back    contents    forward

{{frabfp049.png}} || eagles of the sky ||

everybody in on the fact that we're hangin'
around here, waitin' for somethin' to turn up.
'Sides, it ain't good policy to make the ten-strike
till they got the stuff on board the chuggin' speed
boat."

He was intensely interested in Jack's play for
time and listened with his heart almost up in his
throat, fearing lest the steady chugging should
suddenly stop and the game be thrown by default.
But no, it was keeping on in perfect
rhythm, sounding in Perk's ear something like
the tattoo of a machine gun in action and sending
out its swarm of leaden missiles--a sound that
had long ago become so familiar to his ears as
never to be forgotten, despite the lapse of time.

Surely by now that leading boat must be getting
close to the schooner so that the transfer
would soon be an accomplished fact, after which
the return trip was due to be started which was
when they meant to break into the game.

"Ginger pop! if I don't ketch the grumble o'
a second tug further away, and I guess now a
consid'able bigger craft than the leadin' one. Get
a move on, fellers--the dinner gong's struck and
the grub's on the table waitin' to be swallered--first
come, first served's the rule things go by, so
stir your stumps, an' put in the best licks you
know how--an' may the devil take the hindmost.
Hey there! that drummin' noise, it's stopped--

[[49]]

back    contents    forward