Flying the Coast Skyways. Jack Ralston's Swift Patrol

CHAPTER XIX

The Lonely Camp

“Perhaps,” suggested Jack, tiring of this exercise after a while, “it might be just as well for us to step ashore, so you can get that fire going. A little smoke would be worth while as a smudge to drive these skeets away; they’re bent on eating us alive, it seems to me.”

“Jest as yeou sez. Mister,” Perk acquiesced, with alacrity; and in less than three minutes he had managed to jump ashore from the end of the wing that rested on a log close to the bank of the bayou.

Gathering some loose wood he quickly had a blaze going, and was joined by his comrade, who took particular pains to stand to leeward of the fire, so that clouds of thick smoke would cause the fierce insects to abandon the vicinity.

“I suppose that, generally speaking,” Jack went on to say, “we would be hunting dry wood so as to send up as little smoke as possible, for fear of attracting notice, and bringing unwelcome visitors to our camp; but in this case the chance of detection plays a very small part in the game. We certainly need lots of pungent smoke in order to drive these hordes of nippers away. So go to it, partner, the more the merrier.”

Later on they sat down where the wind would waft some of the smoke in their direction, and being at peace with the world just then found that they could compare notes, and reach certain conclusions.

Although the sun was still quite some little distance above the horizon, as they figured, (being unable to see anything through that mass of cypress, and hanging moss) it was already commencing to grow dusk back of the camouflaged airship.

“I knows as haow it aint time yet,” Perk finally spoke up, getting to his feet with determination written large upon his face; “but jest the same I caint hold aout any longer – I got to listen to the growlin’ daown below-stairs, as sez its past time to stoke the furnace; so sech bein’ the case I’m ameanin’ to start aour supper, if so be yeou aint no ’jections, suh.”

“Not in the slightest, Wally, so get busy as soon as you like,” he was told.

The other did not wait for a second invitation, but making his way back to the cabin of the amphibian presently returned with both arms full of mysterious packages. After depositing the same upon the ground near the blazing fire, Perk made a second trip aboard, and from that time on busied himself in the one occupation of which he seemed never to tire – making preparations to supply a rousing meal, cooked over such a bed of red embers as he delighted to supply.

Jack was pretty hungry himself, and enjoyed the spread greatly – its memory was likely to long haunt them; and in speaking of the past the time was apt to be set by such phrases as “something like a month after we had that glorious camp supper on Black Water Bayou, remember, partner?”

Jack sat there working at his maps for some time after they had finished eating; so, too, he made numerous notes, to be conned over and over again, until he could repeat the gist of them all as occasion arose. That was his way of preparing for a campaign; and no masterly tactics of a successful war general could have been an improvement on his programme – to prepare in advance for all manner of possibilities was as natural to Jack Ralston as it was to breathe; which plan certainly had much to do with the customary success falling to his lot.

Suddenly both of them caught the distant report of a gunshot; and stared at each other, as though mentally figuring what such a thing might signify.

“Did you take notice which direction that gunshot seemed to come from, eh, Wally?” demanded Jack, presently, as no other similar sound followed.

“I’d say from over there,” Perk swiftly replied, pointing toward the south as he spoke. “What dye reckons, suh, it’d mean?” he asked in turn.

“Oh! nothing that concerns us, I imagine, Wally, boy – some chap might have run across a hunting wildcat most likely, and couldn’t resist giving him the works. But it settles the direction where that secret landing place may lie, I feel almost certain. That’s one of the points I wanted to pick up; and before the night is over we may be able to prove my prediction sound.”

“Yeou doant reckons, suh, they kin see this heah fire aburnin’, do yeou?”

Jack laughed as though the idea had no standing with him.

“Not in a thousand years, Wally; it must be a matter of a mile, perhaps twice that between this spot and from where that gun was fired; you see, the night air heads toward us, and would carry the sound quite a long way.”

He proved that he felt no uneasiness by continuing the conversation that had been interrupted by the sudden far-off shot; and so Perk did not hesitate to toss more fuel on his cheery campfire.

They were thinking of turning in aboard the nearby boat, and seeking their necessary rest, when Perk, who had unusually keen hearing, sat up and inclined his head to one side as though listening.

“Jest what she is, for a fack, partner,” he went on to state; “an’ shore as yeou’re born, suh, they aint no muffler aboard that ship, I’ll take my affidavy on that same.”

“It is a ship, no doubt about that, and heading this way out of the east, you want to notice, buddy,” Jack indicated, as though that mere fact had a deep significance in his eyes.

“Yeah! that’s so,” agreed Perk, readily falling in with the conceit, as he usually did when Jack was the originator of any proposition. “They air acomin’ straight from aout on the ocean, where mebbe a steamer is alyin’ anchored, an’ loadin’ its cargo o’ contraband on fast blockade runners that come ’longside; also sky-carriers in the bargain, sech as drop daown close by on the sea, an’ take on all they kin carry.”

The faint sounds rapidly increased in vigor until even a novice could have decided it was an airplane making almost directly toward their strange camp on Black Water Bayou.

“Keep on listening, brother,” advised Jack; “and then we’ll compare notes as to where we heard the last clatter. Things couldn’t be working more smoothly to suit our plans; and we ought to be pretty well primed by the time we come back here to join up with Friend Jethro.”

Finally the now loud clatter ceased, which those airmen knew full well meant it had succeeded in effecting an apparently safe landing, whether on land or water they could only surmise.

So carefully had they both tried to get the exact locality fixed in their minds that when they came to comparing ideas it was found they agreed almost to a dot; so Jack was able by referring to his small compass to make a note of the circumstance, as well as their united conviction.

“I kin shut me eyes an’ see what a busy bunch is workin’ unloadin’ that same crate,” Perk observed, a little later on. “Scent’s agettin’ a little warmer, seems like, partner, when we ketch the racket o’ a smuggler plane comin’ in from the mother vessel away off shore, beyond the twenty mile danger line.”

“I’d say it surely was,” agreed Jack, grinning happily, as if in answer to the joyous look he detected on his partner’s sunbaked face.

All had by now become as silent as the grave, at least so far as suspicious sounds undoubtedly caused by human agencies; but otherwise things did not happen to be so quiet. From the nearby swamp came a multitude of queer croakings and gurglings, accompanied by harsh cries such as night herons seeking their food, or other birds of similar activities, might make while fishing.

“Gee whiz!” Perk at one time burst forth, “did yeou ever in all yeour life listen to sech queer sounds as them? Hark to that splash – sure reckons some roostin’ bird must a fallen off its perch, an’ if all that flutterin’ and squawkin’ stands fo’ anythin’ its got swallowed up in the jaws o’ some critter waitin’ daown below fo’ its supper. Glory! I wonder if weuns kin get any sleep with all these heah carryin’s on in full blast. Jest hear ’em whoopin’ it up, will yeou, suh?”

However, when the time did come for them to go aboard the boat and seek their cots, by closing the cabin door much of the noise was deadened, and after all Perk found little difficulty in getting to sleep.

Nothing occurred during the night to disturb them, or cause any undue alarm. Doubtless that variegated noise kept up through the livelong period of darkness, but it gave them no concern whatever.

When Perk happened to wake up he believed he could catch a feeble gleam as of daylight outside the cabin; and upon investigating found it to be a fact. He thereupon aroused his companion, and another fine meal was soon in process of preparation over a resurrected fire; to which of course the pair did ample justice, after which they made ready for another flight, and a return to the city.

CHAPTER XX

The Mother Ship

When Jack went over to the home of the affable Mr. Herriott the following night he had much to tell that gentleman, such as had a bearing on his own campaign. The other heard what he had to say, and then asked a number of pertinent questions that in their way were more or less helpful.

“From all you saw and heard, my friend,” the other observed later on; “I am absolutely certain you have found a bonanza, and discovered the landing place used mostly by the planes that are carrying such vast quantities of contraband from mother ships to certain central depots, where doubtless motor trucks are able to come over unknown country shell roads, and convey the same to shore cities, possibly even as far north as Baltimore and Washington. You are getting close to your objective, I have no hesitation in saying; I only hope it all turns out as well and profitably as your daring and skill would warrant.”

Such words from one whom he had come to admire as a “clean shooter,” as Perk designated their official friend, gave Jack much satisfaction.

“Still, there’s no reason for undue haste, you know, sir,” he told the other in his calm way. “While I do not want to loaf on the job, at the same time I am against trying to push things to a decision, if by so doing I must take unnecessary chances.”

“Quite right, too, Mr. er, Warrington,” he was told. “It would have been much better for several of your fellows who worked on this affair if they had possessed a share of your caution; two in particular showed signs of getting somewhere but in seeking to make a swoop before the time was fully ripe they queered the whole game, and fell down on the job. I would be willing to prophesy that such will not be the result of your planning.”

“There was one subject about which I’d be glad to hear something further, Mr. Herriott,” Jack went on to mention.

“You have only to let me know what it is, and any knowledge I happen to possess in regard to the matter is at your service. Now tell me how I can give you any further assistance, – Jack.”

“It’s about that cracker guide who’s agreed to take us to the secret landing-place of the mob – Jethro Hicks. Do you feel the utmost confidence in his honesty, sir? You can easily understand why I ask, since if it turned out that he himself was in the hire of this gang of law-breakers, things would turn out badly for myself and my friend.”

“Let me reassure you on that score then,” came the immediate answer; “I am positively certain Jethro will be found as true as steel. I know this from a number of reasons. First of all, I’ve been acquainted with the man for some years now, and I think I’m safe in saying that he thinks considerable of me as a staunch friend. I had an opportunity once upon a time, to do him a favor, when it seemed as though the whole world had turned against him, and kept him a fugitive from the law, hiding in the swamps and backwoods for some years; and he will never forget the little I was able to do for his family then. That is one reason why he has so greedily taken me up when I asked him to work hand in glove with you.”

“Yet you say he had broken the law – was hiding from arrest apparently – hardly a fact to commend him as an honest man, sir, I’d think.”

“But Jethro was entirely innocent in that nasty affair, as was later on proven without a doubt; he is now walking openly, and without a fear of arrest. On that same fact hangs his chief desire to help you break up this powerful gang of smugglers infesting the seaboard of our State.”

“How come, Mr. Herriott?” questioned the surprised as well as deeply interested Jack.

“Listen, and you will, I am sure, understand what I mean,” continued the other. “Some years ago there was a sort of mountain vendetta existing between the Hicks family and two other households in the same neighborhood. It had gone on for a good many years, with occasional outbursts, and some shooting. Later on it came about that one particular man named Haddock made considerable money since prohibition came in; and still hating the name of Hicks found an opportunity to accuse Jethro of certain things, building up false evidence on which the young head of a family would undoubtedly have been sent to the pen if he had not hidden out in the swamps. While there this rich man also persecuted his family, and protected by his money could do this without hindrance.

“Jethro has never forgotten or forgiven those wrongs; and yet unlike many of his class, he does not wish to shoot his hated enemy down in cold blood. But it is more than suspected that John Haddock is one of the rich men backing up this big syndicate, for it would come directly in line with the way he managed to accumulate his own fortune in a less extensive way, merely with mountain dew as his stock in trade.

“Jethro swore to me he knew this to be a fact, although he could hardly hope to prove the same unless given an opportunity to raid their headquarters and find positive evidence there.

“Now you will understand just why he can be depended on – Jethro is no law-breaker, and his fierce hatred for John Haddock – all the Haddock tribe in fact – will make him a faithful assistant for such as you. Are you satisfied now, Jack?”

“Unquestionably so, sir; and I thank you very much for telling me this. I’ll have a better opinion of Jethro, and feel a sympathy for him in his desire to get even with this rich schemer through whom he has suffered so much.”

More of this confidential talk was indulged in, with Jack fortifying such conclusions as he had already reached.

And when he got back to the hotel room, to find Perk sitting up, reading, but eager to know if anything worth while had happened, he proceeded to further astonish his best pal by giving a verbatim rendering of every item spoken by the United States representative.

“So you see, brother, how well we are progressing,” he concluded by saying; “and with such an eager helper as this same Jethro promises to prove, it looks as if something unexpected was going to strike that powerful illegal combine of smugglers at an early date – don’t you feel that way too?”

“Shore I do, partner, an’ here’s hopin’ it aint agoin’ to be so very long naow ’fore we get in aour fust crack. I’m near wild to knock one o’ them smugglers’ first aid ships to smithereens, with a nice baby bomb I got hid away aboard aour dandy amphibian cruiser.”

“Your hour will strike in due time, Wally, boy,” said the amused Jack, with a fond look at the excited face of his chum. “You’ve never completely gotten over your boyish ways, brother – anything in the line of excitement, and you fairly itch to be up and doing. I am free to confess, however, that when you do get into a ruction you know how to give a good account of yourself.”

“Thanks, ole hoss, comin’ from sech as yeou that’s the highest kind o’ praise I could ever expect. I sometimes reckon I must abeen in at least one squabble ’fore I was hardly able to toddle ’raound, it comes so nat’ral to me.”

On the following morning their regular routine was again taken up. They flew up the coast, and turned out to sea, Jack wishing to learn whether there was a mother ship lying off the coast, from which all manner of prohibited articles, from aliens, precious stones, narcotics and in great quantity the finest of foreign strong drink, down to the smallest things that had an intrinsic value, were secretly imported into the States minus the heavy duty imposed on their coming.

Once again his hunch proved a true one, for they discovered a squat steamer hovering about twenty-five miles from the coast, with several fast smuggling power-boats alongside; and as Perk reported, a number of men passing weighty sacks over the side of the larger craft.

“No need of our going any closer, partner,” Jack announced, as he banked sharply, and turned the nose of their boat toward the north. “We’ll just knock around for a spell, to experience the sensation of slipping along above the great salty sea, something neither of us have had much experience in doing; and in good time we can pass on down again, so as to cover the ground where we expect to get in our heavy work.”

Which same they did, to their own satisfaction; and much to Jack’s surprise to also discover a second large foreign ship apparently also laden to the gunwales with piles of goods in suspicious looking gunny sacks.

“It seems as though it might be high time something was being done to cut this traffic into ribbons, don’t you think, Wally, boy?” Jack asked, as again he made a steep bank, this time heading into the west, toward the distant streak of land which told of the coast of Virginia.

They struck out for shore, passed as far inland as Jack considered tactful, and through his clever work in piloting the airship actually passed directly over Black Water Bayou.

CHAPTER XXI

A Motor-Truck Caravan

“I say, buddy!”

They were bobbing in and out of the fleecy drift clouds, just as that other ship had done, almost indistinguishable from the ground, being about two miles up, when Jack thus called out.

Perk had been taking account as to the amount of fuel yet remaining in their tanks, and was amusing himself doing some sort of calculation with a stub of a pencil and a pad of paper.

“Yeah! what is it, boss?” he sang out, looking over to where his mate sat at the stick, with the exhaust racket of both motors cut-off effectually.

“We’re just whiffing over that delightful little ghostly bayou you fell in love with; and heading so as to pass above the region from which we heard that unseen ship settle down.”

“I reckoned that was so, partner; go ahead an’ say what’s on yeour mind.”

“There’s one thing that so far has escaped our scrutiny,” spoke up the pilot, with Perk quickly adding:

“Meanin’, I reckons, suh, we aint seen nary a sign o’ any sorter vehicle sech as mout be atakin’ the stuff to market – is that so, suh?”

“Good guess, all right, for you, Wally, boy,” replied Jack. “Pick up your glasses again, and keep an eye on the ground down below. If by good luck you light on anything suspicious, let me know; because I want to see for myself, as it might help me figure out certain things worth while.”

“Ay! ay! Cap; here goes!” Perk told him, suiting the action to the words with the greatest eagerness.

Jack loitered somewhat, not wishing to skip over that prospective battlefield too speedily, lest it fail to reveal some of its most valuable secrets; accordingly he circled while still sticking to the cloud screen, now in and out like a fluttering butterfly amidst the thistle blooms of an old quarry.

Their aerial steed could not be seen from the far distant surface of the earth, unless one chanced to have a very powerful pair of binoculars similar to the beautiful ones Perk was just then handling – the Government at least was a generous employer, since the question of price never entered into the purchase of such instruments as were necessary.

Suddenly Perk let out a loud crow.

“Gimme the stick, gov’nor!” he called out, shoving in behind his mate. “Aplenty in sight right naow, I’d say, if yeou asked me. Jest peek yeour eye on that ere stretch o’ marsh, I take the same to be, clost alongside yonder stretch o’ pine woods – must be some sorter corduroy road built through the muck, screened mostly by cypress trees covered with a heap o’ trapsin’ moss.”

“I’ve got it, partner – just as you’re saying in the bargain, a corduroy road made of logs laid parallel, and looking a bit new as if it had only been constructed lately, for some special purpose.”

“See anythin’ amovin’, boss?” continued the excited Perk, eagerly.

“Not yet,” he was told; “but whatever you saw may be hidden behind some patch of dense timber at the moment. Ha!”

“Ketched ’em jest then, did yeou?”

“One – two – three motor-trucks in a line, close to each other, and making fair time over that bumpy log-road, considering that they seem to be heavily laden with something covered by dirty tarpaulins.”

“Somethin’ – huh! weuns ought to know what kinder stuff, eh, partner?” laughed Perk, jubilantly enough.

“Keep circling around, using these hazy clouds for a screen, whenever possible, brother,” urged Jack. “I want to get an eyeful of this same picture, because it’s going to give me the one thing that was lacking – a knowledge of the way they get the stuff out of such a boggy country without being detected by sharp-eyed revenue men.”

“But say, boss, didn’t we make up aour minds they might have a bunch o’ landin’-places, so’s to switch aroun’ when things begun to get too hot at any one roost?”

“Yes, and I still believe that way,” Jack told him, his eyes continuing to be glued to his glasses, as though what he saw fairly fascinated him; “but just the same, they could make use of one main road out of the swamp country.”

So he kept close tabs until eventually the line of heavily laden trucks had passed from his sight.

“You can pick up the course to Charleston now, buddy,” he told the acting pilot. “I’ve seen that those trucks are heading north by nor-west, and chances are they mean to make Baltimore before they halt for good; though like as not they may have a half-way station for stopping over during part of a day, so as to cover the last and most risky section of their long run by darkness, or moonlight.”

“An’ partner,” Perk blurted out, as he relinquished the stick to the masterhand of his mate, “do yeou know they’s somethin’ that’s been abotherin’ me right smart.”

“As what, buddy?” asked the other, keeping up his run among the friendly screen of fleecy clouds.

“Things they seem to come an’ go with these here smuggler lads like everything might be part o’ a well greased machine – never a click, er a squeak, but movin’ ’long with hardly a missfire – jest haowever do they fix it – how kin they know near to the minute when a cargo’s acomin’ to port, so’s to have them trucks and men awaitin’ fo’ the same.”

“Oh! that’s dead easy, partner,” Jack sang out, as though on his part he felt little doubt.

“Yeah! seems to me them chaps ’way back in Columbus’ time said them same words arter the man as diskivered America stood a egg up on end, fust knockin’ the small end, and making a rest fo’ the same – anything’s soft enough arter you been told haow – naow I wanter be shown.”

“Listen then, Wally, boy – there isn’t the least doubt in my mind but what the gang has an excellent radio station rigged up somewhere along the coast; they can keep in constant touch both with the mother ships we saw anchored twenty miles out, and also with headquarters on shore – down where those three motor-trucks loaded up, after some speed boat ran in here last night. Get it now, do you, old pal?”

“Gosh! seems like us boys gotter be settin’ up nights fixin’ traps fo’ the sharp foxes, they’s up to sech big stunts. Sometimes I find myself wonderin’ haow in Sam Hill weuns kin beat ’em atall at their pesky games.”

“Well, that’s what we’re here to put through,” Jack stated, off-hand like; “and it seems that usually we do come out on top. But even if we succeed in putting their freight air ships, and fast launches out of business, this game of ours can never be called complete until we’ve managed to discover the location of that powerful sending radio station – and blown it sky-high in the bargain.”

“Bully boy!” cried Perk; “an’ more power to aour elbow, is what I’m asayin’ right naow. Big Boy. We kin do it, an’ – watch aour smoke, that’s all.”