XXVTHE NEVER SAY DIE SPIRIT
“Hot ziggetty dog! all set now for another long spin, combin’ the country as we go along, eh partner?”
Perk had no sooner arranged his head-phones after seeing that Jack had his fixed for service, than he commenced business at the old stand. Perk was just burning to get certain things out of his system that had been dammed up by his playing dumb on the previous evening.
“So far as I know nothing has been overlooked Perk—if only that left wing aileron doesn’t play us a dirty trick and fall off, we’ll be alright.”
“I tell you I tested it an’ it’s okay, Jack, don’t crab my game if you have any respect for my feelin’s. When I say a thing’s all to the good it’s there, every time.”
“Forget it brother, we’ve both been under a heavy strain lately and apt to show undue anxiety. Today ought to prove which way the wind’s going to blow for us. See, already she’s at the old job, covering every rod of ground with the powerful glasses. All I can say is I wish her all the luck going, poor kid.”
“But just the same you ain’t any too—er—sanguine—is that the word I want, partner? A sort o’ yearnin’, hopin’ but kinder afraid things mightn’t turn out so well in the end?”
“I get you, Perk, and according to my notion there are three of us in the same boat right now. I’m holding the ship in right along, so we’ll make certain nothing gets away from us.”
“Yeah, an’ by the way Jack, didn’t I see our good pal, Bart, stick somethin’ in your pocket jest before we skipped off—looked kinder like a piece o’ paper to me—did you ask him for his home address or somethin’ like that?”
Jack laughed.
“So you saw him do that, did you, old Hawk-eye—no, I didn’t ask him for anything in that line—he did more than enough for us as it was.”
Perk seemed to be consumed with curiosity which he made no attempt whatever to smother, for after a bit of grunting he went on to say suggestively:
“Huh! that looks a whole lot queer to me, partner. Why should Bart Hicks want to act like he might be an informer, tryin’ to hand you a leadin’ clue to a smashin’ big mystery an’ on the sly in the bargain? Huh! seems to me he must ’a’ had some good reason for doin’ sech a stunt as that!”
“Thunder! Perk, if you don’t make me think of the picture we used to see in the magazine ads, where a baby in a bathtub is reaching out to get hold of a cake of soap with a well known brand on it with the words ‘He won’t be happy till he gets it.’ Right now you’re just eaten up with curiosity about that slip of paper Bart crammed down in my pocket and there’ll be no peace in the camp till you know its contents.”
Perk unblushingly chuckled, as if ready to “acknowledge the corn.”
“Lemme have the stick, partner,” he hastened to suggest, “I’m jest as fit as a fiddle to lay things out for a few hours, an’ mebbe it’ll tone me down some.”
“Oh! all right brother, here you go then.”
The transfer was made “as slick as grease,” according to Perk’s mind and so Jack felt in his coat pocket to immediately draw out a sheet of paper, evidently torn hastily from an account book, and upon which there was considerable writing, none too legible.
He fastened his eyes on this and Perk could see that whatever the tenor of Bart’s secret communication was, it appeared to afford Jack considerable interest. Several times as he read on he nodded his head, as if agreeing with certain statements in the missive, all of which redoubled poor Perk’s eagerness to have a share in the proceedings.
“Well, that certainly takes the cake,” Jack was heard to say after he had evidently reached the finish of the note.
“Ain’t you goin’ to let me in on the fun, partner?” begged the other almost pathetically. “I’m sure all het up with a desire to know what’s goin’ on.”
Jack nodded his head again and then started to relieve his chum’s mental burden.
“Seems like the joke’s on us, Perk, old boy,” he began.
“Joke hey? Bart Hicks played one on his unsuspectin’ guests then, did he?” Perk grumbled as if terribly upset. “I didn’t think he was that sorter cad.”
“Oh! you’ll take that back after you find out what I meant by the word ‘joke’,” Jack hastened to assure him. “Listen, partner, I’m going to read you the whole letter, because it’s no easy job to get the hang of Bart’s handwriting. Reckon he wasn’t great shakes at penmanship when he went to school, for he does spell something fierce, but I’m going to keep this, all right, for it’s a cinch Bart outsmarted two fellows who reckon themselves some clever at their business. But listen and grab what he says here.”
“Go to it, old hoss,” begged the waiting Perk most eagerly.
“‘Hats off, boys—I’m on to your curves okay. Happens I got a younger brother a holding down a job in the same crowd you run with—mebbe you remember young Doug Hicks, him that fetched in all by his lonesome the four ginks makin’ up that slick gang of international crooks doin’ business as the Keating Bunch’—what d’ye think of that, Perk, Doug Hicks turning out to be the kid brother of our new friend, Bart, isn’t that the limit though? Well he goes on this way: ‘He often mentioned both you lads in his letters to me, and when you introduced yourselves I just knocked wood, but didn’t let on I got the drift of things. But say, don’t you worry any, boys, I’ll never leak a drop, so your secret is as safe as a new dollar bill. Go to it, and fetch in Buddy Warner, for if anybody can do that, it’s bound to be you two. So-long. Your friend, Bart Hicks, all wool and a yard wide.’”
Perk was making all manner of queer faces as though this wonderful disclosure had taken his breath away but through it all there struggled that happy-go-lucky grin of his, to proclaim his full appreciation of the contents of the flying field test pilot’s unique communication.
“Jest what that gink is—all wool and a yard wide—honest goods, you bet every time,” he finally managed to say with numerous chuckles accompanying the words. “Sure we know Doug Hicks, the boy who’s goin’ to make a name for himself in the Secret Service one o’ these days, if he don’t get bumped off by some hijacker’s lead. Queer what a little ole world this anyhow—kickin’ up against Bart Hicks in this jumpin’-off part o’ the country. We sure do strike the strangest happening in our line o’ work, don’t we?”
“We certainly do,” came the quick reply as Jack folded up his letter and put it carefully away. “While you’re doing duty brother, I’ll get busy with some calculations I have in mind. Keep her headed just as she is, and in half an hour we’ll bank and come back along a parallel line, so as to cover all the ground up and down, up and down, through the whole day.”
It was gruelling work, but the only possible thing they could do if they meant to make certain that they had investigated every rod of that terrible terrain that lay on every side, looking as though at some remote time in the past, nature had been turning things topsy-turvy and making a mad havoc with the entire land of gigantic rocks and sink holes.
So two whole hours crept along with a number of abrupt turns, now north, again south, steadily covering the ground. But sad to say there had as yet been discovered nothing to breed sudden hopes and expectations. Haze there had been in patches, owing to some humid condition of the atmosphere in certain quarters, but never the first sign of friendly smoke curling upward in spirals, nor yet a glimpse of any sort of half concealed mountain lake such as had been described to them by Bart Hicks.
It was now drawing on toward the middle of the day and Perk having turned over the controls to his chum at the latter’s request, was taking things easy, having relieved Suzanne of the binoculars which he handled with the skill born of long practice.
Several times during the morning the girl had begged Jack to take a look and tell her if she had deceived herself in thinking there was some favorable sign ahead or on either side. Much as he would have loved to confirm her wildest hopes, Jack found himself doomed to give a disappointing answer and so see the look of anguish that passed over her erstwhile eager, smiling face.
The grim truth must be faced—there was no break so far to the monotonous cruelty of the landscape with its unpromising features the only result of all this search.
Then too, other discouraging happenings came along to add to Jack’s concern. For one thing, the wind was increasing and at times striking them head on so as to cause more or less unsteadiness to the flying boat, as well as upsetting certain of his calculations.
This was not at all to Jack’s liking and he showed it by his repeated upward glances, as though endeavoring to read the impending weather conditions by the looks and movements of the clouds passing over.
It was also becoming more and more treacherous as their work took them up and down, now soaring above some outlying crag mass and again dipping into a valley that seemed only a fit abode for the grizzly bear in search of lonesome districts where the feared human, with his magic stick that spit fire and smoke and painful missiles, could never come.
Would their entire day be put in without a breath of cheering hope? Must they turn back, and possibly spend yet another dreary night in the little valley town, dispirited and with the poor girl in despair?
It began to look that way, even if worse might not be their portion. So it can be easily understood that when Perk got out some of his sandwiches nobody seemed to be hungry save himself, which deplorable fact was not at all to the genial fellow’s liking.
Even the usually even-tempered Jack was beginning to show signs of the long strain, though he managed to conceal it as much as possible out of consideration for the suffering Suzanne; but it was hard to assume a hopeful face when up against a tough proposition as they undoubtedly now were.
The wind was getting stronger, there could be no discounting that positive fact which added to Jack’s concern not a little, for he realized that should a storm come along it would put an effectual end to all their hopes of accomplishing anything. Perk too, had taken the alarm and was also sending occasional glances aloft.