CHAPTER VIII.
A BULLET FROM BELOW.
The boys were stunned. Could it be possible that this was a "straighttip," and not a hoax?
The letter was written on a scrap of paper taken from a notebook; andthe envelope in which it was inclosed had been used twice. The firsttime it had been addressed to "Hubert Bangs, General Delivery, NewOrleans, La." The "Hubert Bangs" had been scratched off with a leadpencil and Motor Matt's name written in its place. The ragged end ofthe envelope had been folded over and secured with a pin.
"A drick!" muttered Carl. "Dot feller Pangs iss vone oof Jurgens' gang."
"Strike me lucky," put in Dick, "but that's the sizing I give it, Matt."
"You're wrong," averred Matt. "If a trick was intended, Bangs wouldnever have used an old envelope bearing his name. Be sure of that.Even if a trick _was_ intended, it would be a ruse to get us into thevicinity of the gang of thieves. The gang wouldn't do that, beingtoo anxious, just now, to keep out of sight. But, supposing that wasJurgens' game, wouldn't it be a good thing for us to come close to thethieves? They have the diamonds, and they are what we want."
"Right-o!" exclaimed Dick. "Hoax or no, our move is to slant away forBayou Yamousa, where we intended to go in the first place. We'll notfind Yamousa there, but luck of another kind may be waiting for us."
"Vy von't ve findt Yamousa?" inquired Carl, his face brightening alittle.
Dick showed him the paragraph in the paper and Carl spelled it out, hisface continuing to clear as he read.
"I don'd vish der olt foodoo voman any hardt luck," breathed Carl,"aber I vas gladder she ain'd dere as dot she vas. It vill be pedderfor us. Are ve going to hit der air route?"
"Just as quick as we can," answered Matt briskly, hurrying to the car.
There was no wind to speak of, but it required manoeuvring to guide the_Hawk_ out from under the high roof and to the edge of the dock. Theboys, after stowing the mooring ropes by which they had hauled the airship into the open, got aboard the car and Matt started the engine.
A moment later the propeller took the push, and the _Hawk_ glided upher airy path until she swung high over the City of New Orleans. Peoplebelow could be seen running about and looking and pointing upward.
"We're causing quite a stir, mates," remarked Dick. "We'd cause moreof a stir, though, if those people down there knew what we had in ournoodles."
Carl ran out the American flag to the rear end of the air ship, andwaved his cap. A cheer arose, weirdly distinct and inspiring.
"I feel in my pones," said Carl, "dot somet'ing iss going to habben.It's der olt hunch come pack. I hafen't felt dot for some leedle time.Aber I'd like to know," the Dutch boy added, as he floundered back tohis post forward, "who it vas sent dot ledder."
"One of the gang may have weakened, or have been left out in thedivision of the booty," said Matt, laying his course calmly, andfeeling very much at home and contented, now that he was running hisbeloved motor again. "The house in Prytania Street, you know, waswatched night and day. It was spied upon yesterday afternoon and nightwhile Jurgens, Whistler, and Bangs must have been laying their plans.It's my idea that there is another member of the gang, and perhaps itis this fourth man who wrote the letter."
"One guess is as good as another, mate," replied Dick. "We'll know whothe fellow is, maybe, when we get to the bayou."
"Und meppy nod," said Carl. "Meppy dose fellers haf a drap all sedfor us, und dot ve vill trop indo it und mix oop mit all kindts oofoxcidement."
"That's right, Carl," growled Dick. "You're the original wet blanket.Why don't you square away and look on the bright side? The job that'sset for us is hard enough without any of your croaking."
"I don'd vas croaking!" protested Carl. "I look on der plack site, undden, ven der pright site shows oop ve like him pedder pecause ve don'toxbect it. I am jeerful all der dime. Ask Matt aboudt dot."
"Carl's intentions are good, Dick," said Matt. "You must give himcredit for that. We both know the prospect ahead of us isn't anytoo pleasing. We're going it blind and trusting to luck. The more Ithink about that letter, however, the more confidence I have in thegood intentions of the writer. Whistler, you know, used to work ona plantation near Bayou Yamousa. It's easy to suppose that he has aknowledge of the country in that section, and that knowledge will standthe gang in hand, now that they're looking for a place to lay low."
"That's a fact," agreed Dick. "We'll get alongside those duffing beachcombers, and then it will be up to us to lay them aboard and grab thediamonds. We'll do it," he added stoutly. "Motor Matt's along, andMotor Matt's luck is with us."
Light as the bird after which she was named, the _Hawk_ skimmed throughthe sunlit air, five hundred feet above the "Father of Waters." Boatsbelow, bound for New Orleans or outward to the Gulf, were passed, manya glass being trained on the air ship and its passengers.
Matt and his chums had gone over this route once before, and now, whilethey were taking the back track, they remembered the landmarks andguided the _Hawk_ accordingly.
After two hours of sailing over the river, Dick sighted their turningpoint and gave the order for an easterly course. The _Hawk_ swungaround, answering the steering rudder easily. The motor workedperfectly, and the air ship swerved and shifted with the slightesttouch on the guiding lever.
"And that swab who belongs to the A?ro Club wants to buy the _Hawk_!"scoffed Dick. "We'll never sell her, Matt. If it's money we want, wecan make more with the air ship than we could in any other line ofbusiness. Besides, who'd change this air flying for anything elseunder heaven? I'd flog the cat all the days of my life if we were everfoolish enough to let go of this craft."
"I'll go on record in the same way, Dick," said Matt.
"Me, too," chanted Carl. "Vile ve haf der _Hawk_ ve can be vay oop inG, all der time. Yah, you bed my life, I like dis pedder as anyt'ing."
That flight was the very poetry of the lads' air-ship experience. Fatewas lowering over the _Hawk_--destruction was skulking just ahead inthe heavy timber below--and Motor Matt and his chums were to look backon that flight to Bayou Yamousa as their last.
Mile after mile of tree tops sped rearward under the car. The boysknew that they were drawing close to the bayou, and Carl and Dick wereattending strictly to their work as lookouts.
"I t'ink I see der rifer vat der bayou iss on," announced Carlsuddenly, pointing ahead and a little to the left. "Vat you t'ink,Tick? Vas I righdt?"
"Come down a little, Matt," called Dick; "I think I'm beginning torecognize this country, and that Carl has called the turn."
Matt tilted the rudder and the _Hawk_ swooped downward. Before Mattbrought the air ship to a level, they were less than twenty feet abovethe tops of the tallest trees.
"Two points to port, mate," shouted Dick. "There," he added, "hold herso. Very well done. We're coming to the bayou, cap'n and----"
Dick's words were bitten short by a sharp, incisive note from below.This was followed instantly by a smashing sound, a spiteful _slap_, anda wild hissing.
Cries of alarm came from Dick and Carl.
The motor stopped with an impotent gurgle, the propeller slowed down,and the _Hawk_ began to pitch forward and backward and to swervesideways dangerously.
"Some one shot at us!" yelled Dick excitedly. "The bullet came fromamong the trees, down there!"
"Py shinks," roared Carl, in a panic, "ve're done for. Ged her down onder groundt, Matt! Be as kevick as vat you can! Ach, himmeblitzen, Ibed you ve vas all goners."
"Steady, pards!" came the calm, unruffled voice of Motor Matt. "Hangon! Don't jump or let yourselves be thrown out. There's plenty ofgas in the bag yet and it may be I can find a landing. Do you see anopening anywhere among the trees, Dick? Look sharp and speak quick!"
"I can't see the first sign of a clearing," Dick answered.
Just then the _Hawk_ went into the wildest contortions. She seemed likea living thing, wounded to the death and plunging about in fierce agony.
First the car would
be tilted until it was almost perpendicular in theair; then it would swerve to the same position, with the other end ofthe car downward; and, all the time it was leaping upward and downwardin this hair-raising way, it was jerking violently right and left.
It was impossible for the boys to do anything more than to hang on fortheir lives. Occasionally they were swinging out of the car, above thetree tops, and again they would be hurled fiercely against the ironframework.
Matt, in this desperate plight, continued to keep his head. He knewthat the bullet fired from below had struck and damaged the motor, andhad then passed on through the gas bag.
The gas was pouring out, but Matt was hoping that enough buoyancy wouldremain to give them a safe landing on the surface, even if it must be arough one.
In this he was disappointed. Suddenly there came a tearing sound fromthe bag, and all in the car knew that the bullet hole had widened intoa rent under pressure of the gas.
Then, like so much lead, the doomed air ship swooped downward andcrashed into the top of a tree.