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{{frabfp036.png}} || eagles of the sky ||

closer to the earth and doubtless the broad palmetto
leaves must be making a considerable
slashing as they struck one another, dead and
withered ones sawing like some giant violin bow.

This, with the wash of the waves upon the
pebbled beach, would make enough noise to effectually
deaden the whirr of the propeller--the
new and novel muffler or silencer, fashioned
very much on the order of such a contraption as
successfully applied to small firearms, was doing
wonderfully, and Perk every little while made
motions as though shaking hands with himself
because of this addition to their security, for
under the usual conditions prevailing anything
like secrecy in a noisy airship had been unknown
to the sky detectives.

Perk had been under a strange hallucination
when that other plane was soaring overhead--in
fact he was once again back in the Argonne,
with his boat hugging the earth, and an enemy
swooping in circles overhead--he had even gone
so far as to imagine the German war ace might
be maneuvering so as to drop one of his bombs
straight down on the stranded craft, with results
that must spell a complete wipeout.

When they did not have their handy earphones
in service Jack and his right bower had arranged
a secret alphabet of signals, consisting of
all manner of pokes and nudges, by means of

[[36]]

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