back contents forward {{frabfp149.png}} || eagles of the sky || "for the fact of the matter is, this Oswald Kearns happens to be a certain party just now under suspicion as being the king-pin of these smugglers who're giving Uncle Sam a run for his money down along this gulf coast!" Perk took it with a little break, as though the information fairly staggered him, but he was quickly back again at his fly-casting--seeking information at the fount in which he had so much faith. "You sent me into a reg'lar tail spin that time, Jack, but after tellin' me so much, it'd be right ocr> cruel to keep me a'guessin' any longCi. fix> cruel to keep me a'guessin' any longer." "I don't mean to keep you in the dark after this, Perk," he was told in jerky, broken sentences, as though Jack found it difficult to talk and pay the proper attention to what he was doing, for the amphibian had again commenced a steep dive, seeking a much lower altitude. "There are too many things connected with the story to try and spin it now--just hold your horses till we settle down on that lake, and you'll get it--all I know, or suspect, anyhow. Just now I can only tell you that this Kearns is a most remarkable personage, a baffling mystery to the Department who's outsmarted the whole Service and played his game of hide-and-seek before their very eyes--nobody so far has been [[149]] back contents forward