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{{frabfp103.png}} || eagles of the sky ||

well for him to clean up, destroying all signs of
the fire, and return to the sloop.

He had good reason to shake hands with himself
because of this exhibition of caution, for
later on, as the afternoon began to lengthen, with
the sun starting down toward the western horizon,
he suddenly began to catch faint sounds such
as sent a sudden thrill through his whole nervous
system.

"Dang it if I ain't hearin' somethin' right like
human voices," he told himself, cocking up his
head the better to listen, and applying a cupped
hand to his right ear. "Yep, that's a fact, an'
over in that quarter to boot," nodding toward the
northeast where his instinct told him the mainland
must lie, even if some miles distant.

So, too, he decided later that the suspicious
sounds kept growing louder, from which fact he
judged the speakers were slowly but surely approaching
his hiding place.

"All right, let 'em come along," Perk muttered
grimly as he clutched that deadly little
hand machine-gun with which he could pour a
rain of missiles in a comparatively speedy passage
of time. "They can't ditch me, I kinder
guess, an' nobody ain't agoin' to grab this crate
if I have to shoot up the hull mob o' galoots."

Nevertheless, since there was always a fair
chance that the secreted sloop might escape dis-

[[103]]

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