far away, or by what tricky
moonlight either, 'cause you see I used to run one o' that breed for
nearly a year when I took a whirl at the air-mail business up north out
o' Chicago till I had a bad crash an' quit cold."

"That settles it then, partner," said the pilot, still observing the
speck swinging past out of the tail of his eye. "I hadn't any idea it
could be the same chap you had your little picnic with some hours back,
for you told me he'd blown off toward the east."

"Jest what he did," replied the observer. "Ginger pop! but what wouldn't
I give right now to know jest whar that galoot was meanin' to drop down,
once he gets over the land. How 'bout that, old hoss?"

"It might help out considerable," admitted Jack although not as much
interested as Perk considered he might be. "We'll sift things out in
good time, and for all we know, run across a few surprises in the
bargain."

Perk studied that last part for a minute, feeling almost certain Jack
had some deep meaning back of his words, but it proved too much for his
capacity in the line of figuring out mysteries, and so he dropped it
"like a hot potato," as he told himself.

The mysterious air voyager had by now disappeared entirely, although
they might still have caught the throbbing of his madly working motor
had it not been for their own engine kicking up so much racket, Jack not
being inclined to make use of the capable silencer just then.

Perk had made up his mind that the unknown aviator, even if other than
Oscar Gleeb, was undoubtedly working the same profitable line of
business as the pilot of the Curtiss-Robin ship. So, too, Perk
considered it worth while to try and figure out the exact course of the
high flyer as he was probably making directly for his intended goal and
this knowledge was likely to prove useful to them later on.

This he was able to accomplish. Working mental problems come easily to
one who has played the part of a navigator aboard a modern galleon of
the clouds.

"Huh!" grunted Perk after figuring out his problem twice and both times
reaching the same conclusion, "the guy's really striking in to mighty
near the same point Jack's meanin' to make and mebee now our lines might
cross if we both kept on goin' long enough."

He studied this matter for some time, wondering if Jack also realized
the fact and had kept silent about it for good and sufficient reasons.

It afforded the ambitious Perk considerable satisfaction to hug t