The night wore on, with the voyagers making splendid progress.
Jack had made no miscalculation when saying he believed they would fetch up at their destination somewhere about the midnight hour; for it still lacked more or less of that time when in the near distance they glimpsed lights telling that the city, and its nearby aviation field, must be close at hand.
Then they found themselves circling over the port, which, just as Jack had fancied would be the case, was lighted most brilliantly. Even as they sighted the field they noted a ship settling down, evidently an air mail plane that had been held up by some dense fog belt which they had fortunately missed.
“Soft snap I’d call it, droppin’ down with all them field lights to show the ground, so a feller c’n see a rock the size o’ a baseball,” was what the tickled Perk was telling himself while Jack was proceeding to make the terminal drop, with several ground attendants hurrying up so as to lend any assistance needed.
He had received his instructions from Jack, and removed the handcuffs from the wrists of the prisoner. There was no necessity for letting everybody know the facts and the sight of a man wearing steel bracelets, and gripped by an attendant never fails to excite keen curiosity with most people and especially would this be the case if he had just come by the air route from some unknown and therefore mysterious quarter.
He would keep his arm through that of Simeon, and inform him in a forcible whisper that should he attempt any “funny business” it would be at the risk of being shot down without further warning.
Jack would attend to everything necessary, such as having their crate stowed away in some convenient hangar, where it could be recovered at any time, by paying such charges as were customary.
To be sure Perk was questioned by several of the men while Jack saw that the ship was being taken care of but when he chose, Perk could keep a still tongue in his head and since he paid no attention to what was said, and never opened his mouth in the least, possibly they concluded he must be both deaf and dumb.
Perk may have chuckled deep down in his throat when he heard a few of the disgusted remarks some of the men exchanged concerning his lack of speech and hearing but he kept his own counsel; and in the end Jack came up saying he had secured a taxi to carry them to a small hotel down in the heart of the city, recommended by one of the hostlers who seemed to know what he was talking about.