CHAPTER XVI

ALL IN A DAY'S WORK

"And I gotter to admit," Perk was saying, shortly after they had gained the altitude that gave him a chance to sweep the horizon with his glasses, "even the ole weather sharp stands in aour favor. Look at that sky, buddy; did yeou ever in all yeour life set eyes on a clearer stretch--nary a single cloud pokin' its nose in sight; an' to think o' the measly days an' nights I uster spend in the mail-carrier business, asloggin' 'long with a capacity load, and mebbe ice formin' on my wings to beat the band. Yeah! this lay o' aourn aint so bad--some o' the time."

They swung over much of the territory for fifty miles north of Charleston, with Jack noting the lay of the land as cleverly as any topography expert charting a region, could display. In that wonderful brain of his he undoubtedly must have been engaged in making a mental chart of the ground; the sinuosities of the streams that ran with such eccentricity toward the nearby ocean; the numerous more or less possible landing-places where both boats from salt water, and those dropping down from the clouds, might find a resting place; where their contraband cargoes could be taken aboard waiting trucks, and be transported to safe havens, despite the utmost vigilance of the customs officers and coast patrol forces to apprehend them.

This initial survey of the vast territory open to the expert smugglers, most of it absolutely familiar to those engaged in the illegal traffic, undoubtedly must have impressed the Secret Service man with the immensity of the task so recently placed upon his shoulders.

Just the same, the only visible result of this realization lay in a tightening of Jack's firm lips, and a fresh gleam in his steady eyes, as though he might be once again dedicating all his energies, his life itself, to the undertaking as yet so young, so untried.

"So much for the territory close to Charleston," he told his mate, as he turned the nose of his airship once more toward the city; "I've got that down pretty pat for a beginning. The next time we come out it will be to take up the survey about where we left off today, and head further north."

"Judgin' from what yeou say, partner, I kinder gu--reckons as haow yeou kim to the conclusion they gets their business in further away from dear ole Charleston--haow 'bout that, suh?"

"Possibly so, Wally, but from what I've picked up from many sources, I'm already half convinced we'll be apt to rim across the whole works within fifty miles or so of the city, it may be where that swift and crooked Yamasaw River skirts the coastways, dodging this way and that, even running backwards sometimes, so when you've been going with the current two hours you find yourself within a biscuit toss of a tree you passed long ago."

So in due time they dropped down again on the landing-field close to Charleston.

One thing Perk felt absolutely certain about, which was that his chief was not going to start real operations until he had accomplished the most exacting examination of the entire ground; and felt able to picture in his mind just how the Government baiters carried out their extensive smuggling game by sea and air; but when he _did_ strike it would be in a way to start strangling the hitherto successful campaign of the giant Combine.

They both carried on in a perfectly natural fashion, much of their talk when in the company of any third party being along the line of their intended sport--how they had been able to discover a number of promising secluded ponds and bayous where already thus early in the ducking season a considerable gathering of the feathered game had been noted.

Perk fell into the humor of the trick, and even boasted of what a vacancy he meant to create in the flocks of ducks and geese before the termination of Mr. Warrington's vacation caused him to start north once more to his regular "business" of attending Board meetings in a bunch of companies where he chanced to be a heavy stockholder, and a director as well.

Really to Perk, who liked a joke as well as the next one, this thing promised no end of fun; every hour of the day found him more deeply interested than before, and eager to push ahead.

That night in the sanctity of their room, (speaking even there in low voices as if they more than half believed the very walls might have ears) Perk took occasion to mention the remarkable gift his companion had with regard to a retentive memory.

"I jest doant see haow yeou kin 'member things like yeou do, ole hoss," he was saying, evidently fishing for light on a subject that had often confounded his intellect. "Onct yeou hears a long-winded talk, an' I'll be hanged if yeou can't spin her off word fur word, an' never a single slip-up. Haow kin yeou do it, suh, I'd shore like to know?"

"It just can't be explained, brother, and that's a fact," Jack told him in his smiling way. "All you know is that Nature's been kind in giving you such a faculty, and let it go at that. I may seem remarkable to you, in that I've got such a good memory; but there have been others beside whom I'm a regular piker. Did you ever hear of Blind Tom, brother?"

"Huh! 'pears to me I did--he was some sorter black man, wa'nt he, suh, what could play extra good on the pianner?"

"Extra good--why, that doesn't mean a tenth of what he could do--one of the greatest natural phenomena ever known in America, or anywhere--he was black as the ace of spades, and unusually homely, so they hated to watch him when he was playing; yet he had the most astounding memory ever heard of--didn't know one note of music from another--just depended on his ears, and that amazing talent that Nature had implanted in his, strange uncouth soul."

"What could he do, partner, as was so wonderful?" demanded Perk, seemingly more or less interested.

"Of course I never saw or listened to him play, for he was dead long before my time," Jack continued; "but I've heard people who had, and I've also read accounts of it in magazine articles, so I'm pretty well posted myself. If you turned your head away, they say you'd have sworn some famous composer was hitting the ivories of the piano, and bringing out the most divine strains ever heard. He could listen just _once_ to some classical and difficult sonata played by an eminent performer, (something Blind Tom had never heard before in all his life) and then sitting down he would reproduce the whole selection exactly as the famous artist had played it, with never a chord missing. People used to be awed, as though realizing they were in the presence of a miracle!"

"Gee whiz! it must a been somethin' fierce, Boss," was Perk's only comment.

"You know they say the Chinese and Japanese are wonderful imitators, and can reproduce any pattern to the minutest detail that is placed before them; but the best of them would be ten classes below that negro genius. So don't think I'm anything but a tyro, brother, with my poor memory.

"Hot-diggetty-dig! but yeou're good enough to make a poor bucko like me take a seat way back; that's the honest truth, er Mr. Warrington, suh."

As the following day broke with a promise of more clear weather Jack decided to waste no time. Accordingly they were off again, and speeding toward the north at a pace well over a hundred miles an hour.

"Gosh-a-mighty! I never'd have reckoned this here ole boat could hit it up so pretty," Perk at one time called out, when they had muffled the engine exhaust so effectually that they were well able to converse without raising their voices to a shout. "She muster been built outen A Number One stuff to hold together like she's done. If we got through this here job alive, partner, it's gwine to be up to us-uns to write a sweet letter to the company what constructed this here amphibian, an' tell 'em jest haow much we thinks o' aour boat."

"Possibly we may, partner," the other told him; "but even that might break the Secret Service rule of keeping identities well covered up, lest you lose some of your effectiveness by getting too familiar. Besides, I've got an idea this boat's been reconstructed--that as originally built she wasn't in the amphibian class at all--some gent who owned her must have been fond of the model, and feeling the necessity for having a ship that could land on water, had her altered to suit his wants."

"That may well be, suh," Perk went on to assert, with one of his nods; "but jest the same they made a mighty good job o' it, I'm asayin', suh. Huh! to tell the truth right naow I wouldn't cry much if I never did see aour ole bus, the big Fokker, agin; I've fell so turrible hard fo' this hyah ship, built to imitate a duck, what kin swim on the water, rise from the same when yeou wants to git agoin', an' cut ahead at more'n a hundred clean an hour. Huh!"

When they had reason to believe, (from landmarks taken notice of on the preceding day by Perk, as they turned for home) they were covering a fresh stretch of land and water, their vigilance was once more centered upon the task of closely observing every detail, and making more mental notes.

During this cruise they discovered next to nothing incriminating--as a rule they found themselves gazing down on a tangled mass of forest growth, with silver threads of water running crisscross here and there; or it might be muddy looking rivers and creeks meandering along in their long march to the sea, covering at least ten miles where a crow would fly the same distance in one mile or possibly less.

Jack had noted a number of places where the conditions seemed more or less favorable for such secret work as the successful landing of illicit cargoes necessitated; but while the spot seemed everything that could be wished, there was never a sign of its being used for such purposes--no sheds, or even a well-used road leading into the pine woods, such as must be required if heavy truck loads of goods were to be carried off.

"It looks as if we'll have to go over that first fifty or sixty miles again, with a fine tooth comb," Jack told his comrade, as the afternoon caught them still speeding gaily along, not over three thousand feet above the checkered landscape below.

"What we agoin' to do 'baout hit, then, suh?" demanded the puzzled Perk. "We shore caint keep startin' aout from Charleston every mawnin' like we're adoin' right naow, covering hundreds o' miles, an' hope to git back by daylight."

"Oh! that needn't trouble us anything to speak of, matey," the other hastened to assure him. "If necessary we'll drop down, and make camp for the night, pick things up in the morning, and take chances of getting back to Charleston any old time later on."

"Say, less do that same tonight, suh," suggested the artful Perk, with his most engaging smile; but Jack shook his head in the negative.

"Possibly we may tomorrow; but I've agreed to see Mr. Herriott tonight, partner."