flock of eatables close by," and from the
way in which Perk licked his lips on hearing this said, it was plainly
evident he fully agreed with his pal.

After that wonderful sunrise, which even Perk had called glorious, the
sky clouded up around noon and there were even signs to warn them that
rain might come along by nightfall. The visibility, too, became somewhat
poor which possibly was one reason that influenced Jack to make a
certain decision which Perk heard later on with unbounded pleasure.

"It's getting on my nerves a bit, too, I must confess, Perk," was the
way he started to state his case, "and since there would be small chance
of discovery, thanks to this muggy atmosphere, what's to hinder our
taking a little stroll, keeping a wary eye out for stragglers?"

"I get you, partner," was the eager way Perk snapped him up on the
proposition which exactly tallied with what he himself had been wishing.
"I calculate now it means we c'n move around an' get tabs on this here
hideout o' the gent we're so much in love with, eh, what?"

"Wouldn't do any harm to learn the lay of the land," Jack told him,
"especially since we mean to do most of our snooping under cover of
night. So let's step out and take our little saunter. We know right well
in a general way that the shack must lie down the shore, by that point
jutting out a mile away. Let's hope we'll be able to run across some
kind of trail by following which we'll fetch up as close as we want to
go for the first time. Both of us must make a mental map of everything
we see so as to feel sure of our ground when darkness comes."

"That's the ticket, partner, let's go!"

Perk lost no time in picking up the small hand machine-gun, that could
be used much after the fashion of a long barreled German Luger
quick-firing pistol and when Jack looked dubiously at it his chum
hastened to explain his reason for lugging such a weapon along.

"Huh! the weight don't count with such a husky as me, old hoss an' how
do we know what's goin' to happen before we gets back here? These guys,
I take it, are quick on the trigger and if we got to fight we'd have a
better chance to pull out alive if we carried this little pill-box."

"Oh, well! have it your own way, brother," Jack told him, evidently
impressed with Perk's logic; and so they started forth.

CHAPTER XX

DENIZENS OF THE FLORIDA SWAMPS

After all it was perhaps a wise determination on the part of Jack to
thus take t