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 passed 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 assured 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–assuredly 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 passing up along the western shore 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 ashore.
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 glasses keep his pilot posted regarding what lay below them.