CHAPTER XIXThe Lonely Camp
“Perhaps,” suggested Jack, tiring of this exercise after a while, “it might be just as well for us to step ashore, so you can get that fire going. A little smoke would be worth while as a smudge to drive these skeets away; they’re bent on eating us alive, it seems to me.”
“Jest as yeou sez. Mister,” Perk acquiesced, with alacrity; and in less than three minutes he had managed to jump ashore from the end of the wing that rested on a log close to the bank of the bayou.
Gathering some loose wood he quickly had a blaze going, and was joined by his comrade, who took particular pains to stand to leeward of the fire, so that clouds of thick smoke would cause the fierce insects to abandon the vicinity.
“I suppose that, generally speaking,” Jack went on to say, “we would be hunting dry wood so as to send up as little smoke as possible, for fear of attracting notice, and bringing unwelcome visitors to our camp; but in this case the chance of detection plays a very small part in the game. We certainly need lots of pungent smoke in order to drive these hordes of nippers away. So go to it, partner, the more the merrier.”
Later on they sat down where the wind would waft some of the smoke in their direction, and being at peace with the world just then found that they could compare notes, and reach certain conclusions.
Although the sun was still quite some little distance above the horizon, as they figured, (being unable to see anything through that mass of cypress, and hanging moss) it was already commencing to grow dusk back of the camouflaged airship.
“I knows as haow it aint time yet,” Perk finally spoke up, getting to his feet with determination written large upon his face; “but jest the same I caint hold aout any longer—I got to listen to the growlin’ daown below-stairs, as sez its past time to stoke the furnace; so sech bein’ the case I’m ameanin’ to start aour supper, if so be yeou aint no ’jections, suh.”
“Not in the slightest, Wally, so get busy as soon as you like,” he was told.
The other did not wait for a second invitation, but making his way back to the cabin of the amphibian presently returned with both arms full of mysterious packages. After depositing the same upon the ground near the blazing fire, Perk made a second trip aboard, and from that time on busied himself in the one occupation of which he seemed never to tire—making preparations to supply a rousing meal, cooked over such a bed of red embers as he delighted to supply.
Jack was pretty hungry himself, and enjoyed the spread greatly—its memory was likely to long haunt them; and in speaking of the past the time was apt to be set by such phrases as “something like a month after we had that glorious camp supper on Black Water Bayou, remember, partner?”
Jack sat there working at his maps for some time after they had finished eating; so, too, he made numerous notes, to be conned over and over again, until he could repeat the gist of them all as occasion arose. That was his way of preparing for a campaign; and no masterly tactics of a successful war general could have been an improvement on his programme—to prepare in advance for all manner of possibilities was as natural to Jack Ralston as it was to breathe; which plan certainly had much to do with the customary success falling to his lot.
Suddenly both of them caught the distant report of a gunshot; and stared at each other, as though mentally figuring what such a thing might signify.
“Did you take notice which direction that gunshot seemed to come from, eh, Wally?” demanded Jack, presently, as no other similar sound followed.
“I’d say from over there,” Perk swiftly replied, pointing toward the south as he spoke. “What dye reckons, suh, it’d mean?” he asked in turn.
“Oh! nothing that concerns us, I imagine, Wally, boy—some chap might have run across a hunting wildcat most likely, and couldn’t resist giving him the works. But it settles the direction where that secret landing place may lie, I feel almost certain. That’s one of the points I wanted to pick up; and before the night is over we may be able to prove my prediction sound.”
“Yeou doant reckons, suh, they kin see this heah fire aburnin’, do yeou?”
Jack laughed as though the idea had no standing with him.
“Not in a thousand years, Wally; it must be a matter of a mile, perhaps twice that between this spot and from where that gun was fired; you see, the night air heads toward us, and would carry the sound quite a long way.”
He proved that he felt no uneasiness by continuing the conversation that had been interrupted by the sudden far-off shot; and so Perk did not hesitate to toss more fuel on his cheery campfire.
They were thinking of turning in aboard the nearby boat, and seeking their necessary rest, when Perk, who had unusually keen hearing, sat up and inclined his head to one side as though listening.
“Jest what she is, for a fack, partner,” he went on to state; “an’ shore as yeou’re born, suh, they aint no muffler aboardthatship, I’ll take my affidavy on that same.”
“Itisa ship, no doubt about that, and heading this way out of the east, you want to notice, buddy,” Jack indicated, as though that mere fact had a deep significance in his eyes.
“Yeah! that’s so,” agreed Perk, readily falling in with the conceit, as he usually did when Jack was the originator of any proposition. “They air acomin’ straight from aout on the ocean, where mebbe a steamer is alyin’ anchored, an’ loadin’ its cargo o’ contraband on fast blockade runners that come ’longside; also sky-carriers in the bargain, sech as drop daown close by on the sea, an’ take on all they kin carry.”
The faint sounds rapidly increased in vigor until even a novice could have decided it was an airplane making almost directly toward their strange camp on Black Water Bayou.
“Keep on listening, brother,” advised Jack; “and then we’ll compare notes as to where we heard the last clatter. Things couldn’t be working more smoothly to suit our plans; and we ought to be pretty well primed by the time we come back here to join up with Friend Jethro.”
Finally the now loud clatter ceased, which those airmen knew full well meant it had succeeded in effecting an apparently safe landing, whether on land or water they could only surmise.
So carefully had they both tried to get the exact locality fixed in their minds that when they came to comparing ideas it was found they agreed almost to a dot; so Jack was able by referring to his small compass to make a note of the circumstance, as well as their united conviction.
“I kin shut me eyes an’ see what a busy bunch is workin’ unloadin’ that same crate,” Perk observed, a little later on. “Scent’s agettin’ a little warmer, seems like, partner, when we ketch the racket o’ a smuggler plane comin’ in from the mother vessel away off shore, beyond the twenty mile danger line.”
“I’d say it surely was,” agreed Jack, grinning happily, as if in answer to the joyous look he detected on his partner’s sunbaked face.
All had by now become as silent as the grave, at least so far as suspicious sounds undoubtedly caused by human agencies; but otherwise things did not happen to be so quiet. From the nearby swamp came a multitude of queer croakings and gurglings, accompanied by harsh cries such as night herons seeking their food, or other birds of similar activities, might make while fishing.
“Gee whiz!” Perk at one time burst forth, “did yeou ever in all yeour life listen to sech queer sounds as them? Hark to that splash—sure reckons some roostin’ bird must a fallen off its perch, an’ if all that flutterin’ and squawkin’ stands fo’ anythin’ its got swallowed up in the jaws o’ some critter waitin’ daown below fo’ its supper. Glory! I wonder if weuns kin get any sleep with all these heah carryin’s on in full blast. Jest hear ’em whoopin’ it up, will yeou, suh?”
However, when the time did come for them to go aboard the boat and seek their cots, by closing the cabin door much of the noise was deadened, and after all Perk found little difficulty in getting to sleep.
Nothing occurred during the night to disturb them, or cause any undue alarm. Doubtless that variegated noise kept up through the livelong period of darkness, but it gave them no concern whatever.
When Perk happened to wake up he believed he could catch a feeble gleam as of daylight outside the cabin; and upon investigating found it to be a fact. He thereupon aroused his companion, and another fine meal was soon in process of preparation over a resurrected fire; to which of course the pair did ample justice, after which they made ready for another flight, and a return to the city.