CHAPTER III
LIKE A NIGHT OWL ON THE WING
The rush and gurgle of the water parted by the pontoons beneath thefuselage of the plane was sounding most delightful to the ears of Perkas he sat there watching the jaws of land draw rapidly nearer.
Resting up was always a painful thing to Perk whose nerves called foraction and had done so ever since he served in the flying corps acrossthe Atlantic when men's souls thrilled with frequent contacts in theline of equally daring Hun war pilots.
Now they had shot past the twin points and were out upon the open gulf,their speed increasing every second as Jack pulled the stick closeragainst his chest. Then the experienced pilot lifted her in a zoom thatwas simply magnificent, and they were off on their adventure at last.
Rising fast, the boat was soon at a good ceiling for flying. So too thenight promised all manner of favorable things for men of theircalling--up where they were the wind did not amount to much but it wasblowing at quite a lively rate closer to the earth and doubtless thebroad palmetto leaves must be making a considerable slashing as theystruck one another, dead and withered ones sawing like some giant violinbow.
This, with the wash of the waves upon the pebbled beach, would makeenough noise to effectually deaden the whirr of the propeller--the newand novel muffler or silencer, fashioned very much on the order of sucha contraption as successfully applied to small firearms, was doingwonderfully, and Perk every little while made motions as though shakinghands with himself because of this addition to their security, for underthe usual conditions prevailing anything like secrecy in a noisy airshiphad been unknown to the sky detectives.
Perk had been under a strange hallucination when that other plane wassoaring overhead--in fact he was once again back in the Argonne, withhis boat hugging the earth, and an enemy swooping in circlesoverhead--he had even gone so far as to imagine the German war ace mightbe maneuvering so as to drop one of his bombs straight down on thestranded craft, with results that must spell a complete wipeout.
When they did not have their handy earphones in service Jack and hisright bower had arranged a secret alphabet of signals, consisting of allmanner of pokes and nudges, by means of which they were enabled tocommunicate along professional lines at least. If it seemed necessary toPerk to ask questions not down on the brief list thus worked out, all hehad to do was to adjust Jack's harness and then his own little outfit,enabling him to chatter away to his heart's content--and often to theannoyance of his less talkative chum.
But first of all he proceeded to make good use of the binoculars uponwhich so much depended. From side to side he would swing the glasses andsearch for anything that looked like a suspicious light on land or waterthen turn to what lay dead ahead.
In this region of the Ten Thousand Islands--all fashioned from the queerspreading mangrove that drops its long seeds so that they stick uprightin the mud, and, quickly developing roots, spring up to add to thedimension of the original "island" there were never at any time manysettlers so that the coast has been reckoned as the "loneliest ever," onwhich account Perk realized that if he should happen to glimpse a light,whether on land or gulf, the chances were fifty to one it might havesome connection with the operations of the smuggler league.
Perk remembered how that Curtiss-Robin ship had finally disappeared inthe haze lying to the north and from this he sucked more or lessconsolation, since it seemed evident the location of their job must liein that quarter toward which they were now bound like a great owlswooping on noiseless pinions to seize its prey.
A delicious thrill ran through his frame from time to time. If any onecould "get a kick" from such a situation it was Perk, who was alreadyvisioning some sort of a battle royal when they struck the smugglinggang in the midst of their lawless work. The gang did their best tocreate a reign of terror.
Once far out toward the west, where rolled the tides of the broad gulfthat stretched for a distance of five hundred miles across to the Coastof Mexico, he certainly did glimpse a light, low down on the horizonwhere just the faintest gleam of the late departed day still lingered.Ha! the mother ship no doubt, riding at anchor some miles out where thegulf was shallow and holding ground good--a heavily laden sailing craft,coming possibly from the Bahamas, and passing into the gulf between theFlorida keys. Its captain knowing that the cargo they carried could bemuch more easily landed there than around Miami, where the Coast Guardwas more vigilant.
Long and earnestly did Perk stare, picturing the shore motorboatsspeeding out through the gloom toward that signal light to take aboardtheir several loads and make for certain secluded harbors where truckswould be waiting to transfer the illicit stuff to its destined marketswhere prices ranged high with the holidays approaching and rich, thirstytourists to be supplied.
"Bang! it's gone blooie!" Perk suddenly told himself as he no longerfound himself able to distinguish that suspicious gleam which hadgradually grown dim and then utterly vanished from view. "Now, what inthunder does that mean I want to know--why should they douse the glim insuch a hurry--wonder if they could have caught any sound from us to give'em a scare? I'm in a tail-spin, seems like. Oh I shucks! mebee it wason'y a measly star after all, that's set back o' the horizon. Who gotfooled that time, I want to know, Gabe Perkiser, you smarty?"
He took it humorously, happening to be one of those sensible ladscapable of laughing, even when the joke was on himself.
Shortly afterwards Perk picked up what seemed to be a low-lying light,this time off toward the east, where he knew the land lay.
"Huh! I kinder guess that ain't a silly star," was the way he expressedhis feelings as he continued to watch the glimmering object that roseand then grew dim, only to once more flash brightly. "Might be somesquatter sittin' alongside his campfire--mebbe a fishing camp, on'y Igot an idea the light comes from a big lantern and not a blazing fire.Strikes me it oughter bear watchin' just the same."
A minute afterwards and he could no longer see the object of hisconcern.
"By jinks! what sort o' hocus-pocus might _that_ be, I want toknow--did somebody blow that light out just when I was hopin' big thingsmight come from it, or was it only a bunch o' cabbage palms that come inbetween me an' the glow?"
It did not reappear, although Perk kept turning his glasses in thatparticular quarter time after time, as fresh hopes awakened.
The amphibian was running as smooth as silk, Perk told himself more thanonce--why not, when they had most carefully checked it over withscrupulous exactness, so as to be able to pronounce it in perfectcondition. That new muffler did the work like magic and Perk reallybegan to feel as though the efficiency of their aerial mount had beenincreased a hundred per cent by the installation of such an up-to-datecontrivance, even if it did cut their speed down more or less--when theyhad good need of swift wings it could be done away with, since racketwas powerless to hurt them then.
A few clouds had started up and were drifting overhead by this time.Perk gave them several hasty looks, possibly wondering whether therecould be any chance of a sudden blow arising since indeed they came fromthe southwest, where many of the rains and high winds had their brewingplace, far out on the mighty gulf to be followed in turn by a "norther,"cold and violent.
"That might be rotten luck for us," he grumbled, sensing trouble inputting Jack's scheme into operation, "but I guess there ain't anythingto it--right cool even downstairs, I noticed an' they tell me it alwaysheats up afore one o' these fall rains come along."
He put that matter out of his mind as hardly worthy of attention then aminute later he made another discovery. Again his attention was turnedtoward the west, for a light had appeared low down, a light thatactually moved, this fact convincing the vigilant observer it could byno possibility be another setting star in the bright firmament above.
"That's the genuine stuff, or I'll eat my hat!" was his characteristicway of confirming this fresh discovery, and there was certainly a traceof triumph noticeable in his voice, as though this would wipe out hisformer blunde
r.
Eagles of the Sky; Or, With Jack Ralston Along the Air Lanes Page 3