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{{frabfp089.png}} || eagles of the sky ||

myself some lucky to miss havin' the tub run on
a reef, or the bally motor kickin' off an' quittin'
cold. Yes, an' there's what looks like a bunch o'
cabbage palms stickin' their tops against the sky-line.
Better slow up, Perk, old scout, afore you
hit some stump or get aground off shore.

So he throttled the motor a bit and fairly crept
along. He even found himself wishing he had
fixed things so that the prisoner might stand by
with a sounding pole in the bow of the sloop to
sing out the depth and give warning of sudden
shallows but it was too late now to attempt such
a thing, even if he had dared take the chance of
the fellow jumping overboard and either drowning
or getting ashore to give warning as to the
menace hovering above the operations of the far-flung
smuggler combine.

But fortune was still kind and presently Perk
found himself softly gliding past the outermost
mangrove islands. Here, he remembered, it was
his duty to come about and lay to until Jack
could drop down and taxi over to where the sloop
lay so as to consider their further plans in the
coming dawn.

[[89]]

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