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CHAPTER XXI
All on a Diet

“Steady then, boy – we mustn’t give them a chance to glimpse anything moving up here, or the fat’ll be in the fire. A step at a time, and mighty slow at that!” Jack warned the hasty Perk.

The sun lay low toward the western horizon, as seen through a gap in the mighty snow-capped mountains lying in that quarter. It happened that there was a line of scrub growing close to the edge of the cliff; and which the quick-witted Jack saw would prove a very effective screen for them to hide back of.

Down on hands and knees they dropped, to begin crawling inch by inch toward their objective. A cat creeping up on a sparrow, or a fat robin, could not have displayed a greater amount of sagacity and caution that those two man-hunters exhibited then and there – every little move was a gem; and Perk, keeping close to the heels of his leader, was fain to thrill with admiration over the wonderful skill shown by Jack in making this advance.

By slow degrees they opened up an amazing vista as they drew closer to the brink of the cliff – it was a spectacle such as neither of them had ever laid eyes on during their entire past life – that glorious green valley lying like an oasis amidst grim mountain ranges, making the contrast clean-cut, and magnificent indeed.

Later on no doubt Jack would drink the scene in with avidity, since he was a great lover of the picturesque; but at that particular moment there happened to be other things demanding their sole attention.

The valley itself was the only frame that surrounded the picture most interesting to their minds. Those who had gathered under the effective leadership of the man whom they had been credited with sending to the Federal penitentiary not so many moons back, were the objects of their dangerous journey into these untracked wilds; and they were most eager to learn just how they were living in their hidden retreat – also what their mode of slipping out to make a bold stroke, and then disappear again most mysteriously, might be.

First the further end of the valley came under their view, but with never a moving figure, nor yet any sign of huts or tents to indicate the presence of human beings.

By slow degrees they widened their line of observation – objects closer at hand began to be noticeable, and finally they discovered the first shack. It was only a place used as a shelter for animals, which would indicate that they had a herd of ponies in the valley, where doubtless there would be found plenty of grass for grazing, even throughout the severe winter season.

Jack’s first impression ran along the line of what a wonderful prize such a rare mountain retreat must some day prove for cattle, driven from the open range by the coming of cold, and heavy snows.

Ah! a second structure now bobbed up; but like the other it had the look of a rough shelter unsuited for human use. Others by degrees came along, and Jack counted nearly a dozen up to the time he struck quite a commodious log cabin, looking like some he had seen in times gone by when in a logging camp in Michigan, where a bunch of loggers cutting timber during the winter, had to be kept warm when feeding.

Men were clustered around this structure, some lying on the ground, while others sauntered about, evidently talking and joking; although any sounds they might be making came but faintly to the strained hearing of the watchers up on the heights, so great was the distance separating them.

“Hot-diggetty-dig! thar they be, partner, the hull kittin’ crew,” Perk ventured to say, softly; for as yet they did not know whether a lookout or vidette was kept posted, where he could have a range of vision covering many miles out over the rock strewn country toward the east and south.

“Just a round dozen in sight,” muttered Jack, who was already using the binoculars; “but at that there might be as many more in the huts and shacks. Away off there to the north, where the grass looks greenest I can see a small herd of ponies feeding; remember, Perk, some of those accounts hinted that in all probability they conducted their raids on horseback, and faded away again completely after striking.”

“Huh! seems like they got a reg’lar system organized,” grunted the observant Perk, staring off to the section where Jack indicated.

“That’s all the work of our old friend, Slippery Slim,” he was told in terms that would not admit of any denial; “he’s shown in his past jobs he’s a wonderful organizer – if he had been straight, and in the army, his genius might have pushed him far up the ladder; as it is he’s only been able to prove one of the nastiest thorns in the flesh the Government ever tackled.”

“Then I kinder guess it’ll be a relief if we carry this job through to a finish, and get the critter landed for keeps back where his wings’ll be fair clipped.”

“You said it, Perk.”

Jack still held on to the glasses, finding it so interesting trying to locate this thing and that; but then Perk had most astonishingly keen eyesight, and could pick up considerable information unaided. He was accustomed to staring into dim far-off spaces when aloft, which added to his ability in that line.

Lower dropped the sun.

Presently the shadows would come trooping out of their hiding-places, where they holed during daytimes. Jack realized that, shut in as the valley was by those beetling cliffs, the twilight must be already falling down yonder – yes, he could notice the failing light, and inside of a brief time darkness must wrap everything in its dark folds, save where possibly some fire continued to burn, and dispel the gloom.

“I figure that they do most if not all of their cooking inside of that long log cabin, and eat there to boot,” he explained to his companion, eagerly listening.

“More organization stuff, eh?” grunted Perk; “then like as not they even got some kinder cook, or chef, to handle the pots an’ pans. Flyin’ high, I’d call it, partner – alivin’ off the fat o’ the land mebbe.”

“Why not, when they’ve pulled off some mighty big shake-downs during the last few months, and must have raked in a heap of dough? With the coin you can buy all sorts of good things to eat; and don’t forget how they’ve got a special delivery ship, that is able to tote half a ton or more of freight.”

“Whew! jest to think o’ that,” breathed Perk, making a face as if some extremely painful thought had flashed through his excited brain; “an’ heow we on’y got four slim sandwiches to fill up on – hardly a bite apiece.”

“Tough luck, that’s right, boy,” said Jack, cheerily; “but such old campaigners as we are shouldn’t squeal because we miss a few meals. Easy enough to make up for lost grub when we’re all cleaned up, and sitting pretty. Besides, just as like as not I’m going to ask you to trot back to our ship in the morning, if you’re agreeable.”

“Huh! surely not to stay, while yeou’re up here by yeour lonely – don’t tell me that, Jack, ole pard.”

“Hardly, buddy; I’ll need your help too much to divide our forces in front of the enemy, or when crossing a stream, which is a bad time, they say, to change horses. I meant that you could make up a big bundle of grub, and tote it along; for there’s no telling how much time we’re going to squander, loafing up on this roost, and watching how things go.”

“Gosh! that’s different, partner; of course I’d be glad to slide daown there, take a peek at our boat, load up with some stuff, an’ make it back here ’bout middle o’ the afternoon – if I’m lucky.”

“Well, you’ve just got to be lucky, and not spill the beans, that’s a foregone conclusion, Perk. Every foot of the way you must keep on the alert, and take no chances of discovery. But it’s getting so dark down in the valley we might as well shut up shop for the present.”

“Meanin’ it’s the end o’ a perfect day, eh, what?” asked Perk, as he started to “back water,” and push away from the screen of scrub bushes.

“Well, we’ve accomplished a few things worth remembering, so the time hasn’t been exactly wasted, Perk. But the main job still lies ahead of us, remember, brother. It’s going to be no small job either, to separate that slick rascal from the balance of the gang, and carry him off in our airship, without having to fight a regular battle with the mob.”

Perk scratched an ear, and then remarked softly:

“It never could be done if left to a lad built like me, I’m tellin’ yeou, my boy – couldn’t make the grade, which is a fack. Some galoots air built that way, yeou savvy? But, so long as I got a pal to lean on I aint worrin’ ’baout not bringin’ home the bacon, not me.”

“None of that baloney, Perk.”

They continued to back away until Jack decided they were far enough distant from that dreadful brink of the mighty cliff, to avoid any possibility of falling over if by chance they “walked in their sleep,” as Perk had been known to occasionally do, when something was weighing heavily on his mind.

“Let’s have those last few sandwiches that you held out at lunchtime,” Jack remarked, settling down to make himself as comfortable as the conditions allowed. “Good thing too, you were so thoughtful, since only for that we’d have gone to sleep with empty stomachs, which is rather hard on a fellow as fond of chow as some one I know.”

“I’m guilty, all right, Jack – eatin’s one o’ my shortcomin’s for a fack – allers did count the hours ’til the horn’d blow fur dinner-time – age haint changed little Gabe Perkiser a whit, an’ never will, I kinder spect. Take yeour pick – jest two each, an’ haow I wish I’d a told him to make ’em double thick – why, dang it they on’y be a couple o’ bites each, sech bites as I take.”

“Half a loaf’s a lot better than no bread – be philosophical, buddy, and as you munch your fodder keep thinking what you’re going to do punishing the grub when the time of plenty rolls along, which it surely will do in good time.”

They sat there exchanging remarks in cautious tones, and making the slender allotment of food go just as far as possible – as might a child nibbling all around the sugar coating on the top of his cake, “keeping the best for the last.”

“Goin’ to be some cold, in the bargain, seems like,” suggested Perk, whose mind always ran to picking out the thorny parts, and forgetting the pleasant ones lying in wait for them later on.

“Oh! well, we ought to know what cold stuff means, after being miles high so many hours at a time, and in an open cockpit at that, remember, Perk. What can’t be cured must be endured – there’s going to be a lot of good times when we’ve wound up this game for keeps, skip back to old San Diego, and that jolly little restaurant we know.”

“Yeah! providin’ we aint knocked aout o’ the runnin’ ’fore that time, ole hoss,” grumbled Perk.

CHAPTER XXII
The Man with the Cook’s Cap

Somehow Perk’s mind seemed to dwell most persistently on their lack of a comfortable fire. Many a time he must have been in much sore need of warmth than on the present occasion, and could “grin and bear it.” He wondered himself at his frequent grumbling, and at one time even openly confessed to Jack, as though his guilty conscience had begun to reprove him.

“Doant jest know what ails me, partner, to kick up sech a big row over standin’ things – must be I’m agettin’ right old, an’ near my second childhood. I’d sure give somethin’ to be able to warm my hands at a cracklin’ fire right naow; an’ seems like I wouldn’t get much o’ a snooze, when I’m a shiverin’ to beat the band, with nawthin’ warm inside me neither.”

“We’ll crawl a little further along to where we can get out of this chilly breeze. It’s because we’re so high up we feel it so. I’m meaning to take a look around tomorrow, and see if I can’t run across some sort of a hole, or crevice, where we’d be a lot more comfortable nights.”

“Huh! might as well make it a reg’lar cavern while yeou’re ’baout it, partner; not as I’m atall greedy, see; but I always did want to explore a gen-u-ine cave, ever sence I read Mark Twain’s ’Tom Sawyer’ an’ ’Huckleberry Finn’ books.”

“Just as you say, brother, it’ll have to be some kind of a cave then, so you’ll feel satisfied – anything to keep peace in the family. But for just one night we must put up with whatever comes along, and take it out in thinking how fine we’ll be another night, with a warm hole in the rocks, perhaps a nice blaze going, and all those good things to eat you mean to lug up here.”

“Say, have heart, wont yeou, partner, an’ please don’t aggravate the situation so bad? If yeou hear me a rollin’ off a list o’ dishes like the waiter does in a cheap chop house, don’t knock me any, ’cause like as not I’ll on’y be a talkin’ in my sleep.”

When they had devoured the last crumb of their limited supply of ham sandwiches the change in the campground was effected; and just as Jack had prophesied, the cold wind did not seem to strike them as keenly as before.

“Stand it as long as you can, Perk,” Jack told his mate, before they thought of turning in, “when you get to shivering too much, the only thing to do is to get up, and start your daily dozen in exercising your arms violently; but make no noise on your life. We don’t know when one of those brutes may be prowling close by, and upset all our tricks by knocking over the apple cart.”

“Needn’t fear I’m sech a silly as that, ole hoss,” Perk assured him, indignantly. “But what I wanter ask is why couldn’t some fellers that knowed haow to slip daown a rope withaout burnin’ their hands to a crisp, drop into that same valley as neat as wax, while night hung on?”

“Simple as falling off a log, that’s okay, Perk, old pal; if only you happened to have a rope, and it was long enough to do the business.”

“Shucks! allers is some kinder drawback to every game I hatch up – we aint got any rope fur a fack; which is too bad, aint it? Guess as haow if we ever do get inside that ere valley we’ll shore have to sneak in by way o’ the narrer little pass. If so be they got a sentry on deck there, why, we’ll have to poke him in the neck, an’ put the gink to sleep.”

“Too early to be settling that matter, before we’ve located things,” Jack argued. “Always a chance of something popping up that we don’t know about, and which’d solve our troubles. First let’s try and get a few winks of sleep, because I for one feel as though I needed it.”

It was fated to be about as mean a night as they ever could remember, and undoubtedly they had both experienced many poor ones. Jack managed to drop asleep, to awaken later on to find himself shivering, and with his teeth rattling like castanets in the dextrous slim fingers of a Spanish dancer.

Something was moving near by, and, looking that way he could just manage to make out, with the starry heavens as a background, a figure with numberless arms, so it seemed, shooting up and down with mathematical precision.

Jack chuckled, realizing how it must of necessity be his pal, Perk, who, also awakened by having shivers run over his entire system, had remembered the advice given him, and was doing his daily dozen several times over, to induce a circulation of warm blood in his extremities.

Like a good doctor, not averse to taking his own medicine, Jack hastened to scramble to his feet; after which there were a pair of them industriously working their arms like flails on the threshing floor, taking steps in unison backward and forward. Perk fell in with the trick, and managed to keep time with his companion, as though it might all be a huge joke.

Then, after they began to feel more comfortable, they again lay down to try and get a little more sleep.

“Wonder what time it kin be, Jack; caint get a peep at my wrist watch in all this darkness, yeou know?” Perk was asking, turning as always to his reliable comrade when in any trouble.

“Somewhere around three, I’d say, according to the lay of the stars overhead,” came the ready reply, proving that Jack had for his own comfort challenged the chart of the skies, which was well known to his understanding, from long practice in reading the ways of the planets.

“Kinder guess that’s ’bout so, an’ I’m glad on’y a few more hours got to be endured, when mornin’ll come along, and mebbe the warm sun’ll show his nose to help aout some.”

After that Perk must have gone to sleep, for Jack did not hear him speak again. If Perk felt compelled to get up and do some more exercising later on at least he did not arouse his companion; for when Jack once more opened his eyes it was to see a faint light over toward the east, to prove that dawn was well on the way.

He was feeling greatly chilled, and losing no time hastened to get up and commence that swinging of his arms; also punching an invisible bag again as though he might be a pugilist at his regular exercises, in view of an approaching fistic battle in the arena, amidst cheering multitudes of frenzied fight fans.

Then, too, Perk speedily realized what was going on, and joined forces with the early riser, making all sorts of remarks, both in lament and otherwise, and keeping time with his vicious lunges.

“Take that, yeou pizen critter, an’ a few more o’ the same stripe, to make yeou take the count for keeps! Haow dye like that swipe, I’m askin’ o’ yeou, – a sweet upper-cut I got a copyright on? That’s a bit under the belt, mebbe, but ev’rything counts in this mill – there aint no foul blows. An’ by the same token I’m beginnin’ to feel some better a’ready, Jack, ole hummer.”

Before ten minutes had passed both of them were content to call a halt, as their arms were beginning to feel the strain, and they found themselves no longer chilled to the bone.

“Hot-diggetty-dig! it’d be simply scrumptious if on’y we had a good breakfast on top o’ that exercise,” with which gruesome remark Perk pulled in his slack belt another notch, under the impression that by increasing the pressure on his empty stomach he could cause the distress to disperse.

The light in the east had been growing brighter all this while, having taken on a pinkish tinge that announced the speedy coming of the king of day. Of course it would still be dark down in the valley, so there was no use as yet in their moving over to their shelter of the preceding afternoon.

“Seems like I might get a move on, an’ be agoin’,” Perk suggested; nor did the other try to place any obstacle in his way.

“Nothing to hinder you, buddy,” Jack was telling him, holding out his hand with a smile. “I’m not going to say another thing about being careful, because I’m dead certain you’ll be on your guard every minute of the time. Only, if set upon fight with all your might; for you must know men like these jail birds, most of them I reckon having broken out of bondage, hate our class as the devil is said to detest holy water; and they’ll never give you a decent chance if you surrender.”

And Perk, that veteran of the war across the big pond, nodded his head as he went on to say nonchalantly, as became a soldier of fortune:

“Yeou want to understand, partner, if I jest have to turn my toes up to the daisies in this game I’m agoin’ to have some company along the road to shadow-land, yeou bet yeour boots on that same. Ta! Ta! an’ look fur me araound sunset, er earlier if I kin make it a go.”

Jack hated to see him depart, but it was all in the line of business; and many unpleasant things have to be endured in following the path of duty; none realizing this truth better than men in the Secret Service, where they never know at what minute they may be called upon to risk life and limb in carrying the summons of the Law into all manner of dens and hideouts, where potential criminals may be lying in ambush, with machine-guns, and bombs, ready to bring destruction to the daring officers of Justice.

Jack, as soon as the early morning mists had cleared away, began work. He had laid out a dozen important things he wished to see through, and as a beginning once more posted himself in a recumbent position behind the friendly screen of those stunted bushes, close to the edge of the steep descent – a most colossal precipice it now became in his eyes, although always in the nature of a cliff to dwellers of the sunken valley some hundreds of feet below.

Of course, as he dared not creep any closer to the brink, he was unable to make any sort of survey of the near section; but he fancied the more important huts and shanties were within range of his glasses.

He moved his hands with the utmost care, for how was he to know when the bright rays of the rising sun might glint from the magnifying end of the binoculars, attracting the attention of some suspicious man far beneath by the brilliant flash that was bound to follow a hasty movement?

Besides, Jack felt constrained to keep himself in touch with a retreating line of brush, in order to make a quick getaway should any alarming sound, like the fall of a dislodged rock, give warning of the possible approach of some curious investigator.

By degrees he familiarized himself with every part of the depressed ground falling under the scope of his glasses. In so doing he paid a great deal of attention to the long, low log cabin, which he had in the beginning decided must be a dining hall, and general loafing quarters.

Men came and went, and several of those who reappeared, after a protracted stay within, seemed to be wiping their mouths, as though they had been eating. Then it was finally decided without the least doubt, when a man wearing an apron that may have once been white, and a similar peakless cap, evidently serving as a general cook, came out and emptied some left-overs into a wooden pail, so it could be carried away, to be devoured by buzzards, or possibly skulking foxes and coyotes, perhaps even timber wolves.