Even as he thus looked he discovered a small object that he felt sure could be nothing else than Perk’s dingy old bandanna, which he so often wore about his neck, cowboy fashion, when on duty aboard their crate.
One minute he saw this object, and then it vanished utterly from view. Well, that fact rendered his belief more certain—Perk was on deck as big as life; and in three minutes more he would have struck home—it was time he and Jethro were fading out of the picture—making a silent exit from the scene, and be on their way.
So Jack touched his companion on the arm, and began to creep off, with the other close after him.
They succeeded in passing from the near vicinity of the illumination inside the appointed three minutes, after which Jack listened intently as he kept moving, ready to be duly thrilled by an outbreak and commotion announcing the discovery of the blazing crate there on the sloping runway.
Just as he figured it all turned out—without warning loud yells and whoops rang out, telling that every man-jack in the camp must have suddenly made the tremendous discovery that their waiting plane was wrapped in fiercely devouring flames; for the gasoline which Perk had so carefully scattered here and there, would make a wonderful blaze on contact with fire.
Jack found himself speculating how Perk must have managed so as to be on his way, possibly already secure back of the dense thicket, before the fire broke out; but all that could be explained later on.
He remembered what the other had said about having a “hunch”; and Jack, knowing how fertile his pal was in originating bright schemes, felt certain he had been able to rise to the occasion.
He found himself laughing softly as the dreadful clamor rose higher and higher. In imagination he could even see how the startled smuggler crowd must be forced to keep their distance from the costly airship that was being reduced to ashes right before their eyes, with nothing to be done about it, such was the scorching heat accompanying the holocaust.
When it was all over, with nothing remaining save the useless engine of the burned plane, doubtless there would follow a perfect hurricane of surmises as to how so mysterious a fire could have started. The most reasonable conclusion naturally would be that some spark from their camp fires might have been wafted toward the airship, and, still retaining its vigor, fallen upon a tiny pool of inflammable gasoline spilled when the tank had been last replenished.
Let them think what they pleased, it mattered nothing to Jack—the one prime object of his self congratulation lay in the fact that their initial blow had been struck, and the contraband carriers of the air reduced by one useful factor.