Motor Matt's Queer Find

In Short

Motor Matt, Carl Pretzel, and Dick Ferral navigate the skies in their air ship, the Hawk, only to be plunged into a frantic hunt for a mysterious iron chest linked to Archibald Townsend. Their pursuit leads them through the Louisiana bayous, where they encounter voodoo practitioner Yamousa, hostile laborers, and rogues like Whistler and Lat Jurgens. Betrayed by forged identities and strange madness-inducing influences, the friends find themselves imprisoned, hunted, and racing against time to uncover the truth behind the box, which ultimately contains an astonishingly bizarre secret rather than mere riches.

The Story

The story opens as the air ship, the Hawk, glides over the wetlands between Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Borgne. Motor Matt, Carl Pretzel, and Dick Ferral spot a woman tied to a stump and being whipped by the rogue Whistler. Intervening quickly, they rescue the victim, who is revealed to be Yamousa, a scarred and terrifying voodoo woman of the Louisiana swamps. Shortly after, while attempting to land near New Orleans, the boys are attacked by a band of plantation laborers incited by Whistler, leading to Carl tumbling out of the car before Matt and Dick secure the ground.

Inside her hut, Yamousa demonstrates her eerie abilities by conjuring moving pictures out of smoke, displaying a vision of the air ship retrieving an iron chest from a drifting boat. Driven by superstition and panic, Carl flees the scene. When the boys safely reach New Orleans and berth the Hawk at Stuyvesant Dock, they discover an empty skiff drifting on the Mississippi carrying the exact iron chest from Yamousa's smoke vision.

Trusting a man calling himself Bangs, Carl is led away into the city under false pretenses. Matt and Dick soon realize they have been tricked by a confederate named Proctor, alias Bangs, who is working alongside Lat Jurgens to secure the chest for themselves. Carl, meanwhile, finds himself in a courtyard populated by a mocking parrot and a rock-throwing monkey, eventually overhearing Jurgens and Bangs plotting to break open the coveted prize.

Using a cold chisel, Jurgens and Bangs smash the lock of the iron chest, expecting immense wealth. Instead, they find only a paper and the carved head of Obboney, a heathen idol. The discovery is accompanied by an inexplicable psychological haze that unseats the minds of Bangs, Jurgens, and Carl. While tracking down clues through city streets and deceitful expressmen, Matt and Dick are ambushed by Whistler's men and locked away in a dark, suffocating stone vault alongside Archibald Townsend.

Trapped and running out of air, the prisoners rely on their wits just as a recovered Carl arrives alongside mates from the submarine Grampus. Bursting into the vault, Carl helps free Townsend while Matt and Dick overpower the remaining guards. In the aftermath, the group pieces together the bizarre chain of events, realizing that the occult atmosphere, the voodoo charms, and the idol's head created a web of confusion that shielded the true nature of the mystery. The narrative closes with an abrupt transition to a parallel military and mining conflict involving lighthouse sentinels and secret wires, before listing upcoming issues of the dime novel series.

How It Unfolds

• The voyage begins — The air ship Hawk sweeps over the Louisiana bayous, where the chums rescue the voodoo woman Yamousa from a brutal beating by the rogue Whistler.
• The smoke vision — Inside Yamousa's swamp hut, the boys witness an uncanny silhouette projected in the fog, showing an air ship recovering an iron chest from a river boat.
• The trap is sprung — A smooth-talking rogue named Bangs tricks Carl into leaving the New Orleans docks, delivering the naive German boy straight into a criminal den.
• The idol's head — Breaking open the heavy iron chest in a Creole house, Jurgens and Bangs find no glittering treasure, but only a paper and the stone head of Obboney.
• The stone vault — Overpowered by Whistler and his confederates, Matt, Dick, and Townsend are thrown into a dark, subterranean prison cell to starve.
• The rescue — Emerging from his temporary mental haze, Carl leads a successful counter-attack, breaking open the vault door and liberating his friends just in time.

The People

• Motor Matt — A daring, level-headed young mechanic and racer whose nerves of steel and mastery of motors guide his friends through every peril. He wants to keep his companions safe and complete their missions, but faces constant deceit and ambush. He remains the steady anchor of the group throughout.
• Carl Pretzel — A stout, rollicking German boy who loves a good fist fight and boasts of his prowess as fiercely as he complains of his empty stomach. He is easily rattled by the uncanny and falls victim to a mental haze in New Orleans, but ultimately redeems himself by springing his friends from captivity.
• Dick Ferral — A superstitious young Canadian sailor ready to stand by his chums through thick and thin. He aids Matt in physical altercations and tactical maneuvers, though he occasionally falls for clever swindles.
• Archibald Townsend — A wealthy, eccentric gentleman and submarine owner who becomes entangled in the search for the iron chest and his missing daughter. He is captured alongside the boys and helps analyze the occult mysteries.
• Whistler and Lat Jurgens — A pair of hardened rogues bent on acquiring the chest's contents by any means necessary. They utilize violence, deception, and voodoo connections to thwart the boys.
• Yamousa — The hideous, scarred voodoo woman of the swamps who commands smoke pictures and holds hidden sway over the local mysteries.

In Its Own Voice

"Lisden, vonce, you fellers! I t'ink I hear someding."

Carl Pretzel alerts his companions aboard the flying air ship to an unexpected sound rising from the wetlands below.

"Of all the things that ever happened to us, mate, this captures the prize."

Dick Ferral expresses utter astonishment upon discovering the bizarre circumstances surrounding their encounters in the swamp.

"I vas der orichinal Pengal diger, fresh from der chungle und looking to gopple oop vatefer geds in my vay!"

Carl Pretzel loudly boasts of his fighting prowess and ferocity just before being overwhelmed by a group of plantation laborers.

What It's Really About

The story explores the tension between modern mechanical ingenuity and superstitious belief. Through the lens of early-twentieth-century dime novel adventure, it questions the value placed on physical wealth versus the chaos it generates. The iron chest serves as a satirical MacGuffin, shifting hands through violence and trickery only to reveal a worthless idol head. This anti-climax highlights how greed and obsession cloud human reason, driving characters into self-inflicted madness while genuine survival depends on loyalty, calm observation, and mutual trust among friends.

Why Read It Today

Readers who enjoy vintage pulp fiction, early aviation mechanics, and fast-paced turn-of-the-century boys' adventure stories will find this a charming artifact of its time. It feels breathless and theatrical, moving at a relentless pace through swamp voodoo and urban alleys with a distinct, melodramatic energy.

Modern readers must approach it with historical awareness. The text contains pronounced ethnic dialects—particularly Carl's heavily stylized German-English pastiche and the transcribed speech of Black characters—that reflect the casual stereotypes and period attitudes of 1909 American publishing. While the plot is occasionally disjointed and secondary shifts occur abruptly, the unwavering camaraderie between Matt, Carl, and Dick provides an enduring warmth that carries the reader through the absurdity of the central mystery.