THE COAST GUARD MEN
Perk made a discovery just then that afforded him more or less
satisfaction. This was the fact that apparently Jack's mission to Tampa
had not been in vain for he could see several heads in the cabin of the
amphibian beside that of his best chum.
"Huh! 'pears like Jack fetched through okay, an' has ferried some guys
back with him to take this stuff off'n our hands," Perk was muttering,
even as Jack started to clamber aboard the sloop, being closely followed
by a couple of determined looking young men.
"Back again, brother," Jack observed, as he clasped the extended hand of
his partner, then, gave a queer grimace upon taking note of the
splintered coaming of the sloop as well as the badly pockmarked
barricade of mahogany logs. "Say, what's all this mean, I want to
know--looks like you might have been mixed up in some sort of rumpus
while I was away!"
Perk grinned and nodded his head cheerfully.
"Had a heap o' fun, old boss, an' got loads o' thrills out o' it. Mebbe
now you noticed some sort o' crate just vanishing among them clouds off
toward the east as you breezed along?"
"Thought I did," came the immediate reply, "but the visibility was
getting poor, and I couldn't be sure it wasn't a buzzard, or even an
eagle ducking in and out. What's it mean, Perk--was he kicking up a mess
around here?"
"You said it, partner, an' his name was sure Oscar--Oscar Gleeb, 'cause
he got mad as hops when I asked him, an' told me that wasn't any o' my
business. But we sure did have a nice hot spell, Oscar'n me."
"Yes, and I reckon now you got your old right ear touched up again,
Perk, for I can see streaks of half-dried blood running down your
cheek."
"Yeah, he nicked me okay, an' if this keeps on much further I'll soon be
taken for the Manassa Mauler, 'cause it'll gimme a cauliflower ear. Who
are these two lads, Jack--look like they might belong to the Coast
Guard."
"Just what they are--meet Tom Cairns and Red McGrath, who have been sent
along with me to take charge of this contraband and hand it over to Mr.
Philip Ridgeway, temporarily in charge of the Treasury Department
interests along the West Coast here, with headquarters in Tampa--this is
the fine pal you heard me speaking about a few times, boys--Gabe
Perkiser, commonly known simply as Perk, a veteran of the big scrap over
in France where he flew one of those sausage observation blimps, and was
later on considered something of an ace in our flying corps."
So Perk gladly shook the hands extended to him, grinned in his genial
fashion, and from that moment on they were as brothers all.
"While we're stretching our legs, after being cooped up in that cramped
cabin for some hours," suggested Jack, whose curiosity had naturally
been aroused by the multitude of signs all around indicative of a warm
session, "suppose you sketch your little adventure for us, Perk. And I
want to say that Oscar was pretty much of a fool if he reckoned on
snatching this boat away from an old fighter like _you_, when you
had a nice new machine-gun to back up your claims."
"Shucks! he showed the right stuff for a scrapper," expostulated the
honest Perk, anxious to give credit where credit was due. "We stopped
the barrage at one point to have a little chin, but unable to agree, we
jest started all over again. An' I kinder guess I must've notched the
critter some, for he hauled off an' skinned the cat by kickin' out. I
was jest tellin' myself it sure turned out to be a good thing he didn't
have any Chinks aboard at the time, 'cause they might've lost the number
o' their mess in the racket--I'm willin' to stop the yeller boys from
crashin' Unc' Sam's gates, but I don't crave the job o' sendin' the poor
dicks along to their worshipped ancestors, not me."
"Well, get a move on you, Perk, and let's have the story of your
fight--did he drop down, and have it out with you on the water; or was
he circling above your head all the while?"
"If you'll take another squint at these bullet marks, old hoss," said
Perk, reproachfully, "you'll see they passed along on the level. Yeah,
he was a square shooter I want to say and some day I'm hopin' me'n Oscar
c'n shake hands, since the war's long past an' German is being taught
again in our public schools."
Then he launched forth in a graphic, if terse, description of the
remarkable battle that had so recently taken place. The others listened
with intense interest, for if Perk did have a way of cutting his
sentences short and never going into lengthy descriptions, nevertheless
he made his points tell, and kept his audience of three breathing fast
with the thrill they received.
"Now let's get a move on," Jack was saying after Perk had finished the
exciting description of his adventure, "and go over all this mess of
cases, so these boys can give us a little document to say how we turned
over that number of boxes to their charge, together with the sloop.
McGrath here used to run the engine of a tug in New York harbor and is
well able to manage this rusty cub here--we found it capable of doing a
day's work, you know Perk, on the way here."
Jack's word was law, since he was in command. Accordingly they started a
systematic check of every case of bottled goods to be found aboard the
confiscated vessel, above and below decks.
"Just an even two hundred and twenty-six," announced Jack, after they
had gone over the entire lot twice with the same result. "I reckon a few
got away aboard that speedboat but they didn't have much time to work
the racket before the hijacker mob swarmed aboard and kicked up that
riot--then along came Perk, with his armful of tear-bombs and broke up
the Boston tea party in great shape. I'll make out a paper for both of
you to sign, after which you can kick-off when you please."
All this was satisfactory to McGrath and his comrade and the paper
having been duly signed, they set about examining the engine so as to
learn whether it could have been injured in any way from the storm of
missiles that came aboard during the hostilities so lately ended.
"The bally old thing seems to be in fairly decent shape for running,"
was McGrath's verdict after the checking had been completed, "and since
we've got some distance to cover before we make Tampa Bay, p'raps we'd
better be shoving off."
"No such big hurry as that, boys," observed Jack. "I'm a bit hungry
myself and reckon you both must be in the same boat. We've got plenty of
grub, and to spare, also Perk here knows a few wrinkles along the
cooking line. Suppose we have some sort of spread to celebrate Perk's
victory."
"Huh! pleases me okay, brother," announced the expectant _chef_.
"I've run across a little rusty kerosene burnin' stove here in what I'd
call the cook's galley, an' we might as well have some hot coffee with
the eats."
As there were no dissenting votes the motion was carried unanimously;
whereupon Perk bustled around and soon had his coffee pot over an
apology for a flame which would, however, answer their purpose.
It was only a simple supper, but with good appetites to back them, every
one of the quartette declared it was great and would long be remembered.
Then the mess of saw palmetto leaves and other stuff utilized for
camouflage purposes was cast overboard after which McGrath "fiddled"
with the engine and soon had it running, limp and all, for its misses
were plentiful, although the engineer allowed there did not seem to be
anything fundamentally wrong.
"If we have fair luck," he announced, confidently, "we ought to fetch
our Tampa dock, where all prizes are tied-up, before morning comes
along. On the other hand, if we break down we'll either hang on to the
sloop, or if luck runs against us, sink her, after smashing every bottle
aboard."
"Good enough, Red," Jack told him as they shook hands for the last time.
"I hope we run across you boys again some day, and please keep your lip
buttoned about our being down here with an amphibian to knock some of
these smugglers of Chinks and rum galley-west."
"You can depend on us to keep mum, Jack," the red-headed ex-harbor tug
engineer assured him.
So the last line was cast off, Jack and Perk retired to their own ship,
and with many a wheeze and complaint the sloop started to pass out to
the open gulf, and commence the night journey to Tampa Bay.