Kitabı oku: «Flying the Coast Skyways. Jack Ralston's Swift Patrol», sayfa 8
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.”
“I begin to think the time for our departure is getting close at hand, Pal Wally,” Jack remarked some time later, as they glimpsed the familiar smoke cloud hovering over the city ahead. “If my last talk with our good friend tonight pans out as I feel pretty certain it must, we’ll figure on making our big jump some time day after tomorrow. That will give us plenty of time to get everything aboard we expect to need; for once we leave Charleston we’ll not be likely to see the place again in a hurry.”
“Sure pleases me a heap, suh,” Perk told him, nodding his head approvingly, as though he might be some species of war-horse scenting the battle-smoke and acrid odor of burnt powder in the breeze, calling him to action.
In due time the big amphibian dropped down on the field, and was hurriedly conveyed to its hangar; the two airmen hovering around for a brief time examining certain parts of their ship, to make doubly certain there was nothing amiss. Jack did not intend going out on the following day, if things worked as he was now planning; they would fix up a last day program, by following which everything necessary would be carried out in the customary way of such careful adventurers as they had always proven to be.
“Huh! been a right full day, I’d call hit,” was Perk’s last word, as they started back to the hotel, so as to clean up for supper; after which Jack meant to keep an engagement with Mr. Herriott, who would be apt to have some news of importance to communicate.
“Taking things as they go, it certainly has, brother,” Jack told his “side push,” as Perk often called himself. “We’ve picked up some facts that plug the vacant holes in my scheme; and I feel confident we’re getting close to the big finish.”
CHAPTER XXII
Down to Business at Last
When Jack came back to the hotel late that night, he found Perk lounging in the lobby, and keeping a watchful eye on the main entrance.
“Got too darned lonesome up in the den, suh,” the latter explained, keeping up his character part as an employee of the rich New York sportsman, who was so well liked that he had become a sort of companion, and campmate in fact. “Jest couldn’t stand it any longer, an’ had to come daown hyah, so’s to watch the folks, an’ pass the time away. Gwine up right naow, suh?”
“Might just as well, for I’m a bit tired; and besides we have some plans to settle on before striking out for the ducking grounds day after tomorrow. Got those chilled-shot shells I want to tryout, did you, Wally?”
“Sure did, suh,” answered the other, with a wide grin, knowing that this had been spoken because the hotel clerk was close by at the desk, and watching them a bit curiously. “An’ I done reckoned as haow I might jest as well fotch ’long double the number o’ boxes yeou-all asked me to. They sure slips away right speedy like, suh, when the birds air atradin’ good.”
Once behind the closed and locked door, Jack started to explain such fresh facts as had come within the circle of his knowledge in the last chat with Mr. Herriott.
“He will make all arrangements with Jethro in the morning, so we can expect to find the man waiting at the rendezvous – Black Water Bayou, two nights from now; for I calculate to drop down there just while the twilight holds. That is the main thing we settled; and he assured me there would absolutely be no hitch to that part of the program. When such a man as our good friend gives a promise like that you can depend on it being exactly so.”
“Bet yeour boots that’s a fack, partner,” Perk took occasion to add most fervently, having conceived a great liking for Mr. Herriott, his charming betterhalf, and the two youngsters with whom he had had such a riotous time on the occasion of his late visit.
Jack took some object out of his pocket, and holding it between his fingers seemed to blow softly into the same with a certain quavering inflection. The result was an odd quacking sound, several times repeated.
“Gosh all hemlock!” Perk exclaimed, a little too loud for discretion as he himself appeared to realize, since he immediately moderated his voice as he went on to say: “If that ere aint a reg’lar duck-call I’m a rank piker. What dye know ’baout that, if we didn’t forgit to supply aourselves with a quacker – two on ’em in fact, one to coax the ducks within gunshot; an’ tother fo’ wild honkin’ geese. Takes yeou to think up the small but important things, ole hoss.”
“Well, we may some day have a chance to use this call for the purpose it was intended,” stated Jack, handing the queer little article with the split and brass tongue crown over to Hank for examination; “but I got it for quite another reason. When I put this to my lips, and give a number of loud quacks, it’ll be after we’re lying there on the surface of Black Water Bayou – as a signal agreed on with Jethro. You must remember he has never met us, unfortunately, and this game is too risky for any one to take chances. He’ll answer my signal by six quacks in quick succession, and I’ll give him another four in reply – then both will have made sure covering the identity of the other.”
“Jest fine as silk, I’d say, suh!” Perk assured him, with that look approaching adoration such as came to him most naturally, whenever his pal Jack sprang some unusually neat piece of work upon him.
Perk tested the duck-call several times, blowing softly, so as not to cause any guest, or possibly even a spy, in an adjoining room to wonder what such a series of queer sounds could mean.
“Huh! been a long time, suh, since I done used one o’ these contraptions,” he finally advanced. “They do fotch the s’picious birds aswimmin’ closer in to the stools – yeou knows I gotter to buy a bunch o’ cedar decoys tomorry, ’case no shooter ever goes aout to bag ducks withaout a flock o’ the same.”
“That’s down on your list of last supplies to be picked up, I remember, Wally. And when I’ve told you a few more things that come to me tonight we’d better turn in for a good snatch of sleep. No telling how much time we’ll be spending keeping wide-awake night after night, once we embark on that part of our big game. In fact, it’s possible we’ll have to change things around, and do about all of our sleeping daytimes.”
“Suits me right well, suh – so long’s I gits fo’ hours at a stretch, with a few halfway decent eats thrown in, I doant never kick.”
Less than half an hour later and they were getting ready for a spell of forgetfulness. Perk, as he crawled into bed, was muttering something to the effect that there would be only one more occasion when they could treat themselves to the real luxury of a decent bed, with a fine bathroom conveniently close at hand.
“But what do it matter with sech a ole campaigner as me– anything we kin strike aint agoin’ to be one-tenth as bad as when I was over in them stinkin’ trenches, up to my knees in water, an’ listenin’ to hell broke loose all raound, with the Heinies throwing shiploads o’ shells, an’ other devilish explosives – awful pizen gas in the bargain, every-which way – I ain’t complainin’ o’ anything after what happened to me there, no siree, I aint.”
In the morning they took a leisurely breakfast, and then separated, each of them having a complete list of certain necessary things that had to be attended to.
Jack had declared it his intention to take-off around midday, for they could once more follow the course now becoming quite familiar – passing out to sea, and from a great height learning whether a mother-ship lay off the coast, with fast speedboats tied up alongside, taking on cargoes – although no attempt would be made looking to coming in to the mouth of some estuary, up which they meant to push under cover of darkness.
Only one thing could keep them from making their start as planned, and this would be a bad weather report covering the coastal region from Brunswick, Georgia all the way past Hatteras, to the mouth of the Delaware. Optimistic Jack, however, was hoping for the best, since as far as he could see no bad weather appeared on the latest report from Headquarters, as given in the Charleston papers.
Much was accomplished during the morning, and both of them brought back various packages that were to be carried in their bags to the field, at the time of taking off.
“You looked after those decoys, I expect, brother?” Jack queried, as they sat at the lunch table, enjoying all manner of good things appealing to their sound appetites.
“Better b’lieve I did that same, buddy,” the other assured him; “an’ a mighty likely lookin’ bunch o’ stools I picked up. They’re sendin’ the same to the aviation grounds this afternoon; an’ I’m meanin’ to run aout so’s to stow the wooden ducks away aboard aour ship. I’d give somethin’ for a chanct to shoot over them same decoys, yes suh, I sure would.”
“Perhaps fortune will be kind to us, and you may yet have that pleasure, Pal Wally. No telling but what we may be ordered to hang out around this part of the coast for some time after we’ve done our job to the Queen’s taste; and to tell you the truth I’d enjoy a little shooting myself.”
The afternoon passed, and when the sun sank low in the west, with their coming together again at the hotel, never a single item on either list had been neglected.
In the morning Jack walked around to the post-office where the latest weather reports could be found, to see if they corresponded with the rosy promises the morning papers contained. He assured Perk on returning that they need have no fears about making the start as scheduled; so that Perk found his cup of happiness full to the brim, and even running over.
They took an early lunch and then went out to the aviation grounds in a taxi as usual. Before their ship was trundled out to be set for a start they saw that everything was aboard, and safely stowed away, from the cumbersome decoy flock to the last thing in “chow,” as selected by capable Perk, about as good a judge with regard to food supplies as could be run across in a day’s search.
The manager of the aviation field himself was out to shake hands, and give them a parting good-bye. Jack, seeing the smile accompanying the words and hearty handclasp, had a faint suspicion that possibly the affable gentleman had guessed something like the truth; but just the same he felt it would never go any further, if he could read good Southern faith in a human’s eyes.
