Part 24 (1/2)
”I think so,” put in Ned
”Blessto do when you see them overhead?”
”Take after them, of course!” exclaimed Tom ”That's e're here for; isn't it Mr Whitford?”
”Yes Do you think you can rise froround, and take after the theo very fast”
”I know, but I don't believe they can beat the Falcon I'd rather wait down here than hover in the air It isn't as dark as it was the other night, and they lasses Then they would turn back, and we'd have our trouble for nothing They've actually got to cross the border with soods before the law can touch them; haven't they?”
”Yes, I couldn't arrest theet them on this side of the border So perhaps it will be as well to lie here But do you suppose you can hear them or see them, as they fly over?”
”I'm pretty sure I can The sound of their motor and the whizz of the propellers carries for soht to play a beaets focused on 'eht”
”But suppose they see it, and turn back?”
”I don't believe they will The beaht upward you know, and they won't connect it withup when Koku caught him, ested Ned
”He won't get much chance to communicate with his friends, while uess we'll take a chance here, To on the airshi+p was gotten ready for a quick flight, and then Tolow oncea wonderful illumination
”Now all we have to do is to wait and watch,” remarked Tom, as he came back from a last inspection of the apparatus in the motor room
”And that is sometimes the hardest kind of work,” said Mr Whitford
”Many a tihts at a stretch, and it was very wearying When I got through, and caught my man, I was more tired than if I had traveled hundreds ofis tiresoreed with him, and then the custom officer told lers would hit upon to conceal the contrabrand goods, and of fights he had taken part in
”Diareat value, and the high duty on theht into the United States, forlers,” he said ”In fact the ones we are after have been doing h they have, of late, brought ht co Uncle Sam the duty on it, they can sell it in the United States at a large profit”
”But the governitimate dealers, who can not stand this unfair colers at any cost”
”They are sharp rascals,” co ot on their trail”
”But, just the saht,”
declared Mr Whitford ”I guess they fancied that when they took to airshi+ps to get goods across the border that they would not be disturbed But two can play at that gaeneral, with pauses now and then while Toht, the others straining their eyes for a sight of the s inventor had just paid a visit to the pilot house, to see that his wheels and guiding levers were all right, and alking back toward the stern of the shi+p, when he heard a noise there, and the fall of a heavy body
”Who's that?” he cried sharply ”Is that you, Koku?”
A grunt was the only answer, and, as To man came out