The Sky Detectives; Or, How Jack Ralston Got His Man

CHAPTER XIX
FORTUNE KNOCKS AT THE DOOR

“I swan! what’s the matter, partner – my sakes; is it a rattler you uncovered, I wanter know?”

Perk on his part was already sharing the excitement of his pal, although apparently from an entirely different reason. He had already started to scramble to his knees, being doubtless bent on taking some aggressive action, when he saw Jack reach forward and deliberately pluck some object from the hole under the displaced adobe fire brick, and hold it up to view.

As he saw its nature Perk’s jaw dropped, and he was the picture of abject astonishment – but it was far from being any poisonous reptile that Jack was thus exhibiting with such a grand flourish; just as though he might be some necromancer or magician, and drawing all manner of amazing things out of an apparently empty stove-pipe hat.

“Gosh-a-mighty! that looks like real money! I swan!” burst from Perk’s lips, as he continued to stare.

“Just what it’s supposed to be, Pal Perk,” said Jack, trying to keep his own voice from displaying a genuine tremolo – “a neat wad of it, waiting here for us to drop in and pick it up. Seems like things might be set up, like tenpins in the alley, for two lucky dogs to knock down with a couple of rolled balls.”

“If that don’t beat anything I ever did see,” continued the astounded Perk, now grinning, as though the pleasant nature of their find was commencing to appeal to him. “Jest think o’ a pair o’ air tramps ahappenin’ along, runnin’ across this here deserted shack, an’ findin’ a fortune askin’ to be taken care of – don’t it beat the Dutch what c’n happen – Arabian Night’s adventures can’t hold a candle to the real thing in these modern days. Some ol’ miser musta hid that boodle under the bricks, so’s to keep the Mex raiders comin’ up over the international border from gettin’ their itchin’ fingers on it – how ’bout that, Jack?”

“Off color, I’m afraid, Perk,” Jack told him, after taking a quick look at his wonderful find in the hearth cache; “that miser story might go with some but it doesn’t wash with me worth a red cent. In the first place if this money had been hidden here by a miser, he’d have taken it away with him when he cut stick. Then again it would surely have been partly in hard cash, like gold eagles, and such stuff – all hoards of misers, you remember, are made up like that, Perk, and when you give this the once-over you’ll also notice how it’s all in bills, mostly fresh ones at that, as if they hadn’t seen much circulation, as you might say.”

Perk drew in a long breath, and continued to stare hard at the object Jack was holding out in front of him; it might be that something in the other’s words and manner suggested certain possibilities that seemed almost too staggering for poor Perk to digest offhand.

“Gee whittiker jewsharps! Jack – what’s this you’re hintin’ at, ol’ pal – give it to me easy-like, so I c’n swaller it – all in bills – mostly fresh ones at that – not seen much handlin’ around – say, are you tryin’ to tell me they’re every one five dollar bills, – Jack?”

“I reckon that’s what they are, Perk, I’d say, from taking a quick look at the same.”

“Bad currency – counterfeits – bogus stuff, er – what?” gasped the other.

“Look for yourself, and you’ll recognize them as having been printed from the same plates as the one we’re carrying with us as a sample of Slippery Slim’s best work.”

“Je-ru-salem crickets! I’m knocked silly for a fact,” whimpered Perk; and then, as if mustering up his vanishing stamina he went on to add: “but however could they’ve got right there under that brick – conjurer’s black magic, looks like to me, partner, it sure does.”

“Nonsense! that part of it is easy enough to figure out,” asserted Jack, as usual very matter-of-fact; “the only thing that seems to border on the miraculous is our running across this packet of all the people in the Far West – it looks to me as if some sort of Destiny might be handling the cards – that all we have to do is to keep moving and everything’s bound to come our way.”

“Sure does seem like a snap, and that’s a fact,” agreed Perk, calming down a little as he began to grow more accustomed to the great discovery that had resulted from their deciding to drop down, and have a sociable cup of hot coffee; “but I’ll be danged if I c’n make head or tail out o’ this happening – now, what under the sun did anybody want to stick that wad o’ long green under the same adobes, I’d like to know, partner?”

“Oh! there might be any number of answers to that question, Perk; for instance didn’t we learn that it was the habit of Slim, or one of his busy bees, to jump across the border every little while with a load of the flimsy, and dole the stuff out to a number of agents he has working with him in this section of the country, also all the way over to Los Angeles and San Diego?”

“That was the spiel they gave us, for a fact, boss,” admitted Perk, wagging his head eagerly, as though he felt certain clever Jack would be able to figure things out, and hit on some sort of explanation that would cover these mysterious happenings.

“Well, this, then, might be one of his hidden caches– at certain times this unknown agent hides some real money in such a hole as this, and comes along another dark night it might be to pick up the big wad that was left in exchange for the small one he contributed. And that is the way the game runs, so I was told.”

“By gum! but what grand luck for us to come in on this deal, Jack – pretty soft, I’d call it, and neither of us had any hand in it either – just hit on this little bank by sheer chance! Goin’ to crib the loot, are you, partner?”

Jack scratched his head as though certain plans were flitting through it, and he must make a choice.

“Well, we have to start somewhere, you understand, Perk, and it looks like the finger of Fate might be pointing right at this shack, and telling us to get busy and pick up a strong clue that, if followed up, would take us straight to that hideout Slim’s got across in Mexico.”

“Guess I see what you mean now, brother,” ventured Perk, his face lighting up with extreme joy; for he felt they were already on the track, and that from that hour there must be rapid action continuously. “If so be that ’ere critter that slams out these bills on greenhorns and come-ons is gettin’ anxious to see what sorter prize he’s drawn in the lottery, why, he might jest come along any ol’ time now, since the storm’s over an’ there’s nawthin’ to hold him up. Got any idea he’s nigh due here, partner?”

“Shouldn’t be a bit surprised if he walked in on us any time,” ventured Jack; and then, seeing the puzzled look on his chum’s rugged face he went on to add: “I didn’t mention the fact but while we were making our way over from the ship I felt certain I glimpsed several far-off lights, as if they might be in windows of cabins or houses of some sort. Then, too, I surely did hear a big dog barking, and something like a rooster crowing.”

“Well, I’ll be jiggered if you ain’t got sharper ears than I c’n boast, Jack, ol’ hoss, which ain’t no lie either.”

“Don’t you believe it, Perk; it just happened that you were so wrapped up in thinking of that coffee treat you didn’t pay as much attention to outside things as I did. So it seems as if there might be some kind of a village or prairie town not more than two miles from this abandoned old shack and if that’s so then the chances are this agent who’s been working the public for Slim probably lives there. Then again, like as not he has a pretty good idea about when his bunch of kale ought to be placed under that brick – in fact he might have made his way out here this very night only for the storm threatening.”

“Just so, partner,” Perk hastened to say, brimful of energy, “which, bein’ the case, it’s up to us to lay a sweet little mantrap, so’s to trip him by the heels if so be he knocks on our door. How’ll we fetch it, Jack?”

“First of all we’ll finish our supper, and clean up here,” came the ready explanation; “he may smell the odor of coffee and bacon, but then you might expect this shelter to be used once in a while by Mexican tramps, or passing cowboys, especially when a big storm threatens, so that isn’t going to scare the Johnny. As for us, we’ll fix things so as to give him a nice little surprise, by hiding out, after making things all dark inside here, with water thrown on the fire to smother the hot coals, after which there’s nothing to do but take things easy until he shows up – if he does.”

“I sabbe, okay, partner; let’s get busy, for the bacon’s done brown to a turn.”

CHAPTER XX
SPRINGING THE TRAP

There was much that must be done before they could feel satisfied they had their mantrap arranged. Jack realized that if the party who played the part of local agent for the counterfeiter gang had been kept from coming to secure the fresh supply of bogus bills by the threatening storm, he was likely to make his appearance at almost any time, since all danger from the electrical disturbance was now past.

They finished their little supper without wasting any more time, after which the matter of hiding all traces of their presence was taken up.

“See if you can find any water outdoors, Perk,” Jack was saying, as he contemplated the red embers of their late fire. “Seems to me I stepped in some sort of a puddle while coming up to the door. Here’s an old rusty can that looks as if it’d hold a quantity – I want to dash it on these coals so as to cool them off. That done we’ll find some way to hide, and watch developments.”

Perk sized up the situation cleverly enough, and lost no time in setting about doing as his pal suggested. When he came back he was carrying the rusty can, which did leak a trifle, but then that made no particular difference, so long as enough water remained to put the fire out.

It sizzled, and steamed a bit but Perk distributed the fluid contents of his can with such discretion that all this was speedily brought to a finish, with the last red ember cooled off, leaving a dead little pile of wood ashes as the only reminder of their blaze.

“Now that’s settled, partner,” said the always ready Perk, “what comes next on our program?”

Jack had his hand electric torch in use, for otherwise they must have been left to grope around, since the clouds continued to drift past in clusters, shutting out most of the moonlight.

“We must gather up everything here that might give us away, for like as not the fellow’ll fetch some kind of a light along with him – lantern it may turn out to be, because he knows its apt to be pretty dark inside the old shack, and he can’t do much just by fumbling around.”

“Yeah! that’s right, boss,” returned Perk, commencing to gather up any and all their scanty belongings, not forgetting that convenient rifle of his. “But I say, how ’bout the bus – won’t he lamp the thing settin’ there in the open an’ ain’t it apt to give him a bad start?”

Jack had duly considered that very point in making up his plans, and was ready to meet the situation.

“Taken it all in all, buddy, there’s small danger of that happening,” he went on to tell Perk. “First, remember, the ship lies on that side of the shack away from the spot where I glimpsed those lights and if he comes along in a direct line from the town there isn’t one chance in three of him noticing it. Even if he does I reckon he’ll feel dead certain only his own messenger’d be flying in this region – he may never have seen another crate besides the one sent out by Slippery Slim.”

“She sounds good to me, Jack an’ I’m willin’ to take a shy at the target, if so be you guess it’s straight goods, all wool’n a yard wide. Let’s go!”

Accordingly both passed out of the deserted shack that had proved such a fortunate harbor for them after the late storm. Jack knew what they must do in following up the little plan he had framed, with a view of giving the suspect the shock of his life and without any further preliminaries he set about carrying out the few details.

“There’s a chink or two in this further wall,” he went on to say, in a low voice, next door to a whisper, “that will furnish us means for keeping tabs on what’s going on inside. We’ll settle down there, and just wait. As luck has it that side of the shack is away from the moon, which is all in our favor, in fact everything seems to be arranged just to suit our plans.”

“Bully set-up, boss, couldn’t be better for a fact,” agreed the hopeful Perk, who firmly believed in the element of Luck, and was immensely gratified to discover how that little god was working over-time in their favor – according to his way of thinking it was always “better to be born lucky than rich.”

“How about it?” whispered Jack, after they had commenced to crouch down in the darkened spot he had selected.

“Just great, that’s all,” Perk assured him, “show me where one o’ them cracks c’n be located, partner, an’ then I’ll be okay – all fixed.”

Jack obliged by directing his chum’s hand to an opening, through which it would be easy enough to keep watch over any happening inside the shack.

“Next we’ll creep over to this further corner, and try to find out when he comes along,” continued Jack. “From now on, Perk, keep your tongue between your teeth – no talking, remember, but if it does seem to be absolutely necessary, put your lips close to my ear, and whisper – get that?”

“Nuff sed, boss, I’m on,” came faintly from the figure crouching at Jack’s side, after which abject silence fell upon the scene.

A little later on Perk, now that his hearing was strained so as to pick up any kind of sound, however slight, caught the barking of a watchdog; it seemed to be at a considerable distance from the shack, and he judged there might be a couple of miles lying between. This was not a great amount of ground to cover, if only the inducement were sufficiently urgent and that fat packet of enticing bank bills, supposed to be secreted under the adobes of the old hearth, must represent an alluring prize, capable of drawing a chap who was fond of “easy money” out of his snug home at this unseasonable hour of the night, and indulging in a little hike, for which effort he would fancy himself well repaid.

Some time passed.

They lay there just back of the comer of the dilapidated and abandoned shack, waiting, listening, and frequently feeling a little thrill when some soft sound came stealing to their ears.

Then Perk plainly heard what was surely a low cough, such as might be caused by a sudden tickling in the throat. Some one was undoubtedly approaching the spot, and coming from the west, where they understood the prairie hamlet, or village, lay at the foot of a small ridge.

He merely touched his companion’s right arm to let Jack know something was in the wind. The cough was repeated, so that Perk chuckled softly to himself, as if more than ever convinced that luck was bent on handing them out further fat plums.

Jack was already creeping back so as to reach the spot where those convenient peepholes could be found and of course Perk imitated his example. Thus it came about they were in complete readiness to make good use of their eyes when a slight scratching sound came from within, and a tiny flash announced that the newcomer had struck a match.

Perk could see him there down on his knees, and intent on applying his lighted match to the wick of a lantern he had evidently fetched along for this very purpose. If Perk could have analyzed the feeling that possessed him just then he must have compared it to the exultation of a cat when about to make a jump upon a sparrow, close up to which he had managed to hide, all prepared for the finishing act of the ambush.

No sooner had the man succeeded in lighting his lantern than with eager hands he commenced lifting the adobe under which Jack had again artfully placed the bait in the shape of that tempting packet of bogus notes.

How eagerly he pounced on the contents of his queer cache, all the avariciousness of a miser handling his hoard was displayed and at the same time he looked hurriedly from one side to the other, as though his guilty soul, conscious of having thus broken the law of his country, was already seeing the long arm of Justice stretching out menacingly toward him.

Jack evidently had seen enough to satisfy him the genuine criminal was in focus, and that there could be no miscarriage of Justice in effecting his capture with the goods upon him. He was creeping toward the open door of the shack, evidently bent on taking the slick partner of the counterfeiter chief by surprise.

Perk lost no time in crawling at his pal’s heels, bent on having a hand in the closing scene of the little drama – he wanted to see with his own eyes just how such a slimy beast would take his “bump” when he found the meshes of the net closing around him.

They were soon looking in at the open door. The man still knelt there on the hard earthen floor of the shack, and appeared to be nervously fumbling the sheaf of bills, as though trying to count them, and be assured that he had received the full amount to which he was entitled – that there had been no “holdout” attempted.

Perhaps one of them happened to make a slight sound – either that, or else the man’s guilty soul caused him to fancy he heard something for he turned his head. It chanced that the light of the lantern fell full upon his dark face, and disclosed the distended eyes filled with terror, as well as the expression so ghastly that passed athwart his countenance.

“Put ’em up!” commanded Jack, sharply, in a voice that would brook no nonsense and as if mechanically influenced to obey, the wretched trapped distributor of bad notes raised both hands, the packet falling to the floor as if his nerveless fingers could no longer retain their grip.

Jack and Perk stepped blithely into the lighted shack, the former with his ready automatic covering the badly shaken rogue, Perk trailing his rifle in a suggestive way, as if able to back his boss up on the slightest provocation.

First frisking the other, and removing a gun from his back pocket, Jack made a motion with his hand as he set Perk to work.

“Get the bracelets on him, partner, then we’ll ask him a few leading questions before we make up our minds what the next step’ll be.”

“But – hold on, Mister,” whined the poor devil, all aquiver as he groveled there on his knees; “I ain’t done nawthin’ – this hear ain’t my stuff – I jest suspicioned Jud he must a had somethin’ hid out this way, ’case he kep’ comin’ an’ agoin’, so I kim tuh see what it mout be. Now I knows he must a robbed thet bank over in Tucson when he went off with a gang he runs with.”

“Stow that gab,” said the disgusted Perk, “that’s all too flimsy to wash. We got you to rights an’ where the hair’s short, an’ you’ll have a chanct to see what the inside o’ the pen at Atlanta’s like. This here’s counterfeit long-green, an’ you knows it, mister,” with which cutting remark he snapped a pair of steel handcuffs upon the other’s wrists with the skill only one accustomed to handling such “safety-first” contraptions could display, proving that for one of Slippery Slim’s active lieutenants the show was indeed over.

CHAPTER XXI
PICKING UP CLUES

By this time the man whom Uncle Sam’s two clever sky detectives had trapped, showed signs of being almost in a state of collapse. Too late did he realize what a terrible mistake he had made when yielding to the blandishments of Slippery Slim Garrabrant, and acting under the belief that he could defy the law and get away with it.

“What’s the big idea, partner,” Perk was asking after he and Jack had fixed things so there was no possible chance for their prisoner to break away, and give them the laugh. “Do we jump off right now, or wait till mornin’, I’d like to know?”

“No hurry at all,” was the calm reply, “I want to go over our crate once more before we start that hop across to the California border, I’ve good reason to believe things are okay but a second overhauling will satisfy me better.”

“I kinder guess you won’t want me to slip over to this here town, an’ pick up a few fresh eggs, eh, boss?” and Perk’s voice actually took on a wheedling vein as he made this remark for if there was anything he dearly loved along the line of “eats” it was those same “fresh eggs.”

Jack shook his head.

“Hardly think it would be wise,” he observed; “we don’t know the lay of the land for one thing – it might be this party has some backing among his neighbors, and we’d find ourselves in a hornets’ nest before we knew what was what. No, we can stick it out here the balance of the night, which is pretty well gone right now, and be off about sunrise.”

“There’s a lot more stuff around in here that’d burn right well,” insinuated Perk; “how ’bout another bit o’ fire – this night air feels some cool to me an’ ’sides, we’d have a blaze ready so’s to boil more coffee ’fore we kick off, eh, what, partner?”

“Please yourself so far as that goes, Perk, I reckon it wouldn’t feel at all bad to have some fire, as we must hang out here several hours. But don’t make any noise if you can help it. Besides, we ought to keep an eye out for trouble, no telling what this slick chap might work off on us.”

“Oh! we’ll one o’ us keep watch off’n on,” promised Perk, starting without any further delay to gather some fuel, and get a blaze going.

While he was thus engaged Jack took their prisoner in hand, and commenced to grill him. There was nothing of the dreaded “third degree” rough-house measures in what Jack attempted but he tried to show the man where his best interests lay.

“You’re in a bad fix, my friend,” Jack told him: “and unless you come clean, so as to help us round up the balance of your outfit, you’ll be certain to get the full penalty the law lays down. We know a whole lot about Slippery Slim and his ways, and are dead certain we’re bound to end up his graft before many more days pass by. So when you’re answering my questions don’t try to lie to me, for like as not I’ll be already acquainted with the facts and know you’re trying to beat around the bush. Dangerous business, let me tell you; far better for you to hold your tongue than deceive me. Come clean, and I promise you I’ll do everything in my power to have you let off easy, besides no one need know you’ve turned State’s evidence.”

Then he started in to put pointed questions, concerning certain points that were vital to his plans. Once he caught the man squirming under the lash, and giving an answer that he very well knew was like “beating around the bush.”

“You know better than that, my friend,” he told him sharply, “that’s only half a truth you’ve given me. Don’t try it again if you know what’s good for your health, or it’ll be a matter of possibly ten years before you see your family again. Stick to the truth, and it may be only a question of six months you’ll spend at Atlanta behind the bars. Now tell me again what I wanted to know.”

He had managed to impress his strong personality upon the writhing wretch, who was ready to throw himself unreservedly upon his mercy and so the answers were given without hesitation, although in some instances the man declared he did not know, as he had only once been across the line and visited Slippery Slim in his hideout among the Mexican mountains.

When Jack realized that he had really pumped the other dry, he felt he had profited in many ways and that their sudden determination to make, a night landing, so as to recover after their buffeting by the storm, had been a most fortunate happening indeed.

For one thing he had learned that the name of their frightened prisoner was Simeon Hawkins, and that he had a wife and several children living in the little prairie town only a few miles distant – a fact that seemed to give him great distress, now he found his avaricious dreams wrecked, and himself in the hands of a couple of those very same Secret Service detectives whom the “big boss” had undoubtedly referred to so contemptuously.

Perk had been “listening in,” and chuckling happily whenever he realized his mate had made some sort of a “ten-strike,” picking up valuable information that was destined to ultimately serve their ends wonderfully, and help to “pot their game.”

They sat there for some time, talking in low tones. The man who lay close by helpless was silent as a rule, although several times he uttered a dismal groan, when his feelings overpowered him.

“Guess I’ll step out, partner,” remarked Perk at one time, “an’ slip over to the ship, I’d sure hate to have some critter do us a bad turn by meddlin’ with any o’ them dials an’ gadgets. What I wouldn’t do to him would be a caution, that’s right.”

From the fact that Perk carried his rifle along with him his meaning was not difficult to understand and Jack felt sorry for the chap who was at the other end of the gun sights when his pal pulled the trigger.

Perk cautiously approached the grounded ship, and started when discovering some moving object just in its shadow. The moon was shining brightly now, so that it was an easy matter to see for quite some little distance, although so deceptive was the light that even sharp-eyed Perk could hardly have told whether some dark object seen fifty feet off was a stump or a black dog sitting there and watching him.

Waiting until the object moved again, he discovered he had been wise to hold his fire, for by then he had made it out to be some species of animal. He took several forward steps, whereupon the beast started to move off, uttering a little nasty snarl while doing so.

“Shucks, on’y a stinkin’ kiote after all, skulkin’ ’round to see if he c’n stir up a little grub o’ any kind. Get out, you varmint!” and he waved his gun above his head while starting to run forward.

This completely demoralized the cowardly prairie marauder, so that he took to his heels, and quickly vanished in the near distance. Perk found everything all right when he gave the stranded plane “the once over”; and being satisfied that there was nothing to be feared from a coyote prowling around in search of a supper or breakfast, he returned to the shack to report all well.

Jack was busily engaged making certain notes, and reading others connected with their present business, as jotted down in his memorandum book in a peculiar brand of short-hand all his own, but which would appear as so much Greek or Choctaw to any one else.

“Better turn in, and get a few winks of sleep, brother,” he told Perk, who had yawned once or twice as he sat before the fire. “I’ll wake you up in about an hour or so when you can take your turn playing sentinel, until the dawn shows up.”

“Just as you say, old hoss,” came the ready reply; “fact is, I’m a bit drowsy, an’ could get away with a few winks; but don’t forget to wake me when the hour’s up, remember.”

“That’s all right, partner,” Jack told him, laughingly; “we’re in this game thirty-thirty, and you’ll have your turn, depend on it. Now get busy, and don’t you dare snore above a whisper either.”

“If I do jest gimme a poke, Jack – tryin’ to break myself o’ that nasty habit but I got to have help, you know – no feller ain’t wholly responsible fur what he does when he’s asleep.”

In due time Jack aroused the other, and himself sought a brief period of forgetfulness in sleep. So the balance of the night passed, and morning came with a clear sky, and a promise of decent weather for the continuance of their flight.