CHAPTER III.
DOUBLE-TROUBLE.
Carl and Dick, on the levee, gazed dumfounded at the points in thepress of vehicles where the carriage had disappeared, and then facedthe other way and peered at the chagrined policeman, the blackenedand smoking cotton bale, and the loungers who were crowding about theofficer. The roustabouts had all gone back to their work.
"Pinch me, vonce!" begged Carl. "I bed you I vas ashleep, Tick."
"Blow me tight!" murmured Dick hazedly. "I feel as though I'd had anightmare myself. I never thought it was in Matt to act like that, evenif he _was_ playing a part. I hate to think hard things about my oldraggie, Motor Matt, but----"
"Don'd!" cut in Carl. "Vait und gif him a chance to oxblain. He villcome pack und tell us somet'ing----"
"Hello, there, you fellows! Where have you been?"
As this familiar voice rang out, Carl and Dick whirled in a panic.Motor Matt, in leather cap and jacket, trim and neat as ever, washastening toward them across the levee.
Dick staggered and threw a hand to his head. Carl, likewise, was ata loss for words. Here was Motor Matt, running toward them acrossthe levee, when, by rights, he should have been a good way off in acarriage, getting clear of a pot of trouble which he had set a-boiling.
The policeman, catching sight of Matt, rushed toward him, the crowd athis heels. That brought Carl and Dick to a full realization of what wasgoing on.
"We made a bobble!" cried Dick.
"Yah, so helup me!" agreed Carl; "der vorst popple vat iss. Und dotbolicemans iss some more."
The boys darted toward the officer and Matt.
"I've got you now, my lad," growled the officer, as the boys came up."You can't fool me by getting into another outfit o' clothes. Your faceis a dead giveaway."
Matt looked his surprise.
"You've made some mistake, officer," he answered. "What's wrong?"
"Oh, he don't know a thing!" cried one of the bystanders scoffingly.
"He's fergot all about burnin' that 'ar cotton bale," said another.
"A blame' quick change he made, anyhow," put in a third.
"I don't understand you," said Matt. "I just came from StuyvesantDock----"
"D'you mean to say you wasn't here a few minutes ago, shufflin' around,smokin' a cigarette----"
"I don't smoke cigarettes," broke in Matt, "and I wasn't here a fewminutes ago. I've been with the air ship, over on the dock, for thelast hour."
"Ye was right here fer an hour," declared one of the loungers. "I seenye."
"I can easily disprove that," temporized Matt. "Go and talk with thewatchman on the dock, officer. He will tell you that I have been withhim for an hour."
The policeman, as well as the others, was in a quandary. Matt's wholemanner was different from that of the youth whose cigarette had setfire to the cotton bale. His talk was different, too, and there wasnothing "chesty" or insolent about him.
"What's the trouble, pards?" asked Matt, appealing to Carl and Dick."I'm all at sea over this. When I got to Stuyvesant Dock, an hour ago,the watchman there told me that you boys had gone off somewhere on ahurry-up call. I waited for you to come back, and then, when I saw thesmoke of the burning cotton bale, I started for here."
"The trouble is deeper than I think any of us can fathom," mutteredDick. "Strike me lucky, mate, but there was a swab here who was thevery picture of you--in the face, mind, for his get-up was altogetherdifferent. Carl and I was fooled, for we were dead sure the other swabwas you. That other fellow was smoking a cigarette, and that's what setfire to the bale."
Dick faced the policeman.
"Hands off of him, officer," said he. "This isn't the chap you want.He's Motor Matt--everybody up and down the river front has heard ofMotor Matt and his chums, and of the air ship."
"I'm dashed if I can savvy this," murmured the perplexed officer, "butI'm going to the Stuyvesant Dock with you and see if the watchman willset me right. He's a friend o' mine, the watchman is, and he'll give itto me straight."
When Matt, Carl, Dick, and the officer started for the Stuyvesant Dock,they left the crowd behind.
"I went over town, just at the beginning of the forenoon," said Matt,"and when I got back to the air ship the watchman said that a man hadcome there and asked for me. As I wasn't around, the watchman told meyou and Carl had answered the summons, Dick. Where did you go?"
"The man who came was Cassidy, Townsend's mate on the _Grampus_,"answered Dick. "He said Townsend was out on Prytania Street, andhe gave me the number of the house. Cassidy said the business wasimportant, so Carl and I got on a street car and went to the place.Townsend is sick a-bed----"
"Sick?" queried Matt.
"Aye, and can't move. The trouble he had with Jurgens and Whistlerwas the cause of it, Townsend thinks. But we couldn't do the businessfor you--it's you, and no one else, that Townsend wants. He gave us aletter for you and wants you to call on him at midnight, to-night."
"What for?"
"He wouldn't tell us, but said he had explained that in the letter."
"Where's the letter?"
There was a silence while the little group tramped over the planks inthe direction of Stuyvesant Dock.
"Oh, dowse me," muttered Dick. "I feel like thirty cents!"
"I feel lesser as dot," chimed in Carl.
"What happened to the letter?" queried Matt.
"You see, matey," explained Dick, very much crestfallen, "when Carl andI saw that other fellow on the levee, we were sure he was you."
"But he was dressed differently."
"Aye, aye, that's true enough, but we thought you were keeping tab onsomebody and had put on those clothes in order to do it."
Matt laughed.
"You fellows must be locoed!" he exclaimed. "What reason have I to gointo the detective business?"
"Ve ditn't know dot," observed Carl, "but ve vas sure dot odder fellervas you. Anyvay, Tick vistled ad him, laidt der ledder on der cottonbale, und ven der feller came for it, den, py shinks, his sigaroot sedder pale afire. Aber he got der ledder, und some feller run avay mithim in a puggy. Der boliceman hat tried to arresdt der feller, aber heslipped glear. Ach, himmelblitzen, vat a pad pitzness!"
"We didn't have a hap'orth o' sense," added Dick gloomily.
By then the little party was close to the air ship. The watchman waswithin hail, and a few words from him satisfied the policeman.
"Sorry I bothered you, Motor Matt," apologized the officer, "but you'rea dead ringer for that other chap--which is more credit to him than itis to you. He's your double, all right, and I hope you get back yourletter."
The policeman went one way, the watchman another, and Matt led hischums to one side, where they could have a little private talk bythemselves.
His face was grave as he asked them to begin at the beginning and givehim all the facts, once more.
The ground was thrashed over pretty thoroughly, Matt putting questionsfrom time to time that brought out even the apparently insignificantdetails. When the explanations were done a silence fell over the chums.Dick was first to speak.
"Keelhaul me," he observed, in deep contrition, "neither Carl nor Iseem able to do a thing right when you're not around."
"I'm not finding any fault with you, pards," returned Matt. "Even theofficer was fooled, so it is quite natural that you should have madethe mistake. Give me that number on Prytania Street. I'd better hikeright out there and have Townsend tell me what was in the letter."
"It would be a wrong move, mate."
"How so?"
"Townsend said the matter was of the utmost importance----"
"All the more reason why I should find out about it as soon aspossible!"
"But he insisted that you wasn't to come to him until midnight,to-night."
"He don't know the letter has got into wrong hands."
"Sure he don't, but he's afraid the house where he is is being watched,and we were to tell you to come around the back way and knock at therear door. I'm a Fiji i
f I know what's up, but Townsend was mightyparticular that you shouldn't come until midnight."
Matt was thoughtful for a space.
"They say that every one has a double," he remarked, with a halflaugh, "and it begins to look as though my double had shown up. Thisdouble-trouble was something I never expected to run into, but it'scome and we'll have to see it through. Townsend didn't give you a hintas to what he wanted me for?"
"Never a hint," answered Dick. "He was mighty close about it."
"Well," decided Matt, "I'll be at that house in Prytania Street on thestroke of twelve, to-night. Let's feel as easy as we can about thatletter, and go and get some supper."