CHAPTER XIThe Mystery Airship
“I say, Jack!” Perk called, making use of the friendly ear-phones.
“What’s eating you, buddy?” demanded the other, who must have known from his comrade’s shifting about so much there was something amiss.
“Did yeou hear it?” asked Perk, anxiously.
“You mean that sound in the fog pack, don’t you?” Jack countered.
“Yeah, yeou said it, partner—I kinder guess naow it was a ship up here in this same sea we’re buzzin’ through, don’t yeou?”
“Couldn’t be anything else, because we’re thousands of feet away from ground,” Jack admitted; and somehow it gave his chum a feeling of relief to notice how his voice showed no signs of sudden alarm.
“As haow would yeou make it eout to be—some bewildered air-mail pilot loose in his bearin’s, and shootin’ ahead, thinkin’ he could get somewhere right speedy, so’s to find his course agin?”
“Not any, Perk; and you’ll realize that much if you figure things out in a matter-of-fact way. They don’t have greenhorns in the air-mail service, or carrying passengers on the big lines—every applicant for a job has got to have a thousand hours at least in the air, and even at that he isn’t reckoned to have won his spurs. If such an experienced flier got balled up in this fog blanket he’d do just what we’re carrying out—depend utterly on his instruments. His compass would tell him he could never regain his course by flyingdue east!”
“That’s what he’s adoin’ then, yeou figger, eh, Jack?”
“Sure thing, boy—he’s directly behind us, and getting closer right along, for the sounds keep growing louder.”
“Guess that’s so, partner—I kinder had an idee he was on aour tail. What’s the answer, Jack?”
“Another dive, maybe two in fact, so as to leave him this ceiling to himself. We can climb again, buddy, after he’s passed us, and pushes further on his way. That’s the only sensible thing to do.”
Perk had been allowing his mind to picture a battle royal up there in cloudland, amidst the fog mists, where machine-guns might rattle just as years ago they always did when bitter foes over on the French border came in contact, while bent on forays that took them on long air voyages, to bomb forbidding ammunition dumps, and thickly manned trenches back of No Man’s Land.
In imagination he had already heard the terrible long roll being sounded by the chattering quick-firing guns; with a hail of missiles sweeping all around them, like a swarm of enraged hornets as experienced in his own boyhood days.
But Jack, who kept his imagination under better control, did not look at things in the same way—his idea was not to accept the gage of battle when diplomacy and clever tactics could shift it on to some future date, when the chances might be more in their favor.
What a partner to have at your side when things looked more or less dubious—Perk drew a long breath as of relief, and inwardly blessed the day he paired up with Jack Ralston.
There, once more they were shooting almost straight down into that bewildering sea of fog. It could not but give even seasoned Perk the thrill of his life, as he contemplated what would happen should they dash against some isolated mountain crag or peak, while rushing along at this tremendous speed.
He held his breath during the score of seconds they occupied in thus seeking another ceiling. Then the quivering ship, under Jack’s skillful guidance, glided into a level course, and Perk breathed naturally once more.
While the swift descent continued he had listened intently, and was overjoyed to note how the distinct clamor of the other plane’s motor gradually grew fainter, thus proving that they must be increasing the distance separating the two hidden airships.
Jack, one eye on his altitude instrument, even brought about another dip, during which Perk failed to catch even the faintest mutter of a working motor; which fact seemed to prove beyond dispute their object had been achieved—the unseen flying craft had been given all rights to that upper ceiling, and all danger of a chance collision in the sky lanes was avoided, at least for the time being.
They were still heading into the east, with a shade running toward northeast, as though Jack continued to hold fast to his belief they were following the proper course. It required the most wonderful grasp upon the situation, as Perk well knew, to keep going so confidently through such an ocean of dense fog, utterly unable to see any obstacle threatening them ahead.
Perk, absolutely content to leave all matters of this sort in the hands of the partner who had never as yet failed him in a pinch, found himself wondering what that decision, given so assuredly by his companion, might signify—if not a lost air-mail pilot, then who could the unknown voyager, shooting so recklessly through the pea-soup sea, be?
They were again ascending, proving that Jack understood what additional chances for a mishap they were tempting at the lower level, and wished to play safe as soon as he could do so with the unknown ship having passed on into the unseen vacuum ahead.
Again did the temperature approach close to the freezing point, and no wonder, with their ship soaring at such a height; but in that part of the mountainous country they must expect to find lofty uplifts mounting to the clouds, many thousands of feet above all comfortable atmosphere.
Perk busied himself in moving around, following such duties as devolved on his shoulders while his partner handled the stick. His chief concern lay in the direction of finding out just when the dense vapor began to form a thin coating of ice on the wings.
With the coming of such an insidious enemy their danger increased ten-fold, since by degrees it would add enough weight to the already heavily laden ship as to force it down all too speedily, with what hidden perils lying in wait below as only a lively imagination could vision.
Still that question remained unanswered—try as he might Perk seemed unable to successfully grapple with so puzzling and knotty a problem—if not a mail pilot off his course, nor yet some enemy trying to overtake, and run them down in midair, then who could it be?
With Perk bewildered the matter must inevitably settle down to one well practiced means for finding the answer to the enigma—“ask Jack—he knows”—a formula as simple as anything could be, also shifting all responsibility to other shoulders.
Perk went at it again, and asked for light.
“Mebbe naow, partner,” he called out, “it might be yeou guessed this crazy flier up yonder was some madcap pilot atryin’ to beat the record goin’ east from coast to coast; or else a locoed lad carryin’ a passenger who’d lose his hull fortune if so be he didn’t land in Wall Street inside so many hours.”
Jack laughed, as though amused at these vague stabs—he knew what the other had in his mind by going on in this fashion.
“Just fishing again, eh, Perk—want to know what I think covering the game, isn’t that so? Well, listen, and I’ll put a flea in your ear.”
“Go to it, partner—I’m agreeable, an’ wantin’ to be informed,” Perk hastened to say.
“Among those documents I examined there was one fact I laid some stress on, which consisted of a statement that the Secret Service man who sent his report in, and then seemed to disappear utterly from the knowledge of all men, declared it to be his opinion these hideout big guns in the criminal world, working under our old friend Slippery Slim Garrabrant, had some sort of anairship, with which they were doing a rattling good business—perhaps you slipped up on that particular fact; but I figured we might run across that plane, sooner or later, and have considerable bother with the same.”
“Hot-diggetty-dig! then Jack, you mean it could a been that crate we heard abeatin’ time on aour tail; an’ mebbe chasin’ us like hot beans—tell me, is that what hits you so hard, matey?”
“I have a pretty strong idea it was their ship, covering a well-known course from the coast to this valley in the rocky unknown territory too rough even to have been explored, as it was believed to be worthless for even mining purposes. As to whether those aboard were trying to strike us in the fog, that’s still a mystery, and must remain such for the present.”
“Then do yeou guess they knowed we was ahead on the same track, eh, Jack, ole hoss?”
“Remember Perk, that as far as we know they didn’t change their ceiling at any time—just kept booming away at the same level. That being the case they couldn’t have heard the sound of our own motor working, as their exhaust would deafen them completely; for we only caught the racket behind us when we were shooting the shoot, with our engine shut-off.”
“Good enough for us, buddy—then we got a clear field ahead, an’ c’n foller aour own plans right along.”
“For the time being; but don’t forget we’ve got rough sledding ahead. It all depends on how long we’ll be held fast in the grip of this accursed fog pack. Running blind isn’t a very satisfactory way of getting along, especially when you only know the country through rude charts that may be all right, and then again sprinkled with errors that are bound to be full of danger to us.”
“Hit an’ miss, Jack, we’re used to takin’ the chances—it’s all a part o’ the followin’ we’re rappin’ in. We jest got to do aour best, an’ leave the rest—aint I been adoin’ that same mighty near all my whole life? an’ seems like little ole Perk he’s still on deck, able to eat his three good meals a day—whenever he c’n git the same.”
“It’s after midnight, Perk.”
“So it be, partner; an’ we muster gone a good many hundred miles since jumpin’ off—strikes me we orter be clost to the goal we had in aour minds; if so be we been keepin’ on a di-reck course, with no wabblin’ to check us aout.”
“I figure that way myself,” replied Jack; “but nothing can be done to make certain until conditions change for the better.”
“Which would mean we got some hours to kill, ’fore mornin’ comes along to give us a show fur aour money, eh, Jack, ole boy?”
“There’s only one way to do that,” snapped the other; “which is by circling around, keeping our altitude, and within a range of say fifty miles; and that’s what I’m aiming to start doing right now.”