CHAPTER VI
Laying Plans
“Oh! my gosh!”
So completely staggered did Perk seem to have become at the disclosure made by Jack, that he sat there, incapable of motion, just staring at his companion in the manner of a man who thinks he sees a hobgoblin.
“Slim—Slim Garrabrant!” he finally mustered up enough breath to almost whisper, looking a bit awed, Jack thought.
“No other, partner,” his pal assured him, cheerfully. “You know how we were saying that sometimes this old world looked mighty small—well, this happens to be one of those times. Take it as a matter of fact, Perk—one of those quirks that roll around occasionally.”
“Yeah—sure, that’s right, Jack—jest so—nawthin’ awful strange ’bout him aturnin’ aout to be the lucky dog as skipped aout o’ the pen, giving Uncle Sam the laugh. Go on an’ tell me some more. Kinder looks like we’d got to roll aour hoop up agin that Smart Aleck again, ’fore we get him caged for keeps.”
“Well, I don’t know about that, matey,” Jack told him, frowning as he spoke; “but if they do get him back alive in his cell they’ll keep closer tabs on Slim, you can wager. But the devil of it is, can he ever be retaken? Both of us have good reason to remember what a big job we had on our hands the other time; which isn’t to be compared with what we’ll stack up against now.”
Perk had by this time succeeded in getting back his customary self reliance, when he would scoff at such a word as “can’t.” He screwed his face up in what evidently was intended to be a sneer, as he went on to say:
“Huh! that ere is the last thing to worry me, buddy. Yeou an’ me, guess we make a team not easy to beat. When we git started we’ll jest give that gink a knock fur a goal, an’ clinch the game for keeps. But like as not we orter be makin’ up aour plans, hadn’t we, Jack?”
“Certainly,” responded the other, calmly; “but first of all let it be distinctly understood in the beginning there’s no need of any undue hurry.”