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{{frabfp130.png}} || eagles of the sky ||

the engineer allowed there did not seem to be
anything fundamentally wrong.

"If we have fair luck," he announced, confidently,
ocr>   "we ought to fetch our Tampa dock-"
fix>   "we ought to fetch our Tampa dock,
where all prizes are tied up, before morning
comes along. On the other hand, if we break
down we'll either hang on to the sloop, or if luck
runs against us, sink her, after smashing every
bottle aboard."

"Good enough, Red," Jack told him as they
shook hands for the last time. "I hope we run
across you boys again some day, and please keep
your lip buttoned about our being down here
with an amphibian to knock some of these smugglers
of Chinks and rum galley-west."

"You can depend on us to keep mum, Jack,"
the red-headed ex-harbor tug engineer assured
him.

So the last line was cast off, Jack and Perk retired
to their own ship, and with many a wheeze
and complaint the sloop started to pass out to the
open gulf, and commence the night journey to
Tampa Bay.

[[130]]

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