Eagles of the Sky; Or, With Jack Ralston Along the Air Lanes

by Ambrose Newcomb

  CHAPTER XIV

  THE COAST GUARD MEN

  Perk made a discovery just then that afforded him more or lesssatisfaction. This was the fact that apparently Jack's mission to Tampahad not been in vain for he could see several heads in the cabin of theamphibian beside that of his best chum.

  "Huh! 'pears like Jack fetched through okay, an' has ferried some guysback with him to take this stuff off'n our hands," Perk was muttering,even as Jack started to clamber aboard the sloop, being closely followedby a couple of determined looking young men.

  "Back again, brother," Jack observed, as he clasped the extended hand ofhis partner, then, gave a queer grimace upon taking note of thesplintered coaming of the sloop as well as the badly pockmarkedbarricade of mahogany logs. "Say, what's all this mean, I want toknow--looks like you might have been mixed up in some sort of rumpuswhile I was away!"

  Perk grinned and nodded his head cheerfully.

  "Had a heap o' fun, old boss, an' got loads o' thrills out o' it. Mebbenow you noticed some sort o' crate just vanishing among them clouds offtoward the east as you breezed along?"

  "Thought I did," came the immediate reply, "but the visibility wasgetting poor, and I couldn't be sure it wasn't a buzzard, or even aneagle ducking in and out. What's it mean, Perk--was he kicking up a messaround here?"

  "You said it, partner, an' his name was sure Oscar--Oscar Gleeb, 'causehe got mad as hops when I asked him, an' told me that wasn't any o' mybusiness. But we sure did have a nice hot spell, Oscar'n me."

  "Yes, and I reckon now you got your old right ear touched up again,Perk, for I can see streaks of half-dried blood running down yourcheek."

  "Yeah, he nicked me okay, an' if this keeps on much further I'll soon betaken for the Manassa Mauler, 'cause it'll gimme a cauliflower ear. Whoare these two lads, Jack--look like they might belong to the CoastGuard."

  "Just what they are--meet Tom Cairns and Red McGrath, who have been sentalong with me to take charge of this contraband and hand it over to Mr.Philip Ridgeway, temporarily in charge of the Treasury Departmentinterests along the West Coast here, with headquarters in Tampa--this isthe fine pal you heard me speaking about a few times, boys--GabePerkiser, commonly known simply as Perk, a veteran of the big scrap overin France where he flew one of those sausage observation blimps, and waslater on considered something of an ace in our flying corps."

  So Perk gladly shook the hands extended to him, grinned in his genialfashion, and from that moment on they were as brothers all.

  "While we're stretching our legs, after being cooped up in that crampedcabin for some hours," suggested Jack, whose curiosity had naturallybeen aroused by the multitude of signs all around indicative of a warmsession, "suppose you sketch your little adventure for us, Perk. And Iwant to say that Oscar was pretty much of a fool if he reckoned onsnatching this boat away from an old fighter like _you_, when youhad a nice new machine-gun to back up your claims."

  "Shucks! he showed the right stuff for a scrapper," expostulated thehonest Perk, anxious to give credit where credit was due. "We stoppedthe barrage at one point to have a little chin, but unable to agree, wejest started all over again. An' I kinder guess I must've notched thecritter some, for he hauled off an' skinned the cat by kickin' out. Iwas jest tellin' myself it sure turned out to be a good thing he didn'thave any Chinks aboard at the time, 'cause they might've lost the numbero' their mess in the racket--I'm willin' to stop the yeller boys fromcrashin' Unc' Sam's gates, but I don't crave the job o' sendin' the poordicks along to their worshipped ancestors, not me."

  "Well, get a move on you, Perk, and let's have the story of yourfight--did he drop down, and have it out with you on the water; or washe circling above your head all the while?"

  "If you'll take another squint at these bullet marks, old hoss," saidPerk, reproachfully, "you'll see they passed along on the level. Yeah,he was a square shooter I want to say and some day I'm hopin' me'n Oscarc'n shake hands, since the war's long past an' German is being taughtagain in our public schools."

  Then he launched forth in a graphic, if terse, description of theremarkable battle that had so recently taken place. The others listenedwith intense interest, for if Perk did have a way of cutting hissentences short and never going into lengthy descriptions, neverthelesshe made his points tell, and kept his audience of three breathing fastwith the thrill they received.

  "Now let's get a move on," Jack was saying after Perk had finished theexciting description of his adventure, "and go over all this mess ofcases, so these boys can give us a little document to say how we turnedover that number of boxes to their charge, together with the sloop.McGrath here used to run the engine of a tug in New York harbor and iswell able to manage this rusty cub here--we found it capable of doing aday's work, you know Perk, on the way here."

  Jack's word was law, since he was in command. Accordingly they started asystematic check of every case of bottled goods to be found aboard theconfiscated vessel, above and below decks.

  "Just an even two hundred and twenty-six," announced Jack, after theyhad gone over the entire lot twice with the same result. "I reckon a fewgot away aboard that speedboat but they didn't have much time to workthe racket before the hijacker mob swarmed aboard and kicked up thatriot--then along came Perk, with his armful of tear-bombs and broke upthe Boston tea party in great shape. I'll make out a paper for both ofyou to sign, after which you can kick-off when you please."

  All this was satisfactory to McGrath and his comrade and the paperhaving been duly signed, they set about examining the engine so as tolearn whether it could have been injured in any way from the storm ofmissiles that came aboard during the hostilities so lately ended.

  "The bally old thing seems to be in fairly decent shape for running,"was McGrath's verdict after the checking had been completed, "and sincewe've got some distance to cover before we make Tampa Bay, p'raps we'dbetter be shoving off."

  "No such big hurry as that, boys," observed Jack. "I'm a bit hungrymyself and reckon you both must be in the same boat. We've got plenty ofgrub, and to spare, also Perk here knows a few wrinkles along thecooking line. Suppose we have some sort of spread to celebrate Perk'svictory."

  "Huh! pleases me okay, brother," announced the expectant _chef_."I've run across a little rusty kerosene burnin' stove here in what I'dcall the cook's galley, an' we might as well have some hot coffee withthe eats."

  As there were no dissenting votes the motion was carried unanimously;whereupon Perk bustled around and soon had his coffee pot over anapology for a flame which would, however, answer their purpose.

  It was only a simple supper, but with good appetites to back them, everyone of the quartette declared it was great and would long be remembered.

  Then the mess of saw palmetto leaves and other stuff utilized forcamouflage purposes was cast overboard after which McGrath "fiddled"with the engine and soon had it running, limp and all, for its misseswere plentiful, although the engineer allowed there did not seem to beanything fundamentally wrong.

  "If we have fair luck," he announced, confidently, "we ought to fetchour Tampa dock, where all prizes are tied-up, before morning comesalong. On the other hand, if we break down we'll either hang on to thesloop, or if luck runs against us, sink her, after smashing every bottleaboard."

  "Good enough, Red," Jack told him as they shook hands for the last time."I hope we run across you boys again some day, and please keep your lipbuttoned about our being down here with an amphibian to knock some ofthese smugglers of Chinks and rum galley-west."

  "You can depend on us to keep mum, Jack," the red-headed ex-harbor tugengineer assured him.

  So the last line was cast off, Jack and Perk retired to their own ship,and with many a wheeze and complaint the sloop started to pass out tothe open gulf, and commence the night journey to Tampa Bay.