CHAPTER XXIXNEARING THE GOAL
They had now reached that most thrilling point in their bold venture, where they would have to “watch their steps” most carefully, lest an incautious act precipitate a calamity that must end all their hopes as well as snuff out their lives.
This breeding place for inflammatory embers of Mexican revolutionary disappointed political generals, and their immediate retainers, was about as safe for the two sky detectives as a cage of Bengal tigers would have been once let their presence be suspected, and the entire neighborhood would be scratched over as with a fine-tooth comb in the endeavor to discover their hiding place and should they be rounded up it needed no magician to prophesy what their fate must be.
Jack led the way, with Perk following at his heels, every sense on the alert. The native cougar of that historical group of mountains could hardly have crept along with greater care than did the two human sleuth hounds of the law. Every advance was attempted only after a careful survey of the entire neighborhood—at the sound of some faint bird-call Jack would sink down and flatten himself upon the ground, his example being imitated by his shadow.
All this caused their progress to be exceedingly slow but time did not enter into their calculations so much as security—many hours must pass ere Jack could figure on the arrival of those upon whom everything depended and they might as well make use of the entire morning in climbing higher and higher toward their ultimate goal.
Once when they chanced to be resting their tired limbs, snug in a sheltered nook behind a mass of brushwood, Jack turned and looked back. The site was especially fine for looking out on the level stretch toward the spot where they had landed during the preceding night.
Perk, watching the actions of his comrade, could easily give a close guess as to what Jack had in mind. This opinion was made more convincing when he saw the other get out the useful binoculars, and apply them to his eyes.
Keenly he kept tabs on the others and was finally thrilled to note the pleased nod Jack gave as if wholly satisfied.
Perk touched him on the arm, and as Jack turned made motions with his head, while his eyebrows went up, his expression without a single word being spoken signifying:
“How come?”
“Take a look for yourself, and tell me if you can get the first glimpse of our old crate” suggested Jack.
“Nothin’ doin,” whispered Perk, after a most diligent search; “an’ if we can’t get a whiff o’ the boat, with these glasses, I kinder guess nobody ain’t agoin’ to locate it with their naked eyes.”
“Which same lets us out from any danger in that quarter,” came softly from Jack, whose face for the moment lost some of the strained look it had borne during the last few hours.
“Never saw a better sample o’ camouflage when I was across the big pond alistenin’ to the smash o’ the rip-roarin’ German guns,” asserted Perk; and then “dried up” when he saw the other press a finger on his lips.
Higher they climbed, like monkeys, taking all manner of desperate chances when necessity arose but so cautious was Jack in leading the way that nothing amiss came about, every obstacle being successfully surmounted until shortly before the noon hour they found themselves in a position to spy upon the camp of their intended prey.
Jack was intensely interested in what he now visioned. The old crater, resembling an immense football bowl, as adopted by some Eastern colleges, looked as though it might have proven well nigh impregnable as a fortress where the fighting Yaquis were able to hold an army at bay—which feat history records as an actual fact.
Scattered about the depression were scores of rude dwellings, some built of rocks, while others more modern had walls composed of sun-baked bricks, known throughout all Mexico asadobes. Men and women, also children, could be seen moving about, preparing the noonday meal or partaking of their customary frijoles, hot tamales, or it might be maize cakes cooked in the hot ashes of fires, and with black coffee as a beverage.
The picture appealed to Perk, who delighted in novel scenes nor did it seem to lose any of its thrill from the fact that, as he very well knew, the men he was staring at so eagerly were most likely as tough a brand of desperadoes and villains as could be grouped together anywhere on earth—ready to fight, hold up trains, or commit all manner of pillage at the drop of a hat.
He marveled at the sagacity shown by Slippery Slim in deciding to join forces with these firebrands of the back country, with the idea of thus securing the greatest safety for his own lawless operations.
All this while Jack had been keeping close watch, in hopes of being able to pick out the figure of the man he had been deputized to bring back to the States so he might be prosecuted for his crimes, and sent to Atlanta. There he would possibly end his days in seclusion, with a large portion of the Southwest breathing more freely since they need no longer fear the avalanche of counterfeit currency that had been demoralizing business for such a long spell.
After all it was Perk who made the discovery, he chancing to be carefully handling the binoculars at the time. He handed the glasses over to his mate, and told Jack just where to look, using as few words as possible, and keeping his voice very low.
Long and earnestly did Jack follow the movements of the remarkable character who had been described in his hearing so many times. What satisfaction it afforded him to know he was actually in sight of the big game and if only his plans carried through his hour of triumph was steadily drawing closer and closer. In imagination, as he continued to watch the moving figure, he could vision the pleasure it would afford him when he could turn in his report to his Chief, and mark it as completed.
The afternoon drifted along, and night approached. Nothing could be done to hasten the crisis; they must wait patiently, and continue to shape their plans until the expected smoke signal told them Morales and his rough riders had reached the foot of the Sierra Madres ten miles further south and when assured by means of a counter signal that everything was working well, start to cover the last lap of their long ride, leave their mounts at a safe distance, and complete the journey on foot.
When darkness fell the picture was even more fascinating to Perk than before, with a number of fires lighting up the huge bowl, the sound of women chattering in Spanish, and children playing just as all youngsters might do while from time to time he could catch strains of music, telling that some amorous swain might be practicing on his guitar, as all who have a drop of Spanish blood in their veins invariably love to do when at leisure.
Perk doubtless made many a grimace while partaking of the light refreshment afforded by the tough pemmican Jack had produced, as their sole means for staying their empty stomachs for when the evening breeze wafted some of the odors from the cooking fires down below it almost set him wild with a desire to partake of hot food. But he knew what he was up against, and sternly repressed the inclination to groan his protest.
It was one of the longest nights Perk ever knew. The mountain air, too, was cold, especially along toward the last few hours and since they were debarred from the joy of indulging in a campfire, Perk could only lie there and shiver. He never was so glad to see the pink sky in the east as on that occasion.
The day was but a repetition of their former afternoon with their sole recreation being the chance it gave them to watch Slippery Slim’s movements whenever he appeared coming out of what seemed to be a cavern of some sort from which at several times when the racket from many tongues died down Perk could catch a strange rumbling sound, accompanied by what seemed to be a blow, and which he could easily believe must be the working of the printing press that had been carried all the way from the States in order to be able to produce those wonderfully clever notes that had deceived many shrewd bank tellers by their deceptive qualities.
Then at last Jack discovered, just as night had begun to fall, three columns of smoke rising toward the heavens from far down the wild Sierra, telling how that Morales and his troop had arrived, and that the curtain was about to rise on the last scene of the international drama.