CHAPTER XVThe Trial Spin
Perk had closely examined a number of things about the amphibian in which they anticipated carrying out the gigantic task committed to their hands by the Chief at Headquarters; and whom they looked up to as worthy of their utmost respect as an organizer able to consider the utmost details. Most of his scrutiny, however, did not have any connection with new gadgets affixed to the black dashboard fronting the pilot’s seat; but lay in the direction of the combination of wheels for landing on solid ground, also pontoons for use when seeking to drop down on the water of river, lagoon, or even the sea itself.
He spent considerable time in examining the working of this contrivance, which he had reason to fully appreciate—if only it proved all that was claimed for it, which was soon to be settled.
Then the new-fangled muffler for the engine exhaust was a source of vast attention on Perk’s part; Jack could see him shaking his head incredulously; and from this suspected Perk of doubting its efficiency; but then Perk happened to be something of a skeptic, and even though he did not come from Missouri he usually had to be shown before yielding his doubts.
“Let’s get out of here, and aloft,” suggested Jack, when he found it was about an hour before noon time.
The field just then presented a rather animated appearance, as ships were coming in, and going out; with several taking up parties who were eager to try a first air swing. This just suited Jack, for it would keep many curious eyes off their movements; and just then the less notice they drew the better he would be pleased.
They picked up a couple of field workers to lend a hand, and hence their rather seedy looking water and air craft was wheeled into position, after it had been serviced while yet in the hangar, a very nice undertaking for one who disliked publicity.
“Here, Wally,” Jack went on to say, when everything seemed in readiness for their initial jump, “suppose you take hold, seeing you’re more accustomed to this type of boat than I am. However I’ll soon get acquainted, and then it’ll be okay. Step in, and grab the stick, partner; nothing to keep us on ground that I know of; and I’m anxious to have a look-in at the waterways where we’re hoping for a run of luck with the ducks and geese.”
Much of this of course was for the benefit of the two men in dungarees, for how were Jack and his pard to know but that one of them might turn out to be a clever spy in the pay of the never sleeping Combine, jealous of their hitherto unsurpassed success in beating the customs, and in a way daring the Secret Service branch of the Federal Government to “do its level best to down them”?
Perk was not in the least averse to taking the place of honor when the amphibian would start its initial flight in their hands. He proved the absolute truth of what he had said about being fairly at home with the ship that belonged to both the land and water contingent; for they made only a short run when contact with the ground was cut off, and like a bird broken away from its brass cage and soaring upward, they started to spiral in the effort to gain altitude.
When he had a ceiling of say about five hundred feet or more, Perk commenced a wide swing, wishing to circle the city on the seashore, to view it from a different angle than their former experience had given them.
“Now point her blunt nose into the north, buddy—we’re off!” Jack bawled in the ear of the pilot, the ear-phones not having as yet been adjusted—all those things came under the line of Perk’s duty, and would be attended to in due time.
They speedily left the good city of Charleston behind them, and were passing over the Navy-yard; which place Perk meant to examine more closely with his glasses on another occasion, when matters would be easier for him.
“How does she go?” shouted Jack, later on, when they could no longer catch even a fugitive glimpse of the city, saving the cloud of smoke that almost always hung over the high buildings and steeples.
“Bang up, boss; works like a charm!” yelled Perk, happily, as though he was not “caring a Continental” just how long Jack allowed him to hold the post of honor. “Whoever looked after the job o’ gettin’ this classic old-timer in great shape for this work, he shore knew his onions, I’ll say. It’s a snap to run this boat, if yeou want to know my ’pinion.”
“I think I’ll take a whirl at the controls, partner!” cried Jack; “stay just where you are for a while at least; I can play the game as a back-seat driver. Here goes, then.”
He was pleased to find it no trouble whatever to handle the amphibian as though he knew everything about such craft; after all airships are run pretty much alike; and it depends on the adaptability of the pilot as to whether he can work the same as with his own familiar type of craft—there are some people who are able to master any and all models of automobiles, even though handling them for the first time, especially men mechanically inclined by Nature,—and Jack happened to belong to that class.
“You can go about your duties, Wally; I’ll work over into the front seat okay, for its an easy job, I reckon. When we make up our minds to dip down and wet the pontoons in some body of water, fresh or salt, I’ll let you handle the boat again; though I imagine I could do the thing without much splash if I was put to it. I’ll soon get the hang of the trick, you can well believe.”
“Huh! yeou would, Mister—it aint much that’d faize yeou, take it from me as knows.”
After that conversation was such a tremendous effort that it languished until a better opportunity opened up—this would come when Jack found it expedient to make a test of the muffler system, with which their boat had been supplied, and which Perk was eager to see tried out.
To the delight of both fliers the device worked to a charm, most of the deafening racket being abated, even when they going at the fastest speed of which the “has-been” Curtiss-Falcon was capable of exhibiting—much more than a hundred miles an hour, Perk figured.
“Huh! mebbe naow they call this ship a relic o’ the past,” he grunted, when the success of the experiment was assured; “but I wanter say right naow there aint amany up-to-the-minute ships as kin run circles ’raound thistub, as some wise guy pilot’d call her. See, yeou kin hear ev’ry word I’m asayin’ an’ yet I aint ahollerin’ any to notice. It’s a bully invention, an’ shows where we’re agettin’ in this science o’ aviation. From what I hears, them ships as is acarryin’ smuggled stuff ’long the seaboard aint great at speed, ’cause they don’t need to be, their job bein’ to carry hefty loads each trip, an’ be steady goers. If the chanct ever comes to try this Falcon aout agin one o’ that dirty bunch, I’m wagerin’ we’ll overhaul the same hands down, an’ no takers.”
“I hope your prediction proves a true one, brother,” Jack told him; “for, come to think of it, there’s a pretty good chance we may yet be up against a hot chase, either the pursued, or better still, the pursuer; in either case having the speediest craft would be an advantage worth while. Yes, that seems to be okay, and a big improvement over all that row we’re accustomed to carrying along with us wherever we go.”
They had been heading up the coast, keeping within sight of the Atlantic most of the time; but paying constant attention to inland pictures.
Of course Perk had before then brought his faithful and much beloved glasses out of their nook, and was making frequent use of the same, staring this way and that, sometimes making a noise with his mouth as though grunting his surprise to discover what a clear atmosphere attended their trial flight, and how close up the powerful binocular lens brought far distant objects.
“It shore is a big treat jest to be squattin’ hyah, suh, an’ observin’ so much all ’raound us. Looks like a mighty tough region daown there, I got to admit; an’ if them slick guys air ahidin’ their landin’ place where them awful swampy tracts lie, we’re agoin’ to have aour hands right full alocatin’ the same, an’ gettin’ what we come after in the bargain.”
“Don’t worry, partner,” Jack told him, in as smooth a voice as though he could see nothing whatever to cause undue anxiety. “Rome, you may remember, wasn’t built in a day; there’ll be heaps of time to get our little work in; and we were told to take as long as we thought wise—that there was no need of trying to wind things up in a hurry.”
“That’s correct, boss,” admitted the easily convinced Perk; and then deftly turning the talk in another quarter he went on to add, pointing as he made the remark: “Looky yondah, suh, see that neat lit’ bayou jest anestlin’ there like a private pond. Wouldn’t it be fine if we could on’y drop daown, an’ try aour pontoons on that sheet o’ water. Doant seem to be a livin’ thing araoun’ neither, less it might be a ’gator, stickin’ his nose up to see if the coast it be clear.”
Jack turned the craft to a severe dip, at which the pleased Perk grinned horribly, as if he considered he had made a real “wise-crack.”
“Goin’ daown, folks—main floor next—ev’rybody aout then what aint agwine to the basement!” he went on to remark, quaintly; and Jack could see how his best pal was earnestly trying to acquire the genuine Southern manner of speech, tinctured with a touch of negro dialect.
“I’m going to try to make contact myself, brother,” announced the confident pilot, as, after several circling movements he headed up against the sea breeze that was blowing from the southeast just then.
Perk did not appear to feel any concern, such confidence did he have in the other’s ability to make landings so soft that an egg would hardly have been crushed by any jumpy motion.
Jack watched his contact with the water—the big boat dipped, sprang up, came in touch again, and then settled down to making headway, the little wavelets curling away from the bows of the pontoons with a murmurous sound very similar to the gurgling of a running mountain brook.
“Splendid work, buddy, better’n I could a done it myself, with all the sperience I done had long ago. An’ she does work to a charm, sure as yeou’re born. We’re in bully great luck, all right, to have ’em pick aout sech a dandy ole boat like this, that does her makers credit. I’ll tell the world.”
Jack was not planning to stay in that lonely bayou for any length of time; what they were out to pay particular attention to on this their initial trip was the lay of the land; also to familiarize themselves with the working of the amphibian; so presently he again left the water, and arose like a lark.