The Sky Pilot's Great Chase; Or, Jack Ralston's Dead Stick Landing

The obstreperous head wind that had delayed them for so long still hung on, though very likely it would die out at sunset. If they had failed to cover all the ground such a run might have given them, at least they were far advanced on their way.

Then something happened, for suddenly Perk missed the steady roar of the motor and on looking up discovered the ship was pointing down as though in a direct glide. His first belief was that, just as he had hoped, Jack was bent on taking advantage of an opportunity to drop down on some lake ahead.

“Goin’ to use the pontoons again, eh partner?” he called out as if to show his companion he himself had been figuring on the chances of doing that thing when to his amazement he heard Jack saying in a steady voice:

“Case of necessity – got to make a dead-stick landing – hold yourself steady now, Perk, and leave it to me!”

XVII

JACK’S DEAD STICK LANDING

Perk proved game all right – not the least bit flustrated or upset but just took it as a matter of course – an incident likely to bob up in the checkered life of any airman and with which doubtless he had himself been acquainted in days that were long since gone.

He did, however glance swiftly ahead toward the spot where in all probability, barring further accidents, the amphibian would be apt to make contact.

“Gee whiz! what born luck that guy does have!” was what flashed through his brain for what did he see before him but a sheet of water, one of those lovely little lakes over which they had passed again and again and which at all times had excited both his curiosity and his envy.

“Oh! if on’y he c’n make it,” Perk kept saying half to himself and perhaps hardly conscious of his eagerness in the matter, for only too well did he know how lessened their chances of avoiding a bad crash would be if they could hit that water harbor when they struck on a slant.

It was a critical moment for the success or failure of the entire expedition, for even though neither of them were killed outright they might be injured so seriously that the object of the flight must sink into oblivion in comparison with the task of getting the wounded one to a doctor.

Then in addition to those chances, what if their ship became totally disabled? At that distance from civilization it would be next to impossible for it to be salvaged and in consequence the costly amphibian would prove a total loss.

No wonder then, that for the brief few seconds previous to their pontoons striking, both of the chums found their hearts ceasing to beat in so far as their knowledge told them – at any rate, they held their breath in anticipation of the worst.

To be sure there was an enormous amount of splashing as though some ancient rock had chosen to alight in that little mountain lake. Once Perk was sure they must capsize and lose everything but just in the nick of time Jack cleverly shifted his position and this seemed to right the boat.

Jack had done wonderfully, considering the handicap under which he labored. The spot where they struck was about two-thirds across the lake so that it turned out they had plenty of room to glide ahead after the first rude shock was over.

The two occupants of the cabin boat turned, as if by some instinct, to grin at each other. No one, to observe their apparent indifference, would have dreamed what a close shave they had just encountered for landing with the stick absolutely inert is not the nicest thing in the world and has caused more than a few bad crashes in which life was snuffed out or at least sadly battered.

“Huh! couldn’t a done it any better myself,” remarked Perk, making a wry face as though to tell his pal to interpret those words in the light of a joke which circumstances did not bother Jack in the least. He had a high estimation of his comrade’s abilities and pluck and rather fancied Perk might be a bit better than himself in some things connected with flying. No ace is such a complete master of his calling that he has no rival worthy of the name.

“Well, we’re down, seems like,” ventured Perk after taking a survey all around the wonderful little body of sparkling icy water where they had so miraculously dropped from near the clouds.

“That part is attended to, and sooner than I had figured,” stated Jack with a shrug of his shoulders that spoke volumes.

“Say, was you meanin’ to pick out one o’ these lakes for a campin’ place tonight, eh, ol’ hoss?” demanded Perk, “’cause I had it all fixed to coax you to do that thing. Kinder hankerin’ some for a layout ashore, where we c’n have a cookin’ fire, an’ stretch our legs as we feel like.”

Jack nodded in the affirmative.

“I had that all arranged in my mind, partner,” he admitted, “but from the way things turned out, the ship didn’t mean to wait on my pleasure. You’d think she had fallen in love with this special body of water, from the hurry she was in to make it. Just the same we got off mighty lucky, boy.”

“Sure did, Jack, and now the next question is, can we hop off from here when the right time comes along?”

“No trouble about that, I reckon,” replied Jack after a quick glance around. “These steep mountains shut things in kind of tight but just remember, brother, that these are not the old days, when ships needed a half mile down-grade runway so’s to get up enough speed to be lifted from the ground and the same goes for an amphibian or seaplane.”

“Hot ziggetty dog! guess you must mean the notched wings, eh, partner?” blurted out Perk.

“Just so, and I calculate I can take her out of this hole in the mountains as slick as grease, – when we’re ready to get busy,” was Jack’s superbly confident declaration, said not as a boast, but with the calm assurance of one who knew what he was talking about.

“Wonder what did ail the boat to make that stick go dead so you couldn’t get a wiggle outen it?” Perk mused as though something brought his thoughts suddenly around to the fact that thus far neither of them had any thorough knowledge concerning this cause of the sudden forced landing.

“We’ll get around to that right away,” the other told him, “but even if we should learn what we want to know, and must find out, there’d be no reason for us to climb out of this snug nest this afternoon that I can see.”

“Bully for you, Jack, ol’ hoss, I was jest hopin’ that’d be our programme. Kinder took a likin’ for these sweet little lakes an’ wouldn’t mind spendin’ a night on the bank o’ this one. Might somethin’ turn up to give us a whirl – never c’n tell, I guess, what’s goin’ on away off here in the wilds, where two-legged critters are as scarce as hens’ teeth.”

That was the same old Perk showing his deep-seated love for action. It had grown upon him over across the big water, at the time he was with the balloon corps in France, and became a part of his very nature ever since so that he could not keep from sighing for a change whenever stagnation set in.

Accordingly Jack led the way and they began a minute examination of the stalled motor. Both of them were more or less proficient in all matters connected with airplane engines, although it seemed as though a new species of trouble was springing up every little while, requiring fresh study in order to master the problem.

A whole hour was spent in checking things up before Jack discovered what ailed the hitherto perfect mechanism in which he had come to place the most implicit confidence. He proceeded to show Perk what he had thus found out and to demonstrate the surest way to correct the fault.

“After all, that’s one on me,” Perk soon frankly admitted, “but I kinder guess you’ve solved the riddle, ol’ hoss. Next thing to find out is whether we c’n fix it out here so far from everything.”

“No great trouble about that, partner,” said Jack. “You play a while and let me dig around – not any too much room for two guys to work in and fact is I won’t need any help – if I do I’ll call you.”

“Okay with me, Jack, since our left wing jest tips the shore I guess I’ll step off an’ have a look around. Everything looks quiet enough, so mebbe there’ll be no need o’ me luggin’ that heavy machine-gun along.”

“Suit yourself about that, partner,” remarked Jack in an absent-minded way, as though his thoughts were pretty much taken up with the job he had on hand.

So Perk went ashore and began to prowl around, that being one of his customary amusements when the opportunity presented itself. He walked here and there so as to get various glimpses of the glorious sheet of water – bent down and drank his fill, remarking upon its ice-cold character, coming as it did from melting snow on the caps of near-by mountains or possibly from some hidden glacier that dated back many centuries.

All around him was a dead silence, broken from time to time by a chinking sound, made as he knew, by Jack laboring at the stubborn motor.

“Huh! seems like this might be a dead country away up here,” Perk told himself as he continued to climb around among the masses of huge rocks that in the centuries past must have rolled down the abrupt slopes. “Not a hoof or a claw movin’, when I kinder spected to glimpse a bear mebbe or it might be a panther, p’raps a Canada lynx.”

“Hey Perk!” he heard Jack calling and then came the loud staccato notes of the motor, sounding as sweet music in Perk’s ears.

XVIII

AROUND THE CAMPFIRE

The rejuvenated motor continued to sing most merrily as Perk hastened to cover the back trail leading to the ship nesting upon the quiet lake.

“Huh! I jest knew Jack could get the hang o’ things,” he told himself in high glee, “makes a big clatter I’ll tell the world, but after you’ve been forced to drop down agin your will, they ain’t nuthin’ in natur so sweet as the drummin’ o’ a ship’s motor. Some fine day mebbe we’ll have the good luck to be runnin’ a boat with twin motors, so if one kicks off the duplicate c’n carry on.”

After he joined his mate and duly examined what Jack had done, the sound of the beating motor ceased since there was no need of wasting any more juice to celebrate the happy occasion.

“That trouble will never happen again with me,” Jack was saying with grim earnestness. “I know just how it must have come about and expect to put the kibosh on any repetition.”

“Jest as you’ve said to me many a time, partner,” Perk spoke up, “an ounce o’ prevention’s a heap better’n a pound o’ cure. Learnin’ somethin’ new ev’ry day, seems like, but it’s okay if on’y you keep the same trick from springin’ up again an’ gettin’ your goat”

They took things easy and lay around for another hour and more. Jack, as usual, consulted his chart and did some figuring. Perk, quite content to let the Chief do most of the planning, amused himself in various ways, as was his habit when they were not flying. Puttering with this little thing, poking around the stores as if to figure just how many more meals would exhaust what he had laid in so bountifully and bring them near starvation and tiring at length of this sort of thing he lapsed into inaction, puffing at his beloved pipe and indulging possibly in daydreams.

Once Jack chanced to turn an inquiring eye in his direction to see him nodding his head, and counting his fingers, as though adding up some score.

“At it again, I bet a cookey,” Jack thereupon told himself, holding back the casual remark he had intended making, “browsing on that same old game of trying to remember a name by going over the whole alphabet again and again. Poor old Perk, how that defective memory does bother him. He’ll get no peace of mind until he happens to strike what he’s fishing for and since I never did hear the boy’s full name mentioned I just can’t help him a mite.”

Jack had guessed aright, for just then Perk was saying to himself in a low but earnest tone, something of the old formula:

“Sufferin’ cats! it sure began with an R I bet my boots! Randolph, no, don’t jest sound right to my ear – Ratcliff, Randall, Ratterman – strikes me it ended in man – Rodman – hang the luck, what the devil is the matter with my think-box? Did you ever know sech a tantalizin’ mess – just openin’ my trap to say it out loud when before I could get the right word out it slipped me like a wet cake o’ soap on the bathroom floor when you set a foot on it. I’m sure hoodooed for keeps, an’ it’s no good.”

By this time the afternoon was wearing away and before long night would be putting a dark blanket over the deep notch in the mountains. Perk suddenly came out of his fit of abstraction to remark cheerily:

“Guess now it’s ’bout time I got busy ashore, an’ started that ’ere fire. I gathered some firewood ready an’ it ain’t goin’ to take much time to get supper goin’.”

Accordingly he began to fill his arms with the things previously set aside, consisting for the most part of food, coffee pot, skillet and last but not least, the dependable machine-gun with which a provident Government had fitted out its flying detective squad when starting them on their way to rounding up lawbreakers who were in many instances taking to the air.

“Call me when you’re ready or need any help, brother,” Jack told him, he being still engaged in his extensive figuring and marking places on his handy little chart, as though mapping out his campaign as well as such a thing was possible.

Perk had his blaze going in almost record time, for he was an adept at fire-building. Later on, from the delicious odors that came stealing to his olfactories, Jack knew that supper was on the way.

Having by then finished his work, he laid things aside and for the next ten minutes watched the busy one on shore at his pleasing task. It was certainly a picture that was bound to arise again and again in Jack’s mind. The star-studded heavens against which towering mountain peaks were outlined, the lapping of little wavelets on the shore where there chanced to be a narrow strip of sandy beach, the neighboring small bunch of pines through which an evening breeze was sighing as if playing Nature’s Eolian harp in a lullaby for the lately departed day, the rocky shore line, bordering that limpid gem of a lake where he could hear an occasional trout breaking water – taken in all it was a dream, as Jack told himself more than a few times.

“First call to supper – all that’s hungry get goin’ while things are hot! I ain’t meanin’ to wait more’n three shakes o’ a lamb’s tail ’fore I pitches in. Hi! there, partner, shake a leg!”

The bill of fare may not have been very extensive, but there was an abundance of substantial food and best of all ravenous appetites to be satiated. Perk was as happy as a lark and a dozen times demanded of his comrade if he had ever partaken of anything that tasted better than the slice of ham with the fried eggs to give it the proper caper, after which the coffee came in for his flattery.

“Course I know right well it’s awful f’r the cook to praise his own work, but I jest can’t help sayin’ it’s a swell supper, taken in all. Another piece o’ fried ham, ol’ pard, tho’ sorry there ain’t no more eggs at all – lucky what I laid by didn’t get smashed in the runnin’ – which goes to show what a good packer I am – might even get a job with that gang o’ mule skinners an’ their loads o’ moonshine stuff.”

Never had Jack seen his chum more joyous as after he had filled up with the appetizing camp supper. He beamed on his mate and only for having laid in such a big supply of grub asserted he’d be tempted to try the fishing as there were surely trout in the lake from their incessant jumping along about sundown when insects skittered about on the surface and mealtime had come for the finny tribes.

In the midst of his chattering Perk suddenly stopped and appeared to be intently listening.

“Well, I guess now,” he remarked, grinning, “I was away off my base when I says there ain’t nary a wild animal inside o’ twenty miles o’ this spot ’cause listen to ’em yappin’, will you, partner?”

“Wolves I reckon,” observed Jack who had also caught the distant sounds.

“Jest what they be,” Perk continued triumphantly, “an’ sounds to me like they made some sort o’ a killin’ an’ are all het up with the victory. There, died out like snuffin’ a candle out, showin’ they got started on the grub. Queer what different tastes critters have. Some like their venison raw while others aim to cook it to a turn over red coals an’ chaw it while hot. But venison sure is good any which way you cook it over a real camp-fire.”

Jack saw him lick his lips with his tongue as though even the mention of that chief standby of a hunter’s feast made his mouth water. Perk certainly did think a heap of his eats, as he so often frankly admitted.

They heard nothing further from the wolf pack but at least the circumstance had assured Perk that the rocky mountain sides were not as lacking in big game as he had been convinced earlier in the evening. So too, no doubt he was telling himself that it might pay to keep his gun within reach when the time came for them to hit the hay as he usually termed the act of turning in.

They remained ashore for another hour or so, just on account of the change. The rocks were anything but comfortable as a seat, but Perk managed to find a quantity of moss near by which added to their ease when judiciously applied.

Finally Jack proposed going aboard the ship.

“Me too, Boss!” sang out Perk, “’cause I’m sorter tired an’ feel like gettin’ rested up. Things look okay to me an’ mebbe we’ll have a quiet night – if on’y them hungry wolves get filled up an’ don’t ketch wind o’ our bein’ in the neighborhood. Hugh! if they know what’s good for ’em they’ll give this lakeshore a wide berth while me’n my ol’ chattergun are on deck.”

XIX

PERK GETS A SHOCK

An hour later and both of them were sound asleep, having comfortable let-down cots in the sheltering cabin that were a wonderful improvement over the way they used to double-up in the cramped cockpit of the ship they handled before this fine amphibian was placed in their charge by Uncle Sam.

The night moved on and for some hours nothing occurred to annoy them. Perk had become addicted to waking about once so often and as a rule he used to sit up and yawn as he took a look around.

It may have been an hour or so after midnight when, on thus arousing, he caught a sound that caused him to omit the customary yawn, though he certainly sat up with a jerk and appeared to be listening.

Almost mechanically too, his right hand groped for something alongside his cot and it was his gun he presently pulled up. The sounds he had heard once more broke out – savage, ominous sounds they were too, undoubtedly proceeding from one or more wild beasts aroused to a fighting spirit.

“Huh! bobcats, I’d say, if you asked me, neighbor, an’ hoppin’ mad in the bargain. Must be a pair o’ ’em an’ they ain’t mates either. Guess now two ol’ rivals must a met head-on along some trail an’ each is a sassin’ t’ other, darin’ him to knock a chip off’n his shoulder an’ see what he gets. Gosh amighty! but wouldn’t I jest like to lamp that ’ere duel the wust kind, but I knows aheap better’n to set out an’ spy on ’em. Just as like as not they’d forget all their mad agin’ each other an’ set on me for keeps. Thar they go agin, licketty-split, snarlin’, screechin’ and scrappin’ for all that’s out. I’m tellin’ the wide world the hair’s sure flyin’ in big patches while that caterwaulin’ keeps grindin’ out.”

It kept Perk sitting there fully ten minutes before finally dying out nor did he ever know whether one or both quarreling creatures had been extinguished, like the famous cats of Kilkenny, each of which thought “there was one cat too many.”

“Some circus, b’lieve me,” Perk told himself, with many a chuckle, for he had been vastly amused and entertained by that aggregation of furious sounds, “but it’s okay with me so long’s they scrap ’mong themselves an’ leave us alone. I ain’t lost no kitty as I know of, an’ there’s some more sleep I c’n make use of if they put the brakes on their whoopin’ things up.”

With that he snuggled down once more and forgot all his troubles for the balance of the night. If there were any further ancient feuds still to be settled among the old-time inhabitants of that section, Perk was unaware of the slaughter for he did not open his eyes until the first peep of dawn announced the coming of another day.

Jack still slept, it would seem, for he lay there like a mummy while Perk proceeded to crawl out and get into his clothes with the full intention of slipping ashore, reviving the fire and starting to prepare breakfast. Apparently his enormous supper of the previous evening must have digested and that awful vacuum he detested so much was already calling for help.

He chanced to have a sore toe that gave him a painful twitch every little while and not feeling disposed to tramp around collecting fuel until he had remedied this physical distress, he sat down to pull off his footgear and fasten a little wad of cotton between the offending member and its neighbor.

Once while thus busily engaged Perk imagined he caught a slight thud, as of something striking a root or fallen branch. He raised his head to listen, with those ravenous timber wolves flashing into his mind but then everything seemed nice and quiet again so that believing he had only imagined he heard suspicious sounds he once more bent down to complete his little task.

Then, without hardly any warning, there suddenly burst forth the most diabolical sound Perk had ever heard in all his life. Something similar to the braying of army mules over in France, he thought.

Perk probably felt his blood run cold, for that frightful racket was not more than twenty feet distant. Wildly he stared, expecting to see some savage beast, perhaps with the stripes of a real jungle tiger, come leaping from behind the adjacent rock heaps and make directly for him, unarmed as he was.

Regaining the use of his limbs Perk turned tail and made for the friendly left wing of the ship, taking huge jumps and anticipating that some supple body was apt to land on his back despite his haste.

Jack was there in full sight and worse luck, he did not even seem to have thought to snatch up the handy gun when that frightful roar echoed and re-echoed up and down hill in the valley of the silver lake.

“G – et th’ gun, quick – tigers, lions, an’ nobody knows what not – on the rampage to beat the band, too!”

Jack stared and then seemed to fairly double-up as though to him there might be something worth laughing at in the hurried retreat of his pal.

“He’s more scared than you can be, Perk!” he managed to cry out. “See him making off, will you, taking steps that are nearly as long as your own. Watch him shake those new horns of his, as if to tell you he’d be willing to fight it out only his head pieces are so new like, and soft!”

“W-hy – what in tarnation thunder is that big monster, Jack?” gasped the astonished Perk, staring with all his might after the towering beast that was passing out of sight around a vast mound of tumbledown rocks.

“Only a bull moose, partner – he must have heard you make some sound and reckoned it was an old rival of his, which was what made him give that roar. I never ran across a moose up to now, but I know what they can do. If it had been in the Fall of the year, when his horns, just rutting lately, were firm and hard, you’d have had him jumping you mighty quick.”

“Wow! he had me jumpin’ even as it was,” confessed honest Perk, deigning now to break into a silly grin since the supposed danger was past and the coast clear. “He’s some jim dandy I’d say an’ mebbe I wouldn’t like to knock a bull moose over. Used to hear about ’em when I was a kid up in Maine and over the line in Canada too (but never met one o’ the breed before). Bet you that ol’ boy c’n run a blue streak too, once he lets go. Well, since there ain’t any tigers at large nor yet a catamount lyin’ in ambush, guess I orter go ashore again an’ hurry up my fire. Breakfast ready in ten minutes, ’member, Jack ol’ hoss.”

While working over his fire and starting breakfast Perk must have been sketching in his mind the nerve racking encounter so lately in the spot-light, for once he stopped doing what he was engaged in, to look seriously up at the blue sky where a few floating white clouds had taken on a faint pink blush, showing that the rising sun was not far below the horizon though not scheduled to appear to any one in that deep valley for several hours yet – then he might have been heard holding communion with himself and saying: