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

It was quite useless, however. Had Jack been glancing over a casual invitation to some party he could not have evinced more unconcern. Of course the message was so fashioned that in order to glean its full meaning a recourse to his code would be necessary but then as Perk knew, Jack would be able to pick up a word here and there and in this way get an inkling as to its purport.

VII

PERK HEARS THRILLING NEWS

“On your way, partner – gimme a clue to save me from crashin’!” begged poor Perk, his wits in a huddle that would have made any football enthusiast take a back seat.

“It’s our order to get busy, okay,” said Jack with a gleam in his eyes his pal loved to see, since it meant action and plenty of it.

“Where bound, for the love o’ mike?” continued the other.

“I’ve made out one name here which may be our destination, Perk.”

“Yeah?”

“Spokane,” he was told at which Perk lifted his eyebrows as if to denote more or less surprise, likewise disappointment.

“Huh! ’bout a short day’s flyin’ from this joint,” was the way the ambitious Perk voiced his feelings, just as if his expectations had been taking wings and soaring across the Pacific or some such long distance.

“Go slow, brother,” his mate advised him, “give me half a chance to make this puzzle out – so far I’ve caught just a word or two here and there. From the size of this message there’s a heap back of it. If you’re done stoking, let’s pass up to our den where I can get out my code and decipher this thing.”

Perk was out of his chair in a jiffy.

“I’m with you, laddie so let’s get a move on. I kinder guess now I’ll jump out o’ this here lowdown fit in a hurry, once we get goin’.”

He already looked a hundred per cent more awake than he had been for several days and Jack chuckled as he led the way to the elevator, knowing how new life had been pumped into his chum’s veins by the receipt of the order to go.

Once seated in the room they shared in common, Jack took his secret code from its hiding place and set to work in earnest. Perk could see him writing down word after word and filling in vacant places. The minutes fairly dragged like lead to the impatient one and when Jack sat back, nodding his head as if wholly satisfied, the other again begged him to lift the lid and give him a peep-in.

“What’s the matter at Spokane? Some o’ them Bolshevik miners broke loose over in Idaho an’ threatenin’ to kick up general hell again like they’ve done so many times?”

“A rotten guess brother,” Jack told him. “Nobody said we were going to stop long at Spokane – just ordered to look up a certain party there who’d pass on a bunch of information he’s been collecting this long while back and so help us on our way.”

Perk beamed again, as though quite a load had been lifted from his chest.

“Sounds better to me, ol’ hoss,” he hastened to say. “An’ tell me, where do we go from Spokane?”

“Due north!” snapped Jack smilingly, “in the direction of an old stamping-ground of yours.”

“Across the border – into Canada, partner?” demanded Perk.

“Just where we’ll be aiming for and moreover, buddy seems to me I’ve even heard you speak of a fur-trading post known as Frazer’s, with a Scotchman as factor of the Hudson Bay Company, name of McGregor!”

At that Perk let out one of his whoops as though unable to contain his overpowering delight.

“Ol’ Jimmy McGregor you mean, Jack! Don’t I know him from his moccasins up, the queerest but straightest man in the whole Northwest Territory? Why, I was located not many miles away from his store an’ many a time dropped in to get my ’baccy at his counter. I’ll be as happy as a lark to shake his honest hand again. Now wouldn’t that jar you though – such great luck?”

“Here’s another name you may chance to know. We’re to pick up one of the Mounties at the post and take him along as a sort of guide and backer, so as to show we’re playing our game in conjunction with the legal authorities of the region. Ever meet up with Sergeant Lowden, Perk?”

“Say, I was in cahoots with a mighty fine lad by that name,” came the speedy reply, “but if it’s him they’ve given Red a big boost since I quit the game and went back to flyin’.”

“That sounds good to me, just the same,” Jack told him, “because we’re set to see a heap of the Sergeant before we skip back to our own side of the border and with him being an old pard of yours it’s likely he’ll feel it’s up to him to do his level best to help us corral that wildcat.”

“Meanin’ who, if it’s all the same to you, partner?” Perk observed.

“Listen then and get it pat, brother. Some time last year a certain man escaped from Leavenworth Penitentiary – it’s never been learned just how he managed it, or who on the outside or in gave him a lift. Seems that he was a man Uncle Sam particularly wanted to keep shut up for a long term – a dangerous man to be at large. This brought about a bunch of trouble at Washington, and a number of high officials felt the finger of suspicion. Lax methods and such, you understand, being leveled at them. Rewards have been posted everywhere and I can remember seeing several of them in my travels, but up to now never has the first bit of information filtered in to Headquarters. They seemed to infer from certain hints that the escaped prisoner had gone West, but then again it was said he had skipped to South America where he could change his name and keep on playing hob with other people’s wealth. His name, Perk, before he was hauled in and sent to the pen was Leonard Culpepper!”

“Hot ziggetty dog! so, that’s the way the scent leads us, is it?” cried Perk, evidently fully aroused by the disclosure. “Sure, I’ve seen them posters in mor’n a few post offices north an’ south, east an’ west and wondered who’d be the lucky dick to snatch that fat reward they put up. Gee! you’ve got me near goofy partner, with that news.”

“Listen again then, Perk, and get the gist of what this message has given to us. Information had trickled in through several sources to state positively that a man answering the description of Leonard Culpepper has been playing hob up in the Northwest Territory for some months now. He’s got a few tough bad men he runs with and they take their orders from him. That’s another proof of his identity, since Leonard never would play second fiddle to any living man. It was rule or ruin with him every time.”

“Huh! gettin’ hotter right along I’d say, Jack – suits me to a dot, an’ sure worth waitin’ for in the bargain,” and if any one could judge how happy Perk felt just then, the grin on his face, as well as the way in which he kept rubbing one hand over the other, just like a miser gloating over his gold, would be enough to tell the tale.

“Remember, boy, this man is reckoned a desperate character, ready to go to any extreme to keep his liberty. Even your old comrades the Mounties have so far fallen down on the job of taking him in. He seems to play too slick a game for the whole posse and we understand that at least one officer has mysteriously disappeared when trying to track him to his lair. So make up your mind we’ll have to match wits with even Sherlock Holmes if we hope to get the better of this hard hitter.”

“What’s the name he goes by up there?” asked Perk.

“No name at all – they call him the Hawk, because he swoops down on his prey unawares and is absolutely merciless. Two gold prospectors who were said to have struck it rich somewhere further north have disappeared and it’s suspected they fell in a fight with his gang. Sometimes he’s here and in a few days they tell of him bobbing up a hundred miles away.”

“Jest like a flea,” suggested Perk, “gone afore you c’n put a finger on him. Wall, I kinder like the way our job’s laid out for us, partner. The bigger they are the harder they fall when Uncle Sam’s men get goin’. So we’re meanin’ to pick up a bunch o’ news at Spokane, are we? An’ if it’s a fair question, ol’ hoss, when do we cal’late to pull out o’ this burg?”

“No particular hurry, understand, Perk, we can take our own time going – slow and sure is to be our motto. But I’m a little like you in wanting to make a start, then, if we feel so disposed, we can loaf a while or turn aside if we see a chance to play a trick for Uncle Sam. That gives us a lot of leeway, you see.”

“Nearly two o’clock right now – c’n we get off this afternoon, partner?” hinted the anxious one, appealingly.

“By four we ought to be on our way, buddy. Now let’s get busy!”

VIII

THE TAKE-OFF

Jack was sorry that, owing to their pulling out so soon, he would not be able to visit the hospital again as he had planned and upon mentioning this fact to his companion, Perk shrugged his shoulders as he said:

“That’s a downright shame, I’d say, partner, fact is, I depended on you to find out what Adrian’s last name was – save me a wheen o’ worriment if on’y I knowed it – somethin’ that rhymed with Barnum – Bernard – Burling – Berwind – hang the luck, jest why does this ol’ short memory for names bob up to bother a feller when we’re startin’ off on a big spin an’ may never see thet lady an’ little Adrian again? Seems I’m jest goin’ to speak the right word, an’ then, shucks! it misses connection like, an’ leaves me a gropin’ in the dark.”

Jack, being accustomed to his pal’s queer ways, did not take much notice of the new cause for worry that had gripped the stubborn one. He felt pretty certain he would see Perk sitting many times with a brooding expression on his face and counting his fingers while checking off each and every name he could conjure up that sounded like Barnum, etc., to finally heave a tremendous sigh, shake his head and apparently try to get the troublesome puzzle out of his mind.

It was all very sad but then one usually has to pay some sort of penalty because of having a poor memory for names.

As for Jack, he gave the subject little thought partly because he had matters of much greater moment to take up his attention. Indeed, he would have been considerably surprised could he have suspected how that name for which Perk was grappling just through his stubbornness, would play quite an important part in those adventures which they were destined to run up against on the other side of the Canadian border.

“Now let’s forget everything that happened last night,” he told his chum seriously, “and stick to our business which is connected with the bringing in of that fierce go-getter and all-round bad egg who slipped out of jail so mysteriously that the wardens are floundering in a bog up to this day. All of which proves he’s no easy mark and that we’ll have to be on our toes if we expect to cage our bird.”

They were so well prepared for the sudden emergency call that little remained to be done. The crate was serviced and could cover fully fifteen hundred miles as the crow flies with the gas they had aboard. Then, too, as they figured on stopping over in Spokane possibly a day or so, there would be ample opportunity to refill their aluminum tanks to the limit as well as lay in such other necessities as occurred to them.

“We’ve got to remember,” remarked cautious Jack as they were heading for the flying field before two that afternoon, “that once we start across the line, we’ll have few chances to fill up with gas. They may happen to have some gas at the post, or perhaps the Mounties could supply us because in these days of much flying it would be possible for a ship to drop down near by and be in need of fuel so badly the pilot would pay a big price to be supplied but I don’t mean to bank on such a happening.”

“Huh! mebbe things have changed some since I served with the Mounties,” Perk went on to say; “for there wasn’t such a thing as a gallon o’ gas within fifty or a hundred miles o’ the post at that time. Folks are gettin’ air-minded ev’rywhere you go today an’ it wouldn’t surprise me to find they’ve got some sort o’ a landin’ place close at hand. Ain’t staggered at anything nowadays, buddy.”