“All serene,” came the ready answer accompanied by a nod. “I spent nearly an hour and a half with Mr. Maxwell and found him a most agreeable sort of a gentleman. It was certainly a pleasure to sit and chat with him. He gave me the latest information and just now I’ll only say there is to be no change in our program—the whole thing goes through as we figured it.” Perk showed signs of sheer pleasure.
“Hot ziggety dog! but I’m right glad to hear that, partner,” he remarked eagerly. “I sure do hate to swap hosses when crossin’ a stream an’ we got things pretty well set up as ’tis. How long will we be stickin’ round this Spokane airport, I wonder?”
“Perhaps we may take off in the morning, but a good deal depends on certain things. I may have to see Mr. Maxwell again if he sends out a message by telephone this afternoon. I’m still using my new name, you understand—he thinks it a bright idea, both now and later on when we’ll be running across the trail of the man we want most to strike.”
“Huh! Mister John Jacob Astorbilt, o’ course an’ by the same token I’m Gabe Smith, Esq., from the glorious State of Maine an’ known as one o’ the slickest woods guides goin’. Whoopee! nothin’ like layin’ it on thick when you’re about it. But I want to say that I’ll breathe easier after we cut loose from all these strange airports an’ strike the open away up in the Canadian bush country.”
“Nothing to worry about that I can see, brother,” Jack said soothingly, “I can guess what’s on your mind and that was a sad sight I admit, seeing such a dandy craft nearly ruined by the fire but I’ve got a dependable man to watch things here tonight and even if we have a single enemy in Spokane, which I doubt, he’ll never get a show down to injure our fine ship.”
“Mebbe so Jack, an’ already I feel a bit more confidence in the chap you picked up. I’ve been chattin’ with him—he’s a married man with a wife an’ two kids. More than that I’ve learned he was raised in that great old State o’ Maine an’ not fifty miles, as the crow flies, away from the place where I fust saw daylight. Guess now he’s okay. We both seem to have knowed a number o’ boys an’ that kinder makes it feel like we’d been neighbors. Yep, I guess Ike Hobbs is on the square. Mebbe now I might take a notion to run in with you this afternoon, so’s to get some eats an’ see a picture—been an age since I had a chance to enjoy myself laughin’ at one o’ them comics on the screen. How ’bout the place you took dinner at—good enough to stand an encore, buddy?”
That was the real Perk all over again—food appealed to him as regularly as the hour rolled around three times a day, and seven days in the week. Jack laughed to hear his comment, and went on to reassure him.
“Plenty good I reckon, Perk old boy and I’ll take pleasure in steering you around to the place this evening. Be sure to have your appetite along for they’ve got a menu almost a yard long so you can have a wide choice.”
“Oh! you c’n depend on me carryin’ my appetite wherever I wander—jest can’t nohow get away from it—haunts me like my shadow an’ has ever since I c’n remember. They tells me I never could get filled up like most kids, no matter how they chucked it into me. Any real particular news come your way down thar in town, Jack?”
“A little that was interesting, I’d call it,” came the reply, “although it may be we’ll never be called upon to handle the proposition but Mr. Maxwell did seem to be a heap interested in the game and I sure enough promised to help him out, if we chanced to run smack into one of those mule trains.”