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

by Ambrose Newcomb

  XIX

  PERK GETS A SHOCK

  An hour later and both of them were sound asleep, having comfortablelet-down cots in the sheltering cabin that were a wonderful improvementover the way they used to double-up in the cramped cockpit of the shipthey handled before this fine amphibian was placed in their charge byUncle Sam.

  The night moved on and for some hours nothing occurred to annoy them.Perk had become addicted to waking about once so often and as a rule heused to sit up and yawn as he took a look around.

  It may have been an hour or so after midnight when, on thus arousing, hecaught a sound that caused him to omit the customary yawn, though hecertainly sat up with a jerk and appeared to be listening.

  Almost mechanically too, his right hand groped for something alongsidehis cot and it was his gun he presently pulled up. The sounds he hadheard once more broke out--savage, ominous sounds they were too,undoubtedly proceeding from one or more wild beasts aroused to afighting spirit.

  "Huh! bobcats, I'd say, if you asked me, neighbor, an' hoppin' mad inthe bargain. Must be a pair o' 'em an' they ain't mates either. Guessnow two ol' rivals must a met head-on along some trail an' each is asassin' t' other, darin' him to knock a chip off'n his shoulder an' seewhat he gets. Gosh amighty! but wouldn't I jest like to lamp that 'ereduel the wust kind, but I knows aheap better'n to set out an' spy on'em. Just as like as not they'd forget all their mad agin' each otheran' set on me for keeps. Thar they go agin, licketty-split, snarlin',screechin' and scrappin' for all that's out. I'm tellin' the wide worldthe hair's sure flyin' in big patches while _that_ caterwaulin' keepsgrindin' out."

  It kept Perk sitting there fully ten minutes before finally dying outnor did he ever know whether one or both quarreling creatures had beenextinguished, like the famous cats of Kilkenny, each of which thought"there was one cat too many."

  "Some circus, b'lieve me," Perk told himself, with many a chuckle, forhe had been vastly amused and entertained by that aggregation of furioussounds, "but it's okay with me so long's they scrap 'mong themselves an'leave us alone. I ain't lost no kitty as I know of, an' there's somemore sleep I c'n make use of if they put the brakes on their whoopin'things up."

  With that he snuggled down once more and forgot all his troubles for thebalance of the night. If there were any further ancient feuds still tobe settled among the old-time inhabitants of that section, Perk wasunaware of the slaughter for he did not open his eyes until the firstpeep of dawn announced the coming of another day.

  Jack still slept, it would seem, for he lay there like a mummy whilePerk proceeded to crawl out and get into his clothes with the fullintention of slipping ashore, reviving the fire and starting to preparebreakfast. Apparently his enormous supper of the previous evening musthave digested and that awful vacuum he detested so much was alreadycalling for help.

  He chanced to have a sore toe that gave him a painful twitch everylittle while and not feeling disposed to tramp around collecting fueluntil he had remedied this physical distress, he sat down to pull offhis footgear and fasten a little wad of cotton between the offendingmember and its neighbor.

  Once while thus busily engaged Perk imagined he caught a slight thud, asof something striking a root or fallen branch. He raised his head tolisten, with those ravenous timber wolves flashing into his mind butthen everything seemed nice and quiet again so that believing he hadonly imagined he heard suspicious sounds he once more bent down tocomplete his little task.

  Then, without hardly any warning, there suddenly burst forth the mostdiabolical sound Perk had ever heard in all his life. Something similarto the braying of army mules over in France, he thought.

  Perk probably felt his blood run cold, for that frightful racket was notmore than twenty feet distant. Wildly he stared, expecting to see somesavage beast, perhaps with the stripes of a real jungle tiger, comeleaping from behind the adjacent rock heaps and make directly for him,unarmed as he was.

  Regaining the use of his limbs Perk turned tail and made for thefriendly left wing of the ship, taking huge jumps and anticipating thatsome supple body was apt to land on his back despite his haste.

  Jack was there in full sight and worse luck, he did not even seem tohave thought to snatch up the handy gun when that frightful roar echoedand re-echoed up and down hill in the valley of the silver lake.

  "G--et th' gun, quick--tigers, lions, an' nobody knows what not--on therampage to beat the band, too!"

  Jack stared and then seemed to fairly double-up as though to him theremight be something worth laughing at in the hurried retreat of his pal.

  "He's more scared than you can be, Perk!" he managed to cry out. "Seehim making off, will you, taking steps that are nearly as long as yourown. Watch him shake those new horns of his, as if to tell you he'd bewilling to fight it out only his head pieces are so new like, and soft!"

  "W-hy--what in tarnation thunder is that big monster, Jack?" gasped theastonished Perk, staring with all his might after the towering beastthat was passing out of sight around a vast mound of tumbledown rocks.

  "Only a bull moose, partner--he must have heard you make some sound andreckoned it was an old rival of his, which was what made him give thatroar. I never ran across a moose up to now, but I know what they can do.If it had been in the Fall of the year, when his horns, just ruttinglately, were firm and hard, you'd have had him jumping you mightyquick."

  "Wow! he _had_ me jumpin' even as it was," confessed honest Perk,deigning now to break into a silly grin since the supposed danger waspast and the coast clear. "He's some jim dandy I'd say an' mebbe Iwouldn't like to knock a bull moose over. Used to hear about 'em when Iwas a kid up in Maine and over the line in Canada too (but never met oneo' the breed before). Bet you that ol' boy c'n run a blue streak too,once he lets go. Well, since there ain't any tigers at large nor yet acatamount lyin' in ambush, guess I orter go ashore again an' hurry up myfire. Breakfast ready in ten minutes, 'member, Jack ol' hoss."

  While working over his fire and starting breakfast Perk must have beensketching in his mind the nerve racking encounter so lately in thespot-light, for once he stopped doing what he was engaged in, to lookseriously up at the blue sky where a few floating white clouds had takenon a faint pink blush, showing that the rising sun was not far below thehorizon though not scheduled to appear to any one in that deep valleyfor several hours yet--then he might have been heard holding communionwith himself and saying:

  "I kinder guess moose steak wouldn't taste so bad but then what's theuse o' cryin' over spilt milk? Mister Moose has skipped out an' thenJack wouldn't let me shoot, even if the ol' critter hung around lookin'for trouble. Didn't he say the close season was on with all game thatyou c'n eat and that the Mounties might get me if I took chances andnailed that big boy? Oh well! I'm all to the good and no tellin' what hemight have done to me if we got mixed up in a sure enough scrap."

  Breakfast was almost as enjoyable as supper had been--not just wholly sofor no one is ever quite so hard pressed by hunger in the early morningas seems to be the case toward close of day when all cares are tossedaside.

  Jack did not appear to be in any hurry to leave the scene of theirnight's bivouac for he puttered around, doing numerous small choresthat, according to Perk's mind, could have just as well been postponedto another time without the sky falling.

  "Ain't she ready to take the air, Boss?" he finally demanded when hecould stand it no longer, whereupon Jack looked up smilingly and nodded.

  "Everything's as fine as silk, brother, and since it's getting along,perhaps we'd better be on our way."

  "Huh! that's the line o' patter I'm longin' to hear from you, partner,"Perk broke out in positive relief. "I'm a bit leery 'bout puttin' in asecond night alongside this lake. Might have a twenty-foot anaconda dropdown on us while we sat outside an' smoked. Now don't tell me they ain'tno sech animal hereabouts, 'cause I know that as well as you do but justthe same I'm glad we're goin' to climb outen here pront
o."