CHAPTER XReady to Strike
Up to then everything had been comparatively simple; but the worst was yet to come. They could not do more than guess as to the nature of the dangers and difficulties lying in ambush to trip them up. For aught they knew long weeks, crowded with perils and narrow escapes, would be their portion; with the crowning possibility of final disaster hanging over their heads day and night.
It was this uncertainty that made their job all the more attractive and thrilling to the comrades—in particular to Perk, whose restless soul seemed never to be content to loll in idleness and safety; but yearned to meet up with all manner of weird scrapes, that for the time being satisfied the burning desire of his feverish blood.
Perhaps that was his heritage, coming down from those ancestors who settled in New England, at the time America was a British colony; and when dread of Indian massacres kept every one’s blood keyed up to the extreme; then again it might be Perk got it from his contact with the front line trenches in the Great War, where he may have been gassed, wounded, and lived the horrible existence that so many of our gallant boys did in the fierce battles of the Argonne—himself, he never bothered his head to figure out whence the feeling came—he only knew he had it, and fairly reveled in what he was pleased to termaction; but which really stood for deadly peril.
It can thus be seen how Perk was making his life work along the right line for one of his disposition; since it would be difficult indeed to mention any other vocation where a man would do his daily stunt face to face with some calamity.
He continued to look down at the checkerboard below, admiring this, grunting his disgust at another spectacle, and many times glancing impatiently at his wrist-watch, as though he could thus hasten the hour and minute when they would be landing at their present destination.
Jack, on his part, while carrying out his ordinary duties as pilot, was running over in his active mind the various duties that must await their reaching the landing field in Charleston.
First, after seeing their ship safely stowed away in a convenient hangar—where it would stay until needed again, if ever—he must call at the post office for any letters that might have been sent on—under his assumed name, of course; after which it would be his business to drop in upon the Government agent, from whom he would receive further secret instructions, as well as every scrap of information possible, such as would be of assistance in laying out and following up their plan of action.
It pleased Jack to know how every detail was being carried out with the prime motive of abject secrecy—for instance, he had been instructedneverto call at the office of the revenue official, since spies might have it under surveillance, and hold such a swell caller under suspicion—on the contrary the gentleman’s private residence had been mentioned as the place of meeting; and the secret cipher of the Department must be invariably used should an exchange of letters become necessary.
He was to call at the house in the capacity of a distant relative of Mr. Casper Herriott in the city whileen routeto other places along the Atlantic seaboard, especially in the way of shooting grounds; he being a famous sportsman—Perk was not only his dependable pilot, but a skillful guide as well, fully acquainted with most of the sporting grounds of the great sounds and bays along North and South Carolina shores.
Jack found himself smiling to remember how his companion had at one time delicately hinted that since the Government had been so kind as to supply them with all manner of lovely guns, ammunition, and even shooting clothes and tempting high leather boots, all costing rafts of money, it might be possible for them to better carry out their assumed characters by indulging in a little foray among the canvasback ducks, mallards, and even wild geese—also remarking how it would be much too bad if, having been given the name, they might not also grab a handful of the game!
Already had Jack commenced to take copious notes, mental, as well as written down in his new notebook—in the secret code of course—and he expected to add copiously to this record after he had interviewed Mr. Herriott, and drank in all that gentleman would have to tell him.
Besides that he would try to paint a complete chart on his mind, covering the lay of the land along the coast, its innumerable indentations covering the shores of the great Sounds, Albemarle, Pamlico and others—also that section of swamps and morasses lying further south, where he already strongly suspected the main part of their work awaited them.
Already he had pored for hours over the Government Geographical Coast Survey charts, which, with others were contained in the waterproof case aboard the ship, and had proven their worth on a number of previous occasions; but as he could not hope to always have these at hand for reference, Jack meant to carry along a mental picture of the entire region, a feat impossible, save to him whom the gods had favored with a wonderfully retentive memory, made next to perfect from long practice.
Up to then the most that Jack knew in connection with his work was that it must mean the shattering of a gigantic conspiracy, backed by a number of wealthy but unscrupulous citizens; who probably depended upon some real or fancied “pull” to get them through in safety if they were ever indicted, which they had every reason was next to impossible.
The scope of this league, Jack also understood, was almost boundless—all manner of efforts were being put into practice daily, in order to cheat Uncle Sam out of his “rake-off” upon various dutiable foreign goods—diamonds, other precious stones on which the Treasury Department levied high sums when imported openly; rich laces; high priced Cuban cigars, and a multitude of similar goods mostly small in bulk, that could be easily transported undetected aboard swift airplanes, making secret landings amidst the almost untrodden wilds of that eastern shore!
Then there must be a continuation of the old smuggling game—that of fetching cargoes of the finest wet goods obtainable at some station of the West Indies; only the landing places had been transferred from the vicinity of Tampa and Miami, when those ports were too heavily policed to admit of taking the desperate chances involved; and were now transplanted to South Carolina territory, where they seemed to be working without the slightest molestation, with a daily flood of stuff being safely landed.
It was hinted that this powerful rival of the Government was going even a step farther—carrying undesirable aliens from Cuba across to the land they were so eager to reach, that they paid enormous sums for the privilege of being flown across the stretch of salt water—these were not only Chinamen, but Italians as well, criminals who had been chased from their own country by the alert Fascist authorities as enemies of the realm, and saw in rich America the Mecca where they could soon acquire great wealth at easy pickings by eventually becoming beer barons, racketeers, and the like; after passing through a brief school course as ordinary bootleggers, and hi-jackers.
“Some job, believe me!” Jack summed up his reflections by saying, drawing in a long breath at the same time; and then following it all up with a laugh, as though even such a monumental task failed to dismay him.
“Cap, I kinder reckon we’re right smart near Charleston, to jedge from thet bank o’ smoke lying on ahead. I been keepin’ tabs o’ the miles we left behind us, an’ it shore do tally with the distance marked on yeour map.”
“I feel certain you’re okay when you mention that same, matey,” Jack assured the other; which commendatory remark caused Perk to look as pleased as a child when handed an all-day lollypop to suck on.
“Hot-diggetty-dig! it makes me happy to know as haow the waitin’ game’s ’baout all in naow, an’ we’re agwine—haow’s that, buddy—to jump into action, and then more action. Me, I’m some hungry, partner; but mebbe it aint wise to take a snack when we’re so clost to aour airport, with a landin’ comin’ along soon, an’ real restaurant eats aloomin’ up in the bargain.”
“Try to hold your horses for half an hour or more, and I promise that you’ll be filled up to the limit, regardless of expense. And now begin to live, breathe, and act as a Dixie bred man would do, ready to knock anybody flat who’d be so brash as to say one insulting word about your native Southland.”
“The finest country God ever did make, barrin’ none, suh; and don’t yeou forgit it; but I kin see the airport a’ready, partner, off to the left a bit.”