ll State ain't more'n a hundred across from the
Atlantic Ocean to the Mex. Gulf. Whoopee! could it mean he's aimin' to
strike that terrible, big lake--Okeechobee--that overflowed its banks
not long ago when they had that nasty hurricane and drowned a wheen o'
poor folks around Moore Haven? Gee whiz! it's got me a'guessin' but then
Jack knows what he's tryin' to do, an' I'm goin' to leave it all up to
him to settle."

Somehow this suggestion appealed to Perk as being quite in line with the
magnitude of their tremendous task--it was only appropriate to have the
scene of their coming operations the biggest freshwater lake by long
odds in the entire State, barring none--it would have been what Perk
might term as "small pertatoes, an' few in a hill," to have such a
wizard of an operator as Oswald Kearns pick out an ordinary body of
water, say of a mile in diameter, as his secret headquarters where he
could continue to keep his whereabouts unknown to the Government revenue
men.

Lake Okeechobee--well, that certainly offered some scope for any display
of their own cleverness in finding the proofs they so yearned to possess
in rounding up the "cantankerous varmint," as Perk was already calling
Kearns in his Yankee vernacular.

It could not be much longer delayed, Perk assured his eager self--less
than another hour of this sort of work would take them entirely across
the peninsula, and cause the plane to fetch up somewhere along the
Atlantic coast between Miami and Palm Beach. Much as Perk would like to
set eyes upon those two opulent Southern winter resorts in the midst of
their splendor, he felt that such a thing would hardly be proper under
the conditions by which their visit would have to be governed--small
chance for anything bordering on secrecy to be carried out in such a
region of sport seeking and excitement day after day.

Ah! it must be coming closer now, he decided on noting how, far below
the plane, he could make out what looked like a vast sea with little
wavelets glimmering in the light of the moon--assuredly that must indeed
be the lonely lake, long known as the home of mystery, Okeechobee, the
mightiest stretch of fresh water in the whole country of the South.

Jack was passing up along the western shore line as though his plan of
campaign called for a descent in some obscure quarter where they could
find a hideout in which to park their aircraft while they pursued their
urgent call ashore.

Not the faint