“Huh! had an idea you’d just climb till out o’ sight, an’ then cross over the city and river—how ’bout it, Jack?”
“Too much risk to begin with,” came the ready reply, showing how Jack always planned ahead; “you know how a rushing boat can be heard clearly even when lost to sight among the clouds. It might be those same smart chaps, backed by the authority of the police, would commandeer a ship, and cruise around over the city, so as to learn if we did come back so as to line out into the heart of Texas; to make sure such a giveaway of our plans can’t upset our calculations we’ll cross the delta of the Mississippi close to where it joins its muddy waters with the gulf.”
“I get you now, partner, an’ let me say I guess that’s the safest game we c’n play. Time don’t count anything wuth while with us on this trip but results are what we crave.”
“You said it that time, boy, the Big Boss has confidence in our being able to fetch home the bacon, and we’re bound to prove he didn’t make any mistake in putting us on the job.”
All this time they continued to zoom along like a frightened wild duck, and it was not long before Jack was turning the nose of his ship toward the south. The night had not as yet settled down over the earth, although they were holding an altitude of several thousand feet and by straining his eyes a bit Perk was able to distinguish objects far below—he could tell when they passed over a large sheet of water, probably Lake Ponchartrain, with narrower cuts winding through vast marshes, and seas of waving reeds; also begin to catch fugitive glimpses of the still distant Mexican Gulf stretching away to the mysterious south.
This was all deeply interesting to Perk, always on the lookout for fresh and novel scenes; for as it happened, thus far in all his wanderings he had really never looked upon that historical sheet of salt water; although reading many a rattling romance of the days when buccaneers and pirates haunted the sub-tropical waters of that same gulf, lying in wait for the Spanish galleons laden with gold bars taken from the prodigally rich mines of Mexico and Central America.
In Perk’s mind those historical personages, like Blackbeard, and his fellow rovers of the Black Flag, lent a glamour to the great body of water that was apt to thrill him through and through whenever he allowed his gaze to fall upon its restless surface, and dark secrets of the past ages.
Shortly afterwards their course was again altered, with the ship swinging into the west. It would seem to have been something like extreme caution on Jack’s part but from all accounts, as well as from their own experience with the desperate gang that had given Uncle Sam so much trouble, the scoundrels had a tremendous game at stage, and were ready to go to any lengths to protect the profitable conspiracy from being smashed.
“Safety before speed” had always been Jack’s slogan, which could be accounted one of the leading reasons for the success that had come to him in the various vocations he had followed—as a county fair barn-stormer, then in the regular air mail service, and now finally with the celebrated Secret Service arm of the Government, entrusted with one of the most abnormal duties ever given out to its members.
It was not too dark for Perk to know when they were passing over the several outlets to the mighty river; indeed, he was even able to distinguish an ocean going steamship heading up toward the city of New Orleans; for its lights were plainly in evidence and those who chanced to be on deck could probably catch the throb of their motor, since the air was unusually still, allowing sounds to be heard at great distances, especially when in the air.