“Swing around and let’s go down once more partner,” implored Perk, keenly disappointed because his golden opportunity had given him the slip.
“Oh! I reckon it isn’t worth while,” replied Jack evenly as though not nearly so stirred up as his chum seemed to be and as he thus spoke kept on going, with the ship headed due northwest by north.
“But—see here Jack, you don’t mean to let ’em have the merry ha ha on us, I sure hope? Why, it’s got my blood het up to nigh the boilin’ point right now. On’y a little slip so I c’n reach the blamed bunch with my machine-gun. For ol’ times’ sake I’d like to pepper that crowd good an hard! The nerve o’ ’em, dustin’ us with that shower o’ lead! Might have bust our biler an’ then where’d we been, tell me? Jest one swoop an’ I’ll be satisfied. I could get in a dozen shots before they’d have time to crawl under their’ mules.”
But Jack was obdurate to his wild entreaties.
“No use Perk,” he told the other through means of the handy ear-phone apparatus. “They failed to do us any damage, though their intentions were plain enough and remember, ‘he who laughs last laughs best’. If your snapshot turns out fairly decent it’s bound to put a lot of those dangerous guys in the soup when Mr. Maxwell fits out a bunch of revenue men to round them up. In other words, brother, because of our little job today the chances are we’ve put the kibosh on this bootleg mule-train racket and for keeps in the bargain!”
XV
WINGING INTO THE NORTHLAND
Perk was still in a high rage because of their having been subjected to that shower of whistling lead.
“For two cents—if you ’lowed me to do it partner,” he boomed with many a shake of his head, “an’ swooped down once more, I’d a let loose on them pesky jayhawkers an’ rum-runners with my bully o’ machine gun. It’d seem jest like ol’ times come back agin an’ you bet I’d a pickled a few o’ the rattlesnake bunch!”
“Remember Perk, we’re not up here to pickle anybody. This is only what you might call a little side-show—the big round-up lies further north where we’ve been given a job to tackle—we’re just on our way—that’s the whole thing in a nutshell.”
As usual Perk soon calmed down, being sensible enough to realize that no injury had been done either their ship or themselves. They had met up with a stirring little adventure and come out of the row with credit which ought to be satisfactory, on their side at least.