XXIOLD JIMMY, THE FACTOR
It hardly needed these vigorous words from the startled Perk to tell Jack something unusual was the matter at the trading post. Just as his comrade had declared, some sort of minor building was smouldering, smoke ascending in lazy spirals and occasionally a tiny burst of flame telling where a fresh bit of unburned wood must have fallen to the heat still hanging over the ruins.
Then too, the actions of the parties standing in a clump near the general store and fur repository added to his belief for they did look very much disturbed as if almost tempted to make a break for the shelter of the nearby forest.
That was easily understood, for up to the present time it must have been a rare event for an airplane to come circling over that remote trading post—indeed, perhaps never before had such a thrilling event occurred.
“Jack, you’re meanin’ to drop down, ain’t you?” sang out the worried Perk.
“I reckon to,” came the steady answer, “when you’ve shown me the open field you said lay close by—that was even enough for a fairly decent landing.”
“Why, there it is right now, partner—over on the right, this side o’ the tall timber yonder,” and Perk thrust out a hand so as to make his meaning quite clear.
“I see it Perk, boy, and must take your word for it we’ll have a chance to make contact without a spill. We’ve got to find out what’s been going on around here lately, that’s about all there is to it.” “I c’n jest wager it’s some dirty work o’ that timber wolf, Hawk,” asserted the other vigorously, “an’ if he’s so much as hurt a hair o’ Ol’ Jimmy McGregor’s gray head it’s goin’ to cost him dear, an’ that’s no lie either!”
Jack said nothing further, just paid strict attention to his business. He was scanning the rather contracted field so as to figure where he should drop down, with a bit of open space ahead for a short run after hitting the earth.
He had made several circles around the place before coasting earthward as his severe training as a pilot had taught him to do ere making the last dip. In another half minute the wheels had struck and the amphibian was slowing up in its forward thrust.
Both of them hastily detached the ’phones from their heads for they could see that some of the men, mostly trappers, Jack imagined from their rough dress, were commencing to push toward the spot where the visitor from the clouds lay almost motionless, having withstood such shaking-up as followed the rough landing.
The first thing that Jack noticed was the fact that there was an eager look on several of the leather-like faces of the advancing group. He rather imagined they had been cherishing a wild hope the airship might disgorge several figures in the well-known uniforms of the Mounties and that their recent rough treatment at the hands of the outlaws would soon be avenged.
“Hi! what’s been goin’ on ’round the post here, boys?” shouted Perk as the small group drew near. “Hello! Birdseye Baker, glad to see you’re still on deck—ain’t forgot Gabe Perkiser, have you, Oldtimer?”
The tall, stoop-shouldered man with the long hair whom Perk addressed stared hard and then came closer.
“If it ain’t Perk hisself!” he exclaimed, to immediately add: “Back on the old job agin, be ye—but why ain’t ye in uniform—an’ whar be the rest o’ the Mounties—we need ’em right smart I’m tellin’ ye, boy!”
“Who’s been handlin’ you rough, brother?” asked Perk sympathetically.
“Cap. Hawk an’ his gang. Ain’t been gone more’n three hours—stole all my whole season’s ketch o’ pelts an’ robbed Old Jimmy o’ his money an’ a heap o’ stores ’sides. I kinder feel like I’m meanin’ to skip out o’ this blasted kentry if so be they jest can’t nab that wild critter, ’er else make him turn up his toes. What ails the Mounties, I wanter know, when they slip up on a job like this? Don’t seem like the days when ye was workin’ in the outfit, Gabe Perkiser.”
“Hold out a little longer, Birdseye, ol’ hoss!” exclaimed Perk jerking off goggles and helmet, “mebbe it’ll all come out okay. They’s things on the programme that’re goin’ to cut a big figger in this game. Just you wait an’ see ’fore you cuss the Mounties black an’ blue.”
Then, as if noting the absence of Old Jimmy the factor, Perk continued, looking anxiously around:
“But where’s Jimmy right now, I want to know? ’Taint like him to be stickin’ in his coop yonder when strangers come to town!”
“He’s on his back, Perk—got into ruction with them bushrangers an’ they tore him up somethin’ scandalous. Nuthin’ real dangerous, get me, but he sure needs the attention o’ a doc. I’m told they’s sech a man up to the fort name o’ Hamilton but we ain’t no way o’ gettin’ word to him in a hurry.”
“That’s okay, ol’ hoss,” said Perk quickly, “my boss here, Mister John Jacob Astorbilt is aimin’ to strike Fort Laney, hopin’ to get some big game shootin’ thereabouts. We c’n fetch the sawbones back with us if so be he’s still around.”
“Good boy, Perk,” said the old fur-trapper enthusiastically, “but come in an’ see the old man—he’ll be right glad to meet up with ye again—often talked ’bout ye when I kim back from my trap line in the Spring.”
Perk looked as happy as a schoolboy carrying homeherbooks for the first time—showing that after all he was not quite so hard-boiled as he wished to appear and that a little flattery could bring the blushes to his well tanned weather-stained cheeks.
“Let’s go, partner,” he said motioning to Jack who had been listening to all this talk with increasing interest, since it had more or less to do with the lawless actions of the desperado whom he had been dispatched to bring back to the States so as to be returned to Leavenworth penitentiary, with considerably more time added to his original sentence.
The moment they entered the post they could easily see that something like an eruption must have occurred only recently. Everything was upset as though there had been a thorough search made for hidden treasure. Piles of dried pelts lay scattered around, the richer prizes having evidently been carried off.
The raiders had doubtless shown rare discrimination as though among their number were those who themselves had once been trappers and therefore knew all about the value of black fox pelts, sables and mink that bring such top-notch prices in the fur markets of St. Louis and other busy places in the country.
Birdseye Baker led them through all this mess straight over to the door communicating with the factor’s private room. This apartment also looked as if an earthquake of first dimensions had struck it and over on a cot against the further log wall they could see a man with a gray beard holding himself up on his elbow, having evidently heard strange voices and being filled with curiosity as well as wonder as to what all the fresh row was about.
“Hello there, Uncle Jimmy!” sang out Perk breezily as he pushed ahead with outstretched hand. “Ain’t quite forgot Gabe Perkiser, have you, ol’ top? Sorry to hear what’s happened to you an’ as me an’ my boss, Mister John Jacob Astorbilt here, mean to head for the fort right away, we aim to get thet medicine man back to look after you. It happens we got a cloud chasin’ airship waitin’ outside to carry us wherever we wanter go.”
The old Scotch factor looked as pleased as a man suffering from recent severe injuries might be expected to under the circumstances. He allowed the newcomer to squeeze his hand and even took Jack’s who fancied the other from the first—the stern honesty of the man from bonny Scotland was to be seen in his clear eye and undismayed look.
“They treated me some scandalous, Perk,” the injured man was saying with a quirk, but little in the way of Scotch brogue cropping up in his speech, “but ye ken I’m a tough old bird and have pulled out o’ many a bad scrape in the past so it may be I’ll weather this knockout, if only that doctor can gi’e me a fair start.”
“Hamilton, they say his name is,” ventured Perk, musingly, “somehow I don’t ’member the name, so like as not he must be a new one around here since I kicked out some years ago.”
“Ay; that’s the truth, laddie—he dropped in on us something like a year back, sayin’ he was sick o’ civilization and a’ its cheats and wanted to live out his life where the primitive ways still held forth. I am o’ the opinion the man must have met with some serious trouble—had his wife run awa’ with a younger chap, more’n likely, as they sometimes do, ye ken. But for a’ that he’s a clever physician and he’ll pull me out o’ this slump if on’y he can be fetched before it’s too late.”