Flying the Coast Skyways; Or, Jack Ralston's Swift Patrol

by Ambrose Newcomb

  CHAPTER XVII

  SPINNING THE NET

  Again, after Jack had paid a visit to the home of Mr. Herriott herepeated much of what fresh information he had picked up during theevening, some of which he deemed more or less important, as the factsdove-tailed with other details, to make something of a completestructure.

  "Tomorrow we'll hang around the city, as there are a few things I've gotdown on my list of wanted articles," he observed in conclusion."Besides, I promised him I'd fetch you around so as to make hisacquaintance, for he always asks about you."

  "Huh! Spose I jest _has_ to get over there some time'r other," Perkremarked, as though not particularly eager to go. "But I shore hopes asheow 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 thatday," Jack informed him. "If it's foggy, and the visibility poor, wemight as well hang out here in the city, since we couldn't do any payingbusiness looking into a blank wall of fog, you know, Wally boy."

  "Okay--suits me jest as well as things go," the other announcedcarelessly 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 atthat, real Southern style, like I used to have when I was a Birmin'hamkid, runnin' raound barefoot with my mates, jest like Tom Sawyer an'Huck Finn uster do in them ole Mississippi days we done reads 'baout inthe books."

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

  Jack went about doing his errands, while Perk seemed content to stick tothe isolation of their comfortable room, doing some reading of thebundle of well known daily papers he had managed to secure at a shopthey passed during the short walk taken in company afterbreakfast--that, and the waiting to get up an appetite for dinner seemedto be the full extent of Perk's ambition, it was plain to be seen--whenhe had a day off, and the "eats" were so unusually tempting, it pleasedPerk to act as if a lazy streak had gripped him.

  "I think I forgot to tell you," Jack chanced to tell his comrade as theafternoon began to wane, "that we are invited to dine with Mr. Herriottand 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 ongood terms with both him and his charming wife; as to the kids I warrantyou 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 theentire little family--of course under the name and character beneathwhich he was hiding his own identity at that particular time.

  Just as sagacious Jack had surmised would happen, Perk was soon feelingquite 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, sothey could spend the time after dinner in other ways than "going into ahuddle," as Perk put it, and having a siege of explanations andsurmises.

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

  When Perk was once fairly aroused he apparently lost his customarybashfulness, and could tell a story that brought out more than a fewlaughs because of what queer things he narrated, and his comical way ofrelating the same, his expressive freckled face all working withimitations of how other men did their talking.

  "I never sits so comfy in the cabin o' a up-to-date tri-motored airshipthese here days," he went on to remark, when well started, "with allsorts o' instruments to navigate by, that I doant think 'baout heow wedon't fly any more by jest instinct, like we uster do when the Wrightboys was a perfectin' their fust crude heavier'n air flyin' ship. Today,suh, we sits at the controls, an' keeps aour eyes on aour instrumentsall 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 toexclaim; "please go on, and tell us something more along that same line.You certainly must have passed through some strange experiences, I'dsay."

  "Shucks! but it shore does make me laugh aout loud when I looks back tothem early days, an' 'members the funny way we used to find aout whetherthe 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 theinstinct 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' thepilot's face. When we was a goin' near ten miles an hour, mebbe fifteenat a stretch, we kept an eye on that string right along, an' could tellwhat the ole ship was adoin', 'cause like it might a been if she floatedin the wind straight at aour face we knowed we was keepin' on a levelkeel--if it went daown a bit why we was climbin' some; if the stringstruck us in the forehead in course the plane must be droppin'; and sameway if it flowed to the right, or the left. An' say, I never did knowthat early Wright invention to kick over the traces, an' fool me any."

  Even Jack apparently had never heard about that clever device, howeverprimitive it might seem when placed alongside the wonderful means atpresent used to ascertain the same things--such as slipping, skidding,turning, climbing, or diving--today the experienced pilot watches theair-speed instrument, his compass, the bank and turn indicator. Only byplacing entire dependence on the instruments in the cockpit can a pilotfly with any certainty in foggy weather, when it is utterly impossibleto see any fixed point, either on the earth below or in the heavensabove.

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

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

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

  "Okay, partner!" he sang out blithely, after one brief look at theheavens, a portion of which was visible from the hotel window; "agwineto be jest fine, an' never a whiff o' fog aout there on Charlestonharbor an' bay."

  "Then we'll get busy, and make as early a start as possible," Jackannounced, 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 toeat one camp meal, when the chance came along, and no harm might followtheir change of a set programme.

  "That depends on a good many things," Jack warned him; "so I wouldn'tcount 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 faraway from home along about the middle of the afternoon, why we'll decidethen on our doings for the night. You might as well, I suppose, carry afew necessary things along, such as you'd like to eat at a campfiresupper--if we think it wise to have any fire, I mean."

  "Oh! please doant throw any gloom on aour trip today, partner; we kinmake shore to drop daown in a region where there aint a Chinaman'schanct o' a solitary Tarheel bein' inside o' ten miles; an' the swampsaraoun' makin' it ab-solutely impossible fo' sech to git to aour campshort o' six days anyway, havin' to cut his path through dense thickets;wade sloughs where the pizen water moccasins air thicker'n molasses on acold mawni
n'; with twelve-foot 'gators alayin' in wait to bite off agink's leg quicker'n yeou could wink an eye. Shucks! we jest gotter havethat same campfire--withaout the same it'd be like the play o' Hanblettwith 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 mightjust as well be taken up now." Jack was telling his comrade, as they sateating an early breakfast, there being hardly any one besides themselvesin the diningroom; so they could talk in low tones, and keeping an eyeon the waiters, so as to change the subject should one of them drawnear.

  "Huh! somethin' mebbe naow Mr. H been atellin' you-all, eh, suh?"

  "Just that, Wally; but a matter of the utmost importance, it happens, asyou'll soon understand, buddy. It concerns a certain party who's goingto have a hand with us in closing the net, and making a big dent in thissame syndicate we're up against. His name--bend a bit closer to me--isJethro Hicks."

  "Sho! never heard it afore, give yeou my affidavy, partner!" returnedPerk.

  "Of course not," snapped Jack; "neither did I until Mr. Herriottmentioned the fact last night that he would be waiting whenever we sentout the word--waiting in a certain little bayou which we'd have pickedfor our hideout--waiting in an old battered powerboat he owns, to takeus 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 haowwe'd be able to dodge 'raound in sech crazy places, if left toaourselves. Gwine to have a reg'lar pilot--woods guide fo' swampflittin', I'd call the same! Good enough, I say--caint be too manyquirks set up fo' knockin' them dead game sports silly, to please me. Asit 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 wordthrough our good friend, who's as interested in the success of our dealas 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; thechariot awaits us."

  "Then we'll git aboard an' start right away, after I've laid in a fewprovisions 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 aviationfield in a convenient taxi; where in short order their big amphibian,properly serviced by the field force, was ready for the take-off.