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

“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.

CHAPTER XXIII

Perk Carries on

Apparently Jack found considerable interest in the man wearing the white cap of a cook, for he watched him keenly as he came and went, limping a little, it seemed, as though somewhat lame.

Then, as the morning drew on, Jack changed his location, as though desirous of applying his energies to another duty that claimed attention. He was away from his post all of three hours; and when once more creeping over to the friendly screen of scrub bushes, there was a satisfied look on his grim face, that gave him an air of renewed confidence.

Apparently things were working along the right path, which would mean he found them to his liking.

If Jack felt exceedingly hungry, with so little to stay the clamorings of an empty stomach, he gave no evidence of such a thing. But then he did not happen to belong to the class of “squealers,” as honest Perk often delighted to assign himself, without a blush of shame – he was built to expect three square meals per diem, and felt he had a right to “kick” when, through some misfortune they failed to come along on schedule.

The afternoon wore away slowly, with Jack in continual use of his glasses. It was a most interesting study for him, this spying upon the hideout of the greatest aggregation of badly wanted refugees from the Law he had ever run across.

What a grand haul would result if only he chanced to have a dozen of his fellow workers in the Secret Service at his call, ready to draw a net around the sunken valley, and forcing a general surrender. A good many empty cells in the Federal penitentiaries would be filled with their former occupants, Jack was telling himself, as he strove to count the idle members of the gang sunning themselves, and taking things so comfortably, as though they refused to entertain a single minute of fear concerning the possibility of the army being used by Uncle Sam to encompass their downfall.

Jack now began to anticipate the return of his comrade, judging from the manner in which he frequently turned his head, as if to listen, while a look of concern began to draw lines about his eyes.

The fact that he had seen no sign of excitement among those he was watching had given him good cause for confidence. Surely, if the presence of strangers in the neighborhood had been discovered, with possibly Perk made a prisoner, he must have noted the fact as he viewed the panorama spread out before his eyes.

It was when the descending sun had dropped well down the western sky – about five by his faithful little wrist watch – that all of a sudden he heard something drop just back of his position, followed by a low, shaky voice saying:

“Hot-diggetty-dig! say, I’m ’baout all in, for a fack – gee whiz! sech a climb, with a pack on my back that weights somethin’ like a ton. Whee!”

And there was Perk, flat upon his back, having been drawn down when he attempted to let his burden drop. Jack gained his side as speedily as he could, his mind at ease once more, his late fears having vanished like a puff of mountain fog before a rising breeze.

“Mighty glad to see you safe back, buddy – was just beginning to feel a bit anxious – but you shouldn’t have attempted to lug such a whopping bunch of stuff up this steep grade.”

Perk gave him a wise grin, and managing to find his voice he went on to say, in a jerky manner between breaths:

“Didn’t reckon to in first place, Jack – after I hitched to aplenty yeou know I ’membered ’bout somethin’ else – then saw a package o’ grub I jest did want to try eout the wust kind – so she climbed to this mounting – but it’s okay – we kin make use o’ ever’thing, bet yeour boots we kin.”

“I hope you did what I told you to – eat a good lunch while you had the opportunity?” Jack asked, solicitously, whereat the other slily winked one eye, and made reply:

“Sure thing, partner – easier to swaller the grub an’ carry same inside, than to tote it on my back. But queer haow a gink keeps on buildin’ up a appetite, fur somehaow I’m hungry as all git-eout agin.”

That was just like Perk; but Jack had to chuckle at the lugubrious expression he could see on his comrade’s expressive face as he announced this sad fact.

“Well,” he told the returned scout, “we’ll eat as soon as we get further away from the cliff; I’ve got some things to tell you that may sound interesting; but not a single word until I’ve had a chance to break my fast.”

“Great guns! Jack, ole hoss, I forgot as haow yeou aint had nary a bite all day long, while I was jest gorgin’ myself daown yonder!”

“First tell me, was the ship okay?”

“Sure was, Jack,” the other went on to state, as he managed to regain a stooping position, with the mighty pack still on his back, assisted by a friendly push at the hands of his ally.

Jack seemed to breathe easier, showing that he had really worried about the possibility of something happening to their air courier, such as must put a halt to their operations, if not entirely smashing the same.

“’Fore I started back,” continued Perk, who was now wound up, and capable of running on for any length of time, his wind being assured, “I took time to toss some more o’ them evergreens on exposed parts o’ the crate. She’s camouflaged neow to beat the band – kinder guess a galoot with the eyes o’ a hawk might pass by less’n fifty feet away, an’ never suspicion what that big mound was. But there ain’t been anybody araound there since we cut aout – I’m givin’ yeou that straight, Pard Jack.”

Shortly afterwards they settled down in a secluded spot, where the brush grew thick enough to effectually conceal their presence, assisted in this friendly task as it was by various piles of rough rocks, such as were as plentiful in that wild country as “grains of sand on the seashore,” Perk had more than once declared.

Jack held to his resolve, and refused to say another word until he had taken the sharp edge off his appetite. Just then he doubtless could appreciate how his always hungry chum must suffer between meals.

By the time he had been munching the stuff the sympathizing Perk kept putting before him, for something like ten minutes, the acute sensation had passed away.

Perk had also been doing a little side act of his own, and managed to put away a fair proportion of eatables. He was waiting as patiently as he could for Jack to start telling what he meant by the word “discoveries;” and hoping something entertaining might be forthcoming.

“I’m glad you saw fit to fetch that big flashlight, ditto the two extra dry batteries along, buddy,” observed Jack, finally; “because we’re going to find a good use for the same. I’ve entered a claim for a nice dry residence, which we can use while we’re in this region – rain or shine, cold or otherwise, it’s a sure enough jim-dandy cave!”

“Bully boy, Jack; I’m tickled pink to hear such good news; when do we move in, tell me?”

“Right away – that is, by the time darkness comes along, Perk; because it isn’t a great way off – a fissure in the big rock that looked sort of inviting to me; so I crept inside, with a splinter of dry wood that I could coax to burn. Couldn’t see all I’d have liked to, but enough to tell me the crack developed into a regular cavern, with a roof fully twenty feet up, and feeling a heap warmer than we found ourselves last night.”

“Whoopee! that sounds right fine to me, cully; I’m sure glad yeou hit sech a prize package fust shot. But I jest knowed yeou’d be adoin’ yeour stuff when I was a crawlin’ ’long daown there in the bottom land. I’m crazy to take a squint at aour new lodgin’; but I guess there aint no sech hurry.”

“Plenty of time for everything,” Jack assured him, still engaged in the pleasant task of feeding the furnace fires within. “We can have a great chin once we get settled; and Perk, I spent a full hour toting a lot of wood into that split in the wall.”

“Meanin’ as haow we kin even have a bully little fire – all the comforts o’ home, an’ nary a red cent to pay for rent, in the bargain. Ain’t we the lucky boys, though.”

“Listen! that’s a familiar sound I’m picking up, eh, what, Perk?”

“Sure is!” cried the other, showing signs of sudden excitement. “Some sorter airship headin’ thisaways. Must be that ole crate belongin’ to the boys daown in the valley; let’s git back to the cliff, an’ see what’s what, Jack.”

CHAPTER XXIV

In the Tom Sawyer Cavern

“She’s acomin’ closer right along, Jack!” Perk was saying, cautiously, as he limped along at his companion’s heels, evidently more or less tired after his long tramp, with that great pack settled on his back.

Jack realized this fact himself. He was keeping a wary eye turned in the quarter whence the roaring sound could be heard, constantly growing louder with each passing second. If he suddenly discovered the approaching plane he could give the plodding Perk the “high sign”, when both must drop down flat to keep from being discovered by those in the ship’s cabin.

As it happened the incoming aircraft was keeping low down, its pilot undoubtedly expecting to swing into the valley by way of the spreading jaws of the narrow pass.

By the time they managed to gain their old location the landing had been successfully accomplished, a fact that caused Perk to remark:

“Huh! them guys arunnin’ that crate aint no dummies at their job, sure as shootin’. That was a slick landin’ the gink at the stick set daown. Wow! See haow they’re aswarmin’ eout o’ evry shack, will yeou; like this comin’ back o’ the patched-up ship might mean it was afetchin’ ’em all sorts o’ stuff they kinder hankered after? What a soft time them rats air ahavin’, with nawthin’ to do ’cept wait fur the supper bell to sound.”

“Watch and see what manner of stuff they take out of the cabin,” advised the wide-awake Jack, with an evident hope he might learn a few “wrinkles” concerning the occupation of the confederates in this mountain retreat, by thus checking their plane’s cargo, for he had noted that it was heavily laden.

There seemed to be an abundance of willing workers now, and the way the freight was lifted out of the cabin, to be carried toward the big log cabin, told of the personal interest they had in the stuff.

“Looks mostly like grub, I’d say,” Jack remarked, keeping his eyes fastened to the useful binoculars; “and I reckon business, whatever it is they’re carrying on, must be good, for them to buy such a mountain of food, staples and fancy groceries in the bargain.”

Perk could be heard making a queer sound in his throat.

“I’m a piker if this doant beat anythin’ I ever stacked up against,” he gritted between his teeth. “Hard times, they say, an’ yet here’s a bunch o’ tough guys aloaded up with ’bout sech truck like a oil-well nabob daown in Oklahoma might lay in fur the hull winter. Mebbe I wouldn’t like to board up at this hotel fur a spell! I’d sure make a dent in their ole grub pile.”

The plane cabin was soon emptied, and apparently it had held an enormous cargo. They saw the two men forming the crew head toward the dining hall, as though to await the call to supper. Perk, having begged to hold the glasses, was eagerly staring at the pair, wearing dingy flying togs.

“Hot-diggetty-dig!” he muttered, just loud enough for Jack to hear him, “so that’s what took ole Nat outen San Diego, was it? Did somethin’ to make him want to skip by the light o’ the moon, an’ then hitched up with this ere rotten bunch o’ crooks. He sure had it comin’ to him, bein’ he’d been skatin’ on the edge o’ goin’ bad some time back.”

“You seem to know some one, Perk, from what you’re saying?” ventured Jack.

“Yeah! a galoot called Nat Tucker, once a fair sorter pilot; but kinder crooked, some folks used to say behind his back. That’s him, the stouter lad with a limp – got that onct when he had to step off a mile high, an’ his chute didn’t work as nice as it orter, lettin’ him crash when he landed in a hay field – would a been killed if it’d been rocks, like these here. Found his level okay when he struck this rotten crowd. Had a sorter nice halfbreed squaw fur a wife, too, pretty as a picture; but I heard she kicked Nat aouten the house, so he’s cleared up fur keeps. Well, he’s kinder classy as a pilot, an’ said to be a reg’lar dare-devil in his way. The boys’ll sure be some s’prised to hear what’s happened to ole Nat.”

As the crowd down in the valley had thinned out by this time, most of them passing into the big log cabin, Jack concluded there was no necessity for himself and Perk to remain any longer at their lookout point.

Once back at their former campground Jack picked up his supper at the point he had quit when the sound of the oncoming airship drifted to their ears.

Perk looked expectant, as though he still remembered that his chum had promised to enlighten him concerning various discoveries made during the day just then closing.

“I’ve been figuring things out,” Jack commenced saying, as he continued his interrupted meal, “and from a number of little things I saw I’m almost certain these banded crooks must be carrying on a bogus-money plant up here – several times when the wind changed I thought I could catch a queer sort of sound that was along the line of machinery, a press perhaps working at printing the counterfeit bills.”

“Gee whiz! I wonder!” ejaculated the deeply interested Perk, his eyes aglow with half suppressed excitement.

“Stop and figure it out for yourself, buddy,” Jack went on smoothly, as though his own mind was already fully made up. “Could anybody think up a finer and safer location for such an illegal plant than up here, where they could carry on their work without molestation? And then, when they had a good grist of bogus stuff to scatter over the western country, how easy to send it out aboard that swift airship? I warrant you they’re doing a land-office business – no stagnation in this neck of the woods, even if it’s said to be the case nearly everywhere else all over the world.”