“It’s all right brother,” he heard Jack saying, even before the other regained his customary front seat—“nothing to bother about and we’ll soon knock spots out of what ice has already gathered. Pretty snappy out here, I notice. We’ll drop down to a more comfy level and take chances with being suffocated by that gruelly stuff. Go to it sonny, I’m inside the safety line.”
Down they went in long slides one after another until the thirteen thousand became ten, then seven and there Jack told his comrade to “hold everything” and cut down the speed a bit.
“Daylight’s about due I figure,” he observed, “and once we cut loose from this blank curtain and pick up some visibility, we’ll not have to feel nervous about some of those rocky snags that lie in ambush to impale venturesome aviators when off their course and lost in a maze.”
Perk soon afterward realized that what his mate had remarked must be true, for sure enough over in the east he could manage to detect some faint signs of a break in the hitherto impenetrable gloom surrounding them, positive evidence of the fact that morning was “just around the corner.”
“What’s more,” Perk told himself, in jubilation, “I guess now I c’n feel a little waft o’ a breeze startin’ up. Soon as that gets goin’ it’s goodbye to Mister Fog. Whew! mebbe I won’t be tickled pink when that’s come to pass cause I’m crazy to set eyes on dear old Mother Earth again. Yes sir, the pesky old fog is commencin’ to move out—jest keep it up, for you never will be missed.”
“All over but the shouting Perk,” remarked Jack just then as if he could have understood the tenor of the other’s thoughts. “Inside of another half hour we’ll be free from the stuff—wow! I never want to run through such a siege as this again, particularly in this wild Western country where peaks are in the majority and every one looking to stab some poor wandering airship.”
“I kinder guess you’re itchin’ to get our bearings again Jack?” asked the walking question mark who was never really happy except when in a position to toss queries at some one.
“Naturally so,” Jack told him point blank. “We had to get twisted up more or less during that drive through fogland, and the sooner I can pick up my bearings the better I’ll be pleased. If you ask me offhand where we might be, I’d say within a few hundred miles of the spot where Buddy Warner took off on his last trip.”
“Good enough!” crowed Perk, “nothin’ like making things fly when you’re about it—no beatin’ around the bush for us, partner. Then if we pick our course as per the information that leaked from that airport where he left his mail sack an’ took on another batch, why we might begin to keep a watchful eye on the ground in hopes o’ makin’ some sorter discovery—is that right?”
“You can begin using the glasses just as soon as we get our first glimpse of green spots below. Later on we’ll drop down until we’re not more than three hundred feet, more or less, above the treetops—if there are any tall trees in this section of country, which might be a question—possibly nothing in that line but scrub oaks, mesquite and the like, stunted stuff that grows on many western mountains and in rocky canyons.”