CHAPTER XIVClosing the Gap
Accordingly Perk swung off to the left, and banked sharply, thus starting on a turn that if pursued long enough would once more fetch them to the point from whence they had started the maneuver.
“Now I’ll take hold again for a time, until you’ve had your look,” announced Jack, suiting the action to the word.
While his mate manipulated the glasses Jack coached him word by word, until Perk finally uttered a cry of triumph.
“I got it, partner, sure I have!” he was saying in great gladness. “Can’t hardly b’lieve my eyes, it sure seems like a reg’lar miracle—to think o’ all we plugged through, an’ was able to hit straight to the bullseye o’ aour target—it dazes me to strike sech a wonderful happenin’, that’s right.”
“Then you recognize it from the brief description he gave on the side of his tissue-paper chart, do you, Perk?”
“It caint be anythin’ else, for a fack, buddy—there couldn’t run two queer heaps o’ rocks that look so much like a reg’lar ole-time castle on the Rhine! Yep, we done aourselves proud this time—meanin’yeoudid, Jack, ahandling the stick so smartly. Naow, what’s next on the programme, tell me?”
“You’re to take hold once more, and keep circling that target, while I stow away a little chow; afterwards I’ll run things while you stoke up. We must keep in mind that there’s no occasion for any undue haste—we’re out to get results, no matter how long we’ve got to hang around this part of the country. Caution, and slow progress—those are to be our watchwords, Perk.”
“I get yeou, partner,” was all that the other remarked, as he once more laid down the binoculars, and proceeded to take over the controls.
Just the same Perk knew full well Jack was intending to warn him against one of his faults, that of starting off on some important mission without due regard for precautions—a failing that had cost Perk dear more than a few times in the past, and which had never been fully eradicated from his system, no matter how gallantly he tried.
Now that the coast was clear, and he had made the discovery calculated to prove so fortunate, as well as useful, Jack could think of other matters less important and yet really necessary.
He got out their “bait-box,”—as Perk always called the receptacle of their food supplies—and proceeded to enjoy a ham-sandwich, washed down with the hot coffee already sweetened, and with genuine cream added; thanks to Perk’s “pull” with that favorite waiter in the San Diego restaurant, and whom he had mentally promised to reward some fine day, in a way commensurate with the service rendered.
Jack took his time.
He always did when eating, and consequently never knew those qualms along the line of indigestion, which occasionally doubled poor, hasty Perk up with such violence. Moreover, he seemed to be enjoying his novel breakfast vastly, a fact that tickled the other more or less, for Perk certainly did enjoy seeing others happy.
From time to time they exchanged words. Of course their talk was wholly connected with the serious business on which Uncle Sam had dispatched them, and which they were now following out as best they could.
So early in the game it was of course wholly impossible to lay their plans save vaguely; as they picked up further information they could, as Perk was fond of saying, “advance the spark,” and build some sort of a structure calculated to bring down the enemy’s fort in ruins, unless indeed, they managed to turn the tables on the two sleuths.
As they thus chatted at their ease while swinging around in a succession of short circles, the centre of which was always that conical heap of jagged rocks Perk humorously called Castle Thunder, the name of Simeon Balderson naturally came up.
Perk had himself been doing more or less pondering upon the unknown fate of the Secret Service man, who was, so Jack had informed him, a most valued agent of the Government.
“I jest caint help awonderin’ what made him fall daown on his job that a ways,” he mentioned to his comrade; which of course was Perk’s method of trying to draw the other out, so as to imbibe Jack’s way of reasoning.
“That must, as I said before,” came the reply, “remain a dead mystery to us unless we happen to run across the answer while poking around. He was up against a tough bunch, and if they discovered what he was doing the chances are they’d put him out of their way in the easiest possible fashion—throwing him over some precipice, or shooting him full of holes. That’ll come to us in the bargain, I reckon, if we’re unlucky enough to slip-up, and fall into their hands.”
“Huh! I cal’late these kiotes jest hate all Government men like a cat does agettin’ its feet wet,” hazarded Perk, shrugging his shoulders.
“Oh worse, far worse than that, buddy,” Jack assured him amiably; “they know how their lives are at stake, and to them a Secret Service man takes on the shape of a noose, or the electric chair. Whenever it comes to a fight between the two of us, and that crowd, it’s got to be to the death, with no mercy shown.”
“I savvy, partner,” Perk told him, firmly; “knowed that much right along. Doant skeer me any, either, ’cause my life’s been made up o’ takin’ chances—over in France in that ole sausage balloon company—then in circus stunts in a ricketty airship thatwasalways agoin’ to blow up with us—after that servin’ with the Canadian Mounties up in the Northwest Territory, like yeou know ’bout; and last but not least, the times I been with yeou ascootin’ raound the hull country, ahaulin’ in smugglers, bootleggers, flim-flam artists, bogus money-makers, check raisers, an’ sech nasty fry. I jest dote on runnin’ close chances—it’s sure the life that suits Gabe Perkiser.”
“The first job we’re going to tackle is along the line of making a safe and sane landing—you get that of course, Perk?” continued practical Jack.
“Nawthin’ else, partner,” answered the other, without hesitation; “seems like ever’thing depends on that same. But aint it like lookin’ fur a needle in a haystack to reckon on findin’ that ere one little patch o’ level ground he wrote was the on’y place where a ship could come daown, an’ not crash?”
“I’m going to correct you there, brother,” Jack was saying; “there is yet another landing field, and even a much better one; but out of our reach, for according to Simeon it liesinsidethe Hole-in-the-Wall valley where these fugitives from the Law have their hangout. He even so much as hinted that they had some kind of a plane themselves, which was in frequent use between this section of country, and certain cities where they had secret connections, and started much of their counterfeit stuff into circulation, to the mystification of the authorities, who could never seem to pick up their trail.”
“Jest so, Jack, ole hoss, the air doant ever leave a trail, which makes it right hard fur such fellers as us to get agoin’ straight. Ready to start on aour way, be yeou, partner?”
“Yes, but I want you to keep on using the glasses right along,” Jack told him. “If we had the misfortune to overlap that single open patch of ground, we’d be all at sea, and must double back, so as to go over the ground again, which would increase the chances of our being discovered, or heard by some of the outlaws possibly out hunting, or going to and fro.”
“I’ll do my level best to hit on the mark, Jack; jest go as slow as yeou kin, so’s to gimme every chance to count. Haow far ’bout do yeou figger goin’ on this tack, I want to know?”
“Well, this target we’ve struck he said on his paper map was something like twenty miles away from the entrance to the hidden valley—you remember that of course, Perk? The landing field, as we’ve got to call it from now on, would be some six or seven miles away from their Haunt; and consequently I expect to cover twelve miles, more or less, before I’m looking to have you tell me you’ve sighted our goal. If ever you used those sharp eyes of yours to advantage, now’s the time for an extra effort, partner.”
“Leave it to me, boy; I aint agoin’ to fail yeou, not if I have to stare my ole peepers aout o’ focus for keeps. Drop daown some ways, Jack—less chance o’ aour bein’ seen; an’ it’s goin’ to help me a heap in hittin’ that bit o’ level stretch. Cuckoo! that’s the ticket—we’re droppin’ like a rocket-stick after she’s shot her bolt. Naow for to get my eagle eyes daown to business.”