busied himself in searching the columns of his paper for the latest weather report, especially as concerned the promises for flying craft.
Eventually he found what he was after, and read the report most eagerly. To his delight it seemed to be favorable throughout the coming night, a fact of considerable importance to all air mail pilots, as well as others who were contemplating going aloft while the night lasted.
People passed the door of the room from time to time; and twice Perk had an idea some one was fumbling at the lock; but concluded it might have been some tenant of a neighboring room, either going out, or coming in, for at least nothing suspicious followed, and he breathed easy again.
The hour had just about slipped by when he caught footsteps he knew right well; as he listened he heard them stop before the locked door; then came a light tap, and he caught Jack’s voice:
“Wally, it’s me – Warrington, you know!”
“Okay, suh!” sang out the one within, as he stepped over and turned the key.
“How about it, partner – anything happened since I left?” Jack asked softly, after he had again turned the key in the lock.
“Not any; suh – an’ I ketched the weather report in the dinged paper, which gives us the pleasin’ information as haow it’s bound to be halfway decent this same night, with wind from the southwest up at three thousand feet ceilin’, which makes things look kinder promisin’, I’d say, suh.”
“That settles it then, buddy; we’ll get a move on, and climb out before twelve. Might as well strike Charleston with as little delay as possible, for we’ll possibly have to hang around that place some time, tuning up our new crate to know its possibilities. Besides, I’ve a feeling this town wont be big enough to hold both us, and that cub of a reporter, and keep him from whiffing some of our secrets with that inquisitive nose of his.”
Perk grinned.
“Strikes me, partner, yeou done run up against that nosey critter, same like I done, aint that a fack, suh?”
Jack drew a card out of his vest pocket and tossed it on the table near which the pair of them were just then seated.
“That’s the card he pressed into my hand, with the name of his sheet on the same. We’ve an appointment to dine with him here at the Grady tomorrow night, when he will be at liberty to ask as many questions as he pleases, connected with a rich sportsman’s love for the game fields.”
“Hot-diggetty-dig!” spluttered Perk, fairly aghast; but without waiting for him to say another word Jack continued, with a chuckle:
“Always providing we are still in Atlanta at that time. Yes, I gave him a nice little run for his money – led him on interesting journeyings, and along pleasant ways. He fell for it all, as far as I could judge; and probably I managed to get the fish well hooked; but they’re a slippery bunch, these newspaper chaps, and can give the best detective points, to beat him in the end in solving the great mystery. I’m leery of the whole tribe, partner – you never can tell whether you’re stringing them, or they are playing you, giving you line so as to bring you up with a round turn eventually. We shake off Atlanta’s dust by midnight, brother – and that goes!”
CHAPTER V
Their Running Schedule
“Hot-diggetty-dig! What a big snap I shore missed by not bein’ jest ’raound the corner, alistenin’ while yeou was afeedin’ that tall yarn to ’im, what’s the name o’ that trail hound what builds up thrillin’ yarns fo’ the readers o’ his paper to swaller?” and after taking a look at the card still lying on the table Perk continued: “‘James Douglas Keating,’ huh! well, Jimmy, mebbe so yeou didn’t run up ’gainst a buzz saw when yeou tackled aour – er, Mr. Rodman Warrington.”
“Wait and see,” cautioned Jack; “for all I can tell that lad may have been feeding me some slick medicine when he seemed to fall for my talk so readily. I’m not going to feel dead certain I scotched the busybody until we’ve left Atlanta and Candler Field well in our wake, with nothing happening to prove a give-away.”
“Yeou would, partner – it’d be jest like yeou to say ‘mebbe’ till things they got ab-so-lutely certain – never yet knew yeou to jump at conclusions, so I done reckon yeou was really born to be a scientist. When do we eat, I’d like to know; things are agettin’ near the danger line with me, right naow, an’ there’s a ‘cry from Macedonia, come on an’ dine.’”
“Let’s go,” Jack told him, reaching out for his head covering; for they had both doffed their flying clothes before quitting the ship, and were in ordinary garments that would not cause comment or unusual notice on the streets of any city.
Over a very bountiful dinner they continued to “talk shop” in low tones. Since their table was a bit removed from any other, thanks to Jack tipping the head waiter bountifully, with the orchestra playing softly, it seemed almost an impossibility for any hostile ear to catch a single word they uttered.
Thus Perk was put in possession of further valuable information with regard to the probable field of their forthcoming adventure, Jack having managed in his customary clever fashion to get hold of reading matter covering the entire romantic coast country between Norfolk and Savannah.
“It seems to be a wonderful section, just teeming with queer people and equally strange sights; and for one I’m a bit eager to look things over. Just the same, buddy, neither of us must forget even a minute the main object that’s calling us into the coast skyways. We’ve got a man’s size job on our hands, and some mighty smart people, as well as devil-may-care ones, to pack up against, so that a slip is apt to set us back, and for all we know even cost us our lives. I’m saying that not to scare any one, but because I’ve posted myself on the game, and know to what vile ends some of these dicks would go if they thought men of our trade were holding them under surveillance.”
“Well, so be it, partner doant forgit I’ve heard the whine o’ lead pills close to my ears many a time, so it’s an ole story with me!”
“When we manage to get in touch with one or more of the swift Coast Guard patrol boats things will begin to look brighter – as though there might be something doing; but that wont come along for quite some time. We’ve got to get things down pat, know all about the regular routine movements of those swift airships, and then begin to cut into their number – first one must mysteriously disappear, and then a second, possibly even a third. By that time we’ll have certainly thrown a pretty hefty scare into the bunch, and things are bound to slacken, more or less.”
“Speed the day, sez I, partner caint come any too quick to suit me, an’ that’s no lie either,” saying which valorous, fire-eating Perk again attacked his supper; for by this time they had reached the dessert stage, and were discussing prime apple pie, with the richest of thick cream to top it off, always one of Perk’s favorites, when given his choice.
It will be noticed that when off duty these minions of the Secret Service were apt to live like kings, and with reason; for often they had to put up with scanty rations, and poor at that, when far removed from restaurant fare, and forced to live off the country. “First a feast, and then a famine,” Perk was accustomed to saying when Jack mildly reproached him for giving so much thought to what he usually designated as “the eats.”
Perk would have liked very well to have spent an hour or so at some theatre or other, and had even given a few hints about a screen play at the Paramount but met with no encouragement from his side partner.
“Best for
