Hardly had Perk turned his head than he gave utterance to a low cry.
“What do I see but another crate humping along this way, an’ outen the no’th in the bargain?” he observed, with ill concealed eagerness in his tones. “Could it be Oscar, an’ the other skunks got ’em a hull fleet o’ airships to carry on their trade o’ smugglin’ in licker, diamonds an’ Chinks that want to get in this country more’n they do the yeller man’s Paradise? Oh! rats, what’m I thinkin’ about–wake up, Gabe Perkiser, an’ use your noodle like it was given to you to handle. To be sure that second plane is our own bus, with my pal handlin’ the stick. An’ I guess Oscar must a glimpsed him headin’ this way, which made him reckon this wasn’t the healthiest place in the country for a feller o’ his size, so he skipped out pronto. Yep, that’s my pal for a cookey, I’d know his way o’ handlin’ a ship in a dozen an’ as far as I could lamp the boat.”
On the whole he was extremely glad to see Jack returning, although also pleased to know he had had his little frolic in a miniature battle that for the brief period of its life had been able to give him a most delicious thrill.
He watched the oncoming ship grow in size and noted the significant fact that its approach was so lacking in all the customary racket that deafens the human ear.
Then presently a hand waved to him, Jack swung around and dropped with a little splash upon the water–just where Oscar had so recently left it–to taxi along and pull up close to the camouflaged sloop.
CHAPTER XIV
THE COAST GUARD MEN
Perk made a discovery just then that afforded him more or less satisfaction. This was the fact that apparently Jack’s mission to Tampa had not been in vain for he could see several heads in the cabin of the amphibian beside that of his best chum.
“Huh! ’pears like Jack fetched through okay, an’ has ferried some guys back with him to take this stuff off’n our hands,” Perk was muttering, even as Jack started to clamber aboard the sloop, being closely followed by a couple of determined looking young men.
“Back again, brother,” Jack observed, as he clasped the extended hand of his partner, then, gave a queer grimace upon taking note of the splintered coaming of the sloop as well as the badly pockmarked barricade of mahogany logs. “Say, what’s all this mean, I want to know–looks like you might have been mixed up in some sort of rumpus while I was away!”