“You know better than that, my friend,” he told him sharply, “that’s only half a truth you’ve given me. Don’t try it again if you know what’s good for your health, or it’ll be a matter of possibly ten years before you see your family again. Stick to the truth, and it may be only a question of six months you’ll spend at Atlanta behind the bars. Now tell me again what I wanted to know.”
He had managed to impress his strong personality upon the writhing wretch, who was ready to throw himself unreservedly upon his mercy and so the answers were given without hesitation, although in some instances the man declared he did not know, as he had only once been across the line and visited Slippery Slim in his hideout among the Mexican mountains.
When Jack realized that he had really pumped the other dry, he felt he had profited in many ways and that their sudden determination to make, a night landing, so as to recover after their buffeting by the storm, had been a most fortunate happening indeed.
For one thing he had learned that the name of their frightened prisoner was Simeon Hawkins, and that he had a wife and several children living in the little prairie town only a few miles distant—a fact that seemed to give him great distress, now he found his avaricious dreams wrecked, and himself in the hands of a couple of those very same Secret Service detectives whom the “big boss” had undoubtedly referred to so contemptuously.
Perk had been “listening in,” and chuckling happily whenever he realized his mate had made some sort of a “ten-strike,” picking up valuable information that was destined to ultimately serve their ends wonderfully, and help to “pot their game.”
They sat there for some time, talking in low tones. The man who lay close by helpless was silent as a rule, although several times he uttered a dismal groan, when his feelings overpowered him.
“Guess I’ll step out, partner,” remarked Perk at one time, “an’ slip over to the ship, I’d sure hate to have some critter do us a bad turn by meddlin’ with any o’ them dials an’ gadgets. What I wouldn’t do to him would be a caution, that’s right.”
From the fact that Perk carried his rifle along with him his meaning was not difficult to understand and Jack felt sorry for the chap who was at the other end of the gun sights when his pal pulled the trigger.
Perk cautiously approached the grounded ship, and started when discovering some moving object just in its shadow. The moon was shining brightly now, so that it was an easy matter to see for quite some little distance, although so deceptive was the light that even sharp-eyed Perk could hardly have told whether some dark object seen fifty feet off was a stump or a black dog sitting there and watching him.
Waiting until the object moved again, he discovered he had been wise to hold his fire, for by then he had made it out to be some species of animal. He took several forward steps, whereupon the beast started to move off, uttering a little nasty snarl while doing so.