That was just like Perk; but Jack had to chuckle at the lugubrious expression he could see on his comrade’s expressive face as he announced this sad fact.
“Well,” he told the returned scout, “we’ll eat as soon as we get further away from the cliff; I’ve got some things to tell you that may sound interesting; but not a single word until I’ve had a chance to break my fast.”
“Great guns! Jack, ole hoss, I forgot as haow yeou aint had nary a bite all day long, while I was jest gorgin’ myself daown yonder!”
“First tell me, was the ship okay?”
“Sure was, Jack,” the other went on to state, as he managed to regain a stooping position, with the mighty pack still on his back, assisted by a friendly push at the hands of his ally.
Jack seemed to breathe easier, showing that he had really worried about the possibility of something happening to their air courier, such as must put a halt to their operations, if not entirely smashing the same.
“’Fore I started back,” continued Perk, who was now wound up, and capable of running on for any length of time, his wind being assured, “I took time to toss some more o’ them evergreens on exposed parts o’ the crate. She’s camouflaged neow to beat the band—kinder guess a galoot with the eyes o’ a hawk might pass by less’n fifty feet away, an’ never suspicion what that big mound was. But there ain’t been anybody araound there since we cut aout—I’m givin’ yeou that straight, Pard Jack.”
Shortly afterwards they settled down in a secluded spot, where the brush grew thick enough to effectually conceal their presence, assisted in this friendly task as it was by various piles of rough rocks, such as were as plentiful in that wild country as “grains of sand on the seashore,” Perk had more than once declared.
Jack held to his resolve, and refused to say another word until he had taken the sharp edge off his appetite. Just then he doubtless could appreciate how his always hungry chum must suffer between meals.
By the time he had been munching the stuff the sympathizing Perk kept putting before him, for something like ten minutes, the acute sensation had passed away.