SPINNING THE NET
Again, after Jack had paid a visit to the home of Mr. Herriott he
repeated much of what fresh information he had picked up during the
evening, some of which he deemed more or less important, as the facts
dove-tailed with other details, to make something of a complete
structure.
"Tomorrow we'll hang around the city, as there are a few things I've got
down on my list of wanted articles," he observed in conclusion.
"Besides, I promised him I'd fetch you around so as to make his
acquaintance, for he always asks about you."
"Huh! Spose I jest _has_ to get over there some time'r other," Perk
remarked, as though not particularly eager to go. "But I shore hopes as
heow 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 that
day," Jack informed him. "If it's foggy, and the visibility poor, we
might as well hang out here in the city, since we couldn't do any paying
business looking into a blank wall of fog, you know, Wally boy."
"Okay--suits me jest as well as things go," the other announced
carelessly 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 at
that, real Southern style, like I used to have when I was a Birmin'ham
kid, runnin' raound barefoot with my mates, jest like Tom Sawyer an'
Huck Finn uster do in them ole Mississippi days we done reads 'baout in
the books."
It was just as well that Jack had decided to drop a day in their search
for hidden haunts of the smugglers; for when morning came the sky was
overcast, and poor visibility seemed to be "on tap" for the entire day.
Jack went about doing his errands, while Perk seemed content to stick to
the isolation of their comfortable room, doing some reading of the
bundle of well known daily papers he had managed to secure at a shop
they passed during the short walk taken in company after
breakfast--that, and the waiting to get up an appetite for dinner seemed
to be the full extent of Perk's ambition, it was plain to be seen--when
he had a day off, and the "eats" were so unusually tempting, it pleased
Perk to act as if a lazy streak had gripped him.
"I think I forgot to tell you," Jack chanced to tell his comrade as the
afternoon began to wane, "that we are invited to dine with Mr. Herriott
and 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 on
good terms with both him and his charming wife; as to the kids I warrant
you 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 the
entire little family--of course under the name and character beneath
which he was hiding his own identity at that particular time.
Just as sagacious Jack had surmised would happen, Perk was soon feeling
quite 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, so
they could spend the time after dinner in other ways than "going into a
huddle," as Perk put it, and having a siege of explanations and
surmises.
Mr. Herriott coaxed Perk to speak of his early experiences, partly when
over in France, during war times, then later on with the Mounted Police
up in Northwest Canada, and also as one of the early pilots carrying the
mails, as far as was done in those bygone days and nights.
When Perk was once fairly aroused he apparently lost his customary
bashfulness, and could tell a story that brought out more than a few
laughs because of what queer things he narrated, and his comical way of
relating the same, his expressive freckled face all working with
imitations of how other men did their talking.
"I never sits so comfy in the cabin o' a up-to-date tri-motored airship
these here days," he went on to remark, when well started, "with all
sorts o' instruments to navigate by, that I doant think 'baout heow we
don't fly any more by jest instinct, like we uster do when the Wright
boys was a perfectin' their fust crude heavier'n air flyin' ship. Today,
suh, we sits at the controls, an' keeps aour eyes on aour instruments
all 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 to
exclaim; "please go on, and tell us something more along that same line.
You certainly must have passed through some strange experiences, I'd
say."
"Shucks! but it shore does make me laugh aout loud when I looks back to
them early days, an' 'members the funny way we used to find aout whether
the 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 the
instinct 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' the
pilot's face. When we was a goin' near ten miles an hour, mebbe fifteen
at a stretch, we kept an eye on that string right along, an' could tell
what the ole ship was adoin', 'cause like it might a been if she floated
in the wind straight at aour face we knowed we was keepin' on a level
keel--if it went daown a bit why we was climbin' some; if the string
struck us in the forehead in course the plane must be droppin'; and same
way if it flowed to the right, or the left. An' say, I never did know
that early Wright invention to kick over the traces, an' fool me any."
Even Jack apparently had never heard about that clever device, however
primitive it might seem when placed alongside the wonderful means at
present used to ascertain the same things--such as slipping, skidding,
turning, climbing, or diving--today the experienced pilot watches the
air-speed instrument, his compass, the bank and turn indicator. Only by
placing entire dependence on the instruments in the cockpit can a pilot
fly with any certainty in foggy weather, when it is utterly impossible
to see any fixed point, either on the earth below or in the heavens
above.
And this is only one great change made in both the construction of the
airship in these modern days, as well as the helping hand given the
pilot through the clever devices by which he is confronted when sitting
at the controls.
Taken in all Perk spent a very pleasant evening with the Herriotts, and
on their part they had a most uproarious time, the children particularly
in romping with the jolly chap from the North.
It was with considerable eagerness that Perk bounded out of bed on the
ensuing morning, and rushed to a window to ascertain what the chances
were for a promising day in the coast skyways.
"Okay, partner!" he sang out blithely, after one brief look at the
heavens, a portion of which was visible from the hotel window; "agwine
to be jest fine, an' never a whiff o' fog aout there on Charleston
harbor an' bay."
"Then we'll get busy, and make as early a start as possible," Jack
announced, 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 to
eat one camp meal, when the chance came along, and no harm might follow
their change of a set programme.
"That depends on a good many things," Jack warned him; "so I wouldn't
count 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 far
away from home along about the middle of the afternoon, why we'll decide
then on our doings for the night. You might as well, I suppose, carry a
few necessary things along, such as you'd like to eat at a campfire
supper--if we think it wise to have any fire, I mean."
"Oh! please doant throw any gloom on aour trip today, partner; we kin
make shore to drop daown in a region where there aint a Chinaman's
chanct o' a solitary Tarheel bein' inside o' ten miles; an' the swamps
araoun' makin' it ab-solutely impossible fo' sech to git to aour camp
short o' six days anyway, havin' to cut his path through dense thickets;
wade sloughs where the pizen water moccasins air thicker'n molasses on a
cold mawnin'; with twelve-foot 'gators alayin' in wait to bite off a
gink's leg quicker'n yeou could wink an eye. Shucks! we jest gotter have
that same campfire--withaout the same it'd be like the play o' Hanblett
with 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 might
just as well be taken up now." Jack was telling his comrade, as they sat
eating an early breakfast, there being hardly any one besides themselves
in the diningroom; so they could talk in low tones, and keeping an eye
on the waiters, so as to change the subject should one of them draw
near.
"Huh! somethin' mebbe naow Mr. H been atellin' you-all, eh, suh?"
"Just that, Wally; but a matter of the utmost importance, it happens, as
you'll soon understand, buddy. It concerns a certain party who's going
to have a hand with us in closing the net, and making a big dent in this
same syndicate we're up against. His name--bend a bit closer to me--is
Jethro Hicks."
"Sho! never heard it afore, give yeou my affidavy, partner!" returned
Perk.
"Of course not," snapped Jack; "neither did I until Mr. Herriott
mentioned the fact last night that he would be waiting whenever we sent
out the word--waiting in a certain little bayou which we'd have picked
for our hideout--waiting in an old battered powerboat he owns, to take
us 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 haow
we'd be able to dodge 'raound in sech crazy places, if left to
aourselves. Gwine to have a reg'lar pilot--woods guide fo' swamp
flittin', I'd call the same! Good enough, I say--caint be too many
quirks set up fo' knockin' them dead game sports silly, to please me. As
it 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 word
through our good friend, who's as interested in the success of our deal
as 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; the
chariot awaits us."
"Then we'll git aboard an' start right away, after I've laid in a few
provisions 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 aviation
field in a convenient taxi; where in short order their big amphibian,
properly serviced by the field force, was ready for the take-off.