A MOTOR-TRUCK CARAVAN
"I say, buddy!"
They were bobbing in and out of the fleecy drift clouds, just as that
other ship had done, almost indistinguishable from the ground, being
about two miles up, when Jack thus called out.
Perk had been taking account as to the amount of fuel yet remaining in
their tanks, and was amusing himself doing some sort of calculation with
a stub of a pencil and a pad of paper.
"Yeah! what is it, boss?" he sang out, looking over to where his mate
sat at the stick, with the exhaust racket of both motors cut-off
effectually.
"We're just whiffing over that delightful little ghostly bayou you fell
in love with; and heading so as to pass above the region from which we
heard that unseen ship settle down."
"I reckoned that was so, partner; go ahead an' say what's on yeour
mind."
"There's one thing that so far has escaped our scrutiny," spoke up the
pilot, with Perk quickly adding:
"Meanin', I reckons, suh, we aint seen nary a sign o' any sorter vehicle
sech as mout be atakin' the stuff to market--is that so, suh?"
"Good guess, all right, for you, Wally, boy," replied Jack. "Pick up
your glasses again, and keep an eye on the ground down below. If by good
luck you light on anything suspicious, let me know; because I want to
see for myself, as it might help me figure out certain things worth
while."
"Ay! ay! Cap; here goes!" Perk told him, suiting the action to the words
with the greatest eagerness.
Jack loitered somewhat, not wishing to skip over that prospective
battlefield too speedily, lest it fail to reveal some of its most
valuable secrets; accordingly he circled while still sticking to the
cloud screen, now in and out like a fluttering butterfly amidst the
thistle blooms of an old quarry.
Their aerial steed could not be seen from the far distant surface of the
earth, unless one chanced to have a very powerful pair of binoculars
similar to the beautiful ones Perk was just then handling--the
Government at least was a generous employer, since the question of price
never entered into the purchase of such instruments as were necessary.
Suddenly Perk let out a loud crow.
"Gimme the stick, gov'nor!" he called out, shoving in behind his mate.
"Aplenty in sight right naow, I'd say, if yeou asked me. Jest peek yeour
eye on that ere stretch o' marsh, I take the same to be, clost alongside
yonder stretch o' pine woods--must be some sorter corduroy road built
through the muck, screened mostly by cypress trees covered with a heap
o' trapsin' moss."
"I've got it, partner--just as you're saying in the bargain, a corduroy
road made of logs laid parallel, and looking a bit new as if it had only
been constructed lately, for some special purpose."
"See anythin' amovin', boss?" continued the excited Perk, eagerly.
"Not yet," he was told; "but whatever you saw may be hidden behind some
patch of dense timber at the moment. Ha!"
"Ketched 'em jest then, did yeou?"
"One--two--three motor-trucks in a line, close to each other, and making
fair time over that bumpy log-road, considering that they seem to be
heavily laden with something covered by dirty tarpaulins."
"Somethin'--huh! weuns ought to know what kinder stuff, eh, partner?"
laughed Perk, jubilantly enough.
"Keep circling around, using these hazy clouds for a screen, whenever
possible, brother," urged Jack. "I want to get an eyeful of this same
picture, because it's going to give me the one thing that was lacking--a
knowledge of the way they get the stuff out of such a boggy country
without being detected by sharp-eyed revenue men."
"But say, boss, didn't we make up aour minds they might have a bunch o'
landin'-places, so's to switch aroun' when things begun to get too hot
at any one roost?"
"Yes, and I still believe that way," Jack told him, his eyes continuing
to be glued to his glasses, as though what he saw fairly fascinated him;
"but just the same, they could make use of one main road out of the
swamp country."
So he kept close tabs until eventually the line of heavily laden trucks
had passed from his sight.
"You can pick up the course to Charleston now, buddy," he told the
acting pilot. "I've seen that those trucks are heading north by
nor-west, and chances are they mean to make Baltimore before they halt
for good; though like as not they may have a half-way station for
stopping over during part of a day, so as to cover the last and most
risky section of their long run by darkness, or moonlight."
"An' partner," Perk blurted out, as he relinquished the stick to the
masterhand of his mate, "do yeou know they's somethin' that's been
abotherin' me right smart."
"As what, buddy?" asked the other, keeping up his run among the friendly
screen of fleecy clouds.
"Things they seem to come an' go with these here smuggler lads like
everything might be part o' a well greased machine--never a click, er a
squeak, but movin' 'long with hardly a missfire--jest haowever _do_ they
fix it--how kin they know near to the minute when a cargo's acomin' to
port, so's to have them trucks and men awaitin' fo' the same."
"Oh! that's dead easy, partner," Jack sang out, as though on his part he
felt little doubt.
"Yeah! seems to me them chaps 'way back in Columbus' time said them same
words arter the man as diskivered America stood a egg up on end, fust
knockin' the small end, and making a rest fo' the same--anything's soft
enough arter you been told haow--naow I wanter be shown."
"Listen then, Wally, boy--there isn't the least doubt in my mind but
what the gang has an excellent radio station rigged up somewhere along
the coast; they can keep in constant touch both with the mother ships we
saw anchored twenty miles out, and also with headquarters on shore--down
where those three motor-trucks loaded up, after some speed boat ran in
here last night. Get it now, do you, old pal?"
"Gosh! seems like us boys gotter be settin' up nights fixin' traps fo'
the sharp foxes, they's up to sech big stunts. Sometimes I find myself
wonderin' haow in Sam Hill weuns kin beat 'em atall at their pesky
games."
"Well, that's what we're here to put through," Jack stated, off-hand
like; "and it seems that usually we do come out on top. But even if we
succeed in putting their freight air ships, and fast launches out of
business, this game of ours can never be called complete until we've
managed to discover the location of that powerful sending radio
station--and blown it sky-high in the bargain."
"Bully boy!" cried Perk; "an' more power to aour elbow, is what I'm
asayin' right naow. Big Boy. We _kin_ do it, an'--watch aour smoke,
that's all."
"I begin to think the time for our departure is getting close at hand,
Pal Wally," Jack remarked some time later, as they glimpsed the familiar
smoke cloud hovering over the city ahead. "If my last talk with our good
friend tonight pans out as I feel pretty certain it must, we'll figure
on making our big jump some time day after tomorrow. That will give us
plenty of time to get everything aboard we expect to need; for once we
leave Charleston we'll not be likely to see the place again in a hurry."
"Sure pleases me a heap, suh," Perk told him, nodding his head
approvingly, as though he might be some species of war-horse scenting
the battle-smoke and acrid odor of burnt powder in the breeze, calling
him to action.
In due time the big amphibian dropped down on the field, and was
hurriedly conveyed to its hangar; the two airmen hovering around for a
brief time examining certain parts of their ship, to make doubly certain
there was nothing amiss. Jack did not intend going out on the following
day, if things worked as he was now planning; they would fix up a last
day program, by following which everything necessary would be carried
out in the customary way of such careful adventurers as they had always
proven to be.
"Huh! been a right full day, I'd call hit," was Perk's last word, as
they started back to the hotel, so as to clean up for supper; after
which Jack meant to keep an engagement with Mr. Herriott, who would be
apt to have some news of importance to communicate.
"Taking things as they go, it certainly has, brother," Jack told his
"side push," as Perk often called himself. "We've picked up some facts
that plug the vacant holes in my scheme; and I feel confident we're
getting close to the big finish."