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{{frabfp138.png}} || eagles of the sky ||

finally lay back in a half reclining position to
smoke it out.

He was a great hand at ruminating, as he
called it--allowing his thoughts to travel back
to events that may have occurred months, and
even years before, but which had been of such a
nature as to fix themselves in his memory most
tenaciously. This afforded him solid enjoyment,
together with the charm of his adored pipe and
he asked for nothing better.

Thus an hour, two of them, and more passed,
with nothing out of the way taking place to attract
his attention. He figured that if the pilot
of the Curtiss-Robin crate intended to come back
that night, he was subject to some sort of delay.

There was frequent splashing in the lagoon
near by--at times Perk could tell it must be
caused by jumping mullet, but on other occasions
the sound being many times exaggerated,
he reckoned it had been made by an alligator
plunging off a log into the water, either alarmed
by some sound further off, or else possessed of a
desire to enter a secret underwater den he laid
claim to. This would probably have a second
entrance, or exit, up on some hummock that
Perk had failed to discover when poking around
on the preceding day hunting green stuff with
which to conceal the deck of the sloop.

Suddenly Perk noticed a slim streak of pale

[[138]]

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