style="font-size:15px;"> “The bigger they get the further they falls, partner, doan’t make any mistake ’bout that ere fack,” said Perk, grimly. “Huh! sometimes I get to thinkin’ what happened up in that Hole-in-the-Wall outlaw retreat, and I’m awonderin’ what ever did come o’ that gang after we kicked off with aour prisoner.”2
“Which reminds me I didn’t think to tell you all the news that was contained in that letter from Los Angeles – want to hear it now, brother?”
“Sure do, Mister,” snapped Perk, greedily; “it’ll amuse me while I’m awashin’ up here in aour neat little bathroom.”
Jack followed him into the next compartment, evidently so that he could keep his voice down to a low pitch.
“Something like a week later,” he told the listening Perk, “they took off in the biggest crate they could commandeer into the service – half a dozen fighting men, heavily armed, and prepared for anything that might come along. Good weather favored them, and they came in sight of the valley among the high cliffs in the daytime.
“After circling, and lowering their altitude, they could not see the least thing to indicate the presence of a solitary human being; so finally the pilot set them down exactly on the smooth landing field the gang used when working their old wreck of a ship, carrying the packages of counterfeit notes out to distribute the same to different stations; and fetching back assorted supplies, including the best of grub.
“The place was abandoned, and looked like an earthquake had struck that particular quarter – the mouth of the pass leading into the wonderful valley was filled thirty feet high with a mass of rocks, thrown down by the tremendous force of the bomb you exploded when we cleared out; and some of the cabins and huts had been knocked to flinders by the men in their rage at being kicked out of their hidden retreat. Their old plane too, was scattered all around the field.
“The Government agents found the plates from which the spurious notes had been printed, and destroyed all but a portion, which they wished to forward to Washington for inspection by the Chief and his staff. Then they amused themselves by climbing to a five hundred foot ceiling, and making a target of the hut where the work had been carried on. Our friend in L.A. went on to assure me a clever hit by a bomb had scattered that squatty building we used to watch by the hour, to the four winds; and the printing press too was smashed to useless atoms by the force of the explosion.”
“Bully! bully!” Perk was saying, joyously, proudly, through the soap lather he had accumulated on his face; “then we sure did a natty piece o’ work up there in that God-forsaken neck o’ the woods. Seems like life has got some bright spots in the framework arter all, an’ ain’t jest a dinky fogbelt like I sometimes find myself b’lievin’.”
“It has its ups and downs we’ve got to remember, partner,” advised sensible Jack; “especially along the risky line of business we’re engaged in. So we’ve got to take things as they come, wet weather mixed with sunny days, and just keep on doing our duty as we find it.”
“Huh gue – reckon we gotter jest grin an’ bear it,” added Perk, rubbing his face and neck with the course huck towel, as he loved to do on occasion. “But haow long do we stick here in Atlanta tell me, Boss?”
“For one night only, if things work as I hope they will,” said Jack, promptly enough, showing that his plan of campaign was beginning to shape up.
“Mind if I step aout for a little while, partner; I done forgot to lay in some tooth-paste, an’ I’m kinder used to havin’ a tube o’ the same along with me, yeou know, suh?”
Perk was the possessor of an unusually fine set of teeth, of which he was inordinately proud, as Jack had occasion to know full well; so that this request on his part seemed perfectly natural.
“Certainly not, Wally,” Jack told him, purposely emphasizing the name, as if to keep the other from forgetting how necessary it was to be forever on his guard, so as not to be caught napping. “Like as not you’ll find a drugstore handy to the hotel, and can get what you want easily enough. I’d rather you didn’t go far away – a walk might seem like a fine thing; but when it’s taken I want to be along, as two pair of eyes and ears might be better than one, to ward off danger.”
“That’s okay, Mister,” came the cheery reply, as Perk stepped over to pick up his hat; “an’ it gives me a warm feelin’ ’raound my heart to hear yeou say that same – I’m never so happy as when goin’ into action, yeou know right well. When I was over in France, helpin’ run that sausage balloon we used for observation purposes, it allers gimme a wonderful thrill jest to see six Heinie ships takin’ off, intendin’ to ketch us guys ’fore we could drop to solid earth, an’ knock the stuffin’ aout o’ us with some o’ their consarned bombs, which they sure knowed haow to manufacture to beat the Frenchies all holler. So-long Ja – Mr. Warrington I’ll be back agin in a jiffy.”
Just the same it was fully fifteen minutes before Perk again showed up; and Jack found himself beginning to worry when the door opened, with Perk’s grinning face exposed. Jack noticed that after the other entered the room his first act was to most carefully lock the door; and there was something significant about this action, so foreign to Perk’s usual carelessness, that the other was forced to believe something or other must have happened while he was out of the hotel, to render Perk so solicitous.
“Got your tooth paste, did you, boy?” he asked.
“Easy enough,” quoth Perk, still with that quizzical expression on his sun-tanned, homely face. “Found there was a drugstore right handy; an’ seein’ I was thirsty I jest stopped over to pick up a drink o’ soda an’ cream. That’s where, things begins to happen, yeou see.”
“Oh! they did,” echoed Jack, raising his eyebrows as he watched the face of the other, and noting how a grave look had succeeded the humorous one. “Suppose you tell me what it was came along while you were enjoying your soda?”
“Well, yeou see, partner,” commenced Perk; “there happens to be a gink astandin’ close by, which I aint paid any ’tention to, bein’ wrapped up in my own affairs jest then. I’d raised the glass to take a fust sup when I done heard somebody say, right by my ear seemed like: ‘Goin’ to stay with us in Atlanta enny length o’ time, Mister Corkendall, suh?’”
Perk evidently had a little streak of the dramatic in his composition, for he stopped just then, and eyed his companion eagerly, as if tickled to know his communication had given the usually cool Jack a bit of a start.
“Oh! you don’t say, brother?” the other was remarking; “then after all the party at the soda counter wasn’t quite a stranger to you seeing he evidently had learned your name?”
“Darned if I kin make aout partner, haow he ever got wise to the fack, so’s to call me Mister Corkendall.”
“Go on, brother – what did you do then?” demanded Jack.
“Huh! I was a bit flustered, yeou see,” explained Perk, “’cause I’d got a side squint at his mug; I reckoned I needed ’bout half a minute to git a grip on my senses; so I tilted up my glass, an’ swallered a few times; and say it ’peared to me like a thousand things flashed through my poor ole brain like a stroke o’ lightnin’.”
“Did you answer him?” demanded Jack, frowning.
“I sure did,” came unhesitating the reply; “’case I jest had to. Yeou see, partner, he’d been astandin’ thar right along, an’ in
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