He communicated with his companion, the useful earphones chancing to be in place--trust Perk for that.
"Somethin" doin" out there to the west, partner--look up to a higher ceilin" an" you"ll see it. Headin" to cross over our trail in the bargain, I guess."
"A crate, all right," commented Jack, whose quick eyesight had immediately picked up the moving object.
"Looks like it might a come all the way across the gulf--d"ye think from some Mexican port, Jack?"
"Like as not," a.s.sented the other. "These crooks make a start from any one of a score of jumping-off places, but always with a specified landing field ahead."
"Then you figger," continued Perk, "he might be one o" the gang, fetchin" c.h.i.n.ks across or mebbe precious stones, bought in Paris, and shipped to Mexico on the way to New York, eh, partner?"
"Chances are three to one that"s what it means," Jack told him.
Perk continued to wield his important binoculars and presently, when the lofty plane was pa.s.sing over, he stated his opinion.
""Taint _him_, anyway, that"s dead sure, Jack, I guess I ought to know a Lockheed-Vega crate, no matter how far away, or by what tricky moonlight either, "cause you see I used to run one o" that breed for nearly a year when I took a whirl at the air-mail business up north out o" Chicago till I had a bad crash an" quit cold."
"That settles it then, partner," said the pilot, still observing the speck swinging past out of the tail of his eye. "I hadn"t any idea it could be the same chap you had your little picnic with some hours back, for you told me he"d blown off toward the east."
"Jest what he did," replied the observer. "Ginger pop! but what wouldn"t I give right now to know jest whar that galoot was meanin" to drop down, once he gets over the land. How "bout that, old hoss?"
"It might help out considerable," admitted Jack although not as much interested as Perk considered he might be. "We"ll sift things out in good time, and for all we know, run across a few surprises in the bargain."
Perk studied that last part for a minute, feeling almost certain Jack had some deep meaning back of his words, but it proved too much for his capacity in the line of figuring out mysteries, and so he dropped it "like a hot potato," as he told himself.
The mysterious air voyager had by now disappeared entirely, although they might still have caught the throbbing of his madly working motor had it not been for their own engine kicking up so much racket, Jack not being inclined to make use of the capable silencer just then.
Perk had made up his mind that the unknown aviator, even if other than Oscar Gleeb, was undoubtedly working the same profitable line of business as the pilot of the Curtiss-Robin ship. So, too, Perk considered it worth while to try and figure out the exact course of the high flyer as he was probably making directly for his intended goal and this knowledge was likely to prove useful to them later on.
This he was able to accomplish. Working mental problems come easily to one who has played the part of a navigator aboard a modern galleon of the clouds.
"Huh!" grunted Perk after figuring out his problem twice and both times reaching the same conclusion, "the guy"s really striking in to mighty near the same point Jack"s meanin" to make and mebee now our lines might cross if we both kept on goin" long enough."
He studied this matter for some time, wondering if Jack also realized the fact and had kept silent about it for good and sufficient reasons.
It afforded the ambitious Perk considerable satisfaction to hug the idea to his heart that possibly the chance might be given Jack and himself to locate some of these land stations where all this flagrant smuggling business was going on--the prospect of their"s being the force to deal the outlaw organization a killing blow brought in its train the thrill he loved so well.
Then came the moment when Jack banked and changed his course radically, heading directly into the east where lay the peninsula of Ponce de Leon, seeker after the Spring of Eternal Youth, and finding instead, a land of flowers.
Perk knew what this evidently meant--that Jack had flown far enough up the west coast and was now bent on making for that inland sheet of fresh water he had mentioned to his comrade as a likely place for them to drop down and pa.s.s the balance of the night.
The uncertainty was keeping Perk keyed up to a high tension--something told him in no uncertain tones that Jack had a vastly more important reason for attaining that lake than the mere desire to avoid attracting attention--just what it might mean he could not guess, for when he attempted to solve the enigma he found himself floundering in a sh.o.r.eless sea of doubt and uncertainty that was baffling, to say the least.
Perk was mumbling to himself as if he might be on the verge of reaching some sort of decision. He bent forward several times as if about to make an important remark and on each occasion drew back, as though he could hardly decide how to approach the matter he had in his mind. Then he would chuckle, as if it might have its humorous side as well as a serious one.
Already had they reached a point where he could easily see the sh.o.r.e several thousand feet below and now Jack was sliding down as if bent on striking a ceiling that would be only a few hundred feet above the palmetto fringe Perk could distinguish running along the coast.
It seemed a fitting time for him to give Jack the start he contemplated and so, summoning his courage, Perk began to talk in as unconcerned a tone as possible.
"Partner, would you mind tellin" me what about this here Oswald Kearns?"
CHAPTER XVII
OKEECHOBEE THE MYSTERIOUS
"Say that again, Perk!" demanded the startled pilot, as though that apparently innocent question had given him a severe jolt.
"Oswald Kearns--kinder queer name, I kinder guess now, an" I"m wonderin"
if I ever heard it before--that"s all, Jack."
The pilot was busy with his work in handling the ship and therefore debarred from turning his head to look at his companion but at least he could put the astonishment he felt into words.
"So--you think that"s a queer name, do you? Well, I"m asking you again, where did you ever run across it--who ever spoke it in your hearing, Perk?"
"Why--er, guess it was on"y _you_, partner," came the hesitating reply.
"You don"t say?" gasped Jack, tremendously excited, "please tell me when that happened because I don"t remember doing such a thing, though I meant to carry out our partnership arrangement this very night when we had settled down and could have a nice quiet confab--go on, though, and say when I lifted the lid, and let you into this part of our big game, Perk."
"Huh! you talked in your sleep some, old hoss--first time ever I knew you to do sech a thing--said that name exactly three times, like it meant a heap in the bargain."
"You mean _tonight_ while I was picking up a few winks of sleep--is that a fact, Perk?"
"Sure thing, boss--course I knew somethin" must be pesterin" you like all get-out, so I made up my mind to ask you who that Oswald might be an" what we"d got to do with such a critter."
Then Jack laughed as the humorous side of his recent thrill had begun to grip him.
"Well, well, seems like I"ll soon have to put a padlock on my lips after this when I hit the hay. It"s a serious offence for a fellow in _our_ profession to give away his secrets like that! Never knew myself to be guilty of babbling that way before. Lucky you were the only one to hear me give the game away so recklessly. The joke is on me, partner."
"But say, Jack, whoever is this Kearns guy anyhow--I sure never heard his name before tonight an" I kinder got the idee in my head he must be some big-wig you ran up against when in Washington--somebody who had the orderin" around o" poor d.i.c.ks like me"nd you."
"That"s a far guess, brother," Jack told him, "for the fact of the matter is, this Oswald Kearns happens to be a certain party just now under suspicion as being the king-pin of these smugglers who"re giving Uncle Sam a run for his money down along this gulf coast!"
Perk took it with a little break, as though the information fairly staggered him, but he was quickly back again at his fly-casting--seeking information at the fount in which he had so much faith.
"You sent me into a reg"lar tail spin that time, Jack, but after tellin"
me so much, it"d be right cruel to keep me a"guessin" any longer."
"I don"t mean to keep you in the dark after this, Perk," he was told in jerky, broken sentences, as though Jack found it difficult to talk and pay the proper attention to what he was doing, for the amphibian had again commenced a steep dive, seeking a much lower alt.i.tude. "There are too many things connected with the story to try and spin it now--just hold your horses till we settle down on that lake, and you"ll get it--all I know, or suspect, anyhow. Just now I can only tell you that this Kearns is a most remarkable personage, a baffling mystery to the Department who"s outsmarted the whole Service and played his game of hide-and-seek before their very eyes--n.o.body so far has been able to pick up a shred of positive evidence that would convict him.
"Gosh, amighty, we"re flyin" high, buddy!" was what Perk exclaimed and immediately his wits went into a huddle. He must get busy and figure things out, just as football teams do when a change in signals becomes essential.
They had been pa.s.sing over the land for some little time and still Jack kept heading almost directly into the northeast. He knew just where he expected to make his goal, due to a close application to his charts and maps of the Florida region.
Debarred from fishing for information while the flight was on, Perk was forced to seek consolation in making good use of his binoculars, sweeping the heavens for signs of other suspicious planes or endeavoring to make out the character of the terrain over which they were speeding.