“Well, it did come in handy, for a fact, Perk, and we mustn’t grieve over using it. Just try to imagine one of us did get struck by the fangs of a rattler, and the stuff saved a human life—in this case maybe two. Cheer up—plenty more where that came from, if only you’ve got the coin.”
“Right yeou are, brother,” Perk thereupon hastened to say, as he adjusted his pack to conform with the angles of his body. “On’y I got to be doubly keerful from neow on bout runnin’ smack up again a pizenous viper, since it’d be jest too bad to get struck, an’ no cure handy.”
When Perk had anything bothering him he was in the habit of keeping his “misery” constantly on tap; but then Jack was used to such little eccentricities on the part of his bosom chum—Perk’s good qualities more than compensated for his poor ones, a fact which those who knew him realized.
They started on, following the devious windings of the former watercourse, where ages back there must have been terrible floods rush down toward the lowland, after every cloudburst at the top of the mountains. Many years must have passed since those happenings ceased, for the trees and heavy undergrowth rooted in cracks of the mighty rocks told this story of change.
“I sure do hope we doant run into any other kind o’ wild critter, while makin’ this grand sneak,” Perk was telling himself, as he kept close behind his leader, picking his steps as daintily as any high born lady—since that was his method of keeping watch for suspicious moving objects on the ground, such as might turn out to be reptiles waiting to puncture his ankles. “If I was totin’ my Winchester along, an’ met up with a snarlin’ mounting lion, I’d think it a bit o’ luck; but when yeour hands are tied, so yeou dassent shoot a gun, things look kinder different, that’s right, an’ not so good.”
Whenever Jack paused for a brief stop, and stared back, Perk dutifully copied his action, trying to impress certain local features of the landscape upon his memory.
They had by this time come a considerable distance away from the spot where the airship had been abandoned, partly screened by the overhanging branches of several trees, and also a partial blanket of evergreens, small ones they had been able to tear up, and use with rare judgment.
Part of the time it was possible for them to raise their eyes and see the clear blue sky in places. Once Perk discovered a moving object pass before his vision, which he speedily made out to be a buzzard. A second followed close behind, and then numerous other of the carrion eaters, all swinging in the same direction after the manner of their clan.
As his eyes followed the circle of soaring birds Perk had an unpleasant thought strike in that gave him a chill around the region of his heart.
“Hot-diggetty-dig! I wonder neow could it be them gluttonus birds they been pickin’ the bones o’ thet poor Simeon what disappeared ’raound this section o’ kentry? Jack hinted like he kinder guessed the plug uglies had knocked him on the head, an’ tossed his body over some big precipice. Gee whiz! it shore does gimme a bad feelin’ to think thataways, ’specially since chances air we might be headin’ straight along that same road aourselves.”