Читать книгу Trackers of the Fog Pack; Or, Jack Ralston Flying Blind - Newcomb Ambrose - Страница 5

Jack looked at Perk, and smiled.

“I certainly must ask your pardon, old chap,” he hastened to say; “for keeping you in the dark so long. Fact is, what came to me in this letter gave me such food for thought I clean forgot you were my side partner, and entitled to my full confidence. Forgive it, Perk, wont you?”

“Sure thing, Jack; then I kinder guess the letter must be from Headquarters?”

“No other, Perk.”

“What’s in the wind this time?” demanded the other, eagerly; as though his nostrils could already sniff the burnt powder that went with action.

“That’s a fair question, and I’ll try to answer you,” said Jack. “It isn’t the mere fact that we’re ordered to duty once more, that I was thinking about just now, because such a thing comes along every once in so often in the exercise of our duties – but strangely enough our meeting up to-day with the family of a man we’d help put in jail doesn’t seem to bring our queer list of coincidences to a halt.”

“Hot-diggetty-dig! naow yeou got me a guessin’ good an’ hard, partner – go to it, an’ explain what yeou mean.”

“Well, it looks as if a wish you expressed only a short time ago was going to be fulfilled,” Jack told him.

“Haow come, buddy?” queried Perk.

“We were talking about a certain scoundrel who’s name we’ve seen so often of late in the papers – remember, Perk?”

An expression of sublime delight passed over the face of Gabe Perkiser; showing how he understood, and what a sense of exhileration the knowledge afforded him.

“Kinder guess naow, Jack, yeou might be meanin’ that same Ole King Cole like he goes to call hisself – the brazen guy that makes all kinds o’ fun o’ Secret Service mokes – is that the answer, brother?”

Jack nodded in a way that could have only one meaning.

“Okay, Perk; you’re on.

“Shake on that, young feller – it’s the most glorious news I ever did get outen Washington. If half what they says turns aout to be true, we’re in fur the hot time o’ aour life, seems like.”

“You never can tell, partner, which way the cat will jump – sometimes when you’re expecting an easy windup things get mighty tough; then again if you’re looking for a hard battle it sometimes turns out to be just a mere walkover – a flash in the pan. We have to take things as we find them, and let it go at that.”

“Ole King Cole sent aout his nasty defi to the hull Secret Service crowd, an’ so far he’s been able to give the boys the nasty grand laugh; but they say a pitcher may go to the well jest onct too many times – mebbe we might be the lucky ones to smash the same, pronto.”

“I’ve read that two different men of our staff have disappeared, after getting hot on the trail of this band of scoundrels; which goes to tell us they’re a hard-boiled bunch, who wont stop at committing any crime so as to keep out of the pen.”

Perk only grinned, as though the tougher they came the more he liked them.

“That’s all right Jack, I’m best suited when they make ’em that way,” he hastened to assure his chum; although really there was no need of his thus doing, since Jack knew him like a book, with all his good qualities, and shortcomings as well.

“Are you through eating?” asked the other; and on receiving an affirmative nod he continued: “all right, suppose we adjourn to our room for a conference, where we can be dead certain of not being overheard. There are a few other things to tell that may open your eyes still further, as they did mine; besides, the Big Boss enclosed a few clippings, and typed reports, for us to study, as he believes they will give us some important clues that are going to be of considerable help in tracking these outlaws to their den.”

“Gee whiz! things do seem to be headin’ aour way, don’t they though, Jack? Yeou said there might be a sudden turn in the game, an’ she sure enough did come hoppin’ ’long, to make me laugh, an’ feel so like singin’.”

“Well, please don’t start that racket here, partner; if ever they heard you singing they’d certainly put the bars against us; and we both like the chow in this same little restaurant, remember.”

“Go easy on a feller whose education in music must a been neglected when he was a kid. An’ Jack, mebbe so yeou’ll let me set my lamps on that ere document, onct we get indoors at aour quarters.”

“You’re going to know everything that I do, Perk; that goes without question; for how could we work together as a team if we pulled contrarywise?”

Leaving the eatinghouse they were soon back in their comfortable room, where they could take things easy while laying out plans for the near future.

Perk started his favorite pipe going, as though getting ready to be vastly entertained by what was in prospect; he always looked as though at peace with the whole world, even counting those who defied the law to keep them from doing whatever they pleased, however it might turn out for other people – such was the beneficial effects of tobacco on his system, for there were times when he could never be supremely happy until he got his pipe going full blast.

“Naow fur it, partner;” he opened up with, “I’m settled, an’ ready to imbibe the hull kittin’ story, with nawthin’ bein’ held back, like yeou promised me.”

“I’m meaning to read the letter to you first, and then later on you can pore over it yourself, making a mental photograph of the contents, so that every sentence can be recalled from memory upon occasion.”

This was the way Jack generally arranged things, for he knew just how to work so as to get Perk fully interested; and accustomed to the programme the other had never been known to take exception to Jack’s methods.

“I get yeou, partner,” was Perk’s comment; “it’s part o’ aour reg’lar programme to learn the big points o’ aour job, so we aint agoin’ to be rattled when we come to settle daown to work.”

“Now fix your mind on what I’m going to read, and forget everything else but the one business we’re being given to carry through.”

Accordingly Jack commenced, with Perk occasionally asking some pertinent question, which was cheerfully answered by the reader.

“Now,” observed Jack later on, “we’ve covered much that the Chief has had taken down by his stenographer; but the windup of the whole matter is the heart of the story; you want to hold your breath while I read it out to you, because, unless I miss my guess, you’re in for the biggest shock of your life.”

“Hot-diggetty-dig! that sounds right ser’us, partner, she shore do; but I’ll stiffen aout, grip the sides o’ my chair, an’ gulp it all in like a thirsty broncho would fresh water after comin’ in from the sandy desert. Hit ’er up!”

“Listen then to what he writes here,” Jack was saying, soberly, yet keeping an eye on Perk’s tell-tale face, which he never could wholly control: “‘The enclosed suggestions are clippings, and reports from some of our agents who had started out to track this ugly gang to its secret hideout. Taken collectively and individually they will convince you as to the character of many of the knotty problems you will have to solve before success can be your reward in smashing this new King Cole mob of law breakers, cattle thieves, bank robbers, and what-not along the line of up-to-date crime.

“‘So you will understand the magnitude of this business when I tell you it is not only suspected, but fully believed, this so-called King Cole is an old offender, sailing under a new name – none other than a clever convict whose escape from the Atlanta penitentiary some months ago has been purposely kept a state secret, in hopes of its being helpful in locating his whereabouts, and bringing him back to his empty cell, with the penalty of having his sentence lengthened on account of his flight – an arrangement that so far has not been in the least profitable or successful.

“‘You will understand what I mean when I tell you the name of this rascal, whom I remember you and your comrade had the high honor of bringing before the courts, and starting on the road to the Government institution – it is’” – Jack paused to watch Perk’s eager face, and then added with considerable force: “‘it is Slippery Slim Garrabrant!’”