CHAPTER VIII
SHIPS PASSING IN THE NIGHT
They were by this time fully embarked on their night flight, Perkcontinued to watch the flash beacons as though they fascinated him, moreor less.
"What I'd call a big snap, if anybody asked me," he kept telling himselffrom time to time. "Huh! when I was an air-mail pilot fur a short time,things wasn't so dead easy--not a blamed light on earth or in the sky,nawthin' but black stuff every-which-way yeou looked. Naow the guy atthe stick jest keeps afollerin' a string o' blinkin' 'lectric lightsthat point aout his course fur him. Purty soft, I'd call it, an' nomistake either."
When they were passing directly over one beacon that kept blinking atthem apparently, with about ten seconds between each flash, he could byturning his head, see a far-away swirling gleam marking the light intheir rear; while dead ahead another, equally distant, kept up anenticing flash as though bent on assuring them everything was "allright."
"Jest one thing still wantin' to make these here air-mail boys righthappy," he told himself; "which is a ray to beat the danged fog thatmixes things up like fun. When some wise guy finds a way to send a rayo' light through the dirty stuff, so's yeou kin see a mile away as ifthe air was clear as a bell, then flyin' blind is agoin' to lose all itsterrors to the poor pilot. I shorely hopes to see the day that's done."
Later on Perk suddenly made a discovery that gave him a little freshthrill--there was some sort of queer light almost dead ahead, that hefancied moved more or less; at any rate it was steadily growingbrighter, beyond any question.
"Hot-diggetty-dig!" he muttered, still watching critically, as if hardlyable to make up his mind concerning its meaning. "Looks mighty like ashootin' star; but then I never did see one that didn't dart daown, likeit meant to bury itself in the earth. Must be a ship aheadin' thisway--mebbe a mail carrier goin' to Atlanta to land on the same CandlerField we jest quitted--yep, that's what it is, with a light in the cabinto keep the passengers from worryin'--sandbags ain't any too joyful whenthey got to sit in the dark, with the ship hittin' up eighty miles anhour."
Having thus settled the identity of the strange moving light, Perkhastened to inform his mate of the discovery he had made.
"Ship's agoin' to pass us in the night, buddy," he called through theaid of the indispensable earphones. "Yeou kin lamp the light straightahead naow."
"Yes, I'd already noticed the same, partner," came steady Jack's answer,as if he were not in the least disturbed, or excited by the occurrence.
"Gee whiz! but I shore hopes we doant meet head on, an' crash," venturedPerk, really to coax his chum to express an opinion, and thus reassurehim.
"No danger of that happening, old scout!" snapped Jack; "but I'll veeroff to starboard a bit, to make doubly sure against a possiblecollision. Strike up our cabin light, boy, so's to put them on theirguard."
Of course they could not catch the slightest sound to corroborate theiropinion, since their own ship was making so much racket. The light camecloser and closer; at the same time Jack felt positive the other aerialcraft must be following his own tactics looking to safety, and steeringsomewhat to the right, as discretion demanded.
Perk had snatched up a kerosene lantern and hastily lighted the wick.This he now moved up and down; then swung the same completely around hishead, as though he thus meant to give the other pilot a signal in theline of fellowship and aerial courtesy.
Thus the two ships passed not three hundred feet apart, yet only vaguelyseen by watchful eyes. Then they were swallowed up in the gloom of thenight, the moon being under a passing cloud at the time.
"Fancy aour meetin' in space," Perk was saying, as though rather awed bysuch a circumstance; "it couldn't happen again in a month o' blue moons,aour comin' to grips thisaway, with millions o' miles all 'raound us,an' nawthin' but chance to guide both pilots."
"You're on the wrong track again, partner," Jack hastened to tell him."Chance had little to do with this meeting; but that chain of brilliantflash beacons was wholly responsible. Just like two trains passing on adouble-track railroad line--both airships were following the same markedcourse, and couldn't hardly miss meeting each other. In these latterdays flying has become so systematized that the element of chance hasbeen almost wholly eliminated from the game."
That remark kept Perk silent for some little time, the subject thusbrought up was so vast, so filled with tremendous possibilities, hefound himself wrestling with it as the minutes crept on.
So, too the night was passing by degrees, with their reliable Fokkerkeeping steadily on its way, putting miles after miles in their wake.Perk found himself growing more and more anxious for the first streak ofcoming dawn to show itself far off in the east, where the sun must beclimbing toward the unseen horizon, and daylight making ready todisperse the cohorts of night.
Still it was always possible for him to make out the next beacon, withthe aid of his binoculars, if he happened to be using them, as was oftenthe case.
An hour and more after their "rubbing elbows" (as Perk termed it,) withthe south-bound air-mail plane, once more Perk caught a suggestive beamof light ahead that told of yet another aircraft afloat, and advancingswiftly toward them, only at a much lower altitude.
"Naow I wonder who _that_ guy kin be," he mused, while watching thelight grow steadily larger. "Some kinder big ship in the bargain; buthardly one o' the mail line, 'cause they doant run 'em in doubles thesame way. Hi! there, partner, we got a second neighbor, agoin' to passunder us in a minit er so. Jest a bit to the left--no danger o' bangin'noses this time, seems like. Gettin' to be thickly populated, as the olepioneer settler said when a new fambly moved in 'baout ten mile off.Mebbe we'll live to see the day when the air o' night'll be studded withmovin' lights thick as the stars be--looks thataways to me, anyhaow."
Again he signaled his good wishes with his lantern, showing as much gleeas a schoolboy whirling around his first fire spitting Roman candle, onthe night of the Glorious Fourth.
"Gee whiz! looky, partner--they're answerin' me, as shore's yeou'reborn! This is gettin' somewhere, I'd say; an' I'd give thirty cents toknow who that guy might be."
"Just as well there's no way to exchange cards," sensible Jack told theexcited one. "Never forget for a minute, partner, who and what we are;and how it's a prime part of this business to keep our light hiddenunder a bushel right along. Others flying for sport, or carrying on incommerce, may get a thrill from exchanging names, and hobnobbing witheach other; but all that stuff is strictly taboo with men of the SecretService."
"Squelched again!" Perk told himself, with one of his chuckles; "an'jest as always happens, Jack, he's in the right--I'm forgettin' most toooften what goes to make up a successful officer of the Government,'specially in aour line o' trade. Guess--I mean I reckons as haow I'llhave to subside, and take it aout in thinkin'."
Perk was certain they must have long since passed over the easternextremity of Georgia, and were even then swinging along with SouthCarolina soil beneath them. Yes, and he began to figure that he coulddetect the faintest possible rim of light commencing to show up far offto the east, as though dawn could not be far away.
"Huh! aint agoin' to be many more o' them bully flash beacons lightin'us on aour course," he was telling himself. "Chances air we'll bebustlin' over aour objective right soon; when it's goodbye to theair-mail route, an' us a turnin' aour noses near due south, headin' fo'Charleston on the seaboard, when the real fun is slated to begin. Caintcome any too quick fo' a boob that answers to the name o' Gabe Perkiser.Yeah! that line is gettin' some broader, right along, which tells thestory as plain as print."
Shortly afterwards he picked up a myriad of gleaming lights, thatproclaimed the presence of a city of some magnitude; evidently the firstsector of their flight had been reached, with a change in their courseindicated.