The Sky Pilot's Great Chase; Or, Jack Ralston's Dead Stick Landing

V
AT THE FLYING FIELD

It was pretty late when they sat down to supper that night but as Jack had predicted, the appetite of his chum was amply recompense for the delay. They had done a good deed and best of all managed to get away before any inquisitive newspaper men arrived at the hospital on the track of a sensational beat.

“Which pleases me a whole lot,” Jack went on to say as they started eating.

“Same here ol’ hoss,” added Perk, with unction. “Once them chaps get on the scent o’ a good story they never do let up till it’s spread out on the front page after bein’ blue-penciled by the city editor. I know how it’s put through, ’cause I got some pretty good friends in the bunch – they’re all wool an’ a yard wide on everything ’cept pokin’ their noses into the private affairs o’ citizens and couples that jest can’t get on in double harness.”

“Just imagine what a nasty shock it’d be to us both Perk, to see our names and pictures staring at us under a scare line of black type – yes, and like as not with as much as they could scrape together about our private business – nice way to upset all the plans of Secret Service hounds on the trail of big game, I must say.”

“Honest, I didn’t give away a single thing, buddy,” said Perk with unusual earnestness, which was as good as an invitation for Jack to clear his skirts of the same suspicion, which he hastened to do.

“I simply gave her my address in Washington – at my room, you understand, Perk – I wanted her to write to me later on so we could know how they both came out after that nasty squeeze play. Not a whisper what line of business we followed and I asked her as a particular favor not to let a single soul know who the two parties were to whom she and her boy owed their narrow escape from being trapped in that burning house. She said the name would never pass her lips and that she would write, after something she was bound to accomplish had been put through. Of course I couldn’t even give more than a guess what that is, only she seemed dreadfully in earnest and I reckon it might be a reconciliation with her husband, Adrian’s father.”

Perk nodded his head solemnly.

“Huh! mebbe so, Jack, mebbe so, lots o’ that sort o’ trouble goin’ ’round these days, seems like. Now I wonder if you thought to ask what her name might be?”

“Queer that I didn’t think to do that, partner,” Jack told him with a little laugh. “I reckon I must have been a little absent-minded but that’s nothing to us for chances are we’ll never meet the lady again. How about you and the boy?”

“He told me his name, Jack, when he gave me this little picture he happened to have in his pocket – you see on the back it’s got written, I guess by his Mom herself: ‘Adrian, at six’; but tarnation take the luck if I ain’t jest plumb forgot the last name he told me – somethin’ like Burnham or Barnard – begins with a B, I’m dead sure – Buster, Bramley – Buttons – well, for the love o’ mike I can’t strike oil but it’ll come back, given a little time.”

“And I can see plain enough if it keeps on skipping you it’s bound to keep you busy guessing right along,” Jack was saying, for only too well did he know this little weakness on the part of his comrade. Perk was bound to keep on pounding away at that puzzle day and night, giving himself no rest until he either solved the riddle or else some one told him the answer – left to himself he would never give up trying.

“Like as not, buddy,” replied Perk, frowning darkly; “seems I’m gettin’ up a tree every little while – never could remember names worth a cent but I don’t forget faces, you understand.”

“And then too, you’re a great hand for remembering to hear the first sound of the dinner bell,” said Jack with a chuckle.

“I sure am some punkins ’bout that,” admitted the amiable Perk with one of his goodnatured grins spreading over his homely face.

“What’s the program after we’ve cleaned up this mess, eh partner?” inquired Jack, who doubtless could make a good guess from previous experience as to what his companion’s answer was apt to be, but for once he counted without his host.

“Wall,” observed Perk shaking his head, “I did mean to take a look in at the pictur house, seein’ they got my ol’ favorite, Milton Sills booked tonight but shucks! it’s too late an’ ’sides, somehow I kinder lost my likin’ for action jest now – mebbe I got my fill in that busy bee session with the fire fiend down by the tenement district – kinder a bit lame in the arm muscles, so I figger on rubbin’ ’em with my salve that worked so fine after my rough landin’ away back. Yep, I’ll cut out the movies for one night in port an’ go to bed early.”

“I’m meaning to pick up all the extra sleep possible,” ventured Jack at which his mate nodded approvingly.

“I get you, partner,” he hastened to say, “kinder figgerin’ on our skippin’ out any ol’ time an’ like as not runnin’ up against a rough passage that’ll keep us on the jump. But I sure would like to have even an inklin’ which way that hop-off’s goin’ to lead us.”

“I’m surprised at such a reckless, devil-may-care sort of chap as I’ve known you to be, Perk, bothering your poor nut about such a silly thing just as if it mattered two cents to either of us which way we head – nothing ought to give us a second thought except that we’re ready to jump in and carry through, any old place under the sun.”

“Yeah! but then what’d I find to worry ’bout if I didn’t pick on the way we’re kept in the dark up to the last minute?”

Jack looked at him blankly and shook his head as if such peculiar philosophy were too much for him to master – then he changed the subject and the meal went on until even Perk, with his tremendous cargo capacity, could contain no more.

They sat in their room reading until their eyes getting heavy warned them it was time to hit the hay, as Perk was so fond of calling the act of getting into bed.

In the morning they were both astir, for it so happened that neither had ever shown signs of being late sleepers, save on special occasions.

“Another day,” remarked Jack while leisurely dressing, for since they had nothing afoot (save to possibly take a few hours’ spin in order to keep in practice as well as test out several new devices with which they had as yet not become as familiar as Jack would like), there was no necessity for any hurry.

“An’ wouldn’t I give somthin’ if only I knew we could check out before sundown tonight,” grumbled Perk, yawning and stretching as though life was becoming entirely too tame and monotonous to satisfy his cravings.

“Wait and see,” advised his chum, “you know the old saying that it’s always darkest just before dawn – we’re due to get a thrill before many more hours. Give Headquarters decent time to cook up a fine fat game for us, a nut to crack that’ll be worth going after. I’ve a few little things on my list that I mean to carry out this morning when I’ll be ready for the call.”

Perk seemed unusually slow that morning, though he did not complain about his lame muscles. Even when Jack asked about it he shrugged and with a grimace remarked indifferently:

“Oh! that’s okay, buddy – turned out to be a false alarm – nothin’ the matter with me, I guess, except I need shakin’ up a wheen.”

“You’ll get all you want of that I reckon before you’re many days older,” Jack told him, “somehow I’ve got a notion we’re going to be sent on a wild goose chase that may cover some thousands of miles and take us into a queer section of country – nothing but a surmise, or what you might call a hunch to back me up in that, remember, but I’ve known a hunch to come true more than a few times.”

“I wonder,” Perk observed dreamily, eyeing his comrade as if he again felt the old suspicion arise with regard to Jack knowing more than he chose to tell just then.

But unseen by either of the two pals, coming events were hurrying along and threatening to speedily engulf them in as dizzy a spin as either had ever encountered in all previous experiences.

It was around eight when they arrived at the flying field, as usual a scene of considerable bustle with ships coming in and departing – air mail carriers, visiting boats taking off in a continuance of their prearranged flights east or west and several heavier bombing planes that were being taken to Los Angeles by naval pilots for some secret purpose of the War Department.

Jack and his pal observed all this with grins of sheer enjoyment, so bred in the bone had their love for their profession grown to be that everything connected with flying drew them as the Polar star does the magnetic needle of a compass.

“Times are getting right lively around these diggin’s,” remarked Perk, with a sparkle in his eyes and enthusiasm in his voice.

“Seems like it,” replied Jack who chanced to be watching a novice just then starting out on what appeared to be his initial solo flight. “That boy shows fair promise of being due to break into the ranks of express pilots after he’s had another hundred miles or so of flying. I like the way he handles himself and the test pilot told me yesterday he was sure to be a comer.”

“Ol’ Bob ought to know what’s what,” mentioned Perk taking a look for himself, “there, he’s off and see how he lifts the ol’ bus when he’s ready. I watched him make as neat a three-point landin’ yesterday as anybody could wish. A few o’ ’em seem to be born with wings – but not many, not many, I’m sorry to say. Well, let’s step over and get things started.”

Perk stopped short as though some one had given him a blow – he seemed to be holding his breath while he stared and then commenced rubbing his eyes in a peculiar fashion, just as though he imagined he must be seeing things where they could not possibly exist.

Jack realized that his chum must have had a shock of some kind, and turned upon him quickly.

“What’s the matter – what ails you, Perk?” he demanded.

“Gosh amighty! Jack, looky there will you – the hangar – Mister Gibbons; you know, where we parked our boat – it’s burned down last night!”

VI
A BLOW IN THE DARK

Jack was naturally intensely shaken by this outburst from his companion. His first act was to whirl around and look hastily in the quarter indicated where he discovered quite a bunch of men clustered around some object from which wisps of smoke seemed to still be rising on the clear morning air.

He and Perk exchanged startled looks as though the same sudden thought had gripped their hearts.

“Queer I didn’t notice a thing before, Perk, though I saw a crowd gathered – but then that’s a common occurrence out here where so many interesting things keep on happening. Sure enough, the Gibbons’ hangar has gone up – such accidents don’t come along often in any modern aviation field.”

“Accidents!” blurted out Perk steaming up – “lay off that stuff, ol’ hoss – ev’ry little movement has a meanin’ o’ its own – up to last afternoon it was our ship that snuggled in that hangar, don’t forgit that, my boy. Talk to me ’bout luck, we hit it sky-high that time. Let’s go see what’s happened, and how they talk ’bout it in the bargain.”

This proposal Jack was only too willing to stamp with his approval so they hurried toward the bunch of men – pilots, mechanics, visitors and riffraff chancing to be at the field just then and now engaged in staring at the ruins of the new hangar, doubtless exchanging opinions as to how the conflagration had occurred in the dead of night.

“Huh!” Jack heard his comrade saying as if to himself as they approached the cluster of men, “seems like we got up against a reg’lar roundup o’ fire – last night that tenement, an’ now today the hangar we been usin’ to shelter our boat. Hot ziggetty dog! but ain’t life queer though?”

Everybody was turning to stare at them as they came along. Undoubtedly it was generally known that their ship had been stored in the destroyed shelter while Mr. Spencer Gibbons was away and that it was only on the preceding afternoon on coming back from a flight that they had transferred it to another hangar Jack had been able to hire since the owner of the one they had been using had wired he would be home shortly after dark.

“When and how did this happen?” Jack asked one of the pilots as he took in the fact that the remains of a plane could be seen amidst the wreckage – apparently an explosion had taken place, for much of the charred material of which the hangar had consisted was scattered around the near vicinity.

“They tell us around about midnight,” came the answer for the pilot knew Jack as a fellow craftsman, although a stranger to Salt Lake City aviation circles. “The alarm was given by the pilot of an incoming mail ship making port hours late on account of heavy fog in the mountains. Queer, too, they say, how quick it all came about – fire was blazing furious like when discovered, and nothing could be done to save Mr. Gibbons’ fine ship. There he is yonder, talking to some newspaper boys.”

Jack went over to tell the other how he was shocked to see what had happened to his property and to ask if anything was known as to the origin of the conflagration.

“Seems to be pretty much a mystery, they all tell me,” the genial sportsman informed him, not showing any signs of being at all worried although undoubtedly deeply mystified. “You fellows were in some luck to get your ship out before this nasty thing came along which I’m glad to know. Of course I’m well insured and can replace my Pitcairn Mailwing readily enough, only I’d gotten that one working like magic. I’m glad no other hangar caught when mine burned. I’ve offered five hundred dollars for any information that will prove that this was a set-up job for it happens that on one other occasion something similar to this came my way. You see, I was unlucky enough to make a few enemies in Wall Street who’ve never forgiven me for knocking them out on a big deal.”

Mr. Gibbons laughed and seemed in no wise bothered by his recent loss, only Jack noticed how his eyes seemed to glint like sparks from steel when mentioning the fact that he had unscrupulous enemies in the commercial world.

Jack hung around for some little time, talking to several of those present and asking numerous questions but learning next to nothing. If, as some of the ground attendants seemed to believe, it was an incendiary act, those who took big chances in carrying it out must have planned carefully and fixed matters not only to make a certainty of the ship sheltered within the hangar being destroyed, but also covering their tracks with great skill.

Finally he started over to the other hangar and Perk, seeing him go pulled his freight, as he would have called it, to hasten after his chum.

“Huh! looks like a fine sight for sore eyes,” Perk declared with glee, “to see our boat standin’ there safe an’ sound tho’ I’m sure sorry Mister Fitzgibbons – I mean Gibbons, had to lose his crate – no fault o’ ourn I’ll tell the world, Jack.”

“To be sure we could hardly be blamed for what happened,” returned the other with a deep meaning in his voice and manner that caused Perk to start and then blurt out:

“By jinks! partner, does it look to you like some crazy snooper set fire to the hangar under the belief that our ship was locked in there?”

“Between you and me and the lamp-post, buddy, that just struck me as possible, though I’ve no proof to back me up in saying it.”

“Another o’ them slick hunches o’ yourn, eh partner?” Perk hastened to say and then, scratching his chin in a way he had when seriously considering some debatable proposition that puzzled him very much, he added: “can’t for the love o’ mike guess how anybody could learn jest who an’ what we might be but it’s a risky line we’re engaged in, buddy, an’ some o’ these here smart crooks have accomplices they say even in the service o’ Uncle Sam. It’s possible a whisper leaked out an’ havin’ some fish to fry, word was sent to some o’ the big gang out here at Salt Lake City to do for us, or wipe our ship off the face o’ the earth instanter. Gee whiz! but that sure does make things look mixed-up for us, ol’ hoss.”

“For one thing,” said Jack, firmly, “after this I never mean to leave our boat in a strange hangar without hiring a guard to watch over it every hour of every night, no matter what the cost to Uncle Sam. I reckon they keep some insurance on these crates, but it would be what time and instruments and charts we lost that would knock us the hardest.”

“But how could anybody know what sorter job we’re goin’ to wrestle with next, even ’fore we got a glimmer o’ it ourselves?” querulously demanded the bewildered Perk, up in the air again apparently for there seemed to be a vast number of things of which he was densely ignorant.

Jack laughed and shook his head.

“Some fine day perhaps we’ll get on the inside track of these strange doings, brother but right now I’m just as much in the dark as you. All I know is that for some little time rumors have been going around at and close to Headquarters but so far as I understand the matter up to lately, the mysterious party responsible for such give-aways hasn’t been located. So it’s within the bounds of reason for me to suspect we’ve fallen under the ban and have had some sort of secret enemy set on our track.”

“Huh!” snorted Perk indignantly, “kinder like that Oswald Kearns employed one o’ his critters to do us a bad turn – you know, that big rum-runner we nailed down in Florida not so very long back an’ whose trial hasn’t come along so far, we’ve heard.”

“Just like that,” Jack told him, “although I hardly believe it could be any of his dirty work. Still, it’s going to pay us to keep our eyes peeled right along and never imagine the coast is clear just because we don’t happen to see any ugly character around. Such scamps usually manage to hide themselves daytimes, to slip out after dark and do their tricks.”

Soon afterwards they had tooled their ship to the runway close at hand, made the dash, and started skyward like a bird. For two hours they tried out various capers so as to make certain they had complete control of the wonderful amphibian that had been placed at Jack’s disposal by those at the Secret Service Bureau in Washington, intent on equipping their trusted agents with the best going, so that no failure might be laid at their door due to insufficient backing.

They were back again by one that same afternoon, it being against Jack’s better judgment to remain away more than a few hours at a time. He knew that at any day a message from Washington, in secret cipher, was apt to come along and which, for aught he knew, would call for them to start out without any unnecessary delay and he wished to be on hand to receive it.

To save time he and Perk dropped into the dining room of the hotel without visiting the office so they might have dinner before going up to their room. This was pretty much of a daily habit with them and so far there had not been any disadvantage arising from the arrangement.

They had almost finished their dessert when one of the bellhops came along and being familiar with the pair from rubbing up against them so often, he asked no questions but laid down a telegraph envelope addressed to Mr. John Jacob Astorbilt.

“Gosh!”

That was all Perk could gasp when he saw that presumably the orders they had been expecting for so long must have arrived. He watched Jack reach out and pick up the sealed envelope – noted that there did not seem to be the slightest quiver of his hand – indeed, if it were an ordinary dunning epistle Jack could not have acted more carelessly – so far as outward manifestations showed – than was the case just then.

He opened the envelope and then, still as cool as a cucumber grown in the shade of a cornstalk, drew out the enclosure which Perk’s devouring eyes told him was unusually long.

Food was quite forgotten – for once – by the enthralled Perk who sat there, fascinated, watching Jack’s face as though in anticipation of being able to tell from what he might read there something of the nature of the communication that had been telegraphed from far distant Washington.

It was quite useless, however. Had Jack been glancing over a casual invitation to some party he could not have evinced more unconcern. Of course the message was so fashioned that in order to glean its full meaning a recourse to his code would be necessary but then as Perk knew, Jack would be able to pick up a word here and there and in this way get an inkling as to its purport.