CHAPTER XXVI
ON THE FACE OF THE MOON
Jack proved as good as his word, for they were off shortly after nightfall, and headed almost due east. No one at the aviation field had the remotest idea as to who they were, what their destination might be, and whence they came. But then this particular port was becoming a very important link in the trans-continental chain, with lines of great passenger and freight airships going and coming not to mention the several speedy air mail boats that covered their hundreds of miles day or night and as a rule on a schedule that seemed as perfect as that of any train time table.
Perk was unusually silent, at least for him. Perhaps he was realizing at last the serious nature of the job they had undertaken—that it was rather a weighty proposition, such as was bound to require all their united reserve force to put across.
Still, he had absolute confidence in Jack’s ability to swing the undertaking, and also refused to allow anything like doubt to assail him with regard to their united courage.
It was by this time well understood that the climax, when it came, would occur on Mexican soil for now that all accounts from every quarter were in hand, they knew absolutely that the den of the counterfeiting gang was in a secret cave among the mountains of Sonora also that the sagacious Slim had bought protection from certain local Mexican officials, who were suspected of secretly plotting a new revolution, and took this means for obtaining the money needed to purchase arms in the States.
It was even said that Slim never flew back to his headquarters without loading his swift plane with a dead weight of guns and ammunition as the price he had to pay for being allowed to operate undisturbed on foreign soil.
“A pretty kettle of fish, I’d call that sort o’ game,” Perk had indignantly asserted, when he learned of this see-saw method of currying favor with the plotting generals who hoped to once again turn the country upside-down and kick the present rulers out of office, as well as seize the city banks with their rich booty.
And so it was, but Jack realized how it accounted for the long spell of immunity Slim had enjoyed while he lined his pockets, and spread that financial panic throughout the Southwestern States. There never had been his equal as a skillful worker and bold lawbreaker; one who knew how to set neighbor against neighbor, and make every one work so that he could rake off a heavy dividend from each separate deal.
So he had for a long time been coming and going, crossing the border, as a rule by the air route, carrying his cargoes of deceitful bank bills to various distributing points—like the one Jack and Perk had struck by sheer accident—gathering the genuine stuff contributed by his numerous dupes, and leaving bulky packages of the wonderfully executed spurious notes in exchange.
It was a veritable Golconda for the industrious worker, who, safe from interference, had kept as busy as the proverbial bee, that stores honey day after day.