“Blamed nuisance,” he was muttering to himself when this important fact became a positive truth; “guess now that rip-snorter could make circles round us, if so be he wanted to. Shucks! what’s left to us I want to know; an’ just what does he ’spect to accomplish with all this chasin’ us? Might as well get out my little old six-shot bear gun, so’s to be ready in case there’s any sort o’ ruction aheadin’ our way.”
The idea seemed to afford him a strange sort of grim satisfaction, for bending down he ran his hand under the coaming of the cockpit; to almost immediately withdraw a very decent looking sporting repeating rifle, evidently his working tool whenever he felt disposed to spend a week in the wilds, either alone, or with some boon companions also yearning for wild game and the much desired campfire.
“Hold tight, Perk,” Jack was saying just then; “going into a nose dive, and see if that will upset his calculations; for he’s got me buffaloed all right as to what’s in the wind!”
Almost immediately they turned the nose of their craft earthward, and went down on a swift slant. Perk kept his head turned even as this maneuvre was being executed, and what he saw was something calculated to almost take his breath away; for where the pursuing Ryan ship loomed up as a shadowy form, vivid splashes, as of fire, were coming in quick succession—he could even imagine he heard the pulsating staccato reports following each other in succession, just as in those never-to-be-forgotten days when he would have a covey of devil-may-care German air fighters stepping on the tail of his old-fashioned boat, and peppering him from their rapid-firing guns!
CHAPTER V
THE DUEL IN THE AIR
The significant flashes abruptly ceased; but Perk realized this was only because the expert pilot handling that same Ryan wasp was also ducking down in an exact copy of their own game.
For the moment Perk lost sight of the shadowy pursuing craft; then Jack changed his tactics, and once again brought his boat on an even keel. Perk strained his eyesight in an endeavor to pick up the other ship after it too had swung into a direct course.
“Devil take that guy at the stick,” he stormed to himself, although Jack caught almost every word, since the earphones were still in operation, “he’s seen our move, an’ gone us one better. No slouch o’ a pilot, either, I’ll admit. When that gent who goes by the name o’ Slippery Slim picks his gang he knows how to pull trumps out of the pack all right. Give him another shoot, Jack, old hoss; mebbe he wont be so lucky next time. He’s got some kind o’ a rapid-fire shooter aboard, and had started to send a hail o’ lead ’bout our ears just as you turned the trick on him.”
Jack was apparently quite willing to give a repeat, for hardly had the other ceased shouting than they again shot down in a dizzy dive that seemed likely to lower their altitude by something like five hundred feet.
Perk was keeping a close watch, and knew that once more the grim pursuer had copied their daring maneuvre.