CHAPTER XXIPICKING UP CLUES
By this time the man whom Uncle Sam’s two clever sky detectives had trapped, showed signs of being almost in a state of collapse. Too late did he realize what a terrible mistake he had made when yielding to the blandishments of Slippery Slim Garrabrant, and acting under the belief that he could defy the law and get away with it.
“What’s the big idea, partner,” Perk was asking after he and Jack had fixed things so there was no possible chance for their prisoner to break away, and give them the laugh. “Do we jump off right now, or wait till mornin’, I’d like to know?”
“No hurry at all,” was the calm reply, “I want to go over our crate once more before we start that hop across to the California border, I’ve good reason to believe things are okay but a second overhauling will satisfy me better.”
“I kinder guess you won’t want me to slip over to this here town, an’ pick up a few fresh eggs, eh, boss?” and Perk’s voice actually took on a wheedling vein as he made this remark for if there was anything he dearly loved along the line of “eats” it was those same “fresh eggs.”
Jack shook his head.
“Hardly think it would be wise,” he observed; “we don’t know the lay of the land for one thing—it might be this party has some backing among his neighbors, and we’d find ourselves in a hornets’ nest before we knew what was what. No, we can stick it out here the balance of the night, which is pretty well gone right now, and be off about sunrise.”
“There’s a lot more stuff around in here that’d burn right well,” insinuated Perk; “how ’bout another bit o’ fire—this night air feels some cool to me an’ ’sides, we’d have a blaze ready so’s to boil more coffee ’fore we kick off, eh, what, partner?”
“Please yourself so far as that goes, Perk, I reckon it wouldn’t feel at all bad to have some fire, as we must hang out here several hours. But don’t make any noise if you can help it. Besides, we ought to keep an eye out for trouble, no telling what this slick chap might work off on us.”
“Oh! we’ll one o’ us keep watch off’n on,” promised Perk, starting without any further delay to gather some fuel, and get a blaze going.
While he was thus engaged Jack took their prisoner in hand, and commenced to grill him. There was nothing of the dreaded “third degree” rough-house measures in what Jack attempted but he tried to show the man where his best interests lay.
“You’re in a bad fix, my friend,” Jack told him: “and unless you come clean, so as to help us round up the balance of your outfit, you’ll be certain to get the full penalty the law lays down. We know a whole lot about Slippery Slim and his ways, and are dead certain we’re bound to end up his graft before many more days pass by. So when you’re answering my questions don’t try to lie to me, for like as not I’ll be already acquainted with the facts and know you’re trying to beat around the bush. Dangerous business, let me tell you; far better for you to hold your tongue than deceive me. Come clean, and I promise you I’ll do everything in my power to have you let off easy, besides no one need know you’ve turned State’s evidence.”
Then he started in to put pointed questions, concerning certain points that were vital to his plans. Once he caught the man squirming under the lash, and giving an answer that he very well knew was like “beating around the bush.”
“You know better than that, my friend,” he told him sharply, “that’s only half a truth you’ve given me. Don’t try it again if you know what’s good for your health, or it’ll be a matter of possibly ten years before you see your family again. Stick to the truth, and it may be only a question of six months you’ll spend at Atlanta behind the bars. Now tell me again what I wanted to know.”
He had managed to impress his strong personality upon the writhing wretch, who was ready to throw himself unreservedly upon his mercy and so the answers were given without hesitation, although in some instances the man declared he did not know, as he had only once been across the line and visited Slippery Slim in his hideout among the Mexican mountains.
When Jack realized that he had really pumped the other dry, he felt he had profited in many ways and that their sudden determination to make, a night landing, so as to recover after their buffeting by the storm, had been a most fortunate happening indeed.
For one thing he had learned that the name of their frightened prisoner was Simeon Hawkins, and that he had a wife and several children living in the little prairie town only a few miles distant—a fact that seemed to give him great distress, now he found his avaricious dreams wrecked, and himself in the hands of a couple of those very same Secret Service detectives whom the “big boss” had undoubtedly referred to so contemptuously.
Perk had been “listening in,” and chuckling happily whenever he realized his mate had made some sort of a “ten-strike,” picking up valuable information that was destined to ultimately serve their ends wonderfully, and help to “pot their game.”
They sat there for some time, talking in low tones. The man who lay close by helpless was silent as a rule, although several times he uttered a dismal groan, when his feelings overpowered him.
“Guess I’ll step out, partner,” remarked Perk at one time, “an’ slip over to the ship, I’d sure hate to have some critter do us a bad turn by meddlin’ with any o’ them dials an’ gadgets. What I wouldn’t do tohimwould be a caution, that’s right.”
From the fact that Perk carried his rifle along with him his meaning was not difficult to understand and Jack felt sorry for the chap who was at the other end of the gun sights when his pal pulled the trigger.
Perk cautiously approached the grounded ship, and started when discovering some moving object just in its shadow. The moon was shining brightly now, so that it was an easy matter to see for quite some little distance, although so deceptive was the light that even sharp-eyed Perk could hardly have told whether some dark object seen fifty feet off was a stump or a black dog sitting there and watching him.
Waiting until the object moved again, he discovered he had been wise to hold his fire, for by then he had made it out to be some species of animal. He took several forward steps, whereupon the beast started to move off, uttering a little nasty snarl while doing so.
“Shucks, on’y a stinkin’ kiote after all, skulkin’ ’round to see if he c’n stir up a little grub o’ any kind. Get out, you varmint!” and he waved his gun above his head while starting to run forward.
This completely demoralized the cowardly prairie marauder, so that he took to his heels, and quickly vanished in the near distance. Perk found everything all right when he gave the stranded plane “the once over”; and being satisfied that there was nothing to be feared from a coyote prowling around in search of a supper or breakfast, he returned to the shack to report all well.
Jack was busily engaged making certain notes, and reading others connected with their present business, as jotted down in his memorandum book in a peculiar brand of short-hand all his own, but which would appear as so much Greek or Choctaw to any one else.
“Better turn in, and get a few winks of sleep, brother,” he told Perk, who had yawned once or twice as he sat before the fire. “I’ll wake you up in about an hour or so when you can take your turn playing sentinel, until the dawn shows up.”
“Just as you say, old hoss,” came the ready reply; “fact is, I’m a bit drowsy, an’ could get away with a few winks; but don’t forget to wake me when the hour’s up, remember.”
“That’s all right, partner,” Jack told him, laughingly; “we’re in this game thirty-thirty, and you’ll have your turn, depend on it. Now get busy, and don’t you dare snore above a whisper either.”
“If I do jest gimme a poke, Jack—tryin’ to break myself o’ that nasty habit but I got to have help, you know—no feller ain’t wholly responsible fur what he does when he’s asleep.”
In due time Jack aroused the other, and himself sought a brief period of forgetfulness in sleep. So the balance of the night passed, and morning came with a clear sky, and a promise of decent weather for the continuance of their flight.