable_."

  "Do you recollect what that second picture was?

  "Why, a room with stone walls and a man who looked like Townsend lashedby the hands and feet and lying on the floor!"

  "Then, if you remember, we saw the outside of the building--or whatYamousa said was the outside of it--And the lower story was occupied byan antique shop."

  "Right-o! The sign above the shop bore the name of Crenelette."

  "Exactly. Now, Dick, it strikes me we ought to go down Royal Street andlook for Crenelette's place of business. There's nothing we can do forCarl, just now, inasmuch as we don't know where to go to find him, andthere may be something we _can_ do for Townsend."

  "Your head's level, matey, like it always is. We'll go on a hunt forTownsend. If the contents of the iron chest can't be recovered, we mustdo the next best thing and help Townsend out of a hole--provided he_is_ in a hole, which seems almost certain."

  Matt turned away and addressed himself to Rigolette.

  "How long was Jurgens here, in your house, Rigolette?" he asked.

  "Two--t'ree day, m'sieu."

  "What was he doing here?"

  "Zat I do not know. _Sapristi!_ My head ees buzzing wit' all dese zingsvat I don't onderstan'."

  "You may not have been doing anything wrong, of your own knowledge, byharboring and helping Jurgens and Proctor, Rigolette, but those men arecriminals, and you've got to walk pretty straight from this on if youdon't want to get yourself into trouble."

  "I no want ze trouble, m'sieu!" whined the creole. "I have ze troubleenough wizout making more."

  "Then keep Proctor here, just as he is. He may come to himself, beforelong, and when he does we'll try to get back and have a talk with him.Comprenny?"

  "_Oui_--yes. He ees my friend, but I keep heem lak you say. Zen, bumby,eet may be he can tell what keel ze P'tit Joujou."
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  "I haven't any doubt but that he can let in a good deal of light uponthe mystery. We'll try and return here, in a few hours. Meanwhile, ifthe Dutch boy wanders back, try and keep him."

  "I do w'at I can, m'sieu."

  Matt and Dick, puzzled and bewildered but hoping for results from theirfresh line of inquiry, inquired their way to Royal Street and turnedalong it in the direction of Canal.

  Fortune favored them, for they had not gone a block along RoyalStreet before they saw an antique shop with the sign, "M. Crenelette,Antiques," over the door.

  Matt and Dick went to the other side of the street and took in theappearance of the building. In every particular it conformed to thesmoke picture which they had seen, miles away, in the hut of Yamousa.

  "I'm all ahoo!" admitted Dick. "Yamousa must know a whole lot of thingsthat scientists haven't yet discovered. That's the building, to a dot!"

  "It's amazing!" murmured Matt. "Our cue seems to be a good one and it'sup to us to follow it and see where it leads."

  "Right-o! Heave ahead and I'll tow along, ready for anything thathappens."

  As the boys pushed across the street toward the door of the antiqueshop, a face dodged away from a second-story window. And it was a facewhich, if the boys had seen it, would have warned them to be on theirguard.