CHAPTER X

BATTLING WITH THE FOG

Thanks to his carefully studied chart Jack knew just about when he must head into the east, and make for the disputed land, where fugitives from justice had long kept away from the long arm of the Law. In former days there had been just such a safe hiding-place further to the north, locally known as the "Hole in the wall;" but it was of the past, and for some years had been thrown open to settlers and tourists.

The die was cast, and for better or worse they had made their decision; but neither of them had any disposition to turn back. Danger and these men of the Force were accustomed to being familiar campmates; since there was no mission on which they could be sent but had its share of peril; if such expeditions were but picnics it would not be so necessary to dispatch the prize men of the Service on the track, where others had failed after shooting their bolt.

Speedily were they swallowed up in the night. Far distant, and in the east a mellow light low-down announced the rising of the moon, now far advanced in its last quarter. Jack did not count for any assistance in the rising of the uncrowned queen of the night, since already he could see the gathering fog was growing thicker every passing minute.

Several times he lost the remnant of moon entirely, to have it creep into view again, as though the thick vapor had temporarily opened up; but only to close in again worse than ever, until the glimpse of the climbing orb came no more.

Thus began their fight with the fog--its insidious influence seemed to shut them in like an opaque curtain, growing more and more dense as the minutes moved along.

Realizing that they were now heading into that stretch where they might expect to meet with lofty mountain peaks, and crags, Jack began a steady upward climb, being most desirous of taking no unnecessary chances of crashing against a rock cliff that was hidden from their view by the creeping fog.

It seemed to be a most extraordinary fog, all told, Perk explained to his own satisfaction. Usually when thus compassed around about by a dense sea of vapor, and unable to take any sort of reckoning by means of the heavens above, or the earth beneath, this trouble could be remedied by climbing still further into the region of the clouds, and thus finding an altitude where the air was sweet and pure, even if a bit shivery.

Apparently that was not going to answer in the present case. Jack had ascended until they were already some eight thousand feet from the earth; but if anything their enemy the fog appeared to be more dense than ever.

In fact, it did not seem worth while to pursue this system of tactics any further, in order to beat the enshrouding blanket of sticky wetness--why, if they kept on much longer, the cold increasing the higher they lifted their ship, that same dripping moisture would be turning into _ice_, and the additional weight was apt to play havoc all around.

"Don't seem to be any let-up to the derned stuff, Jack," Perk at this time observed in the ear of his running mate.

"Bad medicine, all right--don't like it one bit, partner," came just the answer Perk would have sworn his pal would make.

"Seems like there aint nawthin' we kin do to make things easier, eh, buddy?"

"Must peg away, keeping our nose pointed east, and ready to drop down lower if given half a show," was how the head pilot answered him.

"Yeah! don't 'pear to be anythin' else in sight, an' its sure gettin' mighty cold 'raound these diggin's, boy. I'm agoin' to drag aout my heavy fleece-lined coat, an' climb into the same jest for fun."

"Go to it, old chap; and after you're settled give me a chance to follow through, since I'm beginning to shiver as if I had the ague. This cold of the upper air currents is a heap worse than any we run into on the ground--seems to go all through you like a knife. Phew!"

Apparently Jack was not yet satisfied to drop lower; he would give their present altitude a little more chance to show what it could do in pressing the beastly fog down in the direction of the earth.

"Thunder an' Mars! aint it awful thick, though?" Perk was telling himself, as he rubbed the glass, and did his best to pierce the miserable stuff by which they were thus bound, so they had no power to break loose. "Don't b'lieve I ever did see such a mess in all my days. Talk 'bout flyin' blind, if we aint adoin' that same right naow I'll eat my hat!"

Flying blind--yes, that name seemed most appropriate. Perk could look away back to his childhood, and see the boys and girls playing--himself with a handkerchief over his eyes, and trying to grope his way around so as to lay hold of the active dodgers who slipped out of his grip so adroitly. But he also remembered, with a chuckle, how as a rule it was always possible for the bandage to be lifted just a little, allowing the chaser slight glimpses of those whom he was supposed to trap, and catch hold of.

"Huh! no sech luck in this here game up 'bove the clouds," Perk grumbled, as if much provoked because there was no chance to "peep"--that pea-soup sea covering so many miles in every direction was absolutely impenetrable; and their only resource would be to depend on their reliable instruments; keep their wits about them, so as to know how far they were going in a certain direction; and when relief came be able to about pick their position on the map.

That was supposed to be Jack's affair, and Perk felt quite willing to trust his side partner to the limit; whatever Jack decided on he was ready to make unanimous, and let it go at that; so why worry his poor brain when his pal was so much better equipped for handling things?

Still, he _did_ worry--it would not have been Perk otherwise; for he found all manner of grewsome possibilities crowding into his mind such as must give him what he called "the willies."

"Hot-diggetty-dig!" he grumbled to himself "but this _is_ a nasty mixup we've tumbled into. Jack, he says to me the weather reports tell haow there seems to be a bit of fog aformin' off to the mountings--say, if they calls this a _bit_ I wonder what a real smashin' big fog'd seem like. From the way she acts I'm commencin' to figger as haow she could keep this way right along fur a hull day'nd night, withaout fazin' any; an' that's no bunk either. S'pose it does that same, what's bound to happen to us dicks runnin' wild up here, I want to know?"

That was always Perk's trouble--anticipating things long before they were really due. He even figured out how, with gas and supplies running low, in the end they might have to make a perilous forced landing, taking most desperate chances of a calamitous smash.

It kept him on "needles and pins" to have such a dire threat loom up so soon after their takeoff, with the work connected with their mission entirely in the future, and unaccomplished.

How the minutes did seem to drag when they were pretty much in the dark as to the progress their ship was making; or whether they had managed to hold on to the course set by Jack in the beginning.

"Huh! it's like gropin' 'raound yeour bedroom in the pitch dark, when wakin' up from a bad dream--kinder lose yeour head, an' get sorter nutty in the bargain. Mebbe we're miles an' miles eouten the way, even gettin' wuss rattled right along; but say, that aint like my partner, to lose his head, an' run us into a blind sack. I jest _got_ to depend on Jack to pull us through--aint I seen him come eout right-side up heaps o' times when things they had an _aw_ful black look?"

Taking himself to task after this fashion Perk rose up out of his state of despondency, and actually forced himself to chuckle, as if things looked perfectly all right in his eyes; but there was something lacking in the sound, something superficial, and his seeming hilarity did not last long.

Thus it happened that once, when Jack, believing they were attaining too great altitude, took a slide down, shutting off the power; Perk felt positive he again caught a sound from somewhere that must certainly have come from the exhaust of an airship motor, running at full speed!

The thought gave him a momentary thrill, it seemed so pregnant of accumulating possibilities in the line of hazards; his old fear lest they should have been surreptitiously followed by some secret enemy, in the shape of an ally of the men they sought to run down, returned in full force, to stab him most viciously.