But there was a paragraph of overwhelming interest to the lads tucked away in one corner of the first page. Matt's eye caught the paragraph casually, then he gasped and his consternation grew, as he read:
"NOTED VOODOO WOMAN DEAD.
"From Chef Menteur, in the Parish of Orleans, comes news of the death of a famous character in those parts known as Yamousa, priestess of the voodoos. Years ago she lived in New Orleans, numbering her followers by hundreds, but was driven away by the police and found refuge on Bayou Yamousa. Those with any faith in the black arts credited the aged negress with being an adept in her particular line, but others with more common sense and less superstition considered her a grafter of remarkable ability. Her death, it is supposed, was the result of natural causes."
Here was a blow, and no mistake. Matt, greatly dejected, read the paragraph to Dick.
"Keelhaul me!" exclaimed Dick. "We're up in the air now for fair. Your luck seems to have taken a turn for the worse, Matt. What are we going to do? The last prop has been knocked out from under us."
The boys reached the dock and seated themselves moodily on a cotton bale not far from the Hawk.
Matt had not the remotest idea what they were to do. Yamousa had been their last hope, and a strange fatality had suddenly snatched it away from them.
"The outlook is getting more and more dubious," said Matt. "Yamousa might not have been able to help us, but there was a chance that she could. Now the chance, slim enough at best, is gone. It's a lucky thing, though, that I bought the paper and found that notice. If I hadn't, we might have been wasting time, off in the southeast. If——"
"Ledders! ledders. Dree oof dem!"
Carl, at that moment, came ambling across the dock, dodging the boxes and bales and hurrying toward Matt and Dick. As he approached he held up the three letters he had secured at the post office.
They were all for Motor Matt, two of them having been forwarded from Atlantic City. One was from an amusement manager in Chicago, offering a fancy figure to the boys to take the Hawk to the great lakes for exhibition purposes; another was from an enthusiastic member of the Aëro Club of America asking the boys their price for the air ship; but the third letter—that was the one that caused them to sit up and take notice. It ran as follows: