CHAPTER V.
A QUEER FIND.
Had the boys been a minute later in casting loose, there wouldcertainly have been trouble--and perhaps they would not have been ableto get away at all.
Whistler, who was well in advance of the others, strained every nerveto reach the car, but the _Hawk_ was well in the air before he reachedthe spot where it had been moored. Neither he, nor any of those withhim, seemed to be armed. No shots were fired, and Whistler shook hisfist upward and shouted maledictions.
"Py chiminy," whooped Carl, "ve'll led him vistle some. He ought to begood at dot."
Swiftly the clearing vanished behind the _Hawk_, and the tops of thetrees soon hid it entirely.
Carl drew a long breath.
"I vas nefer so habby ofer anyt'ing as I vas to ged avay from dotblace," he averred. "Der olt voman vas pad meticine, und ve vas luckydot ve vas aple to ged avay ad all."
"Avast there, matey!" answered Dick. "Yamousa tried to be a friend ofours."
"I don'd like friendts vat iss so spookish," went on Carl, kicking thecat's skull off the front of the car and watching it tumble into thegreen tree tops below. "Dere iss all kindts oof drouples come oof soochpitzness."
"She said she looked into the smoke and saw Whistler and those otherfellows coming," muttered Dick.
"Meppy she dit, und meppy she saw dem, or heard dem."
"If she saw Whistler and his outfit in a smoke picture," went on Dick,"and then came to warn us, it not only proves that she means well, butthat there's something in that smoke business."
Matt smiled a little.
"We'd better forget all that happened last night, pards," said he."We can't make head or tail out of it, anyhow, and I don't believein worrying over things you can't understand. We helped Yamousa; andYamousa, in her own way, has tried to befriend us. Suppose we let it goat that and sponge out the occult part of it? The biggest, and possiblythe most amazing discovery we made, was that Whistler got clear of theBahamas and seems to have got this far on the trail of the iron chest.If Whistler is on the trail, no doubt Lat Jurgens is, also. PerhapsTownsend knew about this when he telegraphed us to come to New Orleans."
"I hope nothing has happened to Townsend," murmured Dick, his mindreverting to the smoke picture he had seen.
"There you go again," laughed Matt. "You're still thinking of whatYamousa showed us, and imagining there may be something in it. Cut itout, Dick. If there's anything in the picture we'll know it beforelong. Dip into the ration bag and get out some breakfast--I'm nearlystarved."
While Dick held to the post of lookout, Carl drew on the food supplyand all hands ate a cold breakfast.
After the meal the boys passed an hour discussing Jurgens and Whistler,their designs on the iron chest, and the way they had probably escapedfrom the sand key in the Bahamas. For the most part, the discussion lednowhere. The boys could make guesses, but unless they were to put theirfaith in what Yamousa told them, their talk could bring them to nothingdefinite.
The conversation was interrupted by Dick.
"Mississippi, ho!" he cried. "The river's dead ahead, mates, and hardunder our forefoot."
"Good!" exclaimed Matt. "We'll follow the river to New Orleans."
"Where we going to keep der air ship when we reach der city?" inquiredCarl.
This was always a conundrum to the boys. The _Hawk_ was so big andunwieldy, and withal so easily damaged, that to stow it away where itwould be safe from wind and storm was a difficult problem.
"We might anchor the _Hawk_ on some scow in the river," suggested Dick,"and then put the canvas cover over her. If we find we're going to stayin New Orleans long, it might pay to build a roof over the scow."
"That would cost too much," objected Matt. "It would take a mighty highroof to clear the top of the gas bag, and a mighty big one to coverit. Why not berth her on one of the docks? The docks are high, they'reroofed, and there's always a watchman in charge."
"Right-o!" said Dick. "You've tagged on to the right rope, old ship.We'll use the docks. Stuyvesant Dock will about suit us. I was in thisport once on the old _Billy Ruffin_. We coaled over in Algiers, andsome of us had shore leaves. A great town, that, and----"
Carl, who had been leaning over the rail, went limp and white all of asudden and looked around with staring eyes.
"What's the matter with you, mate?" demanded Dick, startled by theDutch boy's manner. "Sick?"
"N-o-o," gurgled Carl, "I vas vat you call flappergasted--so astoundetmit vat I see dot I can't shpeak. Look ofer der site, und see vat yousee py der rifer. Ach, du lieber! I don'd know vat to t'ink."
Matt had already swerved the _Hawk_ into an upstream course. The murkywaters of the Mississippi lay no more than a hundred feet below, andthe light, variable winds were helping rather than retarding the airship.
Matt and Dick both cast downward looks over the guard rail, and whatthey saw caused them to straighten erect and stare at each other inamazement. For a moment or two, neither could speak.
Ahead of them drifting downstream with the current was a skiff.Although there were oars over the skiff's sides, trailing in the water,the boat was empty.
In the stern sheets, however, was the iron chest!
The boys had seen that particular iron chest so many times that theywere perfectly familiar with its appearance.
During the interval that passed while the lads were staring at eachother, before the mental eyes of all of them floated that smoke pictureseen the evening before in Yamousa's hut.
"Der olt Nick has somet'ing to do mit dot," muttered Carl, drawing onehand over his puzzled eyes.
"It's the queerest find I ever heard of!" stuttered Dick. "From theway you described that first smoke picture to me, Matt, this event isfitting into it in a way that takes my breath."
"It--it might be a coincidence," mumbled Matt, hardly knowing what tobelieve, now that he was face to face with such a reality.
"Coincidence nothing!" averred Dick bluntly. "Yamousa has powers wenever dreamed of. She may be a clairvoyant, or something like that."
"I never took much stock in clairvoyants," demurred Matt.
"Well, anyhow, there's the chest. In some manner it's got away fromTownsend."
"Exactly," said Matt, throwing aside the uncanny feeling that had comeover him. "No matter how we happened to make this queer find, nor howlittle we understand the manner in which we made it, our duty is clear.We've got to recover the chest, find Townsend, and turn it over to him."
"Stand by, then, to go aboard the skiff," called Dick. "Port your helm,Matt. I'll do the conning for you."
"Keep away!" shouted Carl. "Don'd go near dot poat und don'd foolmit dot safe. It's pad meticine! Eferyt'ing iss pad meticine vat hasanyt'ing to do mit dot olt laty. Ach, blitzen, I vish ve hatn't seendot poat!"
But Matt and Dick knew what their duty was and paid little heed toCarl's protests.
Guided by Dick, Matt brought the _Hawk_ within a dozen feet ofthe boat, cut off the power, and the air ship hovered in the air,motionless save for the slight influence of the wind. Dick tossed arope over the side. Matt, leaving his seat among the levers, preparedto get over the rail and lower himself into the boat.
"Hadn't I better go, matey?" queried Dick. "I'm used to sliding up anddown ropes and backstays."
"You and Carl stay here and make ready to hoist the safe aboard,"replied Matt. "I'm a pretty fair hand at rope climbing."
Probably none of the boys thought, at that moment, how closely theywere copying the smoke pictures shown Matt and Carl by Yamousa. Thatsmoke scene seemed to have depicted the event with the sureness of fate.
Matt dropped over the side quickly, in order to get into the boatbefore the _Hawk_ should drift away from it. He succeeded in carryingout his design and, still clinging to the rope, stepped from thegunwale of the skiff to one of the midship thwarts and then into thestern.
There was nothing in the boat to show who the occupant had been. Abailing tin lay in the bottom, but there was absolutel
y nothing else inthe skiff apart from the iron chest.
"Work quickly, old ship!" Ferral called down. "The wind is fresheningand we'll be blown away from you if you don't hustle."
Swiftly, Motor Matt secured the end of the rope to one of the ironhandles.
"Haul away," said he, stepping back.
Carl and Dick seized the rope and began to pull. The chest rose slowlyinto the air; and then, when it was lifted about half way, one of thesudden gusts of wind which the _Hawk_ had been encountering all alongthe Gulf coast struck the air ship, and she leaped sideways nearly tothe shore of the river.
Carl and Dick secured the rope frantically. While the chest continuedto swing below the car, Dick jumped into the levers and got thepropeller going. This gave him a better command of the air ship and heattempted to manoeuvre the craft back and into Matt's vicinity.
Again and again he tried, but, as the wind was now high and shiftingquickly from one quarter to another, no success attended his efforts.
"Take the chest aboard," Matt cried, standing up in the skiff andmaking a trumpet of his hands, "and go on to town. Berth the _Hawk_ onone of the docks, if you can, and, if you can't, make a landing fartherinland. I'll follow you."
There was nothing else to be done, and Matt watched the _Hawk_ bearaway up the river, Dick at the motor and Carl heaving in the chest byslow degrees.