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{{frabfp021.png}} || eagles of the sky ||

"You said it, partner," assented the other,
grinning amiably and yet with a shade of Yankee
cunning. "An' what's more to the p'int the guy
handlin' the stick was no slouch at his job,
b'lieve me. I wonder now could he have been
that Oscar Gleeb we been hearin' so much about
since comin' down here,--got an idea he might
abeen, ain't you, Boss?"

"Just as like as not," Jack told him.

"Huh! Some go as far as to say he used to be a
ocr>   Boche pilot in that fus's across the big water,"
fix>   Boche pilot in that fuss across the big water,"
continued Perk, reflectively, as though certain
memories of the long-ago had awakened in his
brain--recollections that breathed of action,
staccato machine-gun fire, exploding shells, and
the terrible odor of gas that had poisoned so
many of his former mates.

"Yes, they said there wasn't any doubt about
that," Jack asserted. "After the war was over
and he couldn't find work in his home country,
he managed to get to America and has cut quite
a figure in flying circles. I reckon he was tempted
by the big money in the smuggling game to take
a job with this combine along the coast and has
been fetching heaps of cargoes ashore from vessels
anchored far out on the gulf, or even across
from Bimini or Santa Fe Beach near Havana
ocr>   pver in Cuba.".
fix>   over in Cuba."

"By jinks!" ejaculated Perk, "that there's the

[[21]]

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