It was even said that Slim never flew back to his headquarters without loading his swift plane with a dead weight of guns and ammunition as the price he had to pay for being allowed to operate undisturbed on foreign soil.
“A pretty kettle of fish, I’d call that sort o’ game,” Perk had indignantly asserted, when he learned of this see-saw method of currying favor with the plotting generals who hoped to once again turn the country upside-down and kick the present rulers out of office, as well as seize the city banks with their rich booty.
And so it was, but Jack realized how it accounted for the long spell of immunity Slim had enjoyed while he lined his pockets, and spread that financial panic throughout the Southwestern States. There never had been his equal as a skillful worker and bold lawbreaker; one who knew how to set neighbor against neighbor, and make every one work so that he could rake off a heavy dividend from each separate deal.
So he had for a long time been coming and going, crossing the border, as a rule by the air route, carrying his cargoes of deceitful bank bills to various distributing points—like the one Jack and Perk had struck by sheer accident—gathering the genuine stuff contributed by his numerous dupes, and leaving bulky packages of the wonderfully executed spurious notes in exchange.
It was a veritable Golconda for the industrious worker, who, safe from interference, had kept as busy as the proverbial bee, that stores honey day after day.
They followed the line of swirling beacons the air mail boys were in the habit of trailing, since by this means they could pass some of the numerous danger spots on their route. In good time Jack expected to turn his back on these friendly flashing lights and head due south, to cross the border, and fly over foreign territory.
He had been placed in possession of certain secret documents issued by the Mexican government, which proved how they knew of the unholy alliance made between Slim, the counterfeiter king, and those traitorous generals who yearned for fresh outbreaks so as to pamper their own personal fortunes, just then at low ebb.
There existed something of an arrangement, whereby the Mexican government agreed to stand back of any effort made by the Department at Washington to capture Slim, smash his gang that was widening its powers every day, and clean out the mess of near-bandits with whom he had allied himself.