"My double was taken from the levee in a carriage. It may have been one of Jurgens' gang who helped him out of his trouble."
"The fellow didn't look like any of the gang."
"There may be some new members we don't know anything about. If we can find the man who drove the carriage, we could discover where he took that young fellow."
"What good would that do? Jurgens and his outfit wouldn't come back to that place. I'll lay a sov the lot of them tripped anchor and bore away the minute the stones came into their hands."
"That's my idea, Dick. I told you the clue wasn't very promising, but it appears to be the only one we have. Townsend, however, suggested something which had also occurred to me."
"Vat it iss?" queried Carl. "I don'd vas mooch oof a handt to dig oop clues, aber I bed you I can tell a goot clue ven I come face to face mit it. Shpeak it oudt, Matt."
"Why not bear away in the air ship to Bayou Yamousa?"
"Nod dere! Ach, py shinks, don'd have somet'ing to do mit dot olt shpook laty again."
Carl's superstitious fears did not weigh very heavily with Matt and Dick. The latter slapped his hands.
"First chop!" he cried. "It's the last shot in the locker, and who knows but that it may be just the thing for us to do? I'm for beginning the trip to Bayou Yamousa now. It's a still night, mates, and we could get the _Hawk_ off the dock without any trouble. She's ripe and ready for the flight of her life!"
"It's a still night, that's true, Dick," answered Matt, "but you forget that we have got to have daylight for finding the bayou. We can't locate it in the dark."
"But we're losing time," grumbled Dick, "and we haven't any to throw at the birds."
"The more haste, the less speed," counseled Matt. "Better to go slow and be sure of what we're doing, Dick, than to run wild and get tangled up in our bearings. We'd probably lose more time in the end if we did that."
"But Jurgens and his gang are getting farther and farther away all the time."
"They'll go into hiding somewhere, if I'm any prophet, until the affair blows over a little. If Yamousa can tell us where they are----"
"Don'd try dot," put in Carl earnestly. "She vill vork a hogus-pogus und meppy ged all oof us indo drouple."
"We're going to pay Yamousa a visit, Carl," said Matt firmly. "There's nothing else we can do. The police will be able to handle this end of the work much better than we could. Go to bed, both of you. I'm going over to police headquarters and tell the chief about the carriage that took the man and the young fellow away from the levee. As soon as I do that, I'll come back and pull covers myself. In the morning we'll have breakfast, and then we'll make a start for the bayou."