Chapter 16

THE LOCKHEED-VEGA FLYING SHIP

"Moon coming up, partner!" was all Perk said.

"Then it's time we were moving," Jack told him as he started to stretch his cramped arms and yawn. "Feel a heap better now after that little nap and ready for what's coming."

They did not have much to do, since everything was in perfect condition for hopping-off--trust Jack for that, with his slogan of "be prepared."

"All set, Perk?" asked the pilot, presently.

"Shoot!" was the terse answer.

The bright moon would have to take the place of the customary equipment of a landing field in the way of guidelights, markers, and search-lights, but there was no necessity for so much light with the channel before him along which he could taxi unerringly, until, arriving at the point where the great gulf stretched out toward the western horizon, the speed must be advanced for the take-off.

Now they were free from the mangroves and Jack accelerated the pace of his ship accordingly--two twin foam-crested waves rolled out from the pontoons as they sped along until, testing things, Jack found that his charge was impatient to leave the water and leap upward into space.

Perk looked backward toward the scene of his amazing afternoon battle--how many times in the future would the picture rise in his memory to haunt him and bring that quizzical grin to his face.

With the newly risen moon gilding the small waves of the gulf below them, the picture looked most peaceful. Perk, although not much inclined to romance, could not but admire the spectacle after his own rude fashion while Jack fairly drank it in as he continued to pay attention to his manifold duties.

Their course was almost due north, Jack keeping out a score or more of miles from the coast, having reasons of his own for so doing--perhaps he found the wind more favorable out there and this is always an important factor in the calculations of a pilot of experience. Just as in the earlier days of ocean steamers when they were also equipped with masts and sails, the latter were always hoisted when the wind favored, since this helped them make progress and saved coal at the same time.

They had been booming along for something like half an hour when watchful Perk, the observer, made a discovery worth while he believed. 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," assented 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' Chinks 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 passing 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 pass 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 shoreless 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 shore 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?"