Trackers of the Fog Pack; Or, Jack Ralston Flying Blind

“Gosh! doant it beat the Dutch, Jack, haow chumps like that kin lick up all the cream on a pan o’ milk, leavin’ the skim stuff to honest folks? But yeou said yeou’d picked up a heap o’ pints, which I’d hear ’bout later on. Aint that time come ’raound yet, buddy?”

“Hold your horses, Perk; that news can keep until after we get located in our new sleeping quarters. Suppose we divide up all this stuff you’ve fetched, along with what we already had on hand; so I can help tote the same. I can see with one eye how you must be fairly worn out with what you carried all the way up here. Come, let’s get a move on, partner.”

Perk did not show much signs of being so dead tired, judging from the alacrity with which he scrambled to his knees, and busied himself making up the two packs. One, which he evidently fully intended for himself, was about twice as heavy as the other; seeing which, (and comprehending the usual generous spirit of this big-hearted chum) Jack managed to pick it up when the other was not looking, and absolutely refused to surrender when appealed to.

“Not any, partner,” he told Perk, resolutely; “what do you take me for, a weakling, or a shirker? If you say much more I’ll sling both packs over my shoulder, and leave you to trot along in the rear. I’ve done nothing but loaf all day, while you were as busy as a beaver. Get out, and stay out, d’ye hear, boy?”

He led the way, and seemed to know just where he was going, passing around a dozen great rocks that barred their passage. Perk marveled at his pal’s skill and memory as a guide, never pausing to question his route, but following the circuitous trail as though he had trodden the same for a long time.

Finally, when they had descended the slope for a short distance, Jack stopped in front of a minor cliff, and pointed to the fissure in question.

“I’ll go on ahead with my flashlight, and you keep close to my heels, Perk,” he explained. “So far as I could tell there’s nothing apt to trip us up; but its just as well to be on your guard, with a clumsy bundle on your back, and your legs being a bit tottery after that long climb. Ready, buddy – then in we dip.”

Perk could not keep from feeling something of a thrill as he followed his partner into the fissure, which seemed to widen the further they advanced. Presently he could no longer glimpse either wall, and hence came to the conclusion they must have already reached the large cavern mentioned by Jack earlier in the evening.

Coming to a halt the leader shifted his hand torch in such a fashion that both of them were now able to see the walls, as well as the high ceiling of the natural cavern. Perk could not repress an exclamation of mingled satisfaction and awe.

“Hot-diggetty-dig! but aint this jest grand?” he burst forth. “Me always a feelin’ a yearnin’ inside to glimpse what yeou’d call a reg’lar cavern, like Tom Sawyer an’ Huck Finn explored, daown on the bank o’ the Mississip; an’ here she be like magic. Say, this takes the cake, partner.”

“Welcome to our new home, brother,” laughed Jack, but not hilariously; “and now to drop our packs so as to rest up.”

CHAPTER XXV

Squatters’ Rights

“Yeou doan’t reckon as haow anybody kin see a fire, if so be I started a little blaze back in here, do yeou, partner?” queried Perk.

Jack knew how the other was fairly itching just to feel the warmth of a genuine campfire, under such extraordinary conditions, and hence shook his head.

“Not a Chinaman’s chance, buddy – too many crooks in the passage we took getting here. The wood I fetched in lies just back of you; and besides, a fire will save my battery, which means a heap. Go to it then, and get busy.”

Accordingly Perk lost no time in carrying out his cherished plan, for he had always vowed himself to be a “reg’lar cat o’ a fire-worshipper;” so, the match having been applied they were treated to a generous glow that revealed much more plainly the character of the wonderful cavern.

Later on the investigating Perk discovered that another fissure, shaped somewhat like a regular tunnel, led away from the central cavern, and sloped downward.

His mind seemed to still follow up that Mark Twain idea, for he had no sooner taken a good survey at the passage entrance than he gave Jack a shrewd look, and followed this up by saying ingenuously:

“Huh! if I didn’t know we was a heap o’ miles away from the ole Mississip I’d be ’clined to swear this must be the gen-u-ine cave Tom and Huck knocked ’raound in the time they found all that lost treasure. But I wonder – ”

“What do you wonder, Perk?”

“Struck me that mebbe aour ole friend, that silvertip bear, might have his den somewhere ’bout in the rocks; an’ where’d he run ’cross a better place to hole up fur the winter than right here! Say, mebbe I wouldn’t hate to run smack on the ugly critter while we was a explorin’ some o’ the tunnels an’ passages that lead outen this here central chamber? They kinder give these here grizzlies a reputation fur havin’ long memories, jest like elephants do; an’ I bet yeou a cookey he aint never agoin’ to furget little Gabe Perkiser, what throwed a match into his hair, an’ set him afire.”

But Jack did not appear to have such a lively imagination as his comrade, for he shook his head in the negative, and tried to soothe the anxious Perk.

“I hardly think there’s any chance for such a nasty happening, buddy,” he assured the other; “though I do reckon the old chap’d never forget you, after receiving such scurvy treatment at your hands. Some time later we’ll take a look in at that same passage – these caves in the mountains often turn out to run for a mile or more, twisting and turning, to come out it may be close to the starting point, even in the shape of another fissure.”

“Say, I’d like that same trick, I’m atellin’ yeou, Jack, boy. ’Sides, bein’ partial to caves o’ all kinds an’ species I’m also given to explorin’ queer places – got me into heaps o’ trouble in my kid days, which same makes me laugh to remember. But tell me some more things yeou thunk up, or seen, while I was aout wrastlin’ fur grub.”

Jack looked at him in a peculiar way that caused Perk to wonder what he was about to spring upon him.

“Remember my telling you about that cook chap they’ve got, waiting on them, and all that, Perk?”

“Sure do, him with the s’posed to be white chef’s cap – was he any different from the general run – cook, crook, seems to me they sorter hitch like they might be first cousins.”

“There was something that seemed familiar about him, but it was only later in the day I managed to glimpse a better look at the fellow, when the sun shone full on his moniker; then it flashed on me who he was.”

“Hold on there, partner, I jest hopes yeou ain’t agoin’ to inform me he’s yet another galoot I useter know – seems like that Nat Tucker, added to aour ole friend, Slippery Slim, might be enough former ’quaintances to meet up with in sech a nest o’ flim-flam artists an’ crooks.”

“Well, I think you told me once you’d never known this party; but I had, and only a short time back I told you more or less about him. It was in Washington I used to run along with him in my work.”

“Wait up, partner – go slow ’til I ketches my breath. Yeou ain’t agoin’ to stagger me by sayin’ that this here cook might be him?”

“Just what I mean, Perk.”

“Simeon – Simeon Balderson?”

“No other, brother, undoubtedly a prisoner, and being made to serve that miserable gang of hoodlums in a menial capacity, partly to humble him, and give them plenty of chances to throw mean jibes at him as the representative of the Service they hate so much. It’s the irony of Fate, if ever such a thing could be.”

“Dead certain be yeou, Jack?”

The other nodded in the affirmative, adding:

“He must have been badly injured in the scrap before he and his companion were knocked out, for he certainly never limped like that when I knew him, only a year or so back. Possibly the second man may have been wiped out in the gun battle; though why they should spare Simeon’s life is a puzzle to me; but some day we’ll understand, since I wouldn’t think of going away from here and leaving him in the hands of those human tigers.”

“Shake on that same, ole hoss; I’m with yeou every time, ’cause it means we’re agoin’ to have some mighty stiff work on aour hands ’fore we kin send a ball daown in each alley, an’ make a clean sweep o’ the duck-pins; an’ that’s the dizzy game I sure likes most.”

There was really nothing like brag about what Perk said, as his comrade knew full well; in the past he had seen Perk put up a grand fight, and never could forget how he slashed, and cut, and struck home with any old weapon he chanced to have in his hands, until a clean swathe had been cut through the ranks of their foes. He always appeared to be a little ashamed of having lost his head, and striking blind, excusing himself under the plea that he must have been in a bit of a “tailspin.”

“Here we can stay, Perk, without running much risk of being discovered; for I hardly imagine any of those chaps would bother exercising themselves to try and find out what the country around their Happy Valley looks like.”

“Huh! I kinder guess not any,” remarked the skeptical Perk, with a look akin to disgust on his face; “they’re a heap too lazy to move, ’cept to come to their three meals a day when off duty, and kept in camp. Same men when on a raid robbin’ some border bank; holdin’ up a train; or nice healthy jobs like that, kin act like a pack o’ half starved locoed wolves.”

“I was just thinking,” continued Jack, who seemed never to lose a point worth considering, “that perhaps we’d better make sure our eats are kept secure. Such places as this cavern would be attractive dens for foxes, and such predatory varmints, who’d like nothing better than to steal every scrap of food we’ve got; which would be a serious thing, I’d allow.”

“Wall, I kinder guess it sure would, by hokey!” exclaimed Perk, quickly aroused, as the danger loomed along the line of possible starvation, “an’ it ain’t agoin’ to happen either, if I have to stick ’raound all night long. Grub an’ me air the best o’ friends; an’ I’d go a long way to defend sech a good pal.”

“Hardly be so serious as that, buddy,” advised Jack, seeing how his suggestion had awakened lively fears in his companion’s breast. “Plenty of loose stuff lying around in here, so we’ll just cache our food supplies, by covering the pile with a heavy weight no beast could budge.”

“Yeou said it, partner, an’ I’ll take a look ’raound till I kin pick aout the best place to build aour fort. Watch my smoke, Jack, boy.”

It did not take him long to find what he sought, after which they speedily arranged things to suit their idea of security.

“There she be,” Perk remarked, in a satisfied tone, as the job was finished. “If any red fox or kiote kin scratch his way under that stack o’ dornicks I’ll eat my hat – an’ ole dungarees in th’ bargain. I ain’t a luggin’ good eats all the way from San Diego, an’ payin’ aout lots o’ coin fur the same, jest to make a holiday fur four-footed thieves.”

“Both of us are dead for sleep, I reckon,” ventured Jack, as they lay on the rocky floor, Perk indulging in the luxury of a pipe of his favorite Turkish mixture for solace; “and perhaps we’d be wise to snatch a few hours while we may – we’re up against a pretty hard proposition, and there’s no telling just what lies ahead of us. How about it, Perk?”

“Shucks! I’m willin’ enuff to lay off; an’ mebbe naow I ain’t glad I done fetched them two woolen blankets along as we had on aour cots aboard the ship. They sure helped to make up a fine load; but right naow they’ll be wuth all they cost me on the hike.”

“And I’ll bless your long-sightedness in thinking of our comfort,” Jack hastened to assure him. “Bare rocks like these are hardly in the same class with a good spring bed, and plenty of covers. We’ll skip some sore bones because of having these to tuck under us, Perk.”

“I hate to let the bully fire die down,” Perk presently observed, for he never was so happy as when sitting alongside a cheery blaze, puffing at his briarwood pipe, and watching the rings of smoke sail upward.

“Oh! it wouldn’t do to try and keep it going all night,” Jack told him. “Too little stuff for burning, and hard to tote in here. I’ll keep my electric hand-torch close beside me, and if there’s any occasion for lighting up the cavern I can do it in a jiffy.”

That seemed to ease Perk’s mind somewhat, for Jack could plainly see the other was somewhat concerned regarding the possibility of their having an unwelcome visitor during the time they were resting from the fatigues of the past day.

He watched Perk making his preparations for retiring, and just as he anticipated the other was exceedingly careful to pick out a camping place as far removed from that mysterious passage leading out of the central cavern as he possibly could.

Of course the reason for his so doing was plainly manifest to Jack – he could spell it in four letters – B-E-A-R – Perk could not wholly dissuade himself that Fate meant to play him a nasty trick, and bring him into close quarters with that ferocious monster, the silvertip, or as he was known along the mountains of the Coast, “Old Eph.” The distinct smell of burning hair still seemed to linger within reach of his olfactories, and give him a reproachful sensation, as though he felt he had taken a mean advantage of the beast.

No such thought worried Jack; but then the shadow of guilt did not hang over his head as was the case with Perk.

“Don’t forget to wind up your wrist-watch, buddy,” warned Jack, shortly afterwards; as Perk still sat there on his blanket, keeping up his meditative puffing, as though he meant to see the fire to its last flickering extinction. “They’re our only reliable guide to tell us when morning comes around. In this black cave we might lie dozing until the middle of the day, without knowing how we were sleeping at the switch, and wasting precious time.”

“Hot-diggetty-dig! partner, haow yeou do jest think o’ ever’thing. On’y fur yeou I’d be like a lost lamb awanderin’ ’raound the countryside, bleatin’, an’ shiverin’ fur fear the pesky wolves’d get me.”

“That’ll do for you, buddy,” Jack sternly told him. “We’ve both got our several good and bad points; but we’re essential to each other to make up a working team, six of one, and half a dozen of the other – now, don’t let me hear you getting off any of that boloney stuff again, mind.”

“Huh! yeou lets me daown too easy, partner; guess I know my shortcomings better’n anybody else; an’ thinkin’ ain’t much o’ a long suite with Gabe, not at no time in hist’ry.”

“Well, have it any way you like, Perk; but I’m meaning to settle down for a nice nap. Just call out if you want a light any old time, and I’ll accommodate you before you can say Jack Robinson. So-long, and here’s hoping we’ll be able to get a move on before another night sets in.”

“I sure echoes that wish, boy,” muttered Perk, seriously; for he realized that they had undertaken one of the most troublesome tasks that could be placed to their credit; and would have need of all the good luck and breaks possible in order to come through.

Perk having set himself to what he considered a duty, would never let any trivial things deter him; and so he must have sat up with that declining fire until the very last feeble flicker expired; then rolling himself up in his blanket he sought relief in slumber.

Time went on, the night passed away, and there was not a solitary alarm to give Perk a thrill. Both of them were very tired, and must have slept soundly, for the first thing Perk knew Jack turned the dazzling light of his little torch full on his face, arousing him, and then remarked quietly:

“Time we were stirring, partner – I figure the dawn has got around, when we can start doing things.”

CHAPTER XXVI

A Back Door to the Valley

A hasty breakfast was eaten, washed down with a few swigs of cold liquid refreshment, which the ever obliging Perk had fetched up in a bottle taken from the ship for the purpose, and filled with coffee from their gallon Thermos jug.

Thus the adventurous pair felt well braced for whatever duties the new day had in store for them.

“We’ll divide our force for the morning,” suggested Jack, knowing only too well his chum would take his words in the way of a command, for he occupied the position of leader, and Perk was only too willing to accede to each and every suggestion his mate advanced.

“Jest so, partner,” Perk instantly commented; “an’ what air yeou agoin’ to pass on to me, I wanter know?”

Jack picked up the glasses, and handed them to the other.

“You’re a vidette on the lookout this morning, buddy,” he explained. “Up in our old place you’ll keep watch on the valley, to note everything that takes place, so you can pass it along to me. Keep your eye particularly on those two figures whenever they’re in sight – Slippery Slim Garrabrant and the cook, whom I believe to be Simeon Balderson, a prisoner.”

“Consider it done, ole hoss,” Perk went on to say, firmly. “Yeou’ll sure git a report o’ all the doin’s when we meet agin. Anyways I got a purty good mem’ry, if I am short o’ some things.”

“When noon comes by the sun, make your way back to the entrance of our cave, where I’ll be waiting with my flashlight to fetch you in here. In the afternoon, possibly both of us will go on guard up above.”

“I notices, Jack, as haow yeou allers say down here when yeou mentions this cave; haow do yeou make that aout, partner?”

“It’s simple enough, Perk, if you stop to remember how we kept descending more or less all the way from where we entered by means of that split in the rocks.”

Perk wagged his head as if to acknowledge that was something absolutely true, even though he himself had not previously noted the fact.

“Partner, if so be it’s jest the same to yeou, may I ask what line yeou goin’ to foller while I’m on sentry duty – I likes to be posted, that’s all?”

“Which is perfectly all right, Perk; and I’ll just say I expect to look around here a bit, and find out a few things that have struck me as possible, even if hardly probable. I’ll give you the gist of what success I have in my prowling around when we are taking a snack at noon.”

“I git yeou, Jack, an’ it’s all to the good with me every time.”

Jack chuckled, for he had noticed the quick and significant glance his comrade shot across the cavern toward that yawning opening marking the tunnel-like passage Perk had held in such suspicion just before they wrapped up in their blankets and sought forgetfulness of their troubles.

Just the same Jack did not undertake to explain what he had in mind; it was his usual habit to make his investigations first, and follow up with explanations afterwards, when he had figured things out, and proven his point sound.

He convoyed Perk close to the opening where the fissure split the rocky wall – here after a laconic “so-long” they separated, and Jack retraced his way back along the winding passage.

Perk again climbed the hill until he was able to creep back of those friendly scrub bushes. Here he could lie flat on his stomach, and cautiously survey pretty much all of the wonderful valley spread out before him like a genuine panorama.

Thus he spent all of the morning, occasionally changing his position when finding that his limbs were becoming more or less cramped. During this time Perk was busily storing his mind with dozens of incidental happenings down in the camp of the fugitive criminals, banded together for preying on the forces of law and order, which they held in contempt in carrying out their occasional forays, with defenceless banks, or unprotected trains carrying United States registered-mail sacks, as the objects of their special regard.

He thus saw the outlaws’ patched-up airplane make an ascent, and head off toward the southeast, rising to pass over the lofty peaks lying in that general direction many miles distant.

“Kinder guess as haow Jack he’ll be some int’rested in what I kin tell him ’bout the little cargo they stored in the crazy ole cabin o’ thet crate, all right,” Perk was muttering to himself, while he watched the ship growing less and less distinct, as it soared through a fleecy cloud, and began to look very much like some distant buzzard, or vulture. “’Less I’m way off in my figgerin’ them three packages might a been the last printin’ o’ bogus bank notes they was asendin’ aout to ther agents in some cities daown Texas way. Didn’t I read in the papers on’y a short time ago, that there never was knowed to be sech a raft o’ bad money in the country ’long the Rio Grande; an’ sech good imitations o’ Uncle Sam’s genu-ine currency it faized the bank tellers to pick it aout. ’Baout time I’d say we got busy, an’ stopped up the hole in the dam, ’fore the hull kentry was flooded with the stuff.”

He knew when it was getting close to noon by the clamor arising down where he lived, and after that kept a close watch on the glowing sun. Finally, when the time seemed fully ripe, Perk started to creep away, arriving promptly at the fissure, to have Jack show himself, and beckon him to come on in.

Back in the central cavern they built a little fire, in order to save the precious battery of Jack’s hand-torch; and seated close together proceeded to again lower the stock of eatables.

“By close economy we ought to have enough grub to carry us through a couple of days after this one,” Jack observed, while they were munching what was intended to be a mere lunch; Perk announcing his intention of doing a little cooking at their later evening meal, he having fetched along a pound of sliced bacon, a few raw potatoes, and some onions, to which latter he admitted being very partial.

“Sorry we ain’t got any coffee up here,” he said, a bit sadly; “but it stands to reason yeou jest caint ’spect everythin’ when yeou’re on the trail o’ bad gunmen like we air right naow. I ain’t kickin’, remember, Jack, ole man.”

Presently, when they had about finished their frugal lunch Jack asked his companion to make his report. This Perk did, giving many different suggestive happenings that he had noted in rotation, and emphasizing his words at certain points.

“You’ve done a good job, Perk,” the other assured him, when the end of the story was reached. “In lots of ways what you’re reporting strengthens our previous convictions – there can be no possible doubt about the cook being our fellow worker, Simeon; and so it goes without saying that when we kick out of here its got to be with two others in our company – Slippery Slim, and Simeon.”

“That’s okay with me, partner,” agreed Perk, eagerly; “an’ we’ll keep on deck in this here nest o’ snakes ’til we kin put the game through – no matter if we gotter go withaout a bite o’ chow fur a hull week – kinder guess I kin stand it as long as yeou kin.”

“Nothing else you noticed, partner?” queried Jack.

“On’y that the ole crate she skipped off ’bout a hour after I settled daown back o’ them nice bushes,” came the ready reply; after which Perk went on to describe how the man they knew as Slippery Slim seemed to be so careful of the several packages, and the leather bag he handed over to the pilot of the plane; and which Perk was so dead certain must contain the latest printing of notes off the press they could sometimes hear rumbling down at one of the cabins, in and out of which some of the men were so frequently passing.

This additional information seemed to please the listening Jack exceedingly, to judge from the way he nodded his head, and smiled knowingly.

“Things are breaking for us, I’d say, buddy,” he told his mate, to the other’s satisfaction; “and by slow degrees we’ll carry on, step by step, until one of these nights we can explode our bomb, and play the game to a finish. But it happens that you haven’t got a monopoly of the good news.”

“Hully gee! then yeou been a nosin’ ’raound this queer hole back o’ the cliff, an’ mebbe run acrost somethin’ wuth knowin’, eh, what, partner?”

“Just what I have, Perk – I started in to explore the black, tunnel-like passage that you kept your eye on last evening.”

“Say, doant tell me yeou run acrost that big hill-billy o’ a grizzly, Jack?”

“You’re a bad guesser, matey,” he was assured; and then Jack added: “Found that the passage kept dropping down all the time; and in the end I came to another fissure, with broad daylight ahead – then looked out into the valley; and found I was only some twenty feet from the bottom of the big ditch, Perk!”