BY THE SKIN OF THEIR TEETH
Once settled down in the taxi Perk felt much better. He had been casting
suspicious glances this way and that, eying a number of parties, as
though he more than half anticipated the slick newspaper man might be
hanging around the Grady in some clever disguise, bent on tracking them
to the aviation field.
"Huh! kinder guess--ev'rything's okay with us naow--glad Jack didn't
hear me asayin' that forbidden word, er he'd be kickin' agin. Tarnel
shame haow a life-long habit do stick to a guy like glue--didn't realize
haow things keep acomin' an' agoin' year after year, when yeou git
'customed to doin' the same."
Perk was muttering this to himself half under his breath as the taxi
took off, and immediately headed almost straight toward the quarter
where the fast growing Candler Field lay outside the thickly populated
part of Atlanta.
He was just about to thrust his head out of the open upper part of the
door on the left side when Jack jerked him violently back.
"Hey! what in thunder--"
"Shut up! and lie back!" hissed the other, almost savagely.
"Gosh-a-mighty! was _he_ hangin' 'raound after all?" gasped the startled
Perk, who could think of but one reason for the other treating him so
unceremoniously.
Jack had turned, and was trying to see through the dimmed glass--he even
rubbed it hastily with his hand as if to better the chances of an
observation; but as they whirled around a corner gave it up as next to
useless.
"It was _that boy_ all right, and making straight for the hotel in the
bargain; which proves he'd located our layout okay," he explained to the
excited Perk.
"Doant tell me he done spotted us, partner?"
"I don't just know," came back the answer, hesitatingly. "I thought I'd
yanked you back before he looked our way; but as sure as anything he
came to a full stop, and stared after our taxi. For all we know he may
be jumping for some kind of conveyance to follow at our heels."
"Hot-diggetty-dig! but things shore _air_ gettin' some int'restin' like,
I'd say, if yeou asked me, boy! An' even if he keeps on agoin' to the
Grady the night clerk'll tell him as haow we done kicked aout. Kinder
wish we was a zoomin' long on aour course, an' givin' Jimmy the horse
laugh. Caint yeou git the shover to speed her along a little, ole hoss?"
"We're already hitting up the pace as far as safety would advise," Jack
told him, as they both swayed over to one side, with another corner
being taken on the jump. "It'd spill the beans if we had any sort of
accident on the way to the ship; better let well enough alone, partner."
"Huh! the best speed a rackabones o' a taxi kin make seems like crawlin'
to any airman used to a hundred miles an hour, an' heaps more'n that,"
grumbled the never satisfied Perk; but just the same it might be noticed
that Jack did not attempt to urge the chauffeur to increase their speed
at the risk of some disaster, such as skidding, when turning a sharp
corner.
On the way Perk amused himself by taking various peeps from the rear,
gluing his eye to the dingy glass. Since he raised no alarm it might be
taken for granted he had made no discovery worth mentioning; and in this
manner they presently arrived at the flying field, which they found
fully illuminated, as though some ship was about to land, or another
take off.
This suited them exactly, as it would be of considerable help in
bringing about their own departure.
Jumping out Jack paid the driver, and after picking up their bags they
hastened in the direction of the hangar in which they had been assured
their ship was to be placed.
A new field service motor truck was moving past them, evidently bent on
servicing some plane about to depart east, west, north or south; which
Perk eyed with admiration; for he knew what a comfort it was to have one
of these up-to-date contraptions swing alongside, and carry out all the
necessary operations of fitting a ship out, which in the old days had to
be done by hand, with the assistance of field hostlers.
"Anyhaow, we doant need a single thing to set us on aour way, which is
some comfort," he remarked to his mate as they arrived at their
destination.
While Jack was making all arrangements for their big Fokker to be taken
out of the hangar, and brought in position for taking off, Perk
continued to look eagerly around him, as usual deeply interested in all
that went on in connection with a popular and always growing airport, of
which Candler Field was a shining example.
"By gum! if there aint one o' them new-fangled air mail flags, painted
on the fuselege o' that Southern Air Fast Express ship gettin' ready to
pick off; an' say, aint she a beaut though--regulation wings in yellow,
with the words 'U. S. Air Mail', an' the upper an' lower borders marked
with red an' blue painted lines. Gosh! I'd be some proud naow to be
handlin' sech a nifty ship in the service I onct worked by; but no use
kickin', what I'm adoin' these days is heaps more important fo' Ole
Uncle Sam than jest acarry'n' his letter sacks. An' mebbe that ship
means to head back jest where we come from, Los Angeles, an' San Diego,
by way o' Dallas, Texas. Haow they keep askippin' all araoun' this wide
kentry, day an' night, like grasshoppers on a sunny perairie--the times
o' magic have shore come to us folks in the year nineteen thirty-one."
Other sights greeted his roving eyes as he held himself impatiently in
check waiting for Jack to give him the word to start. Both of them had
hurriedly changed their clothes, and were now garbed in their customary
working dungarees, stained with innumerable marks of hard service, yet
indispensable to those who followed their calling.
It certainly did not take long for their ship to be trundled out on to
the level field, and brought into position for taking off. There was
considerable of a gathering, considering that it was now so late in the
night; and Perk, giving a stab at the fact, came to the conclusion there
was something out of the common being, as he termed it, "pulled
off"--possibly the presence of that beautiful emblem of the air mail
service on the fuselage of the western bound mail and express matter
carrier had to do with the occasion--a sort of honorary christening, so
to speak--he was content to let it go at that.
Jack was still talking with some one he seemed to know, some one who
must surely be a fellow pilot, for he was dressed in regulation dingy
overalls, and kept hovering near that fine multi-motored Curtiss
Kingbird plane that he, Perk, understood belonged to the new fleet of
the line to be operated in a short time between Atlanta and Miami,
Florida, carrying passengers, the mail, and express between the two
airports.
Thus far there had been no sign of the ubiquitous newspaper man, and
Perk continued to bolster up his hope this might continue to be the case
to the very moment of their departure. It would be a bit exasperating
should the fellow suddenly burst upon them, jumping out of a taxi, and
tackling Jack with a beastly shower of questions that were suited to the
ends he had in view of building up a fanciful story that must tickle the
palates of the numerous readers of his department on aviation in the
paper he served.
There, thank their lucky stars, was his companion giving the wished for
call for him to stand by, as everything was fixed for immediate
departure. In less than three minutes they would be taking the air, and
leaving lighted Candler Field behind them--once that happy event had
taken place and they could snap their fingers derisively at any attempt
on the part of their determined annoyer to give them trouble.
"Huh! it's to be hoped the pesky guy doant take a notion to hire a ship,
an' try to stick to aour tail, ashoutin' aout his crazy questions like
he spected us to done hole up, an' hand him his story on a plate! Kinder
gu--reckon as haow there aint much danger 'long them lines--it'd be a
whole lot too hard fur him to manage. Okay, suh, right away!"
As Perk was supposed to be a pilot in the employ of Mr. Rodman
Warrington, of course it was only right for him to be at the throttle of
the ship when they took off. Accordingly he hastened to settle down in
his seat where he could grip the controls, and manipulate things in the
dash along the field that would wind up in a swing upwards toward the
starry heavens.
Having given a last hasty inspection of his gadgets, and the numerous
dials as arranged on the black dashboard before him, Perk called out,
the propeller started to roar and spin like lightning; and in that very
last second of time, as the ship commenced to leap forward, Perk caught
a glimpse of the man whom they had believed left in the lurch--no other
than Jimmy himself!