Eagles of the Sky Part 13

Occasionally he managed to discover some tiny light and this gave him an opportunity to speculate as to its meaning--if isolated he concluded it must either be a campfire made by alligator hunters, or a street light in some small hamlet, such as he imagined might be found in this almost wild section of lower Florida where the Everglades with their eternal water kept settlers from picking out locations for starting truck patches or citrus groves--all of which would probably be vastly changed when the great reclamation plans for draining had been fully carried out.

He often felt certain he glimpsed water below and had enough knowledge of the country to understand what that would mean.

"Wonder jest how long he means to keep this up," Perk was saying to himself when the better part of an hour had pa.s.sed since they left the open gulf behind, "huh! by this time we must a'gone more'n sixty miles an' say, in places the hull State ain't more'n a hundred across from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mex. Gulf. Whoopee! could it mean he's aimin' to strike that terrible, big lake--Okeechobee--that overflowed its banks not long ago when they had that nasty hurricane and drowned a wheen o'

poor folks around Moore Haven? Gee whiz! it's got me a'guessin' but then Jack knows what he's tryin' to do, an' I'm goin' to leave it all up to him to settle."

Somehow this suggestion appealed to Perk as being quite in line with the magnitude of their tremendous task--it was only appropriate to have the scene of their coming operations the biggest freshwater lake by long odds in the entire State, barring none--it would have been what Perk might term as "small pertatoes, an' few in a hill," to have such a wizard of an operator as Oswald Kearns pick out an ordinary body of water, say of a mile in diameter, as his secret headquarters where he could continue to keep his whereabouts unknown to the Government revenue men.

Lake Okeechobee--well, that certainly offered some scope for any display of their own cleverness in finding the proofs they so yearned to possess in rounding up the "cantankerous varmint," as Perk was already calling Kearns in his Yankee vernacular.

It could not be much longer delayed, Perk a.s.sured his eager self--less than another hour of this sort of work would take them entirely across the peninsula, and cause the plane to fetch up somewhere along the Atlantic coast between Miami and Palm Beach. Much as Perk would like to set eyes upon those two opulent Southern winter resorts in the midst of their splendor, he felt that such a thing would hardly be proper under the conditions by which their visit would have to be governed--small chance for anything bordering on secrecy to be carried out in such a region of sport seeking and excitement day after day.

Ah! it must be coming closer now, he decided on noting how, far below the plane, he could make out what looked like a vast sea with little wavelets glimmering in the light of the moon--a.s.suredly that must indeed be the lonely lake, long known as the home of mystery, Okeechobee, the mightiest stretch of fresh water in the whole country of the South.

Jack was pa.s.sing up along the western sh.o.r.e line as though his plan of campaign called for a descent in some obscure quarter where they could find a hideout in which to park their aircraft while they pursued their urgent call ash.o.r.e.

Not the faintest gleam of light anywhere proved that settlers were indeed few and far between and this fact would also explain just why Oswald Kearns, wishing for secrecy and isolation, had selected this region as best suited to his purpose.

Now Jack was dropping steadily, his silencer in full play--it was time for Perk to get busy and through the use of his marine night gla.s.ses keep his pilot posted regarding what lay below them.

CHAPTER XVIII

THE MASTER CROOK

One thing Perk noticed with more or less satisfaction as they drew closer to the surface of the water was the fact that quite a stiff breeze seemed to be blowing out of the north. The waves were running up along the sh.o.r.e with considerable vigor and noise while the dead leaves hanging from the palmetto trees fringing the bank above the meagre beach kept up a loud rustling, such as would effectually drown any ordinary splash made by the contact of their pontoons with the surface of the lake.

Conditions could hardly have been more favorable for an undetected landing--the time was late, so that it hardly seemed as though any one would be abroad, the moon kept dodging behind successive clumps of dark clouds that had swept up from the southwest and everything seemed to be arranged just as Jack would have wished.

Perk had received instructions from his mate to keep on the watch for certain landmarks that would serve to tell them they were not far distant from their intended location. When in due time he made out the wooded point that jutted out so commandingly from the mainland and had communicated that fact to the pilot, Jack turned the nose of his craft sharply downward, proving that the decisive moment was at hand.

Noted for his ability to carry through a delicate landing, Jack certainly never did a prettier drop into a body of water, fresh or salt, with less disturbance than on this momentous occasion, and they were soon riding like a wild duck, just within sight of the sh.o.r.e.

There were no signs of anything stirring along the waterfront, Perk observed, and yet if his suspicions were correct, there must have been considerable activity around that same spot, with a ship coming in laden with stupefied Chinamen, terrified by making such a trip from Cuba or some Mexican port in a "flying devil" that could soar up among the very clouds and span the widest of angry seas--perhaps on the other hand the incoming aircraft would bring a cargo of precious cases, each almost worth its weight in silver or maybe the skipper would carry a small packet in his pocket that might contain a duke's ransom in diamonds that would never pay custom duties to the Government.

No wonder then Perk was thrilled to the core with the sense of mystery that brooded over this most peculiar locality--to him it already a.s.sumed a condition bordering on some of those miraculous things he could remember once reading in his boyhood's favorite book "The Arabian Night's Entertainment," the glamour of which had never entirely left him.

But already Jack was casting about, as though eager to find some place of concealment where they could stow the ship away and so prevent prying eyes from making a disastrous discovery--disastrous at least to those plans upon which Jack was depending for the successful outcome of his dangerous mission.

"We've got to taxi up the sh.o.r.e a mile or so," he was telling Perk in the softest manner possible, although the noise made by the rolling waves and the clashing dead palmetto leaves dangling from the lofty crowns of the numerous trees would have deadened voices raised even to their natural pitch.

"So," was all Perk allowed himself to say, but it testified to his understanding of the policy involved in Jack's general scheme of things.

This was done as quietly as the conditions allowed, and how fortunate it was they had held off from crossing over from the gulf until the middle of the night--but then it might be expected that Jack would consider all such things in laying out his movements.

In the end they managed to get the amphibian between two jutting banks where the vegetation was so dense that there was no chance of a trail or road pa.s.sing that way. In the early morning Jack planned to once again conceal his ship, even as the captured sloop had been camouflaged by Perk's clever use of green stuff.

"That part of the job's done and without any slip-up," Jack was saying, vastly relieved, "and now we can take things easy for a spell, during which time I'll try and post you as far as I can about this queer fish, Oswald Kearns, and what they've begun to suspect he's been doing all this while."

"In the first place he's about as wealthy as any one would want to be, so the reason for his playing this game doesn't lie back of a desire to acc.u.mulate money. Some say he must have run afoul of the customs service in the days when he hadn't fallen heir to his fortune and all this is just spite work to get even--a crazy idea, but there may be a germ of truth in it after all."

"He has a wonderful place not far out of Miami--they all say it's a regular palace, where he entertains lavishly and yet not at any time have they known of a raid staged on his castle, as some call the rambling stone building that shelters a curio collection equal to any in the art museums of New York City."

"Every little while Oswald Kearns disappears and no one seems to know his whereabouts--some guess he's fond of tarpon fishing and goes out with a pal to indulge in the sport, his destination being kept secret so that the common herd can't swarm about the fishing grounds and annoy him; then another lot say he is not the bachelor he makes out, but has a little cozy home somewhere else with a wife who detests society and that's where he goes when away from the Miami paradise."

"Both of these guesses are wide of the truth--what they told me up at the Treasury Department set me thinking and I found some papers aboard that sloop we captured that opened up a startling line of action that might be unbelievable if it were any other man than the eccentric Oswald Kearns."

"By the way, Perk, after I'd committed the contents of those papers to memory I sent them by registered mail to Headquarters because, you see, something might happen to us before we get to the end of this journey and I reckoned the Department would like to be able to take advantage of our discoveries."

"You did jest right there, partner," Perk told him--he was sitting there drinking it all in with the utmost eagerness. "It sure would be a pity if we kicked off an' Uncle Sam couldn't profit by what work we'd done.

But what you've already told me 'bout this here queer guy gets my goat, like as not there never was a feller as full o' kinks as he is."

"I'm pretty certain of that, partner," Jack a.s.sured him, "there's no doubt about his having been ga.s.sed in the war and that might account for his actions--he's dippy along certain lines and he finds this way of defying the Government gives him the one big thrill he wants. It's almost incredible, I own up, but I believe we're going to prove it before we quit.

"Some men you know find this excitement in driving a speeding car along the beach up at Daytona at a hundred miles and more an hour, others go out and hunt tigers in India, lions and elephants in wildest Africa, but with this wealthy sportsman the craze takes the form of snapping his fingers in contempt at Uncle Sam's Coast Guard and all the revenue men in Florida.

"I was a bit skeptical at first, it all seemed so silly, such a whimsey for a rich man to fancy--taking such big risks just for the thrill he got--but the more I picked up about the man the less inclined I became to doubt, and by now I'm convinced it is the truth."

"But what makes him keep all this smuggling business clear of this wonderful show place near Miami?" asked Perk, apparently still groping as though in a daze.

"Just wants to be living his double life," explained Jack, "with one line never crossing the other--you might call it a Jekyll and Hyde sort of an existence. But the truth will come out in broad daylight if ever we _do_ round him up and catch him with the goods."

"Er--'bout how long will we be in makin' some sort o' start, boss?"

asked Perk anxiously.

"We may have to stick around here for some days while we do a little spy work and lay our net," Jack told him. "A great deal depends on, how the land lies and what success we strike in making our approach--you know how it is with all golfers--approach means a whole lot to them. But if we have the good fortune to nab our man after making certain we have plenty of convincing evidence to be used against him, why there's our boat ready to spirit him away before his gang can forcibly take him off our hands."

CHAPTER XIX

THE SCENT GROWS WARMER

It all seemed so simple, as Jack put it, that Perk felt everything was bound to come their way eventually if not just then. All the same his sound common sense told him there was apt to be some pretty lively times in store for them before the end they sought had been obtained.

He had the feeling of one who had been fed up on thrilling details and figured on having a great volume of tragic possibilities to mull over in his customary fashion--for all the world, as Jack often told him, like a cow chewing her cud.

Realizing that Jack had now posted him thoroughly, Perk managed to curb his curiosity besides, the chances were his pal would be likely to frown on anything approaching garrulity.

Several hours pa.s.sed and most of this time they spent taking short naps in order to keep in condition for anything that might crop up. Then came the dawn, to find Perk pawing over his haversack in which he had food stowed away, with which he calculated to meet any "hold-over" that might come along.

That dawn was a wonderful one, especially for those unaccustomed to what Florida could offer in the way of sunrises. Even while the pair partook of their limited breakfast, they kept an eye on the amazingly delicate shades of color that marked the approach of the sun above the eastern horizon.

But they had work ahead and could not waste time by lingering over the early morning meal. In order to lessen the chances of discovery it would be necessary for them to conceal the ship from spying eyes and with his former effectual result in camouflage as a sample of how it could best be accomplished, Perk took it upon himself to repeat the operation.