Eagles of the Sky; Or, With Jack Ralston Along the Air Lanes

by Ambrose Newcomb

  CHAPTER IV

  THE DANCE OF THE FIREFLIES

  Perk, now fully convinced that he had "struck oil," as he mentallytermed it, laid the binoculars down on the front seat beside his pal andgave him certain nudges in his side, thereby telling him he, Perk, wouldtake over the controls while the head pilot used the glasses.

  When this had been accomplished Perk managed to point toward the west,so as to draw the attention of his mate thither without any waste ofprecious time.

  Of course Jack immediately located the light and was watching itclosely. He could easily make it out to be a lantern that must be on thedeck of a vessel, since he discovered a mast and rigging near by, alsothe moving figures of several men.

  The lantern did not remain stationary more than a few seconds at a time,but kept up a swinging movement that was eccentric to say the least, nowpassing back and forth like the weighty pendulum in an old-fashioned"grandfather" clock; then with an up-and-down action and, as a windupperforming a circular movement, repeated twice.

  Of course Jack understood that those on board the smuggler must betrying to signal to those of their group who were on shore, the landworkers of the hard-working bunch, which conclusion caused him to turnhis attention in that quarter.

  At first he was not rewarded by any discovery but not in the leastdiscouraged he continued to wave his glasses back and forth, feelingcertain those continuous signals from out on the gulf must be noticedand returned.

  He chanced to be again watching the moving gleam when he felt Perktrying to gain his attention and when this had been accomplishedpointing eagerly off to the east.

  Yes, there it was as plain as anything--in fact there seemed to be twoseparate lights looking like twin stars and even as Jack watched he sawthem carry on in a most remarkable fashion. Now one would be in violentmotion, perhaps doing some intricate figure that had a meaning; then theother would join in, with the pair swinging back and forth, crossingeach other's path, and going through the most wonderful evolutions.

  To Jack's mind they looked like a pair of gigantic fireflies gone locowith excitement and carrying on in the most astonishing manner. Indeed,he could easily picture it as a wild dance of make-believe insects on agreatly magnified scale.

  Of course Jack never had the slightest doubt as to what all thismystifying activity must be--the two extremes of the smugglingfraternity were exchanging signals--each and every movement had ameaning of its own and conveyed such information as was most valuable tothe business in hand--in Jack's mind it was as though the conversationmight be running something after this fashion:

  "Well, here we are on hand according to promise, with a full cargo ofthe finest wet stuff you ever had drop down on your coast. How does theland lie over there?"

  "Coast all clear--we will start the fleet out to lighten your cargoright away--keep the beacon burning so they'll make a straight line toyour anchorage, which will mean a saving of time."

  "We get your meaning--glad you are so prompt to send back word--comeright along and get your invoice--the more the merrier, boys. Windgetting rougher, and we ought to be off this shallow shore before itswings around any more. Don't hold back--Merry Christmas to you all,boys!"

  Perk on his part was also trying to keep tabs on all that was going on,not neglecting his duties with the controls, it can be set down ascertain. He twisted his neck and cast swift glances first to the rightand then in the opposite direction, fascinated by that flashing beaconconversation.

  "By gum! if they ain't holdin' a regular confab with them lights," Perkwas telling himself, delighted with his opportunity to witness such aproceeding, knowing as he did what this all meant to himself and Jack."That guy on shore is sure some punkins about this signal layout--worksjest like a Boy Scout might, sending a message across to another o' thetroop standin' on top o' a high peak--makes me think I'm back on thefront, with Signal Corps men wigwaggin' for all that's out. Huh! Theregoes them twin lights, showin' the chinnin' must be over with both sidesposted on the program. Say, ain't this the boss job though? I guess Inever did get half as much fun outen any game I tackled before."

  Just then Jack signalled that he wished to handle the stick once more,which the other was indeed not sorry for, since it began to look asthough they were close to a critical moment when considerable skillwould be required in manipulating the ship so as to accomplish theirends without unduly alarming those they spied upon.

  Already they had managed to collect a certain amount of valuable factswhich were only guessed at previously, so cleverly had these transferbases been kept concealed from the most skillful of the Governmentagents. Perk himself felt confident that they were as yet only on thethreshold of still more important discoveries.

  It was one of Perk's peculiar little eccentricities that he could dobetter thinking if only he had a bit of chewing gum between his teeth,just to keep some muscles at work, he said, and in some mysteriousfashion having this energy pass from his working jaws to his brain andhasten its activities.

  So what did he do now but fumble in a pocket of his oily dungarees andproduce a slab of his favorite brand, Perk thrusting it into his mouthand savagely rolling it between his teeth, really believed this helpedhis brain to function more easily.

  Perhaps it may have done so--some people have all manner of strangehallucinations, which, being favored, bring satisfaction to their trainof thought. If Perk actually believed in his remedy that was half thebattle and no other person's business whatsoever.

  Looking out to sea he could still find that lone beacon, even withoutthe aid of his binoculars. It was easy for such an imaginative fellow topicture in his mind the lingering sloop, loaded to the gunwales withcase goods, worth almost a millionaire's ransom--the dark sailors fromBimimi lolling around on deck, ready to up-sail and flee should theslightest sign of a Coast Guard raid make itself manifest. From offtoward the distant shore line there came dully to their listening earsthe repeated throb of one or more speed boats hastening to lay alongsideand transfer their prearranged quota of cases, after which the burden ofgetting the illicit cargo safely landed would rest on the shoulders ofthose who manned the smaller smuggler craft.

  It was a beautiful little game, Perk was assuring himself, when herealized how everything had been arranged to make things work as thoughgreased. As the isolated places along the gulf coast were without numberand the enforcement agents woefully pressed to even half cover theirallotted territory, the reason for the few arrests that had rewarded themost strenuous efforts on the part of the Coast Guard could be easilycomprehended.

  "And that's just why they picked out Jack, out of all the boys in theservice, loaded him up with this here amphibian crate that c'n drop downon land or water, it don't matter a darn which, got him a sort o' sidepartner to help make things go and turned him loose to pull in the net.Huh! we'll know before long just what this racket is goin' to wind upin, for we've made our first move, our hat's thrown into the ring, andwe'll either make Pike's Peak, or--bust!"

  Presently Perk began to convince himself he could at times pick up thethrobbing sound of a humming motor, undoubtedly one of those on theirway out to the supply boat off shore some miles and ready to deliversuch number of high-priced cases as the lists called for.

  Yes, when the night wind veered or shifted a bit he was absolutelycertain about picking up the chug-chug-chug that betrayed the presenceof the leading speed boat.

  About this time Perk noticed two separate things that had a bearing ontheir mission--the first was that for some reason they no longer rompedalong at their earlier speed, showing that the pilot had seen fit toslacken his craft to a considerable degree, though keeping up steerageway. The second thing that struck Perk was the fact that they wereslowly but surely making a decided swing off to the west, which ifcontinued would make their immediate course a complete circle.

  "Go to it, old hoss!" he was saying, just as if he expected the other tohear every word which was out of the question with that whirringpropeller keeping up its low,
sing-song tone. "You got 'em beat a milewhen it comes to playin' safe, that's right. Don't want to rile thewater an' let everybody in on the fact that we're hangin' around here,waitin' for somethin' to turn up. 'Sides, it ain't good policy to makethe ten-strike till they got the stuff on board the chuggin' speedboat."

  He was intensely interested in Jack's play for time and listened withhis heart almost up in his throat, fearing lest the steady chuggingshould suddenly stop and the game be thrown by default. But no, it waskeeping on in perfect rhythm, sounding in Perk's ear something like thetattoo of a machine-gun in action and sending out its swarm of leadenmissiles--a sound that had long ago become so familiar to his ears asnever to be forgotten, despite the lapse of time.

  Surely by now that leading boat must be getting close to the schooner sothat the transfer would soon be an accomplished fact, after which thereturn trip was due to be started which was when they meant to breakinto the game.

  "Ginger pop! if I don't ketch the grumble o' a second tug further away,and I guess now a consid'able bigger craft than the leadin' one. Get amove on, fellers--the dinner gong's struck and the grub's on the tablewaitin' to be swallered--first come, first served's the rule things goby, so stir your stumps, an' put in the best licks you know how--an' maythe devil take the hindmost. Hey there! that drummin' noise, it'sstopped--wonder if they got out to the sloop or else smell a rat an' arelyin' low till they make it a dead certainty? Gosh, but ain't this allmighty thrillin' though, and how it does tickle me most to death,"muttering which Perk, still listening, actually held his breath thebetter to catch any sound from below.