Before turning in, Perk took occasion to “talk like a Dutch uncle,” as he termed it, to Simeon, assuring him he need not be in too upset a state of mind concerning his future, since Jack had said he was bound to do all he could to have him let go, because of what he had confided to them, and such assistance he would be able to lend the Government in convicting the head men of the lawless conspiracy along the counterfeiting line.
The other nodded his head as though he understood that, having embarked in the game of throwing down Slippery Slim, he realized there was nothing else for him to do but go through to the windup.
So confiding Perk, thinking things would run smoothly, took off some of his outer garments, and rolled into bed, as it afterwards turned out, happily choosing that side of the same nearest to the windows of their room.
Jack soon followed, and the last thing he noticed ere snapping off the light was the humbled Simeon wrapped in a blanket, and lying there flat on his back, as though meaning to get what sleep he could during that fragment of the night still remaining.
Perk was, so far as appearances went, sound asleep; but then sometimes things are not just what they seem. To tell the truth, Perk had made up his mind ere lying down that he would “sleep with one eye open,” as he called it, meaning it was his intention to keep on the alert, ready to jump out of bed at the least sign of trouble.
Perhaps when he thus decided it was with a hazy idea they might have some sort of unwelcome visitor during the night; he could not just decide how this could be but then those unprincipled agents of the counterfeiter king—like the fellow who had rifled the belongings of Scotty, the air mail pilot in Atlanta—were liable to turn up anywhere, everywhere, when least expected, and try to manipulate their bold games.
Hearing some sort of sound as of a person moving, Perk suddenly sat straight up in bed, to see their prisoner in the act of crawling over the sill of the nearby window, evidently bent on giving them the slip!
CHAPTER XXV
THE STAGE SET FOR BATTLE
“Hey! you, lay off that stuff!” was the way Perk exploded, even as he made a wild dash across the floor, and clutched the reckless Simeon by the arm, dragging him back into the room by sheer strength.
The other struggled but feebly perhaps he was really horrified at the desperate chances he had been about to take.