CHAPTER XXI
A MOTOR-TRUCK CARAVAN
"I say, buddy!"
They were bobbing in and out of the fleecy drift clouds, just as thatother ship had done, almost indistinguishable from the ground, beingabout two miles up, when Jack thus called out.
Perk had been taking account as to the amount of fuel yet remaining intheir tanks, and was amusing himself doing some sort of calculation witha stub of a pencil and a pad of paper.
"Yeah! what is it, boss?" he sang out, looking over to where his matesat at the stick, with the exhaust racket of both motors cut-offeffectually.
"We're just whiffing over that delightful little ghostly bayou you fellin love with; and heading so as to pass above the region from which weheard that unseen ship settle down."
"I reckoned that was so, partner; go ahead an' say what's on yeourmind."
"There's one thing that so far has escaped our scrutiny," spoke up thepilot, with Perk quickly adding:
"Meanin', I reckons, suh, we aint seen nary a sign o' any sorter vehiclesech as mout be atakin' the stuff to market--is that so, suh?"
"Good guess, all right, for you, Wally, boy," replied Jack. "Pick upyour glasses again, and keep an eye on the ground down below. If by goodluck you light on anything suspicious, let me know; because I want tosee for myself, as it might help me figure out certain things worthwhile."
"Ay! ay! Cap; here goes!" Perk told him, suiting the action to the wordswith the greatest eagerness.
Jack loitered somewhat, not wishing to skip over that prospectivebattlefield too speedily, lest it fail to reveal some of its mostvaluable secrets; accordingly he circled while still sticking to thecloud screen, now in and out like a fluttering butterfly amidst thethistle blooms of an old quarry.
Their aerial steed could not be seen from the far distant surface of theearth, unless one chanced to have a very powerful pair of binocularssimilar to the beautiful ones Perk was just then handling--theGovernment at least was a generous employer, since the question of pricenever 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 yeoureye on that ere stretch o' marsh, I take the same to be, clost alongsideyonder stretch o' pine woods--must be some sorter corduroy road builtthrough the muck, screened mostly by cypress trees covered with a heapo' trapsin' moss."
"I've got it, partner--just as you're saying in the bargain, a corduroyroad made of logs laid parallel, and looking a bit new as if it had onlybeen 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 somepatch 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 makingfair time over that bumpy log-road, considering that they seem to beheavily 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, wheneverpossible, brother," urged Jack. "I want to get an eyeful of this samepicture, because it's going to give me the one thing that was lacking--aknowledge of the way they get the stuff out of such a boggy countrywithout 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 hotat any one roost?"
"Yes, and I still believe that way," Jack told him, his eyes continuingto 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 theswamp country."
So he kept close tabs until eventually the line of heavily laden truckshad passed from his sight.
"You can pick up the course to Charleston now, buddy," he told theacting pilot. "I've seen that those trucks are heading north bynor-west, and chances are they mean to make Baltimore before they haltfor good; though like as not they may have a half-way station forstopping over during part of a day, so as to cover the last and mostrisky section of their long run by darkness, or moonlight."
"An' partner," Perk blurted out, as he relinquished the stick to themasterhand of his mate, "do yeou know they's somethin' that's beenabotherin' me right smart."
"As what, buddy?" asked the other, keeping up his run among the friendlyscreen of fleecy clouds.
"Things they seem to come an' go with these here smuggler lads likeeverything might be part o' a well greased machine--never a click, er asqueak, but movin' 'long with hardly a missfire--jest haowever _do_ theyfix it--how kin they know near to the minute when a cargo's acomin' toport, 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 hefelt little doubt.
"Yeah! seems to me them chaps 'way back in Columbus' time said them samewords arter the man as diskivered America stood a egg up on end, fustknockin' the small end, and making a rest fo' the same--anything's softenough arter you been told haow--naow I wanter be shown."
"Listen then, Wally, boy--there isn't the least doubt in my mind butwhat the gang has an excellent radio station rigged up somewhere alongthe coast; they can keep in constant touch both with the mother ships wesaw anchored twenty miles out, and also with headquarters on shore--downwhere those three motor-trucks loaded up, after some speed boat ran inhere 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 myselfwonderin' haow in Sam Hill weuns kin beat 'em atall at their peskygames."
"Well, that's what we're here to put through," Jack stated, off-handlike; "and it seems that usually we do come out on top. But even if wesucceed in putting their freight air ships, and fast launches out ofbusiness, this game of ours can never be called complete until we'vemanaged to discover the location of that powerful sending radiostation--and blown it sky-high in the bargain."
"Bully boy!" cried Perk; "an' more power to aour elbow, is what I'masayin' 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 familiarsmoke cloud hovering over the city ahead. "If my last talk with our goodfriend tonight pans out as I feel pretty certain it must, we'll figureon making our big jump some time day after tomorrow. That will give usplenty of time to get everything aboard we expect to need; for once weleave 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 headapprovingly, as though he might be some species of war-horse scentingthe battle-smoke and acrid odor of burnt powder in the breeze, callinghim to action.
In due time the big amphibian dropped down on the field, and washurriedly conveyed to its hangar; the two airmen hovering around for abrief time examining certain parts of their ship, to make doubly certainthere was nothing amiss. Jack did not intend going out on the followingday, if things worked as he was now planning; they would fix up a lastday program, by following which everything necessary would be carriedout in the customary way of such careful adventurers as they had alwaysproven to be.
"Huh! been a right full day, I'd call hit," was Perk's last word, asthey started back to the hotel, so as to clean up for supper; afterwhich Jack meant to keep an engagement with Mr. Herriott, who would beapt 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 factsthat plug the vacant holes in my scheme; and I f
eel confident we'regetting close to the big finish."