THE LOCKHEED-VEGA FLYING SHIP
"Moon coming up, partner!" was all Perk said.
"Then it's time we were moving," Jack told him as he started to stretch
his cramped arms and yawn. "Feel a heap better now after that little nap
and ready for what's coming."
They did not have much to do, since everything was in perfect condition
for hopping-off--trust Jack for that, with his slogan of "be prepared."
"All set, Perk?" asked the pilot, presently.
"Shoot!" was the terse answer.
The bright moon would have to take the place of the customary equipment
of a landing field in the way of guidelights, markers, and
search-lights, but there was no necessity for so much light with the
channel before him along which he could taxi unerringly, until, arriving
at the point where the great gulf stretched out toward the western
horizon, the speed must be advanced for the take-off.
Now they were free from the mangroves and Jack accelerated the pace of
his ship accordingly--two twin foam-crested waves rolled out from the
pontoons as they sped along until, testing things, Jack found that his
charge was impatient to leave the water and leap upward into space.
Perk looked backward toward the scene of his amazing afternoon
battle--how many times in the future would the picture rise in his
memory to haunt him and bring that quizzical grin to his face.
With the newly risen moon gilding the small waves of the gulf below
them, the picture looked most peaceful. Perk, although not much inclined
to romance, could not but admire the spectacle after his own rude
fashion while Jack fairly drank it in as he continued to pay attention
to his manifold duties.
Their course was almost due north, Jack keeping out a score or more of
miles from the coast, having reasons of his own for so doing--perhaps he
found the wind more favorable out there and this is always an important
factor in the calculations of a pilot of experience. Just as in the
earlier days of ocean steamers when they were also equipped with masts
and sails, the latter were always hoisted when the wind favored, since
this helped them make progress and saved coal at the same time.
They had been booming along for something like half an hour when
watchful Perk, the observer, made a discovery worth while he believed.
He communicated with his companion, the useful earphones chancing to be
in place--trust Perk for that.
"Somethin' doin' out there to the west, partner--look up to a higher
ceilin' an' you'll see it. Headin' to cross over our trail in the
bargain, I guess."
"A crate, all right," commented Jack, whose quick eyesight had
immediately picked up the moving object.
"Looks like it might a come all the way across the gulf--d'ye think from
some Mexican port, Jack?"
"Like as not," assented the other. "These crooks make a start from any
one of a score of jumping-off places, but always with a specified
landing field ahead."
"Then you figger," continued Perk, "he might be one o' the gang,
fetchin' Chinks across or mebbe precious stones, bought in Paris, and
shipped to Mexico on the way to New York, eh, partner?"
"Chances are three to one that's what it means," Jack told him.
Perk continued to wield his important binoculars and presently, when the
lofty plane was passing over, he stated his opinion.
"'Taint _him_, anyway, that's dead sure, Jack, I guess I ought to
know a Lockheed-Vega crate, no matter how far away, or by what tricky
moonlight either, 'cause you see I used to run one o' that breed for
nearly a year when I took a whirl at the air-mail business up north out
o' Chicago till I had a bad crash an' quit cold."
"That settles it then, partner," said the pilot, still observing the
speck swinging past out of the tail of his eye. "I hadn't any idea it
could be the same chap you had your little picnic with some hours back,
for you told me he'd blown off toward the east."
"Jest what he did," replied the observer. "Ginger pop! but what wouldn't
I give right now to know jest whar that galoot was meanin' to drop down,
once he gets over the land. How 'bout that, old hoss?"
"It might help out considerable," admitted Jack although not as much
interested as Perk considered he might be. "We'll sift things out in
good time, and for all we know, run across a few surprises in the
bargain."
Perk studied that last part for a minute, feeling almost certain Jack
had some deep meaning back of his words, but it proved too much for his
capacity in the line of figuring out mysteries, and so he dropped it
"like a hot potato," as he told himself.
The mysterious air voyager had by now disappeared entirely, although
they might still have caught the throbbing of his madly working motor
had it not been for their own engine kicking up so much racket, Jack not
being inclined to make use of the capable silencer just then.
Perk had made up his mind that the unknown aviator, even if other than
Oscar Gleeb, was undoubtedly working the same profitable line of
business as the pilot of the Curtiss-Robin ship. So, too, Perk
considered it worth while to try and figure out the exact course of the
high flyer as he was probably making directly for his intended goal and
this knowledge was likely to prove useful to them later on.
This he was able to accomplish. Working mental problems come easily to
one who has played the part of a navigator aboard a modern galleon of
the clouds.
"Huh!" grunted Perk after figuring out his problem twice and both times
reaching the same conclusion, "the guy's really striking in to mighty
near the same point Jack's meanin' to make and mebee now our lines might
cross if we both kept on goin' long enough."
He studied this matter for some time, wondering if Jack also realized
the fact and had kept silent about it for good and sufficient reasons.
It afforded the ambitious Perk considerable satisfaction to hug the idea
to his heart that possibly the chance might be given Jack and himself to
locate some of these land stations where all this flagrant smuggling
business was going on--the prospect of their's being the force to deal
the outlaw organization a killing blow brought in its train the thrill
he loved so well.
Then came the moment when Jack banked and changed his course radically,
heading directly into the east where lay the peninsula of Ponce de Leon,
seeker after the Spring of Eternal Youth, and finding instead, a land of
flowers.
Perk knew what this evidently meant--that Jack had flown far enough up
the west coast and was now bent on making for that inland sheet of fresh
water he had mentioned to his comrade as a likely place for them to drop
down and pass the balance of the night.
The uncertainty was keeping Perk keyed up to a high tension--something
told him in no uncertain tones that Jack had a vastly more important
reason for attaining that lake than the mere desire to avoid attracting
attention--just what it might mean he could not guess, for when he
attempted to solve the enigma he found himself floundering in a
shoreless sea of doubt and uncertainty that was baffling, to say the
least.
Perk was mumbling to himself as if he might be on the verge of reaching
some sort of decision. He bent forward several times as if about to make
an important remark and on each occasion drew back, as though he could
hardly decide how to approach the matter he had in his mind. Then he
would chuckle, as if it might have its humorous side as well as a
serious one.
Already had they reached a point where he could easily see the shore
several thousand feet below and now Jack was sliding down as if bent on
striking a ceiling that would be only a few hundred feet above the
palmetto fringe Perk could distinguish running along the coast.
It seemed a fitting time for him to give Jack the start he contemplated
and so, summoning his courage, Perk began to talk in as unconcerned a
tone as possible.
"Partner, would you mind tellin' me what about this here Oswald Kearns?"