Flying the Coast Skyways. Jack Ralston's Swift Patrol

CHAPTER III
The Leech Hangs On

“Hot-diggetty-dig! seems like the more we poke into this here business, the warmer it gets!” Perk exploded, banking on the safety of their hotel room to keep his language from being heard.

“Oh! like as not all this is only the opening gun of our new campaign,” was his companion’s cool comment. “Later on, when we find ourselves neck deep in the mixup, you’ll be looking back, and smiling at what you’re saying now. From present indications I’d say this affair is giving promise of being the biggest case we ever had the nerve to tackle.”

“The bigger they get the further they falls, partner, doan’t make any mistake ’bout that ere fack,” said Perk, grimly. “Huh! sometimes I get to thinkin’ what happened up in that Hole-in-the-Wall outlaw retreat, and I’m awonderin’ what ever did come o’ that gang after we kicked off with aour prisoner.”²

“Which reminds me I didn’t think to tell you all the news that was contained in that letter from Los Angeles – want to hear it now, brother?”

“Sure do, Mister,” snapped Perk, greedily; “it’ll amuse me while I’m awashin’ up here in aour neat little bathroom.”

Jack followed him into the next compartment, evidently so that he could keep his voice down to a low pitch.

“Something like a week later,” he told the listening Perk, “they took off in the biggest crate they could commandeer into the service – half a dozen fighting men, heavily armed, and prepared for anything that might come along. Good weather favored them, and they came in sight of the valley among the high cliffs in the daytime.

“After circling, and lowering their altitude, they could not see the least thing to indicate the presence of a solitary human being; so finally the pilot set them down exactly on the smooth landing field the gang used when working their old wreck of a ship, carrying the packages of counterfeit notes out to distribute the same to different stations; and fetching back assorted supplies, including the best of grub.

“The place was abandoned, and looked like an earthquake had struck that particular quarter – the mouth of the pass leading into the wonderful valley was filled thirty feet high with a mass of rocks, thrown down by the tremendous force of the bomb you exploded when we cleared out; and some of the cabins and huts had been knocked to flinders by the men in their rage at being kicked out of their hidden retreat. Their old plane too, was scattered all around the field.

“The Government agents found the plates from which the spurious notes had been printed, and destroyed all but a portion, which they wished to forward to Washington for inspection by the Chief and his staff. Then they amused themselves by climbing to a five hundred foot ceiling, and making a target of the hut where the work had been carried on. Our friend in L.A. went on to assure me a clever hit by a bomb had scattered that squatty building we used to watch by the hour, to the four winds; and the printing press too was smashed to useless atoms by the force of the explosion.”

“Bully! bully!” Perk was saying, joyously, proudly, through the soap lather he had accumulated on his face; “then we sure did a natty piece o’ work up there in that God-forsaken neck o’ the woods. Seems like life has got some bright spots in the framework arter all, an’ ain’t jest a dinky fogbelt like I sometimes find myself b’lievin’.”

“It has its ups and downs we’ve got to remember, partner,” advised sensible Jack; “especially along the risky line of business we’re engaged in. So we’ve got to take things as they come, wet weather mixed with sunny days, and just keep on doing our duty as we find it.”

“Huh gue – reckon we gotter jest grin an’ bear it,” added Perk, rubbing his face and neck with the course huck towel, as he loved to do on occasion. “But haow long do we stick here in Atlanta tell me, Boss?”

“For one night only, if things work as I hope they will,” said Jack, promptly enough, showing that his plan of campaign was beginning to shape up.

“Mind if I step aout for a little while, partner; I done forgot to lay in some tooth-paste, an’ I’m kinder used to havin’ a tube o’ the same along with me, yeou know, suh?”

Perk was the possessor of an unusually fine set of teeth, of which he was inordinately proud, as Jack had occasion to know full well; so that this request on his part seemed perfectly natural.

“Certainly not, Wally,” Jack told him, purposely emphasizing the name, as if to keep the other from forgetting how necessary it was to be forever on his guard, so as not to be caught napping. “Like as not you’ll find a drugstore handy to the hotel, and can get what you want easily enough. I’d rather you didn’t go far away – a walk might seem like a fine thing; but when it’s taken I want to be along, as two pair of eyes and ears might be better than one, to ward off danger.”

“That’s okay, Mister,” came the cheery reply, as Perk stepped over to pick up his hat; “an’ it gives me a warm feelin’ ’raound my heart to hear yeou say that same – I’m never so happy as when goin’ into action, yeou know right well. When I was over in France, helpin’ run that sausage balloon we used for observation purposes, it allers gimme a wonderful thrill jest to see six Heinie ships takin’ off, intendin’ to ketch us guys ’fore we could drop to solid earth, an’ knock the stuffin’ aout o’ us with some o’ their consarned bombs, which they sure knowed haow to manufacture to beat the Frenchies all holler. So-long Ja – Mr. Warrington I’ll be back agin in a jiffy.”

Just the same it was fully fifteen minutes before Perk again showed up; and Jack found himself beginning to worry when the door opened, with Perk’s grinning face exposed. Jack noticed that after the other entered the room his first act was to most carefully lock the door; and there was something significant about this action, so foreign to Perk’s usual carelessness, that the other was forced to believe something or other must have happened while he was out of the hotel, to render Perk so solicitous.

“Got your tooth paste, did you, boy?” he asked.

“Easy enough,” quoth Perk, still with that quizzical expression on his sun-tanned, homely face. “Found there was a drugstore right handy; an’ seein’ I was thirsty I jest stopped over to pick up a drink o’ soda an’ cream. That’s where, things begins to happen, yeou see.”

“Oh! they did,” echoed Jack, raising his eyebrows as he watched the face of the other, and noting how a grave look had succeeded the humorous one. “Suppose you tell me what it was came along while you were enjoying your soda?”

“Well, yeou see, partner,” commenced Perk; “there happens to be a gink astandin’ close by, which I aint paid any ’tention to, bein’ wrapped up in my own affairs jest then. I’d raised the glass to take a fust sup when I done heard somebody say, right by my ear seemed like: ‘Goin’ to stay with us in Atlanta enny length o’ time, Mister Corkendall, suh?’”

Perk evidently had a little streak of the dramatic in his composition, for he stopped just then, and eyed his companion eagerly, as if tickled to know his communication had given the usually cool Jack a bit of a start.

“Oh! you don’t say, brother?” the other was remarking; “then after all the party at the soda counter wasn’t quite a stranger to you seeing he evidently had learned your name?”

“Darned if I kin make aout partner, haow he ever got wise to the fack, so’s to call me Mister Corkendall.”

“Go on, brother – what did you do then?” demanded Jack.

“Huh! I was a bit flustered, yeou see,” explained Perk, “’cause I’d got a side squint at his mug; I reckoned I needed ’bout half a minute to git a grip on my senses; so I tilted up my glass, an’ swallered a few times; and say it ’peared to me like a thousand things flashed through my poor ole brain like a stroke o’ lightnin’.”

“Did you answer him?” demanded Jack, frowning.

“I sure did,” came unhesitating the reply; “’case I jest had to. Yeou see, partner, he’d been astandin’ thar right along, an’ in course he done heard me order my drink; so if I tried to play that dumb trick, as haow yeou tole me, he’d aknown things must a been a bit mixed, an’ the fat’d be in the fire. Did I do the right thing Boss, tell me?”

Jack smiled amiably again.

“That was certainly one time your mother wit didn’t fail you, comrade,” he told the other. “Now, go ahead and let me know what followed; because I’ve already guessed the man at your elbow must have been that Smart Aleck newspaper reporter we last saw looking over our ship so suspiciously.”

CHAPTER IV
Perk Has an Adventure

Perk might have been observed swelling out his chest somewhat, as though this praise on the part of his ally went straight to his head like rich wine.

“I done tole him it was all up to yeou, Mister Warrington – seein’ as haow I was jest a humble air pilot aworkin’ fur yeou – we might be in Atlanta a hull week, mebbe so, fur all I knowed.”

“That was another clever thing for you to say, brother,” Jack assured him, only too ready to praise when praise was due; “it might serve to throw him off the scent; but no matter how long or how short our stay chances to be, I’ve a hunch we’re bound to see more than we want of that nosey chap. Like most of his breed he means to find out all he can, either to make a story that will give his readers a fine kick; or on the other hand, if he does happen to be one of that syndicate’s paid spies, to learn who and what we really are, and why we’re in Atlanta, coming out of the west – for I reckon he saw our first approach this same day, and jotted that fact down in his mind.”

“He done tried hard to start me talkin’ ’baout yeour business, so I jest had to tell him as haow yeow was on’y sportin’ fo’ sport, an’ undecided whether to go on daown to hunt black bears in the canebrakes o’ Ole Louisiana; or else strike aout fo’ Currituck Sound on the coast, to git a whack at the wild geese an’ swans as kin be shot on the club preserves.”

“You couldn’t have done better any way you tried, brother,” warmly commended Jack, whacking the other on his back, and causing him to fairly glow with satisfaction. “Only I hope he didn’t catch on about that three distinct language business I was speaking about not so long ago.”

Perk shook his head briskly in the negative.

“I was mighty keerful not to say too much, partner,” he continued; “with him afirin’ questions at me like the rat-tat-tat o’ a machine-gun. So I pays fo’ my soda, an’ tells the youngster I gotter hurry back to where yeou was awaitin’ fo’ me to unpack the bags; an’ with that I leaves him right whar he was standin’, lookin’ at me outen them sharp eyes o’ hisn like he’d bore into me with a gimlet, so’s to know ever’thing I had in my head. That sap is certain sure the mos’ uncomfortable bird to run across when yeou got a secret up yeour sleeve, I ever did tackle.”

“I can well believe you, brother,” observed the relieved Jack. “Chances are you’ve left him in something of an uncertain frame of mind; but as he’s built on the pattern of a bloodhound, he isn’t meaning to give up the scent as long as we’re within his reach. That forces me to decide on skipping from Atlanta as soon as possible, for he’s marked ‘dangerous – keep out.’”

“What’s next on the programme, Mister?” asked Perk, satisfied to have come out of his little adventure with credit, and nothing like reproof from the pal whose good opinion he coveted so much.

“I must leave you here for an hour or so, and keep my appointment with Mr. Justice, although I hardly expect him to give me anything like the full details of the work ahead of us – that must wait until we get to Charleston, when everything will be laid before us; together with coast charts issued by the Government from surveys carried out by experienced geographers, and which we can rely upon to the fullest extent.”

“I done reckons then, partner, yeou got yeour plans fixed up in case he is alayin’ fo’ yeou somewhars, eh, what?”

Jack chuckled as if amused.

“I understand how you’re referring to our enterprising young scribe on one of Atlanta’s lively papers; and especially vigilant in connection with air travel matters at Candler Field – nothing would please me more than to take him on, and give him a whirl or so. I think I can play my part as a millionaire sportsman to the dot, and give him a mouthful that’s apt to set him wondering more than ever. I might even invite him to dine with us, say tomorrow evening at the Grady here, when he will be at liberty to ask all the questions he wants about my love for outdoor sports, and so on – that would be a good joke on the slick lad, since we’ll be on our way east many hours before that time.”

“Gosh all hemlock! but say, wouldn’t that be rich, though; an’ what wouldn’t I give to be close by, an’ hear haow yeou stuffed the duffer,” Perk went on to gush, surveying his companion with eyes that fairly glowed with sincere admiration.

“Lock the door, and under no consideration allow any one to enter while I’m away. Just say you’re tremendously engaged, and can’t be disturbed, if that everlasting busybody shows up.”

“Huh! jest trust me to lay the same aout if he gets too fresh,” grunted Perk with a menacing ring to his voice. “Course I wouldn’t knock him any what yeoud call physically, only shut him up, an’ send him off to mind his own business.”

“When I come back we can have another little chin, for I promise to keep you fully posted from now on, concerning everything connected with the big game. After that we’ll have a full dinner, and decide about pulling out of Atlanta while the going is good.”

“Tonight, does yeou mean, partner?” queried Perk, craftily.

“Possibly, yes,” came the ready reply. “We’ll take a look over the afternoon Journal, and see what sort of flying weather is offered for the next twelve hours; and if at all favorable we can make our plans accordingly, so as to jump off before midnight. Candler Field is kept fully lighted nights, with so many ships of all types coming and going, on schedule and otherwise, that there’ll be no difficulty about that part of the deal.”

“Huh! which makes me remember I done got a copy o’ that same paper when I was in the drugstore,” explained Perk, pulling it out of his pocket as he spoke; “so I kin be amusin’ myself while yeou’re gone. I’ll suck every bit o’ weather information outen the paper, bet yeour boots, so’s to be all primed when yeou come back; it’ll be suppertime ’baout then, an’ right naow I’m feelin’ them grippin’ pains daown below, sech as allers warns me the fires they need stokin’, so’s to keep the engine workin’ full speed.”

This arrangement pleased Jack perfectly; he realized how Perk was apt to be more or less “fidgetty,” and it was just as well he had something to read while standing guard over their luggage, so as to keep his mind from other subjects.

Jack waited outside for a brief space of time, and thus heard the key being duly turned in the lock, which relieved him of any further anxiety concerning the one left behind.

Perk, left to his own devices, settled down in an easy-chair to make himself comfortable. Beginning with the first page he read everything that had any promise of interest, applying himself particularly to such items as covered aviation matters. As is the case in these enlightened days of intense activity in air circles, he came upon a number of brief articles along those lines, all of which he absorbed with deepest interest.

Then for five or ten minutes he allowed himself to sit there, his mind filled with the magnitude of aerial inventions that had been sprung on the market within the last ten years; and marveled at the vast gap separating the bustling present with those lean years when he was serving his country over in France, attached to the observation corps, with their clumsy sausage balloons that could be let soar at a limited height, and then drawn down by rope and windlass when some enemy threatened their safety.

Arousing himself presently Perk next busied himself in searching the columns of his paper for the latest weather report, especially as concerned the promises for flying craft.

Eventually he found what he was after, and read the report most eagerly. To his delight it seemed to be favorable throughout the coming night, a fact of considerable importance to all air mail pilots, as well as others who were contemplating going aloft while the night lasted.

People passed the door of the room from time to time; and twice Perk had an idea some one was fumbling at the lock; but concluded it might have been some tenant of a neighboring room, either going out, or coming in, for at least nothing suspicious followed, and he breathed easy again.

The hour had just about slipped by when he caught footsteps he knew right well; as he listened he heard them stop before the locked door; then came a light tap, and he caught Jack’s voice:

“Wally, it’s me – Warrington, you know!”

“Okay, suh!” sang out the one within, as he stepped over and turned the key.

“How about it, partner – anything happened since I left?” Jack asked softly, after he had again turned the key in the lock.

“Not any; suh – an’ I ketched the weather report in the dinged paper, which gives us the pleasin’ information as haow it’s bound to be halfway decent this same night, with wind from the southwest up at three thousand feet ceilin’, which makes things look kinder promisin’, I’d say, suh.”

“That settles it then, buddy; we’ll get a move on, and climb out before twelve. Might as well strike Charleston with as little delay as possible, for we’ll possibly have to hang around that place some time, tuning up our new crate to know its possibilities. Besides, I’ve a feeling this town wont be big enough to hold both us, and that cub of a reporter, and keep him from whiffing some of our secrets with that inquisitive nose of his.”

Perk grinned.

“Strikes me, partner, yeou done run up against that nosey critter, same like I done, aint that a fack, suh?”

Jack drew a card out of his vest pocket and tossed it on the table near which the pair of them were just then seated.

“That’s the card he pressed into my hand, with the name of his sheet on the same. We’ve an appointment to dine with him here at the Grady tomorrow night, when he will be at liberty to ask as many questions as he pleases, connected with a rich sportsman’s love for the game fields.”

“Hot-diggetty-dig!” spluttered Perk, fairly aghast; but without waiting for him to say another word Jack continued, with a chuckle:

“Always providing we are still in Atlanta at that time. Yes, I gave him a nice little run for his money – led him on interesting journeyings, and along pleasant ways. He fell for it all, as far as I could judge; and probably I managed to get the fish well hooked; but they’re a slippery bunch, these newspaper chaps, and can give the best detective points, to beat him in the end in solving the great mystery. I’m leery of the whole tribe, partner – you never can tell whether you’re stringing them, or they are playing you, giving you line so as to bring you up with a round turn eventually. We shake off Atlanta’s dust by midnight, brother – and that goes!”

CHAPTER V
Their Running Schedule

“Hot-diggetty-dig! What a big snap I shore missed by not bein’ jest ’raound the corner, alistenin’ while yeou was afeedin’ that tall yarn to ’im, what’s the name o’ that trail hound what builds up thrillin’ yarns fo’ the readers o’ his paper to swaller?” and after taking a look at the card still lying on the table Perk continued: “‘James Douglas Keating,’ huh! well, Jimmy, mebbe so yeou didn’t run up ’gainst a buzz saw when yeou tackled aour – er, Mr. Rodman Warrington.”

“Wait and see,” cautioned Jack; “for all I can tell that lad may have been feeding me some slick medicine when he seemed to fall for my talk so readily. I’m not going to feel dead certain I scotched the busybody until we’ve left Atlanta and Candler Field well in our wake, with nothing happening to prove a give-away.”

“Yeou would, partner – it’d be jest like yeou to say ‘mebbe’ till things they got ab-so-lutely certain – never yet knew yeou to jump at conclusions, so I done reckon yeou was really born to be a scientist. When do we eat, I’d like to know; things are agettin’ near the danger line with me, right naow, an’ there’s a ‘cry from Macedonia, come on an’ dine.’”

“Let’s go,” Jack told him, reaching out for his head covering; for they had both doffed their flying clothes before quitting the ship, and were in ordinary garments that would not cause comment or unusual notice on the streets of any city.

Over a very bountiful dinner they continued to “talk shop” in low tones. Since their table was a bit removed from any other, thanks to Jack tipping the head waiter bountifully, with the orchestra playing softly, it seemed almost an impossibility for any hostile ear to catch a single word they uttered.

Thus Perk was put in possession of further valuable information with regard to the probable field of their forthcoming adventure, Jack having managed in his customary clever fashion to get hold of reading matter covering the entire romantic coast country between Norfolk and Savannah.

“It seems to be a wonderful section, just teeming with queer people and equally strange sights; and for one I’m a bit eager to look things over. Just the same, buddy, neither of us must forget even a minute the main object that’s calling us into the coast skyways. We’ve got a man’s size job on our hands, and some mighty smart people, as well as devil-may-care ones, to pack up against, so that a slip is apt to set us back, and for all we know even cost us our lives. I’m saying that not to scare any one, but because I’ve posted myself on the game, and know to what vile ends some of these dicks would go if they thought men of our trade were holding them under surveillance.”

“Well, so be it, partner doant forgit I’ve heard the whine o’ lead pills close to my ears many a time, so it’s an ole story with me!”

“When we manage to get in touch with one or more of the swift Coast Guard patrol boats things will begin to look brighter – as though there might be something doing; but that wont come along for quite some time. We’ve got to get things down pat, know all about the regular routine movements of those swift airships, and then begin to cut into their number – first one must mysteriously disappear, and then a second, possibly even a third. By that time we’ll have certainly thrown a pretty hefty scare into the bunch, and things are bound to slacken, more or less.”

“Speed the day, sez I, partner caint come any too quick to suit me, an’ that’s no lie either,” saying which valorous, fire-eating Perk again attacked his supper; for by this time they had reached the dessert stage, and were discussing prime apple pie, with the richest of thick cream to top it off, always one of Perk’s favorites, when given his choice.

It will be noticed that when off duty these minions of the Secret Service were apt to live like kings, and with reason; for often they had to put up with scanty rations, and poor at that, when far removed from restaurant fare, and forced to live off the country. “First a feast, and then a famine,” Perk was accustomed to saying when Jack mildly reproached him for giving so much thought to what he usually designated as “the eats.”

Perk would have liked very well to have spent an hour or so at some theatre or other, and had even given a few hints about a screen play at the Paramount but met with no encouragement from his side partner.

“Best for us not to make any sort of an exhibit of ourselves while we’re in close quarters with that write-up newspaper chap,” he told Perk, who, realizing that Jack meant just what he said, allowed the subject to drop.

“Kinder gu – er-reckon as haow yeou’re ’baout right there, ole hoss,” he admitted, with a slight vein of regret in his voice; “course we kin see all the picters we want when we’ve struck the wind-up o’ aour trail – that is, providin’ we’re still alive, an’ kickin’ as usual.”

“That lad has got me guessing, and no mistake,” Jack added; “in one way I admire such persistence, especially in one of his breed, where there’s a big scramble for fresh news stories; but they can make it a whole lot disagreeable for other people in the bargain. Makes me think of the leeches that used to pester us by hanging on in the old swimmin’ hole of my boyhood days – you just couldn’t shake the blood-thirsty varments off, try as you might, they were such stickers.”

Finishing their supper they strolled forth in a leisurely fashion, as if, as Perk himself observed in his quaint way: they had “the whole evening at their disposal, with nothing to do but kill time.”

Picking up a late evening paper on the way to their room at the Henry Grady Hotel they settled down to be as comfortable as possible, until the time arrived to make a start.

“We’ll get a taxi to take us out to Candler Field,” quoth Jack, always arranging his plans with meticulous certainty; “then change to our flying togs, and get going as quietly as possible. It’s to be hoped that sticking plaster wont be nosing around out there, to see some mail ship start off, or come into the airport – you never can tell about such fly-by-nights, who bob up in the most unexpected places just when you don’t want to see them.”

“Huh! yeou said it, partner,” Perk added, whimsically; “jest like I used to see that queer jack-o’-lantern in the country graveyard foggy nights now here, an’ agin over yonder, fur all the world like a ghost huntin’ fur its ’ticular stone to climb under agin.”

Jack, having made himself comfortable, commenced glancing over the paper he had picked up, briefly scanning each page as though skimming the news.

“Haow ’bout the weather reports, buddy?” asked Perk, later on, suppressing a big yawn, as though time was hanging somewhat heavily on his hands, being, as he always proudly declared, “a man of action.”

“Just about the same as a while ago – no change in the predictions having come about,” he told the other.

“Like to be no storm agoin’ to slap us in the teeth, then, eh, what?”

“I don’t see where it could come from, it being clear in almost every direction, saving possible rain in South Florida; so don’t let that bother you in the least, old scout.”

“An’ fog – haow ’bout that same, suh? I opines as haow I sorter detest fog more’n anything I know – ’cept mebbe stones in my cherry pie.”

“No record of any fog over the air-route east,” Jack informed him; “and you know we mean to follow the flash beacons all the way to Greenville, South Carolina, where they turn off in the direction of Richmond, while we shift more to the southeast by south, and head for Charleston. It looks as though we’d have a nice, even flight all the way, and land in our port early tomorrow morning – without trying to make any great speed in the bargain.”

Time passed, and it drew near the hour they had selected for their leaving the hotel. Perk was a bit eager to be going, and began to pack his bag as a gentle hint to his running mate.

“Finish mine while about it, partner,” he was told by his comrade; “while I’m down below settling our joint account, and securing a taxi. I’ll be back in a short while; and then for business.”

“Yeah! that strikes me where I live, buddy. Take yeour time, an’ doant come back atellin’ me that pesky Jimmy’s squatted in the hotel lobby, alookin’ over everybody as goes aout, er comes in.”

Jack was gone as much as ten minutes, and then opened the door quietly, to have the other snatch a quick inquiring look at his face and say:

“Ev’rything lovely, an’ the goose flyin’ high, ole hoss?”

“We’re going to kick off right away; and so far the coast seems clear.”