The Sky Pilot's Great Chase; Or, Jack Ralston's Dead Stick Landing

But Jack was obdurate to his wild entreaties.

“No use Perk,” he told the other through means of the handy ear-phone apparatus. “They failed to do us any damage, though their intentions were plain enough and remember, ‘he who laughs last laughs best’. If your snapshot turns out fairly decent it’s bound to put a lot of those dangerous guys in the soup when Mr. Maxwell fits out a bunch of revenue men to round them up. In other words, brother, because of our little job today the chances are we’ve put the kibosh on this bootleg mule-train racket and for keeps in the bargain!”

XV

WINGING INTO THE NORTHLAND

Perk was still in a high rage because of their having been subjected to that shower of whistling lead.

“For two cents – if you ’lowed me to do it partner,” he boomed with many a shake of his head, “an’ swooped down once more, I’d a let loose on them pesky jayhawkers an’ rum-runners with my bully o’ machine gun. It’d seem jest like ol’ times come back agin an’ you bet I’d a pickled a few o’ the rattlesnake bunch!”

“Remember Perk, we’re not up here to pickle anybody. This is only what you might call a little side-show – the big round-up lies further north where we’ve been given a job to tackle – we’re just on our way – that’s the whole thing in a nutshell.”

As usual Perk soon calmed down, being sensible enough to realize that no injury had been done either their ship or themselves. They had met up with a stirring little adventure and come out of the row with credit which ought to be satisfactory, on their side at least.

“What dye s’pose them yaps think ’bout us flyin’ so low down over their heads like we wanted to take a peep at the mule pack train?” he presently asked the one at the stick.

“That’s something we can only give a guess at,” Jack told him. “They’re just naturally suspicious as all lawbreakers are and I reckon right now they’re likely comparing notes to try and get a line on our standing.”

“Huh! guess now you might mean whether they had anything to fear ’bout our ship or not, eh partner?”

“That’s the idea, buddy. Up in this part of the country air craft are a rarity, I should say and they must be a whole lot suspicious after having us dip down as we did. I don’t imagine any one saw that you were taking a snapshot of the pack train, for they had no glasses that I noticed.”

“Oh! that part worked okay ol’ hoss,” quickly announced Perk, “I didn’t make any show when I snapped the gun off but we sure got ’em guessin’ if I know my beans an’ I figger I do. If you don’t mind mentionin’ the fact partner, how do you mean to get in touch with Mister Maxwell so’s to let him know what’s goin’ on up here on these mountain trails?”

“I’ll find a way to do that before long,” came the confident answer. “Of course, he may not be able to lay a trap for this particular pack-train but they keep on coming, and like as not the next convoy will run up against a snag. Mr. Maxwell I imagine, is a corker of an operator, one who never lets the grass grow under his feet when there’s need for quick action. Some fine morning, after we get back from this trip, we’ll be apt to read all about how this rum-running business with mules carrying the stuff over the mountains, has been smashed to a powder and all the head men put behind bars.”

“Unless I’m away off my guess,” further remarked the loquacious Perk – who seemed wound up and just must keep going for so long before cooling off – “that clippin’ said somethin’ ’bout a warehouse on this side o’ the line. Reckon now there’s anythin’ in that report, Jack?”

“You’re a little off the track there, brother,” he was told. “No such thing as a warehouse was mentioned. It simply stated that it was believed the pack trains all centered at a certain point where they had big, powerful trucks in waiting to carry the smuggled cases to certain cities where they were in cahoots with the authorities – meaning of course, that the officers sworn to carry out the laws of the country and their own State, are taking graft and closing their eyes to what is going on.”

“Huh! nice kettle o’ fish when such things c’n go on with the jails so full now they’re turnin’ the real criminals out to make room for these pizen snakes in the grass.”

“That’s none of our business, Perk. We’re only a part of the Secret Service layout with our work mapped out for us. When we’ve shown up with results, that’s as far as we’ve got to consider – let the solons do the rest.”

Something in Jack’s decisive manner of saying this must have warned the talkative one the matter had been threshed out as far as was needful for the time being and that it would be just as well if they relapsed into silence so as to consider other matters that were really more important.

So Perk clamped on the lid and talked only to himself for a long time afterwards, a sport that generally afforded him considerable joy and satisfaction.

Time passed, with their ship keeping up its swift passage, now close to the tops of outlying ridges and anon passing over valleys so far beneath the voyagers that objects to the naked eye assumed very diminutive proportions.

No further mule pack-trains were sighted but then Jack had considered this fact and had no expectation of meeting up with a second caravan. Because of the existing necessity for guarding the high-priced booze they dealt in, so as to be prepared to resist an encounter with bandits known in the rum racket under the name of hijackers, the expeditions could only be sent off at stated periods and there might not be another for a week or two.

It was all pretty wild country over which they swept as on the wings of an eagle heading for the breeding places of its species far up toward the Arctic Circle and in due time Perk began to weary of staring down at such monotonous pictures.

Once they passed over a railroad and he felt thrilled by the thought that man’s ability to invade the most inaccessible regions of the earth had put a bit and bridle into the mouth of even so wild a horse as such a land could be compared to in the mind of a visionary fellow like Perk.

On they went, still penetrating deeper into the mysterious northland and heading for that isolated post of the Canadian Mounted Police that was said to be at the extreme edge of the uninhabited stretch lying south of those desolate barrens touching on the Arctic regions where, according to Perk’s way of describing things, might be found the jumping-off place that gradually fades away into the near Polar ice-cap.

It was as Jack had learned, a great country for pelts and with signs of gold cropping out of the soil in a myriad of places. The only living human beings likely to be met with would be lone trappers running lines of traps in the dreadful winter season, occasional daring prospectors and stray Indian villagers during the summer when they carried on their annual hunt for meat to be cured for winter use.

Here too, might be found in secret hideouts more than a few fugitives from justice – men who had fled from the long arm of the law and lived the lives of hermits, their hand against all others and compelled by necessity to play the part of desperadoes.

Such a dominating character as the Hawk would not be long amidst such surroundings before he gathered to his standard a select number of like bold spirits. These would be only too willing to follow him in his raids on the stores of isolated fur-takers, white or red, it mattered not, since all men looked alike in their eyes or making occasional more ambitious forays upon some outpost and trading center of the great Hudson Bay Company.

Even the Mounties it seemed had thus far been baffled in all their efforts to break up this powerful and elusive corporation of evildoers, so cleverly handled were the go-getters under the Hawk that they had a rare faculty for slipping out of any trap set for them, just as the Irishman’s flea never was where he jabbed his finger down.

It tickled Perk’s vanity considerably to think a problem that had so long been too much of a knotty one to be solved by those wonderfully smart members of the Mounties had now, after a fashion, been transferred to the shoulders of himself and comrade – that the stern resolution on the part of the Government at Washington to recapture the criminal who had given the penitentiary at Leavenworth French leave had so worked out as to form a sort of partnership between the Secret Service and the constabulary of the Great Northwest country.

Having himself served in the ranks with some of those Mounties, it was puzzling Perk tremendously as to just how his former comrades had fallen down on the job of bringing in the Hawk. He had always believed that they never failed to get their man, sooner or later, being ready to follow him to the Pole itself if necessary and to ease his worried mind of this strain he now, as usual, turned his batteries on Jack once more.

XVI

BAFFLED BY HEAD WINDS

During the last hour or two their progress had not been so entirely satisfactory as they might have wished, on account of head winds that held them back more or less. This, however, did not give Jack the slightest uneasiness for as he so often told his more impatient companion, they were in no haste and that more battles were won by slow resistless pressure than by mere swiftness, as history would testify.

“Jack,” observed Perk when he felt in dire need of receiving information on the special subject that was giving him distress, “c’n you put me wise jest how come the Mounties ain’t never yet been able to grab this Hawk, as they call him – the feller we’ve set out to yank off’n his high perch? From what I know ’bout the boys, thar didn’t ever come along any problem they couldn’t straighten out. It’s a sorter slogan, as you might call it, with the Mounties that once they sets off on the track o’ a marked man he’s goin’ to be fetched in, no matter how far he runs or how many pals he’s got to back him up. I’m sure bothered a heap to know what’s happened to the force if they’ve fallen down on this here job.”

Jack made light of the matter, however.

“Nothing queer about that, partner,” he told the mourning Perk. “Your friends the Mounties are only human after all. It’s true they’ve the reputation of always getting their man but you must take that with a grain of salt, Perk. There must have been occasions – rare enough I’ll grant you – when in spite of all they could do their game got away or else kept on giving them the slip until perhaps he got into a row with some of his own gang and was wiped out.”

“Yeah! that does seem reasonable I own up, ol’ hoss,” Perk admitted a bit against his will as the other could understand, “but this critter keeps on thumbin’ his nose at ’em and playin’ hob with decent folks’ affairs. Don’t seem as if the boys might be keepin’ up with the reputation they had when I chanced to be playin’ in their backyard.”

“I wouldn’t say that if I were you, Perk,” remonstrated Jack, “we’ve got to consider that lots of changes have come along in the last few years to alter the conditions. For instance, just see what we’re doing right now, hopping along so merrily at the rate of two miles a minute with nobody to hold us up. Suppose the Mounties were hot on the track of a desperado, – then all at once they heard a great clatter and saw an airship rising above the pines with two men aboard, one waving his hat at them and making gestures of disdain – what could they do about such a getaway? He could be a thousand miles distant in ten hours and none of them know whether he went south, east or out over the ocean.”

“Hot ziggetty dog! I never did think o’ that sorter thing, partner,” confessed the awakened Perk, knocking his fist gently against his head as if to stir up his sluggish brain so as to grasp the new condition of affairs as presented by his wideawake chum. “Mebbe now the boys ain’t dropped back any, it’s on’y that the workaday world has gone an’ bust up ahead – ’less you keep abreast o’ these here inventive times you soon git left in the lurch. Airships that c’n run upside-down – radio that c’n span half the world so’s a feller hears King George talkin’ right over in London – talkin’ movies that you could enjoy even with Byrd down at the Antarctic Polar regions – gosh! it ain’t no wonder if the Mounties do once in a great while let their man slip away! We’re livin’ in too fast an age for old ways to bring in the bacon.”

Apparently Perk had plenty to think about since Jack had enlightened him in this fashion, at any rate he asked no further questions but went about his various duties with a thoughtful face.

Now he was making a test to ascertain just how their supply of fuel was holding out and informing the pilot of the result, knowing how this must always be a matter of moment to any one getting so far away from the outskirts of civilization as they were then where they could have scanty hope of adding to their diminishing store in case of near exhaustion.

But on comparing results Perk found no cause for anxiety on this score, since his deductions corresponded with the figures previously obtained by his chum Jack who had a decided flair for making accurate estimates in advance.

Perk made his customary rounds, investigating conditions and with a keen eye seeking the faintest indication of possible faults in the running of the airship.

Then that age-old trouble began to assail him and he realized that he had a most aggravating vacuum that really ought to be attended to if he wished to retain his peace of mind. The sun was as near the zenith and it was high time they had a snack calculated to carry them along until they found a chance to cook a real meal for since they would be apt to settle down with the approach of evening Perk had already made up his mind he would have a genuine camp supper, memories of that recent feast seeming to haunt him most tantalizingly.

Possibly too, the tricky fellow may have had a few little surprises in the way of unusual supplies with which he hoped to bring a happy grin on the face of his comrade – an old scheme with Perk by the way – one word for his pal and two for himself.

Another lovely little lake appeared way down below, making about a score they had glimpsed since starting out on the hop from Spokane that morning, each one presenting some additional novel feature that caused Perk to stare and admire. He even found himself wishing Jack might finally decide to take advantage of the presence of a body of water where they could feel comfortable while the night lasted. Later on Perk figured on suggesting that idea to the pilot for indeed, since ground landing places were so few and far between in that mountainous country, it would seem as though such a policy might be the only one they could adopt.

Jack, when he saw the spread made by his chum, announced himself as ready to assist in making way with the food supply, though he would wait until Perk had taken his toll when he meant to turn the stick over to him for a spell.

This programme was duly carried out and no time lost. Perk compared it to a traveler seated in the diner of a limited express train heading for Los Angeles or New York City.

“But stop and think, brother, how old-fashioned you are right now,” Jack told him, his mouth well filled just then with the sandwich he was enjoying. “Why, today they have cross-country airships that carry complete dining outfits with a first-class chef in attendance, also sleeping berths to be made up when night draws close. You’ll have to get a move on, buddy, for the procession is already at your heels and threatening to take your number.”