THE NIGHT ALARM
“I’m not thrilled by what you say, Perk, because I’ve been more than
half expecting to hear that discovery. Glad you got on to him okay;
because it’s always best to know what’s in the wind. What sort of a chap
is he like?”
Jack spoke in his usual calm way, and the other realized he had
undoubtedly been prepared for the sudden news.
“Nothin’ out o’ the way ’bout his looks, far as I c’n see,” was Perk’s
reply; “on’y got a few squints at the guy; but he’s keepin’ tab o’ our
movements I guess now.”
“Reckon he might be one of those lads in the Ryan ship that crashed in
flames after they’d flown the coop?” asked Jack.
“Huh! just can’t be dead sure, partner,” chuckled Perk; “but there’s
somethin’ ’bout his walk that gets me into believin’ he’s the _kiwi_
that pilot was keepin’ on our tail so long, stickin’ like a leech from a
mud-hole.”
“I wonder,” the other went on to say, as if talking to himself; “if
that’s the case then, both those duffers pulled through with their
lives, and not so badly hurt. Honestly I’m a bit glad that’s so, for up
to the present I’ve never had occasion to take a human life.”
Perk snorted on hearing this.
“Well, if so be you’d been ten years older, my boy, mebbe you’d not be
able to say that—chances are you’d a been mixed up in that mess across
the Atlantic, when Yanks an’ Johnny Rebs were fightin’ shoulder to
shoulder, and it was a case o’ a Heine pilot’s life or our’n. But if you
keep on with Uncle Sam’s service as you’re adoin’ right now, the time’ll
come for you to fetch back a dead man who jest _wouldn’t_ let hisself be
captured.”
“Like as not,” remarked Jack; “but there’s no need of crossing a river
till you come to it; so I’m not taking trouble by the forelock away
ahead of time.”
“What’ll we do ’bout this dickey bird that’s bobbin’ at our heels so
gaily, tell me, partner?” pursued Perk, eagerly, as though in his
fighting heart he was actually hoping his superior would give the order
to turn on their persistent pursuer, and at least blacken both his eyes.
“Oh! nothing at all, Perk; let him run his rope; only we’ll keep along
streets where there’s plenty of company, and be prepared for any sort of
ambush; though I can’t believe he’d be crazy enough to start anything so
early in the evening—if the hour was close to midnight, things might be
different. There are any number of tough cases in this old Creole city
ready to handle a sticking game for the coin in it—blacks and yellows
and whites it doesn’t matter which—all of them are assassins at heart.”
“Then you don’t care if he shadows us straight to the hotel?” demanded
Perk.
“Much good that will do him.” said Jack with a light laugh; “the chances
are two to one he already knows where we’ve put up, and has had some spy
dog me to the Federal building. When the time comes for us to jump off
we’ll find a slick way to hop our ship without giving these boys a
show-down.”
Presently they arrived at the hotel entrance, without any untoward
incident arising to mar the quiet of the evening. Perk cast a parting
glance toward their rear just before entering, and seeing the shadowy
figure hovering not far away, considered it a part of his duty to place
his thumb to his nose, and wiggle his fingers derisively, at the same
time uttering a snarl like a bobcat at bay, to express his utter
contempt.
Once in their room, Jack first of all cast about as if to decide whether
any uninvited guest had intruded on their preserves while they were
absent.
“Everything seems to be just as we left it,” he told his running mate,
after making this little survey, “and even if some busybody did get in
here with the aid of a pass-key borrowed from a chambermaid, he was
shrewd enough not to mess things up like they did with our friend Scotty
of the air mail bunch.”
“I guess now they must acome to the conclusion you keep the letter o’
instructions ’bout your person,” suggested Perk, wisely, “which, bein’
the case mebbe now they figger on sneakin’ in here while we’re sound
asleep, an’ agoin’ through your clothes in regulation style. They do
tell me there be sneak thieves right clever in this same burgh, equal to
the ones out in India, where they c’n steal the sheet from under a
sleeper, without wakin’ him up.”
“I understand that’s really true, partner,” Jack agreed; “but we’re not
going to let them have half a chance, even if they hired all the crooks
in New Orleans to play the game.”
“Sounds good to me, boss,” Perk declared. “We’ll manage to sleep with
one eye open, an’ if any critter tries to give us the once over, he’ll
wish he’d never been born, that’s all I know.”
Before turning in, Jack placed a chair so nicely balanced that in case
of the door being ever so slightly opened it would crash to the floor,
making enough noise to arouse the Seven Sleepers. Perk grinned at seeing
him prepare this “guardian angel” as he termed it, and lost no time
himself in “hitting the hay.”
Some time later in the night, when outside noises had almost died away,
there came a loud clatter that awoke both the sleepers instantly. They
bounced out on the floor in their pajamas, with Jack pulling the cord he
had attached to the electric bulb, so that the room was magically
illuminated.
The chair lay on its side, and just beyond Perk could see that their
door was partly open; the key had been left in the lock, but skillful
fingers must have manipulated it by means of slender-jawed pliers,
showing the touch of a professional thief.
Straight toward the door the form of Perk was projected—a hungry lion
could hardly have made a more pronounced leap at some four-legged game
which he had been stalking.
Tearing open the door still wider, Perk thrust out his head, and looked
up and down the hotel corridor. He fancied he could make out a dim
figure far along the poorly lighted hall, but it vanished like a phantom
even as he stared, evidently turning some corner.
But there were other sounds arising—doors all along the corridor were
opening, and heads being projected, showing how the startling alarm had
awakened numerous other sleepers, who may have imagined an earthquake
was in process of occurring, though such a happening was utterly foreign
to the metropolis on the Lower Mississippi.
Voices, too, were heard, from both masculine as well as feminine
sources, as the aroused hotel guests endeavored to fathom the real
meaning of the row.
Perk, seeing there was nothing doing, closed the door, and locked it
again; after which he turned to his companion who had been watching his
actions with more or less amusement.
“Consarn his picture,” growled the old fighter; “he got off scot free; I
jest glimpsed him aturnin’ the first bend down the hall. Blamed shame I
couldn’t come to grips with the yeller cub—I’d a given a heap to twist
his neck some, you bet I would. Mebbe now I’d otter sit up the rest o’
the night to make certain, eh, boss?”
“Not the slightest need of such a thing, partner,” Jack assured him.
“I’ll fix that door so it won’t be opened again in a hurry.”
With that he again took the stout chair, and placed it diagonally
against the door, so that its top rested just under the knob; after that
had been accomplished it must needs be a battering-ram that could burst
in on them.
Not content with that, Jack went to each of the two windows, thrust out
his head to examine for the second time the face of the outer wall of
the building so as to make sure there was no ledge wide enough to give a
would-be trespasser foothold.
“Not the ghost of a chance for the most nimble thief to get in by way of
a window, Perk, so back to bed we go, and sleep like babes in the wood
for we’re in the third story and far enough from a fire escape to be
secure.”
Perk grinned and nodded acquiescence; truth to tell he was not at all
averse to starting all over again—possibly the rude interruption had
disturbed him just when he was starting to partake of a royal feast that
covered every one of his most beloved dishes and he was hugging the
delusion to his heart that if given another chance history might repeat
itself.
At least there was no further alarm, and the night passed into oblivion
like all its countless predecessors with the rising sun arousing the two
comrades, and Perk as usual singing out that he felt as though he could
easily manage two customary breakfasts in that delighful restaurant
where they were already feeling so much at home.