human
Huh! pretty soft I'd call it, partner, if yeou troubled to ask me,
gpt
As what?
human
The job o' bein' an air mail runner--everything fixed for 'em so's they kin keep on the right track--who'd lose his way with them friendly flash-light beacons apoppin' up ev'ry ten miles'r so, I want to know?
gpt
You're away off your reckoning when you say that, Perk; remember how they've got to meet up with tough storms; and pea soup fogs you could cut with a knife, they're so thick. And in parts of their run the country is treacherous, with slants of wind breaking out of deep canyons; then, too, if anything goes wrong aboard their boat to make a safe landing on such rocky ground is full of all kinds of difficulties. No, the air mail pilot doesn't have such a sweet time of it as you seem to think--a night like this he can consider a peach; only there are not many built that way. You know they lots of times insist on starting out when a wheen of pilots would stay safe on the ground, and not take desperate chances.
human
Partner, yeou'll have to excuse haste an' a bad pen, as the pig said after breaking out, and skippin' off on a full run. That time I shore didn't count ten 'fore I broke loose. Guess naow all pilots git up agin hard fixes onct in a while, where the finest flash beacons in the hull world caint help 'em any. I kin understand haow it aint possible to lamp them lights atall through a thick fog--on'y by the altitude marker kin yeou tell if youre aflying sky high, or near scraping the ground. But did yeou happen to hear a ship takin' off jest after we slid aout, boss?
gpt
Yes, but that didn't give me any concern, Perk. No danger of it's being any spy interested in following _us_.
human
But jest the same, Jack, she's been keepin' on aour tail right along,
gpt
Why not, when like as not the pilot is carrying the U. S. mail, and on his reg'lar night run north. We happen to be making use of his lights, that's all; and he's attending to his usual business. When we sheer off to the east soon now, leaving these flashlights behind, _then_ if you discover a ship following after us it'll be time to do something, not before.
human
Thanks, partner; jest thought I had orter tell yeou, that's all,