r the pilot to make a discovery
increased.

"Gosh! but ain't this the life, though?" muttered the watcher, thrilled
to the core with what was hovering over his head yet not so much as
making the slightest movement that would attract attention. If discovery
must come, Perk was determined that no act of his would hasten it along
and no responsibility for the tragedy--if such there followed--could be
laid at his door.

He had discovered some time back that the rival crate resembled their
own, in that it was in the amphibian class--could hop-off either from
the land or when on the water.

Really he had taken it for granted that such would turn out to be the
case, since occasions without number must arise when, for instance, the
smugglers wished to take alien Chinamen from some schooner or speedboat
by means of which the first part of their journey to the Promised Land
had been carried through, when it would be necessary for the plane to
drop alongside the boat from Cuba or other foreign ports and make the
transfer.

The prospect was far from displeasing to Perk--he felt positive that it
would be the first time on record when one of Uncle Sam's Secret Service
men fought it out with a taxiing seaplane on the subtropical waters of
the great gulf.

The outcome of course was hidden behind a haze of mystery--one, or both
of those engaged might never live to tell the story but then that sort
of uncertainty had been his daily portion during his thrilling service
on the French front and its coming to the surface again after all these
years of less arduous labor only made Perk hug himself, theoretically
speaking.

Now the flying ship was passing directly over his place of concealment,
although at rather a high ceiling. Would the Argus-eyed pilot make any
suspicious discovery, or, failing to do so, continue his scrutiny along
the many leagues of similar mangrove islands stretching far into the
south?

Perk saw him pass the spot, which caused him to imagine the game was all
off, and he would have nothing but his trouble for his pains. Indeed a
sense of heavy disappointment had even begun to grip his heart when he
saw the other suddenly bank and swing as though meaning to come back
again.

"Zowie! kinder looks like he _did_ glimpse somethin' that struck
him as wuth a second scrutiny," chuckled the anxious watcher, that
delicious thrill once more sweeping over his whole frame.

Indeed, it was a moment of more or less suspens