Jack laughed as though the idea had no standing with him.
“Not in a thousand years, Wally; it must be a matter of a mile, perhaps twice that between this spot and from where that gun was fired; you see, the night air heads toward us, and would carry the sound quite a long way.”
He proved that he felt no uneasiness by continuing the conversation that had been interrupted by the sudden far-off shot; and so Perk did not hesitate to toss more fuel on his cheery campfire.
They were thinking of turning in aboard the nearby boat, and seeking their necessary rest, when Perk, who had unusually keen hearing, sat up and inclined his head to one side as though listening.
“Jest what she is, for a fack, partner,” he went on to state; “an’ shore as yeou’re born, suh, they aint no muffler aboard that ship, I’ll take my affidavy on that same.”
“It is a ship, no doubt about that, and heading this way out of the east, you want to notice, buddy,” Jack indicated, as though that mere fact had a deep significance in his eyes.
“Yeah! that’s so,” agreed Perk, readily falling in with the conceit, as he usually did when Jack was the originator of any proposition. “They air acomin’ straight from aout on the ocean, where mebbe a steamer is alyin’ anchored, an’ loadin’ its cargo o’ contraband on fast blockade runners that come ’longside; also sky-carriers in the bargain, sech as drop daown close by on the sea, an’ take on all they kin carry.”
The faint sounds rapidly increased in vigor until even a novice could have decided it was an airplane making almost directly toward their strange camp on Black Water Bayou.
“Keep on listening, brother,” advised Jack; “and then we’ll compare notes as to where we heard the last clatter. Things couldn’t be working more smoothly to suit our plans; and we ought to be pretty well primed by the time we come back here to join up with Friend Jethro.”
Finally the now loud clatter ceased, which those airmen knew full well meant it had succeeded in effecting an apparently safe landing, whether on land or water they could only surmise.