“What kinder ship be that, partner?” demanded the one who could not be effectually squelched.
“I don’t know—looks mighty like one of those new multi-motored Kingbirds, with a big cabin that might hold a dozen passengers. Now please hold your breath, Wally, and let me think—we’ve got to work fast for they’ll take off any time now.”
Jack having already about decided on their line of action was not long in reaching a conclusion. It was to be the turn of Jethro now—he had promised the other he should have his inning, under the conviction that the guide had earned a right to strike one good blow, so as to feel he had thus avenged his family wrongs at the hands of John Haddock.
A hurried consultation in whispers followed. Then Jethro backed away, with some object carefully tucked under an arm. When he was beyond the range of their limited observation Jack touched Perk on the arm.
“We’re moving our base, brother,” he told him most cautiously. “Jethro has only a regular bomb to set, and will have to scuttle out of that in something of a hurry. They may start a search, and come this way; so we ought to be on our way to the boat.”
“Shucks! naow aint that jest too bad—yeou’re abreakin’ my heart, Boss—I shore did want to see that ship smashed to flinders,” whispered the chagrined Perk.
“We may yet—I know of another place further back, where it’d be safe for us to stop, and then hurry off after it happens.”
In this fashion then did Jack smother the budding mutiny on Perk’s part; so they began their retrograde movement, with all their senses on the alert to avoid any hovering danger.
From all the indications Jack had already guessed the smugglers were on nettles and pins concerning the meaning of the late disasters that had struck their hitherto smooth running machine—they had been turning their heads this way and that, as if uneasy, casting frequent anxious glances toward the big and costly airship (that undoubtedly had only lately become a regular visitor at the rendezvous camp), as if tempted to believe it too might suddenly burst into flames, as though some mysterious and powerful electrical ray were at work, bringing destruction in its wake.
Arriving at the back refuge mentioned by observing Jack, they crouched down and waited for whatever was fated to come to pass. Jack himself felt a bit anxious, wondering whether it had been a wise thing to allow inexperienced Jethro to handle this last hazard—what if he managed to make a mess of it in spite of his good intentions, and all the teaching he, Jack, had given him? On the other hand there was always a possibility that some restless member of the gang suddenly decide to step over, and see if everything was well with the expensive addition to their air force—should such an investigator run smack up against their cracker guide in the act of setting his bomb, the result might be a premature explosion that would prove disasterous to poor Jethro, even though it also destroyed the expensive ship.