Jack watched his contact with the water—the big boat dipped, sprang up, came in touch again, and then settled down to making headway, the little wavelets curling away from the bows of the pontoons with a murmurous sound very similar to the gurgling of a running mountain brook.
“Splendid work, buddy, better’n I could a done it myself, with all the sperience I done had long ago. An’ she does work to a charm, sure as yeou’re born. We’re in bully great luck, all right, to have ’em pick aout sech a dandy ole boat like this, that does her makers credit. I’ll tell the world.”
Jack was not planning to stay in that lonely bayou for any length of time; what they were out to pay particular attention to on this their initial trip was the lay of the land; also to familiarize themselves with the working of the amphibian; so presently he again left the water, and arose like a lark.
CHAPTER XVI
All in a Day’s Work
“And I gotter to admit,” Perk was saying, shortly after they had gained the altitude that gave him a chance to sweep the horizon with his glasses, “even the ole weather sharp stands in aour favor. Look at that sky, buddy; did yeou ever in all yeour life set eyes on a clearer stretch—nary a single cloud pokin’ its nose in sight; an’ to think o’ the measly days an’ nights I uster spend in the mail-carrier business, asloggin’ ’long with a capacity load, and mebbe ice formin’ on my wings to beat the band. Yeah! this lay o’ aourn aint so bad—some o’ the time.”
They swung over much of the territory for fifty miles north of Charleston, with Jack noting the lay of the land as cleverly as any topography expert charting a region, could display. In that wonderful brain of his he undoubtedly must have been engaged in making a mental chart of the ground; the sinuosities of the streams that ran with such eccentricity toward the nearby ocean; the numerous more or less possible landing-places where both boats from salt water, and those dropping down from the clouds, might find a resting place; where their contraband cargoes could be taken aboard waiting trucks, and be transported to safe havens, despite the utmost vigilance of the customs officers and coast patrol forces to apprehend them.
This initial survey of the vast territory open to the expert smugglers, most of it absolutely familiar to those engaged in the illegal traffic, undoubtedly must have impressed the Secret Service man with the immensity of the task so recently placed upon his shoulders.
Just the same, the only visible result of this realization lay in a tightening of Jack’s firm lips, and a fresh gleam in his steady eyes, as though he might be once again dedicating all his energies, his life itself, to the undertaking as yet so young, so untried.
“So much for the territory close to Charleston,” he told his mate, as he turned the nose of his airship once more toward the city; “I’ve got that down pretty pat for a beginning. The next time we come out it will be to take up the survey about where we left off today, and head further north.”
“Judgin’ from what yeou say, partner, I kinder gu—reckons as haow yeou kim to the conclusion they gets their business in further away from dear ole Charleston—haow ’bout that, suh?”