Wings Over the Rockies Or, Jack Ralston’s New Cloud Chaser

He had been a barn-storming pilot, giving exhibitions of reckless parachute jumping from high altitudes and similar stunts at county fairs and other public gatherings. He had also spent several years as a valued member of the Mounted Police up in the Canadian Northwest country. He was finally drafted into Uncle Sam’s Secret Service because an official met up with him while moose hunting in the trackless wilds of northern British Columbia.

When Jack Ralston, who himself had gained a little fame in the Secret Service on account of generally bringing in his man, was selected to pilot a speedy ship, he picked Gabe Perkiser, whom he had known for some time and whose companionable disposition as well as unquestioned courage made him an ideal pal—in Jack’s eyes at least. Their first assignment called for service carrying the flyers over the Mexican border to apprehend a notorious character who had long been a thorn in the flesh of the Washington authorities since he came and went, mainly via the air route, crashing Uncle Sam’s frontier gate with cargoes of undesirable aliens, usually Chinese, willing to pay as much as a thousand dollars per head for an opportunity to enter the States, forbidden ground to those of their race. Having, despite all difficulties, carried out their instructions to the letter and handed over their man to the nearest U. S. District Attorney for prosecution, Jack and Perk were later on dispatched with their efficient plane to the Gulf Coast of Florida, there to break up a powerful combination of smugglers through whose bold and lawless ventures, by air and sea, the whole Southern country was being submerged in a flood of foreign brands of liquor. Again, the two pals proved their calibre and brought home the bacon, having dealt the rum runners a severe jolt and kidnapped the chief offender.