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CHAPTER VI
PARACHUTE JUMPERS
Just then Jack hurriedly banked, and swung around as though to double back on their late course. This of course told Perk the pilot must be already aware of the terrible tragedy that was being enacted close at hand, and meant to see its finish with his own eyes.
With the abrupt change in their course he was in time to catch a glimpse of the flaming object still spiraling earthwards, a billow of fire that glowed suggestively in the darkness.
Then far below it seemed to strike the ground – they heard no sound whatever, but the fire became stationary; although increasing in fury, since the wind created by its passage no longer whipped the devouring flames. Evidently by the time the conflagration stopped for want of further material on which to feed, nothing inflammable would be left of the once haughty little Ryan masterpiece save the engine, and other metal parts.
“What’s the big idea, old hoss?”
Perk asked this as a leader, wishing to get a better grip on his own nerves, since they had been dreadfully shocked at the dire result of his random shot.
“Going to circle around a few times, and drop down a bit,” came the illuminating reply; “though I reckon it’s no use, since nothing could live in all that awful blast.”
“Mebbe not, Jack,” remarked Perk, a bit cheerily; “but there’s a fair chance neither o’ them guys got snagged in the flash o’ that gas.”
“See here, Perk, have you some foundation for saying that?” demanded the other, eagerly.
“Sure – they jumped all right, boss,” Perk told him.
“You saw them do it then, did you, boy?” continued Jack.
“They bailed out okay – I saw two take the jump right after the first flash came – went down like plummets in the bargain – smart lads those guys are, I’m tellin’ you, partner.”
No doubt Jack was glad to hear this bit of news, for it had filled him with horror to realize that in order to escape they had been compelled to ruthlessly take human life. He was much younger than Perk, veteran of the World War, who had grown more or less hardened to such happenings when staking his own life against that of a tricky German air pilot.
“Still goin’ down, are you?” asked Perk shortly afterwards, on finding that they were still swinging around in a wide circle, that burning pyre far below being the hub of the wheel of which their boat was the outer tire.
“Might as well,” came the ready answer, showing that Jack had made up his mind hurriedly.
“Guess now they’ll get down somehow, boss; a whole lot depends on what kind o’ landin’ they’ll be able to make – if its rocks, or trees, they got to strike it’s apt to be some hard sleddin’ for the boys. Say, ’taint possible now you’re fixin’ to try an’ lend ’em a helpin’ hand? I’d hate to know they’d been wiped off the map in that hot fire; but somehow I don’t feel like playin’ the part o’ the Good Samaritan to such man devils as them two.”
“No danger of my trying to make a landing where the chances are ten to one it just can’t be done,” explained Jack, seeing that his companion was almost ready to mutiny if any such mad proceeding were contemplated. “I’d just feel better if I knew they’d reached ground okay; then we could keep on our way, and it’d be up to them to get out of the scrape.”
“Huh! I get you, partner,” grunted the relieved Perk. “Don’t think I’m bitter about the thing, ’cause they’re sure hot stuff all right; but I’m a bit slow to accept that forgive and forget stuff, specially after any guy’s tried his level best to gimme a dirty deal.”
“We’ll try the thing out while on the job,” Jack announced. “Our own wonderful escape from meeting just that same kind of fate makes me kind of soft. Perhaps we’ll not be able to learn a single thing; you know how it often is when you’ve finally struck ground after quitting the ship by the chute route – all out of breath – sometimes knocked up a bit, if you escape broken bones – not any shape to shout, or do anything but just lie there, and suck in the air in big gasps.”
“Yeah, that’s right for you, old hoss,” Perk readily agreed. “Me, I once got a collar bone smashed that way. No harm in our makin’ a few swings around these diggin’s ’fore we put out for Orleans. That fire keeps burnin’ like things they got sprinkled right well with the juice when the tank blew up. Go to it, Jack, just as you please, never mindin’ a few squeals from a hard-boiled guy like Perk Perkiser.”
“I’m going to shut down on the engine, and take a little glide, so we can pick up anything like a yell,” announced the pilot a minute later.
“Go to it – duck then, boy!” snapped Perk, as he temporarily relieved himself of his ear-phones in order to catch anything bordering on a shout from the ground below.
The simple expedient was carried out successfully, and when once again they leveled out, to continue circling, Jack asked eagerly:
“Get anything, Perk?”
“Not a bleat, partner,” replied the other, who had hurriedly held his earphones in position so as to cover the emergency.
“Sorry for that, but we’ll try a couple more times before calling it all off,” suggested Jack, who could be more or less persistent when the occasion arose for such action, though never carrying it so far as to be reckless.
So a dozen seconds or so afterwards he again gave warning that it was time for another drop of a few hundred feet – not that they meant to take any chances by getting too close to the unknown terrain lying in the pitch blackness under the flying ship; but simply to be able to listen with the horrid clamor of the bustling engine momentarily stilled.
No better success followed this second maneuvre – all was deathly silent around, above, below, as though never a solitary living human being existed within miles of the spot where the destruction of the Ryan monoplane had taken place.
“We’ll give a third and last try,” was Jack’s announced decision, to which Perk added:
“Three times, and batter’s out – by then I rather guess we’ll be down close enough to the solid ground to make another drop dangerous. Either way I’m satisfied we’ve done the right thing, old hoss. Suit yourself when you see fit to coast,” whereupon he once more denuded his ears of the exceedingly useful and really indispensable phone harness, to await the occasion of the last try in the line of an aviator’s duty.
“How about it, Perk? – get a whisper?”
They had completed the glide, and were once more on a level course, with Jack even turning the nose of the ship a bit heavenward; since neither of them knew what the nature of the ground below must be – whether some hill lay directly ahead, against which they might smash for a complete wipeout.
“Huh! a heap more’n that, partner!” came the triumphant reply. “Heard a shout, an’ then another some distance off – struck me both jumpers had lit okay, and were tryin’ to communicate, so’s to get together again. Guess things ain’t so bad after all with them guys, an’ we c’n be movin’ on our way without botherin’ any more ’bout their safety. Some two-legged varmints seem to be watched over by Old Satan hisself, they bein’ that venomous, and evil-minded.”
Jack made no rejoinder to this remark, tinged with bitterness as it was, only pointed the nose of his craft upward, and started to spiral for altitude. Undoubtedly he was feeling greatly relieved because of their having escaped so miraculously from the hovering peril; and best of all managed to turn the tables on those who would have encompassed their destruction just in order to defend the lawless game in which they were engaged in connection with Slippery Slim.
Perk must have been doing a little hard thinking as the time passed and they raced on their way, for later on he started to speak; and as usual his line of chatter told that he was seeking information, trying to find a solution of certain exasperating puzzles that were “twisting his intellects,” as he himself described matters.
“Things kind o’ got me goofy, partner, an’ I’d like you to raise the curtain some, if so be you feel so bent. First place I guess it goes without questionin’ that these huskies must be in cohunks with that there big gun, Slippery Slim Garrabrant?”
“Oh! that’s a dead certainty – who else would have any reason for waylaying us in Atlanta, and setting up this trap for us to fall into?”
“Shucks! then it stands to reason, boss, he’s got means for findin’ out what the Secret Service aims to do; an’ so has been able to play the boys for suckers every time they set out to lay him by the heels, eh, Jack, old hoss?”
“That’s past history, Perk; even the Big Boss got wise to it, and tried everything possible to learn where the great leak happened; but our experience proves they haven’t discovered it so far. I’m making up my mind that the closer we draw to the headquarters of this rotten clique of crime, where they make the bogus long-green that’s been flooding the whole West for a year and more, why, the harder our job is bound to be.”
“Which tickles me a heap, boy – I’m just yearnin’ for comin’ to grips with that gazaboo o’ a Slim; and now we’re on to the job I’ll never be happy ’till he’s on his way to that big Government pen we glimpsed in Atlanta, where some other lads we helped to pinch are doin’ time.”
“Well, if you keep on as you’ve started, Perk, we’ll flatten the whole gang like pancakes – they’ve stacked up against a new sort of revenue dog when they started a shooter of your calibre on the trail. First you smashed their searchlight, and then sent a chuck of lead into the gas tank that broke up the game. That’s the kind of a pinch hitter you are, partner; and right now I want to congratulate you on such dandy marksmanship.”
“Lay off that stuff, Jack – nothin’ but great luck fetched the bacon home for this lad. But me, I’m shakin’ hands with myself ’cause I had that hunch a bear gun mightn’t be such a bad thing to tote along on a trip that’s goin’ to carry us across the border, an’ into Old Mex, like as not; where the greasers are sometimes tough nuts an’ hard to handle they tell me. ’Spose we’ll run across them two hill billies again, partner?”
“Wouldn’t surprise me a bit if we did,” replied the pilot, leveling off at a three thousand foot ceiling, and still heading due southwest. “Like as not they’ve got plenty of ready cash along; and after having been so cleverly upset in their calculations, due to your beating them silly with a barrage of hot lead, they’ll be hot to wipe out their disgrace. Oh! yes, we’re going to run up against that foxey pair again before the book is closed for keeps.”
CHAPTER VII
STRIKING THE FOG BELT
With the stars shining brightly above them, and a moon just past its full climbing the eastern heavens, having dissipated the darkness of the earlier part of the night, Jack and his fellow voyager continued plunging along in a very satisfactory fashion, having no reason for feeling further concern regarding the peril to which they had been so lately subjected.
But things were not destined to continue so comfortably for the two adventurers, it seemed. Perk was just congratulating himself for about the fourth time at having such a comfortable flight, when he sat up and took notice of the fact that those heavenly bodies were beginning to look exceedingly hazy.
“Danged shame, that’s what, to spoil such a dandy night!” he muttered.
“What ails you now?” demanded Jack, on hearing the other make this little remark that bespoke exasperation at least; “another boat on our tail?”
“Well, I guess not just now,” replied Perk, scoffingly; “one was more’n enough for a single jump. But we’re agoin’ to run into a pesky fog belt, sure as you’re born, old hoss!”
“That all?” laughed the other, who apparently saw nothing of particular consequence about such a common happening; “it may perhaps manage to slow us down more or less; but what does that matter, when we’ve got time to burn. The Big Boss told us, remember, not to hurry things at all – plenty of time, oodles of money, and any backing we chose to call for in the way of a new boat, or more helpers. We should worry, old scout!”
“’Tain’t that in peticular Jack,” complained the other; “but of all things a sky detective’s got to run smack up against, fog’s the one I despise most. It’s got me in bad more’n a few times, so I’ve grown to look on the peasoup stuff like it was my – er, what-dye-call it – Nebraska, no, I mean Nemesis.”
“Yes, now you mention it, Perk, I remember you telling me something about that strange feeling you have creep over you. No need for you to apologize – in my knocking around among airmen I’ve found that often even the most daring and reckless in the bunch had some kind of a weakness, if only you looked far enough under the surface; just as sometimes you’ll find a boasting bully actually afraid of his little wife at home, who’s smacked him with her handy rolling pin many a time.”
“Huh! wasn’t I a canvas man ’long with a travelin’ circus a wheen o’ years ago, an’ didn’t I see the biggest elephant in captivity rear up on his hind legs, lift his trunk sky-high in the air, an’ squeal like fun just when a little half grown mouse happened to run along near his alley. Well, I’m the tusker, an’ fog is the mouse, as you might say – we never do get on well as a combine. Hope it hugs the ground, an’ leaves us a clear track up among the clouds I c’n see creepin’ up ahead yonder.”
“Doesn’t bother me a whit, partner; don’t forget we’ve got that new radio beacon aboard to try out; and if it’s as clever as I’ve heard tell it’ll carry us along our route to Orleans through the thickest nest of fog anybody ever stacked up against. Naturally we can’t expect to get the full benefit of its capacity to hold a speeding plane on its true course; because the invention’s hardly more than half baked up to now; but I set it according to directions, and if at any time we begin to slide off our course the light that springs up is bound to give warning.”
“A bully good layout I’d say, if it c’n do what they claim,” ventured Perk, who undoubtedly had read certain things concerning the new invention, and was eager to learn just how it would pan out. “You showed a level head, partner, when you decided to take the offer o’ that gent in Atlanta, and try the thing out. Guess, then, I needn’t bother my head ’bout gettin’ astray; if things keep bein’ invented it ain’t goin’ to be very long till a pilot’ll get slapped good an’ hard if he misses runnin’ on a straight line, or even veers from his proper course in a great big blow.”
“We’re living in a machine age, Perk, and every day things are heading that way on the run – electric helps in kitchen, factory, and even aboard our air cruisers. While the brainwork and strain grow harder the actual manual labor is lessened all the time. But as you say it’s getting a bit hazy, and chances are we’re in for a spell of blue fog.”
Ten minutes afterwards there could not be the least doubt concerning that fact, for by degrees even the stars vanished from view, ditto the gorgeous round moon. Still, since the sky remained brighter in the east, it was not at all difficult to tell where the fair mistress of the Southern night had hidden her face behind the opaque veil.
Jack was now flying by instruments alone, since never a thing could be seen by the keenest eye above, below – they seemed to be hung in unlimited space; but pushing along with considerable speed just the same, bound for the distant city on the vast Mississippi, situated not so very far from its delta.
Thus passed a full hour.
Suddenly Perk saw a small light spring into view on one side of the plane, and it certainly electrified him considerably.
“Hi! there, partner, we’re off our track – shifted to the east, seems like, unless I’m away wrong in sizin’ things up ’cordin’ to Hoyle. Got to swing her to the larboard-watch side, I kinder guess – how ’bout that, boss?”
“You hit it that time, Perk, and here she goes to climb back to our true course. Worked just as we figured it would, and put us wise to a fact we’d hardly have picked up in any other way. I reckon now this same radio beacon’s bound to turn out a great help to the poor badgered air pilot, flying blind when fog hides the ground beacons, and he gets no aid from the heavens above.”
“I’ll say it’s the best thing I’ve struck for a long time,” affirmed the delighted Perk. “There she goes – the glim I mean – closed shop, havin’ ’complished the business set for her; showing we must have struck our real course again.”
“Easy money,” laughed Jack, just as well satisfied. “Makes a fellow sit up and try to guess what the next big idea connected with aviation will prove to be; doesn’t seem to be any limit to the dazzling discoveries these scientific chaps’ll turn out.”
“Just so, partner – like that big chute they’re trying out, which they claim will keep any plane from crashing – if the engine goes dead all you got to do is to press a little button, and when the drop comes open goes the monster umbrella, able to hold you and the crate suspended in the air, to gradually fall to the earth like the colored balls from a bursted skyrocket. Great stunt that, an’ I’m livin’ in hopes it’ll be my luck to some day find myself aboard a ship that’s equipped with such a giant chute, an’ have the glorious experience of seeing the thing work.”
Jack seemed to consider it the part of wisdom to pull up more or less, as they were in no hurry, and could drop down on the aviation field at New Orleans by dawn, even though they concluded to just “loaf along.” Disliking anything pertaining to fog Perk naturally said nothing to hint at a desire for further speed; besides his own good sense told him that what his mate had just said with regard to no necessity existing for haste, was sound logic, and a due regard for “safety first.”
So the time slipped away, with midnight finding them past the meridian of their projected flight. Perk had long since subsided and seemed content to sit there in the double cockpit, letting his thoughts roam back to the exciting developments of the earlier night.
Years had elapsed since last he watched a doomed plane writhing and twisting in its death agonies, with the flames wrapping it in an envelope – a blazing coffin speeding headlong to a final crash; and here, strange to say, after all that time intervening he had again passed through a similar experience. Now that he had an opportunity to calmly review the happening, Perk admitted he was pleased to know the two occupants of the Ryan cockpit had apparently escaped a miserable fate that must have been laid at his door.
Two A. M. and all’s well!
Perk figured that when a few more times sixty minutes had passed it would be time for them to catch a first glimpse of the great rolling turgid stream that could, when the heavy rains united with the melting snows up in the mountains of the Far West, create vast floods that placed much of the low country along the river under many feet of water. It had been a long time since last Perk had set eyes on the Mississippi, and hence he was considerably worked up over the prospect of soon glimpsing the mighty flood.
CHAPTER VIII
NEW ORLEANS – FIRST STOP
“There she rolls, Jack, old boy – the greatest stream in the whole U.S.A. – I swan if she don’t look just as fine as when I glimpsed her for the first time many years ago!”
That was Perk’s tribute on beholding the Lower Mississippi perhaps thirty miles above New Orleans; he displayed almost as much enthusiasm as those early discoverers did centuries back, when their distended eyes took in the mighty sweep of the flood rolling down toward its junction with the Mexican Gulf.
It was early dawn, and the fog bank had been dissipated by a fresh breeze acting as advance courier to the rising of the sun. Jack, looking toward the southwest could also see the object of his companion’s exultation, and undoubtedly felt some of the same pleasure.
“When it gets a bit lighter we’ll have a far distant view of the city, with its smoke cloud hovering over it,” he remarked, knowing that soft coal and southern pine as used for fuel in the Fall and Winter seasons always caused something of a pall to mark the site of the river metropolis.
Perk reached around, and drew forth a case that on being opened disclosed a pair of pretty decent binoculars, with which they had been fitted out by the Washington authorities before starting on this particular man-hunt, with an idea that they might prove most useful sooner or later.
After clapping these to his eyes Perk announced that he could easily pick up the goal of their flight from Candler Field; although the smoke did act as a screen, through which it was not possible to see with certainty.
Jack was now bringing out all the reserve speed of their ship – it was of some consequence that they make a landing as early as possible, since he had no desire to attract undue attention, and possibly have inquisitive newspaper reporters to be asking pertinent questions as to whence they came, what their identities might be when at home, and also concerning the object of their coming to New Orleans. Secrecy was the foundation on which they meant to build their plans; and from their previous experience with those dare devils in the employ of Slippery Slim, too much care could not be employed in order to mask their batteries.
So, too, as they approached the city Jack was dropping down to lower levels; while on his part Perk skimmed the whole scene, looking for the airport they knew to be somewhere within reach of their vision.
This being presently located he called his chum’s attention to the open field, and in almost no time they were circling it, looking for the best place to land.
Early though it was there were moving figures circulating around, while some sort of ship was coming in from over the river – possibly one of the air mail carriers from a distant station, it might be many hundred miles away, fetching Uncle Sam’s important letter sacks, and worthwhile express matter, at treble the speed that the fastest train could muster.
The landing was effected without the slightest difficulty, and hardly had their boat come to a stop than a number of persons, most of them connected with the ground force of mechanicians and hostlers, surrounded the incoming craft, paying but scant attention to the air mail, which dropped down almost at the same moment – that was a daily happening, a following out of a regular schedule, to which they had become accustomed; while the arrival of a mysterious plane might stand for almost anything.
“Hold fast, Perk!” said Jack, as he took off his headphones, and raising his voice to almost a shout, so deaf did he appear after a whole night’s run; “don’t tumble out yet; and keep a muffler on your gab, for we’ve got to let ’em take it out in guessing. I’ll soon see if the party we’re expecting to meet is on hand.”
He still kept his helmet and goggles in position as he thrust his head out of the cockpit, and raising his right hand with two fingers extended, made a species of salute. A stout man, with a very red face, and an air of importance, immediately pushed through the gathering crowd, and answered Jack’s signal with a similar sweep of his hand.
“It’s okay, Perk – that’s our party, and he’s been watching for us, showing he had my wire last evening. Get a move on, and we’ll soon be doubling our legs under a breakfast table.”
“Glory be! but that will be a joy to me, old hoss!” Perk exclaimed; “’cause I’m as hungry as a wolf, an’ the smell o’ coffee is apt to set me wild. Go to it, partner.”
Jack was paying no attention to these vaporings, since it was a common occurrence to have old Perk declare the bottom of his stomach was in danger of falling out – he had met the red-faced gentleman and they were shaking hands as they exchanged a few words.
“It’s all fixed, comrade,” he said to Perk over his shoulder, mentioning no names lest suspicious ears catch them, and thus have a clue as to their identity; “we’ll get a few of these boys to run our boat into a hangar close by, which is waiting for us, and then cut out for the city – and grub.”
This being speedily carried out, with the doors fastened securely, and the two flyers began to hastily divest themselves of their working “duds.” Before ten minutes had passed they were on their way in a taxi the gentleman friend had brought out, with Jack and their host talking at a great rate; while as for Perk he was looking out, and finding more or less enjoyment in seeing new and novel sights along the road.
Perk having been well coached as to the necessity for caution, made it a practice to snatch an occasional glance in their rear, looking for any signs to indicate that their car was being trailed; but nothing at all suspicious came to his attention.
Meantime Jack had learned that their new friend (whose name he already knew to be Mr. Adkins) was connected with the Administration forces of the United States District Attorney, having offices in the Government building – that he had been secretly advised of their coming days before receiving Jack’s wire; and was ready to give them all the information possible concerning what had been learned in connection with the wholesale operations of the man they had been sent out to cage, so as to effectually remove the greatest menace that had threatened business men of the Southwest in a decade.
In due time he would post them regarding all these important facts; meanwhile they could take things easy, for there was no hurry, and the game was of too much importance to allow lax methods. When they got good and ready they could make a start, and after that everything must depend on their ability to beat Slippery Slim at his favorite game of “dog eat dog.”
He steered his guests to a certain restaurant where he knew they could be well taken care of, and which turned out to be close to the hotel at which they booked under fictitious names. Here Perk was given the privilege of ordering just what he desired along the line of rashers of bacon and fried eggs; cornbread with syrup; several cups of coffee taken black; and to top off with, a Havana cigar such as he was not accustomed to smoking, being addicted to the more friendly pipe habit.
There was no talk of shop while they partook of breakfast; such business as they had to transact was of too delicate a nature to be discussed in a public place, where strangers would be coming and going, and spying eyes might be on them every minute of the time.
Later they gathered in the room at the hotel where, behind closed and locked doors they felt free to confer in lowered tones.
Much had to be told, and numerous thrilling accounts brought out connected with adventures experienced by other Secret Service men in their efforts to round up the notorious gang – all of which had resulted in absolute defeat for the Government agents.
Shrewd men some of these parties undoubtedly were, with a record of numerous famous cases successfully carried through; but somehow when they found themselves up against Slippery Slim Garrabrant they sooner or later fell down on the job, and had to be recalled.
In fact, it was disclosed to Jack and his pal, two different agents were never again heard from, after secret code messages had been received from them to the effect that they were even then getting very close to a great discovery that must end in the arrest of the malefactor – a dead silence that had never been broken seemed to signify that they must have fallen into some sort of fiendish trap, possibly meeting with a gruesome fate that would be forever shrouded in blank mystery.
Mr. Adkins, watching closely as he narrated these uncomfortable facts, was pleased to see that neither of his interested auditors displayed the least sign of being disturbed, showing that they had long since discounted everything along this line.
