Loe raamatut: «Flying the Coast Skyways. Jack Ralston's Swift Patrol», lehekülg 7

CHAPTER XVII
Spinning the Net

Again, after Jack had paid a visit to the home of Mr. Herriott he repeated much of what fresh information he had picked up during the evening, some of which he deemed more or less important, as the facts dove-tailed with other details, to make something of a complete structure.

“Tomorrow we’ll hang around the city, as there are a few things I’ve got down on my list of wanted articles,” he observed in conclusion. “Besides, I promised him I’d fetch you around so as to make his acquaintance, for he always asks about you.”

“Huh! Spose I jest has to get over there some time’r other,” Perk remarked, as though not particularly eager to go. “But I shore hopes as heow on the follerin’ mawnin’ we kin start off, an’ go so far we’ll jest have to make camp in them there dark gloomy lookin’ pine woods.”

“It must depend a whole lot on the kind of weather they dish up for that day,” Jack informed him. “If it’s foggy, and the visibility poor, we might as well hang out here in the city, since we couldn’t do any paying business looking into a blank wall of fog, you know, Wally boy.”

“Okay – suits me jest as well as things go,” the other announced carelessly enough; “I aint acarin’ a scrap whether school keeps or not, so long as we gits aour three square meals a day, an’ dandy ones at that, real Southern style, like I used to have when I was a Birmin’ham kid, runnin’ raound barefoot with my mates, jest like Tom Sawyer an’ Huck Finn uster do in them ole Mississippi days we done reads ’baout in the books.”

It was just as well that Jack had decided to drop a day in their search for hidden haunts of the smugglers; for when morning came the sky was overcast, and poor visibility seemed to be “on tap” for the entire day.

Jack went about doing his errands, while Perk seemed content to stick to the isolation of their comfortable room, doing some reading of the bundle of well known daily papers he had managed to secure at a shop they passed during the short walk taken in company after breakfast – that, and the waiting to get up an appetite for dinner seemed to be the full extent of Perk’s ambition, it was plain to be seen – when he had a day off, and the “eats” were so unusually tempting, it pleased Perk to act as if a lazy streak had gripped him.

“I think I forgot to tell you,” Jack chanced to tell his comrade as the afternoon began to wane, “that we are invited to dine with Mr. Herriott and his fine little family tonight. Oh! you needn’t be so alarmed, partner; we’ll simply clean up, and look a bit dressy; you’ll soon be on good terms with both him and his charming wife; as to the kids I warrant you fall dead for them at first sight.”

Perk, whose face had at first taken on an expression of sheer dejection, seemed to brighten up at mention of the youngsters; for he even grinned, and started to the bathroom, as if to begin washing up.

They arrived in good time, and Perk was soon made acquainted with the entire little family – of course under the name and character beneath which he was hiding his own identity at that particular time.

Just as sagacious Jack had surmised would happen, Perk was soon feeling quite at home, making “wise-cracks” with the two wideawake youngsters, and even engaging in more or less conversation with his host and Mrs. Herriott.

It chanced that there seemed to be a dearth of news that evening, so they could spend the time after dinner in other ways than “going into a huddle,” as Perk put it, and having a siege of explanations and surmises.

Mr. Herriott coaxed Perk to speak of his early experiences, partly when over in France, during war times, then later on with the Mounted Police up in Northwest Canada, and also as one of the early pilots carrying the mails, as far as was done in those bygone days and nights.

When Perk was once fairly aroused he apparently lost his customary bashfulness, and could tell a story that brought out more than a few laughs because of what queer things he narrated, and his comical way of relating the same, his expressive freckled face all working with imitations of how other men did their talking.

“I never sits so comfy in the cabin o’ a up-to-date tri-motored airship these here days,” he went on to remark, when well started, “with all sorts o’ instruments to navigate by, that I doant think ’baout heow we don’t fly any more by jest instinct, like we uster do when the Wright boys was a perfectin’ their fust crude heavier’n air flyin’ ship. Today, suh, we sits at the controls, an’ keeps aour eyes on aour instruments all the time, an’ doan’t care a red cent what aour wonderful instincts say ’baout it.”

“I never thought about that fact, Wally,” Mr. Herriott hastened to exclaim; “please go on, and tell us something more along that same line. You certainly must have passed through some strange experiences, I’d say.”

“Shucks! but it shore does make me laugh aout loud when I looks back to them early days, an’ ’members the funny way we used to find aout whether the silly bus was a movin’ up, er daown, to the left, or to the right. The very fust instrument, if yeou could call it that, to ease up on the instinct way o’ doin’ was invented by one o’ them smart Wright brothers. Say, it was on’y a light piece o’ string, tied jest in front o’ the pilot’s face. When we was a goin’ near ten miles an hour, mebbe fifteen at a stretch, we kept an eye on that string right along, an’ could tell what the ole ship was adoin’, ’cause like it might a been if she floated in the wind straight at aour face we knowed we was keepin’ on a level keel – if it went daown a bit why we was climbin’ some; if the string struck us in the forehead in course the plane must be droppin’; and same way if it flowed to the right, or the left. An’ say, I never did know that early Wright invention to kick over the traces, an’ fool me any.”

Even Jack apparently had never heard about that clever device, however primitive it might seem when placed alongside the wonderful means at present used to ascertain the same things – such as slipping, skidding, turning, climbing, or diving – today the experienced pilot watches the air-speed instrument, his compass, the bank and turn indicator. Only by placing entire dependence on the instruments in the cockpit can a pilot fly with any certainty in foggy weather, when it is utterly impossible to see any fixed point, either on the earth below or in the heavens above.

And this is only one great change made in both the construction of the airship in these modern days, as well as the helping hand given the pilot through the clever devices by which he is confronted when sitting at the controls.

Taken in all Perk spent a very pleasant evening with the Herriotts, and on their part they had a most uproarious time, the children particularly in romping with the jolly chap from the North.

It was with considerable eagerness that Perk bounded out of bed on the ensuing morning, and rushed to a window to ascertain what the chances were for a promising day in the coast skyways.

“Okay, partner!” he sang out blithely, after one brief look at the heavens, a portion of which was visible from the hotel window; “agwine to be jest fine, an’ never a whiff o’ fog aout there on Charleston harbor an’ bay.”

“Then we’ll get busy, and make as early a start as possible,” Jack announced, also quitting his cot.

“An’ we doant kim back thisaway tonight, either, I shore reckons, Boss,” Perk went on to add, with a happy ring in his voice; for he did yearn to eat one camp meal, when the chance came along, and no harm might follow their change of a set programme.

“That depends on a good many things,” Jack warned him; “so I wouldn’t count too heavily on our stick-it-out idea, if I were you, Wally, boy. If all goes well, no accidents happen to our boat, and we get so far away from home along about the middle of the afternoon, why we’ll decide then on our doings for the night. You might as well, I suppose, carry a few necessary things along, such as you’d like to eat at a campfire supper – if we think it wise to have any fire, I mean.”

“Oh! please doant throw any gloom on aour trip today, partner; we kin make shore to drop daown in a region where there aint a Chinaman’s chanct o’ a solitary Tarheel bein’ inside o’ ten miles; an’ the swamps araoun’ makin’ it ab-solutely impossible fo’ sech to git to aour camp short o’ six days anyway, havin’ to cut his path through dense thickets; wade sloughs where the pizen water moccasins air thicker’n molasses on a cold mawnin’; with twelve-foot ’gators alayin’ in wait to bite off a gink’s leg quicker’n yeou could wink an eye. Shucks! we jest gotter have that same campfire – withaout the same it’d be like the play o’ Hanblett with him left aout.”

Jack only grinned, but Perk seeing the look on his face, took courage.

“There’s one thing I haven’t touched on as yet, brother, which might just as well be taken up now.” Jack was telling his comrade, as they sat eating an early breakfast, there being hardly any one besides themselves in the diningroom; so they could talk in low tones, and keeping an eye on the waiters, so as to change the subject should one of them draw near.

“Huh! somethin’ mebbe naow Mr. H been atellin’ you-all, eh, suh?”

“Just that, Wally; but a matter of the utmost importance, it happens, as you’ll soon understand, buddy. It concerns a certain party who’s going to have a hand with us in closing the net, and making a big dent in this same syndicate we’re up against. His name – bend a bit closer to me – is Jethro Hicks.”

“Sho! never heard it afore, give yeou my affidavy, partner!” returned Perk.

“Of course not,” snapped Jack; “neither did I until Mr. Herriott mentioned the fact last night that he would be waiting whenever we sent out the word – waiting in a certain little bayou which we’d have picked for our hideout – waiting in an old battered powerboat he owns, to take us about in the nest of swamps which we could never navigate otherwise. You get the point, don’t you, Wally, boy?”

“Hot-diggetty-dig! jest what I do, suh; queer I never reckoned on haow we’d be able to dodge ’raound in sech crazy places, if left to aourselves. Gwine to have a reg’lar pilot – woods guide fo’ swamp flittin’, I’d call the same! Good enough, I say – caint be too many quirks set up fo’ knockin’ them dead game sports silly, to please me. As it is we gotter to be workin’ with four hands each, if we hopes to climb ’em fo’ keeps.”

“I’ll tell you more about this same Jethro Hicks when I get further word through our good friend, who’s as interested in the success of our deal as we are ourselves – says he has it on his mind sleeping and waking, which pleases me a whole lot. Come, let’s be on the move, partner; the chariot awaits us.”

“Then we’ll git aboard an’ start right away, after I’ve laid in a few provisions that may keep the hungry wolf from aour door this very night. Let’s go!”

Half an hour afterward and they were on their way out to the aviation field in a convenient taxi; where in short order their big amphibian, properly serviced by the field force, was ready for the take-off.

CHAPTER XVIII
Black Water Bayou

Fortune favored them again, it seemed, not only with regard to the skies, but, probably owing in part to the early hour, there were few persons scattered about the aviation grounds when they took off; and the regular attendants already understood the pair constituted a duck-hunting party, viewing the coast shooting stands with a view to getting in some good sport when finally satisfied as to location.

From the beginning they hit up a high pace, fully equal to the best the amphibian had thus far accomplished. Being what might be called “ambidextrous” – doubly able to leave by means of water, or solid land, it had not been necessary for them to locate on any river or bay, where they would not have the benefit of field mechanicians, and a movable filling station, as well as shelter in a comfortable hangar.

Jack had doubtless taken all such matters into consideration when forming his plans, and decided that the good points about staying at the regulation aviation headquarters outweighed the poor ones.

They covered the first fifty miles in short order, keeping at some distance further from the sea than on their previous trips, Jack having a new hunch, to the effect that possibly the rendezvous of the smugglers after all might be situated deeper inland than he had first suspected.

When later on Perk announced that he could just make out some city far off on the right, Jack pronounced it to undoubtedly be Georgetown, which lay at the junction of the Pedee and the Little Pedee.

They had flown directly over the same city on their previous trip, showing how far west of their original course they were now working.

“We’re going to patrol this region most carefully, partner,” Jack told his best pal, who as usual was handling the binoculars to the best advantage, and calling out any discovery worth while, so as to keep his mate posted. “It has all the earmarks to make it a dandy hidingplace, where these sinister operations could be pulled off, day or night, and no one the wiser. What easier than for a sea-going plane to swoop over or around Georgetown, coming from some unknown point east, and then vanishing in the distance, still going west? Get that, don’t you, Wally?”

“Sounds all to the good with me, suh,” the other told him, nodding as he spoke. “I’m atryin’ to make aout some queer things daown there; but it’s all sech a scramble I jest caint do much. Mebbe if we dropped a bit things’d seem different like.”

“I’m going further west, so as to cover the ground,” Jack informed him, as though his immediate plans were made up, and he did not care to change; “but later on in the day I reckon we’ll be back this way, and possibly make camp for the night. I’d like to find out what sort of doings are taking place nights in this section; chances are we’ll pick up some interesting points before striking Charleston again.”

“Which same’d please me a heap, Mister,” quoth Perk; who was by now beginning to grow a little weary of what he termed “inaction;” and sighing for more strenuous times to come along, when there would be some real thrills experienced.

At noon they partook of a “snack,” devouring a few sandwiches, so as to take off the sharp edge of their appetites; Perk apologizing to himself for eating so scantily.

“If so be we’re agwine to dine ashore alongside a gen-u-ine campfire,” he went on in his whimsical fashion, “I wanter be in prime condition to do justice to the grub I’m meanin’ to sling up fo’ jest two gents, known to weuns as Mr. Rodman Warrington, an’ er – Wally Corkendall, of Birmin’ham, suh. So take things easy, an’ jest forget haow yeou’re still hungry, ole man; it’s on’y what that lecturer says is a figment o’ the imagination, an’ so you’re not a bit half starved.”

When about the middle of the afternoon they again arrived in the neighborhood of the sector which had appealed to them both as well worth paying particular attention to, Jack signified that he was meaning to do something in the line of lowering their ceiling, and finding out whether there was a chance of their making a successful drop upon the waters of that queer bayou, alongside of which ran a swift and mysterious looking river he figured might be the Waccamaw.

Closer scrutiny convinced both of them that so far as their settling down on the surface of the lonely bayou was concerned, nothing could be seen that would interfere with such an arrangement.

Jack circled the spot several times, with his exhaust muffled, and even the propeller keeping unusually quiet, as though in full sympathy with their desire for secrecy.

“Cover every rod of both land and water with your glass, partner,” he told Perk; “because it means a whole lot to us to make sure that there isn’t any chance for hostile eyes to take note of our stopping here. Unless I’m away off in my reckoning this same bayou must be the identical place where we are to later on make a rendezvous with that cracker guide, Jethro Hicks, who knows every foot of these water trails – I understood he hid out in this terrible region for several years when at loggerheads with the authorities, though innocent of any crime. How does the ground look to you, buddy?”

“Like the ole Sam Patch, an’ that aint no lie either, Boss,” Perk lost no time in telling his mate; “I never did see sech a awful stretch o’ mixed land an’ water nohaow, nowhere; but jest the same that’s zactly what we want, so’s to make dead sartin they beant nobody araound hyah calc’lated to bother weuns, that’s the way I looks at hit, suh.”

“Quite right too, Wally, boy!” snapped Jack; “and such being the case here goes to settle down on that Black Water Bayou – I think that was the name Mr. Herriott gave the slough.”

“Gosh all hemlock! an’ it couldn’t have a better name, I’m asayin’ suh – tough enough lookin’ to give anybody a shiver; but as we’re itchin’ fo’ to keep aour comin’ secret, it suits aour case to the dot.”

There was plenty of room in the middle of the mysterious little lagoon for their landing, if such it could be called; and so cleverly did the pilot bring the pontoons of his craft in contact with the surface that hardly the slightest splash followed.

Jack lost no time in taxiing over to a certain spot that seemed to hold possibilities for the maneuver he intended putting into effect – thick trees hung low over the water, and if only they could manage to push far enough in, the boat would be beautifully camouflaged – hidden under a fringe of branches, and so well disguised as to be discovered only after a close search.

“Wonderfully fine,” was Jack’s announcement after this had been successfully brought about. “Why, it’s almost like late evening under this thick canopy; and the bayou itself, surrounded as it is with tall cypress trees, with those long trailing beards of gray Spanish moss give it a gruesome look.”

“Urr! jest makes me think o’ the ole graveyard I used to run past a goin’ home late nights, when I was a country kid up in New England,” Perk was saying, toning his voice down to almost a whisper.

It certainly did have a most funereal appearance, with the breeze making all manner of weird sounds through the tops of the trees, and the festoons of dangling moss waving to and fro like mourning banners; some unseen swamp creatures added to the shivering feeling that had attacked Perk by emitting the most gruesome grunts and groans his ears had ever heard.

“But it happens to be just what we were hoping to find,” Jack continued, looking quite pleased at the loneliness of the spot; “small chance of any of those crackers coming in this direction, when they have no business here. I reckon Wally, you’ll be able to have that jolly campfire your heart’s so set on, without its getting us into any trouble.”

“Huh! that all tickles me right smart, Boss,” chuckled the other, rapidly conquering that sensation bordering on awe, and beginning to look at things in a more sensible light. “Kinder gu – reckons as haow there might be mebbe a ’gator or so in sech a slimy place as this same – that is, if sech critters do live as fur north as this South Carolina swampy region; anyhaow I ain’t agwine to take chances awadin’ in them nasty waters, where I kin see snakes aswimmin’, and pokin’ their heads aout to larn what in Sam Hill done drapped daown in their private park. Gee whiz! this is ’baout as cheerful a hole as the gateway to the Lower Regions, if yeou asked me what I thought, suh.”

They soon discovered that they were not to be allowed to take things as easy as Perk may have anticipated; for presently both were employed shooing swarms of voracious mosquitoes from their exposed faces and hands.

CHAPTER XIX
The Lonely Camp

“Perhaps,” suggested Jack, tiring of this exercise after a while, “it might be just as well for us to step ashore, so you can get that fire going. A little smoke would be worth while as a smudge to drive these skeets away; they’re bent on eating us alive, it seems to me.”

“Jest as yeou sez. Mister,” Perk acquiesced, with alacrity; and in less than three minutes he had managed to jump ashore from the end of the wing that rested on a log close to the bank of the bayou.

Gathering some loose wood he quickly had a blaze going, and was joined by his comrade, who took particular pains to stand to leeward of the fire, so that clouds of thick smoke would cause the fierce insects to abandon the vicinity.

“I suppose that, generally speaking,” Jack went on to say, “we would be hunting dry wood so as to send up as little smoke as possible, for fear of attracting notice, and bringing unwelcome visitors to our camp; but in this case the chance of detection plays a very small part in the game. We certainly need lots of pungent smoke in order to drive these hordes of nippers away. So go to it, partner, the more the merrier.”

Later on they sat down where the wind would waft some of the smoke in their direction, and being at peace with the world just then found that they could compare notes, and reach certain conclusions.

Although the sun was still quite some little distance above the horizon, as they figured, (being unable to see anything through that mass of cypress, and hanging moss) it was already commencing to grow dusk back of the camouflaged airship.

“I knows as haow it aint time yet,” Perk finally spoke up, getting to his feet with determination written large upon his face; “but jest the same I caint hold aout any longer – I got to listen to the growlin’ daown below-stairs, as sez its past time to stoke the furnace; so sech bein’ the case I’m ameanin’ to start aour supper, if so be yeou aint no ’jections, suh.”

“Not in the slightest, Wally, so get busy as soon as you like,” he was told.

The other did not wait for a second invitation, but making his way back to the cabin of the amphibian presently returned with both arms full of mysterious packages. After depositing the same upon the ground near the blazing fire, Perk made a second trip aboard, and from that time on busied himself in the one occupation of which he seemed never to tire – making preparations to supply a rousing meal, cooked over such a bed of red embers as he delighted to supply.

Jack was pretty hungry himself, and enjoyed the spread greatly – its memory was likely to long haunt them; and in speaking of the past the time was apt to be set by such phrases as “something like a month after we had that glorious camp supper on Black Water Bayou, remember, partner?”

Jack sat there working at his maps for some time after they had finished eating; so, too, he made numerous notes, to be conned over and over again, until he could repeat the gist of them all as occasion arose. That was his way of preparing for a campaign; and no masterly tactics of a successful war general could have been an improvement on his programme – to prepare in advance for all manner of possibilities was as natural to Jack Ralston as it was to breathe; which plan certainly had much to do with the customary success falling to his lot.

Suddenly both of them caught the distant report of a gunshot; and stared at each other, as though mentally figuring what such a thing might signify.

“Did you take notice which direction that gunshot seemed to come from, eh, Wally?” demanded Jack, presently, as no other similar sound followed.

“I’d say from over there,” Perk swiftly replied, pointing toward the south as he spoke. “What dye reckons, suh, it’d mean?” he asked in turn.

“Oh! nothing that concerns us, I imagine, Wally, boy – some chap might have run across a hunting wildcat most likely, and couldn’t resist giving him the works. But it settles the direction where that secret landing place may lie, I feel almost certain. That’s one of the points I wanted to pick up; and before the night is over we may be able to prove my prediction sound.”

“Yeou doant reckons, suh, they kin see this heah fire aburnin’, do yeou?”

Jack laughed as though the idea had no standing with him.

“Not in a thousand years, Wally; it must be a matter of a mile, perhaps twice that between this spot and from where that gun was fired; you see, the night air heads toward us, and would carry the sound quite a long way.”

He proved that he felt no uneasiness by continuing the conversation that had been interrupted by the sudden far-off shot; and so Perk did not hesitate to toss more fuel on his cheery campfire.

They were thinking of turning in aboard the nearby boat, and seeking their necessary rest, when Perk, who had unusually keen hearing, sat up and inclined his head to one side as though listening.

“Jest what she is, for a fack, partner,” he went on to state; “an’ shore as yeou’re born, suh, they aint no muffler aboard that ship, I’ll take my affidavy on that same.”

“It is a ship, no doubt about that, and heading this way out of the east, you want to notice, buddy,” Jack indicated, as though that mere fact had a deep significance in his eyes.

“Yeah! that’s so,” agreed Perk, readily falling in with the conceit, as he usually did when Jack was the originator of any proposition. “They air acomin’ straight from aout on the ocean, where mebbe a steamer is alyin’ anchored, an’ loadin’ its cargo o’ contraband on fast blockade runners that come ’longside; also sky-carriers in the bargain, sech as drop daown close by on the sea, an’ take on all they kin carry.”

The faint sounds rapidly increased in vigor until even a novice could have decided it was an airplane making almost directly toward their strange camp on Black Water Bayou.

“Keep on listening, brother,” advised Jack; “and then we’ll compare notes as to where we heard the last clatter. Things couldn’t be working more smoothly to suit our plans; and we ought to be pretty well primed by the time we come back here to join up with Friend Jethro.”

Finally the now loud clatter ceased, which those airmen knew full well meant it had succeeded in effecting an apparently safe landing, whether on land or water they could only surmise.

So carefully had they both tried to get the exact locality fixed in their minds that when they came to comparing ideas it was found they agreed almost to a dot; so Jack was able by referring to his small compass to make a note of the circumstance, as well as their united conviction.

“I kin shut me eyes an’ see what a busy bunch is workin’ unloadin’ that same crate,” Perk observed, a little later on. “Scent’s agettin’ a little warmer, seems like, partner, when we ketch the racket o’ a smuggler plane comin’ in from the mother vessel away off shore, beyond the twenty mile danger line.”

“I’d say it surely was,” agreed Jack, grinning happily, as if in answer to the joyous look he detected on his partner’s sunbaked face.

All had by now become as silent as the grave, at least so far as suspicious sounds undoubtedly caused by human agencies; but otherwise things did not happen to be so quiet. From the nearby swamp came a multitude of queer croakings and gurglings, accompanied by harsh cries such as night herons seeking their food, or other birds of similar activities, might make while fishing.

“Gee whiz!” Perk at one time burst forth, “did yeou ever in all yeour life listen to sech queer sounds as them? Hark to that splash – sure reckons some roostin’ bird must a fallen off its perch, an’ if all that flutterin’ and squawkin’ stands fo’ anythin’ its got swallowed up in the jaws o’ some critter waitin’ daown below fo’ its supper. Glory! I wonder if weuns kin get any sleep with all these heah carryin’s on in full blast. Jest hear ’em whoopin’ it up, will yeou, suh?”

However, when the time did come for them to go aboard the boat and seek their cots, by closing the cabin door much of the noise was deadened, and after all Perk found little difficulty in getting to sleep.

Nothing occurred during the night to disturb them, or cause any undue alarm. Doubtless that variegated noise kept up through the livelong period of darkness, but it gave them no concern whatever.

When Perk happened to wake up he believed he could catch a feeble gleam as of daylight outside the cabin; and upon investigating found it to be a fact. He thereupon aroused his companion, and another fine meal was soon in process of preparation over a resurrected fire; to which of course the pair did ample justice, after which they made ready for another flight, and a return to the city.