“Hugh! somethin’ seems to tell me that ’ere must be a well traveled trail an’ leadin’ down from the north in the bargain,” Perk went on to remark as if deeply interested. “I cal’late one o’ them ’ere pack mule trains might bob up along that path, if thar’s any truth in the stories goin’ around and keepin’ Mister Robert Mills Maxwell awake nights. It’d be a shame if we missed connections when I know Jack’d give a heap jest to set eyes on the show. Too bad that we’ll be losin’ all our chances right soon when we strike off to the west. Can you tie it for keepin’ a poor feller’s nerves all on edge?”
A few minutes afterwards Perk might have been seen to suddenly become rigid, centering his attention on a certain point ahead as though something had caught his strained vision that kept his eyes glued fast.
Jack, intent on his own thoughts and watching his dials with the fidelity of an air pilot who believed in the slogan of safety first, had not become aware of Perk’s preoccupied condition so that it gave him something of a little thrill when he felt the other nudge him in the ribs and remark with his peculiar drawl:
“Hot ziggetty dog, partner! Did I hear you say mules?”
| [3] | See “Eagles of the Sky.” |
XIV
THE BOOTLEG PACK-MULE TRAIN
“What’s up?” demanded Jack as if he could surmise from his companion’s peculiar question that Perk had made a pleasing discovery of some kind.
“Lady Luck’s gone an’ picked us out again to play us for favorites, ol’ hoss,” Perk told him, at the same time half rising in his eagerness to point out something far ahead.
Jack possessed very good eyesight and as the sun chanced to favor him just then he could manage to make out a snake-like line of small objects that appeared to be moving slowly along in zigzag fashion, evidently following a crooked mountain trail that wound upwards toward the peak of the divide.