or anything that looked like a suspicious light on land or water
then turn to what lay dead ahead.

In this region of the Ten Thousand Islands--all fashioned from the queer
spreading mangrove that drops its long seeds so that they stick upright
in the mud, and, quickly developing roots, spring up to add to the
dimension of the original "island" there were never at any time many
settlers so that the coast has been reckoned as the "loneliest ever," on
which account Perk realized that if he should happen to glimpse a light,
whether on land or gulf, the chances were fifty to one it might have
some connection with the operations of the smuggler league.

Perk remembered how that Curtiss-Robin ship had finally disappeared in
the haze lying to the north and from this he sucked more or less
consolation, since it seemed evident the location of their job must lie
in that quarter toward which they were now bound like a great owl
swooping on noiseless pinions to seize its prey.

A delicious thrill ran through his frame from time to time. If any one
could "get a kick" from such a situation it was Perk, who was already
visioning some sort of a battle royal when they struck the smuggling
gang in the midst of their lawless work. The gang did their best to
create a reign of terror.

Once far out toward the west, where rolled the tides of the broad gulf
that stretched for a distance of five hundred miles across to the Coast
of Mexico, he certainly did glimpse a light, low down on the horizon
where just the faintest gleam of the late departed day still lingered.
Ha! the mother ship no doubt, riding at anchor some miles out where the
gulf was shallow and holding ground good--a heavily laden sailing craft,
coming possibly from the Bahamas, and passing into the gulf between the
Florida keys. Its captain knowing that the cargo they carried could be
much more easily landed there than around Miami, where the Coast Guard
was more vigilant.

Long and earnestly did Perk stare, picturing the shore motorboats
speeding out through the gloom toward that signal light to take aboard
their several loads and make for certain secluded harbors where trucks
would be waiting to transfer the illicit stuff to its destined markets
where prices ranged high with the holidays approaching and rich, thirsty
tourists to be supplied.

"Bang! it's gone blooie!" Perk suddenly told himself as he no longer
found himself able to distinguish that suspicious gleam which