As he too worked close by, Perk was thinking more or less about something that had caught his ever watchful eye just before they entered the hangar to make these last preparations for their southern flight. As usual he was unable to keep his speculations entirely to himself, since he always liked to compare notes, and find out whether his companion’s views coincided with his own.
“Say, Jack, did you happen to notice that Ryan ship they’d just taken out of the shed before ours?” he demanded, while still lifting packages of various supplies, and stowing them away in a shipshape fashion; so they would not be likely to shift, and thus imperil the safety of himself and comrade, should they chance to encounter rough weather later on.
“Not particularly,” came the answer. “I was too busy over my own affairs to bother with anything that didn’t concern me in the least. What of it, Perk?”
“Nothing much, old hoss, only it was a next to new bus, and hadn’t been flown more’n a few thousand air miles, I’d guess. Couple of fellers seemed to be the crew, one of ’em lookin’ like he might be a pilot; and the other a chap that was out to have a jolly good time sportin’ for sport. I saw him handlin’ some sort of gun, which made me guess he was down South for the shootin’ season—mebbe after bear in the Louisiana canebrakes.”
Jack laughed as if amused, for he had noted the way in which the other made this stab at what might be the designs of the unknown parties.
“Feel a bit envious I take it, Perk,” he observed, laconically. “Always did yearn for the day to come when you’d have a ship of your own, and could spend all your spare time jumping about the country, enjoying yourself with rod and gun. Cheer up, old sport, you may live to see that day yet, if things break right for us in a few big games like this one we’re running down.”
“Thanks for your good luck wishes, Jack,” the other was saying; “I c’n just picture the bully times that pair’ll like enough have sitting by their camp-fire, living on game they’ve knocked over, and not caring a darn whether school keeps or not. Oh! well, if I live long enough mebbe I may have a whiff of that kind of life before I kick off for keeps; they say everything comes to the man who waits, and that’s me. There, that finishes my job, with everything stowed away as slick as you please. When you’re ready, Jack, we’ll be on our way.”
CHAPTER III
HEADED SOUTH
Apparently Jack had completed his task about the same time, for he was adjusting his ’chute harness, without which he seldom made a long distance flight. This was only second nature to him, because of the long experience he had had in barnstorming, and doing stunts for a living in years gone by.
This accomplished, he stepped outside the hangar, and beckoned to a couple of ground workers who chanced to be close by, possibly in anticipation of their services being required, with a tip in prospect.