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diff --git a/old/14486.txt b/old/14486.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d54e675 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/14486.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7639 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Thunder Bird, by B. M. Bower + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Thunder Bird + +Author: B. M. Bower + +Release Date: December 27, 2004 [eBook #14486] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE THUNDER BIRD*** + + +E-text prepared by Al Haines + + + +THE THUNDER BIRD + +by + +B. M. BOWER + +Author of _Chip of The Flying-U_, _Starr of the Desert_, _Skyrider_, +etc. + +Frontispiece by Anton Otto Fischer + +Grosset & Dunlap +Publishers New York + +1919, + + + + + + + +[Frontispiece: Still Schwab hung back. "I'll wait until he can +come. I--I can't leave."] + + + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER + + I JOHNNY ASSUMES A DEBT OF HONOR + II AND THE CAT CAME BACK + III JOHNNY WOULD DO STUNTS + IV MARY V TO THE RESCUE + V GODS OR SOMETHING + VI FAME WAITS UPON JOHNNY + VII MERELY TWO POINTS OF VIEW + VIII SUDDEN MUST DO SOMETHING + IX GIVING THE COLT HIS HEAD + X LOCHINVAR UP TO DATE + XI JOHNNY WILL NOT BE A NICE BOY + XII THE THUNDER BIRD TAKES WING + XIII THE HEGIRA OF JOHN IVAN JEWEL + XIV FATE MEETS JOHNNY SMILING + XV ONE MORE PLUNGE FOR JOHNNY + XVI WITH HIS HANDS FULL OF MONEY AND HIS EYES SHUT + XVII "MY JOB'S FLYING" + XVIII INTO MEXICO AND RETURN + XIX BUT JOHNNY WAS NEITHER FOOL NOR KNAVE + XX MARY V TAKES THE TRAIL + XXI JOHNNY IS NOT PAID TO THINK + XXII JOHNNY MAKES UP HIS MIND + XXIII JOHNNY ACTS BOLDLY + XXIV THE THUNDER BIRD'S LAST FLIGHT FOR JOHNNY + XXV OVER THE TELEPHONE + + + + + +CHAPTER ONE + +JOHNNY ASSUMES A DEBT OF HONOR + +Since Life is no more than a series of achievements and failures, this +story is going to begin exactly where the teller of tales usually +stops. It is going to begin with Johnny Jewel an accepted lover and +with one of his dearest ambitions realized. It is going to begin there +because Johnny himself was just beginning to climb, and the top of his +desires was still a long way off, and the higher you go the harder is +the climbing. Even love does not rest at peace with the slipping on of +the engagement ring. I leave it to Life, the supreme judge, to bear me +out in the statement that Love must straightway gird himself for a life +struggle when he has passed the flowered gateway of a woman's tremulous +yes. + +To Johnny Jewel the achievement of possessing himself of so coveted a +piece of mechanism as an airplane, and of flying it with rapidly +increasing skill, began to lose a little of its power to thrill. The +getting had filled his thoughts waking and sleeping, had brought him +some danger, many thrills, a good deal of reproach and much +self-condemnation. Now he had it--that episode was diminishing rapidly +in importance as it slid into the past, and Johnny was facing a problem +quite as great, was harboring ambitions quite as dazzling, as when he +rode a sweaty horse across the barren stretches of the Rolling R Ranch +and dreamed the while of soaring far above the barrenness. + +Well, he had soared high above many miles of barrenness. That dream +could be dreamed no more, since its magic vapors had been dissipated in +the bright sun of reality. He could no longer dream of flying, any +more than he could build air castles over riding a horse. Neither +could he rack his soul with thoughts of Mary V Selmer, wondering +whether she would ever get to caring much for a fellow. Mary V had +demonstrated with much frankness that she cared. He knew the feel of +her arms around his neck, the look of her face close to his own, the +sweet thrill of her warm young lips against his. He had bought her a +modest little ring, and had watched the shine of it on the third finger +of her tanned left hand when she left him--going gloveless that the +ring might shine up at her. + +The first episode of her life thus happily finished, Johnny was looking +with round, boyish, troubled eyes upon the second. + + +"Long-distance call for you, Mr. Jewel," the clerk announced, when +Johnny strolled into the Argonaut hotel in Tucson for his mail. "Just +came in. The girl at the switchboard will connect you with the party." + +Johnny glanced into his empty key box and went on to the telephone +desk. It was Mary V, he guessed. He had promised to call her up, but +there hadn't been any news to tell, nothing but the flat monotony of +inaction, which meant failure, and Johnny Jewel never liked talking of +his failures, even to Mary V. + +"Oh, Johnny, is that you? I've been waiting and _waiting_, and I just +wondered if you had enlisted and gone off to war without even calling +up to say good-by. I've been perfectly _frantic_. There's something--" + +"You needn't worry about me enlisting," Johnny broke in, his voice the +essence of gloom. "They won't have me." + +"Won't _have_--why, Johnny Jewel! How _can_ the United States Army be +so stupid? Why, I should think they would be glad to get--" + +"They don't look at me from your point of view, Mary V." Johnny's lips +softened into a smile. She was a great little girl, all right. If it +were left to her, the world would get down on its marrow bones and +worship Johnny Jewel. "Why? Well, they won't take me and my airplane +as a gift. Won't have us around. They'll take me on as a common buck +trooper, and that's all. And I can't afford--" + +"Well, but Johnny! Don't they know what a perfectly wonderful flyer +you are? Why, I should think--" + +"They won't have me in aviation at all, even without the plane," said +Johnny. "The papers came back to-day. I was turned down--flat on my +face! Gol darn 'em, they can do without me now!" + +"Well, I should say so!" cried Mary V's thin, indignant voice in his +ear. "How perfectly idiotic! I didn't want you to go, anyway. Now +you'll come back to the ranch, won't you, Johnny?" The voice had +turned wheedling. "We can have the duckiest times, flying around! +Dad'll give you a tremendously good--" + +"You seem to forget I owe your dad three or four thousand dollars," +Johnny cut in. "I'll come back to the ranch when that's paid, and not +before." + +"Well, but listen, Johnny! Dad doesn't look at it that way at all. He +knows you didn't mean to let those horses be stolen. He doesn't feel +you owe him anything at all, Johnny. Now we're engaged, he'll give you +a good--" + +"You don't get me, Mary V. I don't care what your father thinks. It's +what I think that counts. This airplane of mine cost your dad a lot of +good horses, and I've got to make that good to him. If I can't sell +the darned thing and pay him up, I'll have to--" + +"I suppose what I think doesn't count anything at all! I say you don't +owe dad a cent. Now that you are going to marry me--" + +"You talk as if you was an encumbrance your dad had to pay me to take +off his hands," blurted Johnny distractedly. "Our being engaged +doesn't make any difference--" + +"Oh, doesn't it? I'm tremendously glad to know you feel that way about +it. Since it doesn't make any difference whatever--" + +"Aw, cut it out, Mary V! You know darn well what I meant." + +"Why, certainly. You mean that our being engaged doesn't make a +particle--" + +"Say, _listen_ a minute, will you! I'm going to pay your dad for those +horses that were run off right under my nose while I was tinkering with +this airplane. I don't care what you think, or what old Sudden thinks, +or what anybody on earth thinks! I know what I think, and that's a +plenty. I'm going to make good before I marry you, or come back to the +ranch. + +"Why, good golly! Do you think I'm going to be pointed out as a joke +on the Rolling R? Do you think I'm going to walk around as a living +curiosity, the only thing Sudden Selmer ever got stung on? Oh--h, no! +Not little Johnny! They can't say I got into the old man for a bunch +of horses and the girl, and that old Sudden had to stand for it! I +told your dad I'd pay him back, and I'm going to do it if it takes a +lifetime. + +"I'm calling that debt three thousand dollars--and I consider at that +I'm giving him the worst of it. He's out more than that, I guess--but +I'm calling it three thousand. So," he added with an extreme +cheerfulness that proved how heavy was his load, "I guess I won't be +out to supper, Mary V. It's going to take me a day or two to raise +three thousand--unless I can sell the plane. I'm sticking here trying, +but there ain't much hope. About three or four a day kid me into +giving 'em a trial flight--and to-morrow I'm going to start charging +'em five dollars a throw. I can't burn gas giving away joy rides to +fellows that haven't any intention of buying me out. They'll have to +dig up the coin, after this--I can let it go on the purchase price if +they do buy, you see. That's fair enough--" + +"Then you won't even listen to dad's proposition?" Mary V's tone +proved how she was clinging to the real issue. "It's a perfectly +wonderful one, Johnny, and really, for your own good--and not because +we are engaged in the least--you should at least consider it. If you +insist on owing him money, why, I suppose you could pay him back a +little at a time out of the salary he'll pay you. He will pay you a +good enough salary so you can do it nicely--" + +Johnny laughed impatiently. "Let your dad jump up my wages to a point +where he can pay himself back, you mean," he retorted. "Oh--h, no, +Mary V. You can't kid me out of this, so why keep on arguing? You +don't seem to take me seriously. You seem to think this is just a whim +of mine. Why, good golly! I should think it would be plain enough to +you that I've got to do it if I want to hold up my head and look men in +the face. It's--why, it's an insult to my self-respect and my honesty +to even hint that I could do anything but what I'm going to do. The +very fact that your dad ain't going to force the debt makes it all the +more necessary that I should pay it. + +"Why, good golly, Mary V! I'd feel better toward your father if he had +me arrested for being an accomplice with those horse thieves, or +slapped an attachment on the plane or something, than wave the whole +thing off the way he's doing. It'd show he looked on me as a man, +anyway. + +"I'll be darned if I appreciate this way he's got of treating it like a +spoiled kid's prank. I'm going to make him recognize the fact that I'm +a _man_, by golly, and that I look at things like a man. He's got to +be proud to have me in the family, before I come into the family. He +ain't going to take me in as one more kid to look after. I'll come in +as his equal in honesty and business ability,--instead of just a new +fad of Mary V's--" + +"Well, for gracious sake, Johnny! If you feel that way about it, why +didn't you say so? You don't seem to care what I think, or how I feel +about it. You don't seem to care whether you ever get married or not. +And I'm sure I wasn't the one that did the proposing. Why, it will +take years and _years_ to square up with dad, if you insist on doing it +in a regular business way--" + +Johnny's harsh laugh stopped her. "You see, you do know where I stand, +after all. If I let it slide, the way you want me to, that's exactly +what you'd be thinking after awhile--that I never had squared up with +your dad. You'd look down on me, and so would your father and your +mother. They'd always be afraid I'd do some fool thing and sting your +dad again for a few thousand." + +"Well, of all the crazy talk! And I've gone to the trouble of coaxing +dad to give you a share in the Rolling R instead of putting it in his +will for me. And dad's going to do it--" + +"Oh, no, he isn't. I don't want any share in the Rolling R. I'd go to +jail before I'd take it." + +Mary V produced woman's final argument. "If you cared anything at all +for me, Johnny, when I ask you to come back and do what dad is willing +to have you do, you'd do it. I don't see how you can be stubborn +enough to refuse such a perfectly wonderful offer. You wouldn't, if +you cared a snap about me. You act just as if you were sorry--" + +"Aw, lay off that don't-care stuff!" Johnny growled indignantly. +"Caring for you has got nothing to do with it, I tell you. It's just +simply a question of what kinda mark I am. You know I care!" + +"Well, then, if you do you'll come right over here. If you start now +you can be here by sundown, and it's nice and quiet and no wind at all. +You've absolutely no excuse, Johnny, and you know it. When dad's +willing to forget about those horses--" + +"When I come, your dad won't have anything to forget about," Johnny +reiterated obstinately. "I do wish you'd look at the thing right!" + +Mary V changed her tactics, relying now upon intimidation. "I shall +begin to look for you in about an hour," she said sweetly. "I shall +keep on looking till you come, or till it gets too dark. If you care +anything about me, Johnny, you'll be here. I'll have dinner all ready, +so you needn't wait to eat." Then she hung up. + +Johnny rattled the hook impatiently, called hello with irritated +insistence, and finally succeeded in raising Central's impersonal: +"Number, please?" Whereupon he flung himself angrily out of the booth. + +"Do you want to pay at this end?" The girl at the desk looked up at +him with a gleam of curiosity. Mentally Johnny accused her of +"listening in." He snapped an affirmative at her and waited until +"long distance" told her the amount. + +"Four dollars and eighty-five cents," she announced, giving him a pert +little smile. Johnny flipped a small gold piece to the desk and +marched off, scorning his fifteen cents change with the air of a +millionaire. + +Johnny was angry, grieved, disappointed, worried--and would have been +wholly miserable had not his anger so dominated his other emotions that +he could continue mentally his argument against the attitude of Mary V +and the Rolling R. + +They refused to take him seriously, which hurt Johnny's self-esteem +terribly. Were he older, were he a property owner, Sudden Selmer would +not so lightly wave aside that debt. He would pay Johnny the respect +of fighting for his just rights. But no--just because he was barely of +age, just because he was Johnny Jewel, they all acted as though--why, +darn 'em, they acted as though he was a kid offering to earn money to +pay for a broken plate! And Mary V-- + +Well, Mary V was a great little girl, but she would have to learn some +day that Johnny was master. He considered this as good a day as any +for the lesson. Better, because he was really upholding his principles +by not going to the ranch meekly submissive, because Mary V had +announced that she would be looking for him. Johnny winced from the +thought of Mary V, out on the porch, watching the sky toward Tucson for +the black speck that would be his airplane; listening for the high, +strident drone that would herald his coming. She would cry herself to +sleep. + +But she had deliberately sentenced herself to tears and disappointment, +he told himself sternly. She must have known he was in earnest about +not coming. She had no right to think she could kid him out of +something big and vital to his honor. She ought to know him by this +time. + +Briefly he considered returning to the hotel and calling up the ranch, +just to tell her not to look for him because he was not coming. But +the small matter of paying the toll deterred him. It was humiliating +to admit, even to himself, that he could not afford another +long-distance conversation with Mary V, but he had come to the point in +his finances where a two-bit piece looked large as a dollar. He would +miss that small gold piece. + +Since the government had refused to consider accepting his services and +paying him a bonus for his plane, he would have to sell it--if he could. + +There it sat, reared up on its two little wheels, its nose poked +rakishly out of an old shed that had been remodelled to accommodate it, +its tail sticking out at the other side so that it slightly resembled a +turtle with its shell not quite covering its extremities. The Mexican +boy whom Johnny had hired to watch the plane in his absence lay asleep +under one wing. A faint odor of varnish testified to the heat of the +day that was waning toward a sultry night. + +Without disturbing the boy Johnny rolled a smoke and stood, as he had +stood many and many a time, staring at his prize and wondering what to +do with it. He had to have money. That was flat, final, admitting no +argument. At a reasonable estimate, three thousand dollars were tied +up in that machine. He could not afford to sell it for any less. Yet +there did not seem to be a man in the country willing to pay three +thousand dollars for it. It was a curiosity, a thing to come out and +stare at, a thing to admire; but not to buy, even though Johnny had as +an added inducement offered to teach the buyer to fly before the +purchase price was taken from the bank. + +The stalking shadow of a man moving slowly warned Johnny of an +approaching visitor. He did not trouble to turn his head; he even +moved farther into the shed, to tighten a turnbuckle that was letting a +cable sag a little. + +"Hello, old top--how they using yuh?" greeted a voice that had in it a +familiar, whining note. + +Johnny's muscles stiffened. Hostility, suspicion, surprise surged +confusingly through his brain. He turned as one who was bracing +himself to meet an enemy, with a primitive prickling where the bristles +used to rise on the necks of our cavemen ancestors. + + + + +CHAPTER TWO + +AND THE CAT CAME BACK + +"Why, hello, Bland," Johnny exclaimed after the first blank silence. +"I thought you was tied up in a sack and throwed into the pond long +ago!" + +The visitor grinned with a sour droop to his mouth, a droop which +Johnny knew of old. "But the cat came back," he followed the simile, +blinking at Johnny with his pale, opaque blue eyes. "What yuh doing +here? Starting an aviation school?" + +"Yeah. Free instruction. Want a lesson?" Johnny retorted, only half +the sarcasm intended for Bland; the rest going to the town that had +failed to disgorge a buyer for what he had to sell. + +"Aw, I suppose you think you could give me lessons, now you've learned +to do a little straightaway flying without landing on your tail," Bland +fleered, with the impatience of the seasoned flyer for the novice who +thinks well of himself and his newly acquired skill. "Say, that was +some bump you give yourself on the dome when we lit over there in that +sand patch. I tried to tell yuh that sand looked loose--" + +"Yes, you did--not! You was scared stiff. Your face looked like the +inside of a raw bacon rind!" + +"Sure, I was scared. So would you of been if you'd a known as much +about it as I knew. I knew we was due to pile up, when you grabbed the +control away from me. You'll make a flyer, all right--and a good one, +if yuh last long enough. But you can't learn it all in a day, bo--take +it from me. Anyway, I got no kick to make. It was you and the plane +that got the bumps. All I done was bite my tongue half off!" + +Boy that he was, Johnny laughed over this. The idea of Bland biting +his tongue tickled him and served to blur his antagonism for the tricky +aviator who had played so large a part in his salvaging of this very +airplane. + +"Uh course you'll laugh--but you wasn't laughing then. I'll say you +wasn't. I thought you was croaked. Cost something to repair the +plane, too. I'm saying it did. Had to have a new propeller, and a new +crank-case for the motor--cost the old man at the ranch close to three +hundred dollars before I turned her over to him, ready to take the air +again. That's including what he paid me, of course. But I guess you +know what it cost, when he handed you the bill." + +This was news to Johnny, news that made his soul squirm. Lying there +sick at the Rolling R ranch, he had not known what was taking place. +He had found his airplane ready to fly, when he was at last able to +walk out to the corrals, but no one seemed to know how much the +repairing had cost. Certainly Sudden Selmer himself had suffered a +lapse of memory on the subject. All the more reason then why Johnny +should repay his debt. + +"What I'm wondering about is why you aren't in Los Angeles," he evaded +the unpleasant subject awkwardly. "Old Sudden gave you money to go, +and dumped you at the depot, didn't he? That's what Mary V told me." + +"He did--and I missed my train. And while I was waiting for the next I +must 'a' et something poison. I was awful sick. I guess it was ten +days or so before I come to enough to know where I was. I've had hard +luck, bo--I'll say I have. I was robbed while I was sick, and only for +a tambourine queen I got acquainted with, I guess I'd 'a' died. +They're treacherous as hell, though. Long as she thought I had +money--oh, well, they's no use expecting kindness in this world. Or +gratitude. I'm always helpin' folks out and gittin' kicked and cussed +for my pay. Lookit the way I lived with snakes and lizards--lived in a +cave, like a coyote!--to help you git this plane in shape. You was to +take me to Los for pay--but I ain't there yet. I'm stuck here, sick +and hungry--I ain't et a mouthful since last night, and then I only had +a dish of sour beans that damn' Mex. hussy handed out to me through a +window! Me, Bland Halliday, a flyer that has made his hundreds doing +exhibition work; that has had his picture on the front page of big city +papers, and folks followin' him down the street just to get a look at +him! Me--why, a yellow dawg has got the edge on me for luck! I might +better be dead--" His loose lips quivered. Tears of self-pity welled +up into his pale blue eyes. He turned away and stared across the +barren calf lot that Johnny used for a flying field. + +Johnny began to have premonitory qualms of a sympathy which he knew was +undeserved. Bland Halliday had got a square deal--more than a square +deal; for Sudden, Johnny knew, had paid him generously for repairing +the plane while Johnny was sick. Bland had undoubtedly squandered the +money in one long debauch, and there was no doubt in Johnny's mind of +Bland's reason for missing his train. He was a bum by nature and he +would double-cross his own mother, Johnny firmly believed. Yet, there +was Johnny's boyish sympathy that never failed sundry stray dogs and +cats that came in his way. It impelled him now to befriend Bland +Halliday. + +"Well, since the cat's come back, I suppose it must have its saucer of +milk," he grinned, by way of hiding the fact that the lip-quiver had +touched him. "I haven't taken any nourishment myself for quite some +time. Come on and eat." + +He started back toward town, and Bland Halliday followed him like a +lonesome pup. + +On the way, Johnny took stock of Bland in little quick glances from the +corner of his eyes. Bland had been shabby when Johnny discovered him +one day on the depot platform of a tiny town farther down the line. He +had been shabbier after three weeks in Johnny's camp, working on the +airplane in hope of a free trip to the Coast. But his shabbiness now +surpassed anything Johnny had known, because Bland had evidently made +pitiful attempts to hide it. That, Johnny guessed, was because of the +hussy Bland had mentioned. + +Bland's shoes were worn through on the sides, and he had blackened his +ragged socks to hide the holes. Somewhere he had got a blue serge +coat, from which the lining sagged in frayed wrinkles. His pockets +were torn down at the corners; buttons were gone, grease spots and beer +stains patterned the cloth. Under the coat he wore a pink-and-white +silk shirt, much soiled and with the neck frankly open, imitating sport +style because of missing buttons. He looked what he was by nature; +what he was by training,--a really skilful birdman,--did not show at +all. + +He begged a smoke from Johnny and slouched along, with an aimless +garrulity talking of his hard luck, now curiously shot with hope. +Which irritated Johnny vaguely, since instinct told him whence that +hope had sprung. Still, sympathy made him kind to Bland just because +Bland was so worthless and so miserable. + +At a dingy, fly-infested place called "Red's Quick Lunch" whither +Johnny, mindful of his low finances, piloted him, Bland ordered largely +and complained because his "T bone" was too rare, and afterwards +because it was tough. Johnny dined on "coffee and sinkers" so that he +could afford Bland's steak and "French fried" and hot biscuits and pie +and two cups of coffee. The cat, he told himself grimly, was not +content with a saucer of milk. It was on the top shelf of the pantry, +lapping all the cream off the pan! + +Afterwards he took Bland to the hotel where his room was paid for until +the end of the week, led him up there, produced an old suit of clothes +that had not seemed to wear a sufficiently prosperous air for the owner +of an airplane, and suggestively opened the door to the bathroom. + +Bland took the clothes and went in, mumbling a fear that he would do +himself mortal injury if he took a bath right after a meal. + +"If you die, you'll die clean, anyway," Johnny told him grimly. So +Bland took a bath and emerged looking almost respectable. + +Johnny had brought his second-best shoes out, and Bland put them on, +pursing his loose lips because the shoes were a size too small. But +Johnny had thrown Bland's shoes out of the window, so Bland had to bear +the pinching. + +Johnny sat on the edge of the dresser smoking and fanning the smoke +away from his round, meditative eyes while he looked Bland over. Bland +caught the look, and in spite of the shoes he grinned amiably. + +"I take it back, bo, what I said about gratitude. You got it, after +all." + +"Huh!" Johnny grunted. "Gratitude, huh?" + +"I knowed you wouldn't throw down a friend, old top. I was in the +dumps. A feller'll talk most any way when he's feeling the after +effects, and is hungry and broke. Now I'm my own man again. What +next? Name it, bo--I'm game." + +"Next," said Johnny, "is bed, I guess. You're clean, now--you can +sleep here." + +Bland showed that he could feel the sentiment called compunction. + +"Much obliged, bo--but I don't want to crowd you--" + +"You won't crowd me," said Johnny drily, "I aim to sleep with the +plane." Bland may have read Johnny's reason for sleeping with his +airplane, but beyond one quick look he made no sign. "Still nuts over +it--I'll say you are," he grunted. "You wait till you've been in the +game long as I have, bo." + +With a blanket and pillow bought on his way through the town, Johnny +disposed himself for the night under the nose of the plane with the +wheels of the landing gear at his back. He was not by nature a +suspicious young man, but he knew Bland Halliday; and to know Bland was +to distrust him. + +He felt that he was taking a necessary precaution, now that he knew +Bland was in Tucson. With the landing gear behind him, no one could +move the airplane in the night without first moving him. + +Now that he thought of it, Bland had been left fifty miles farther down +the line, to catch his train. Tucson was a perfectly illogical place +for him to be in, even for the purpose of carousing. One would +certainly expect him to hurry to the city of his desires and take his +pleasure there. Johnny decided that Bland must still have an eye on +the plane. + +That he was secretly envious of Bland as an aviator did not add to his +mental comfort. Bland could speak with slighting familiarity of "the +game," and assume a boredom not altogether a pose. Bland had drunk +deep and satisfyingly of the cup which Johnny, to save his honor, must +put away from him after a tantalising sip or two. Not until Bland had +said, "Wait till you've been in the game as long as I have," had Johnny +realized to the full just what it would mean to him to part with his +airplane without being accepted by the government as an aviator. + +At the Rolling R, when his conscience debt to Sudden pressed so +heavily, he had figured very nicely and had found the answer to his +problem without much trouble. To enlist as an aviator with his +airplane, or to sell the plane in Tucson, turn the proceeds over to +Sudden to pay his debt and enlist as an aviator without the machine, +had seemed perfectly simple. Either way would be making good the +mistakes of his past and paving the way for future achievements. +Parting with the plane had not promised to so wrench the very heart out +of him when he fully expected to fly faster and farther in airplanes +owned by the government; faster and farther toward the goal of all +red-blooded young males: glory or wealth, the hero's wreath of laurel +or the smile of dame Fortune. + +Mary V stood on the heights waiting for him, as Johnny had planned and +dreamed. He would come back to her a captain, maybe--perhaps even a +major, in these hot times of swift achievement. They would all be +proud to shake his hand, those jeering ones who called him Skyrider for +a joke. Captain Jewel would not have sounded bad at all. But-- + +There is no dodging the finality of Uncle Sam's no. They had not +wanted Johnny Jewel to fly for fame and his country's honor. And if he +sold his own airplane, how then would he fly? How could he ever hope +to be in the game as long as Bland had been? How could he do anything +but go back meekly to the Rolling R Ranch and ride bronks for Mary V's +father, and be hailed as Skyrider still, who had no more any hope of +riding the sky? + +Gloom at last plumbed the depths of Johnny's soul, and showed him where +grew the root of his unalterable determination to combat Mary V's plan +to have him at the ranch. Much as he loved Mary V he would hate going +back to the dull routine of ranch life. (And after all, a youth like +Johnny loves nothing quite so much as his air castles.) As a rider of +bronks he was spoiled, he who had ridden triumphant the high air lanes. +He had talked of paying his debt to Sudden, he had talked of his +self-respect and his honesty and his pride--but above and beyond them +all he was fighting to save his castle in the air. Debt or no debt, he +could never go back to the Rolling R and be a rancher. Lying there +under his airplane and staring up at the starred purple of the night he +knew that he could not go back. + +Yet he knew too that once he had sold his airplane he would be almost +as helpless financially as Bland Halliday, unless he returned to the +only trade he knew, the trade of riding bronks and performing the +various other duties that would be his portion at the Rolling R. + +Johnny pictured himself back at the Rolling R; pictured himself riding +out with the boys at dawn after horses, or sweating in the corrals, +spitting dust and profanity through long, hot hours. There was a lure, +of course; a picturesque, intangible attraction that calls to the wild +blood of youth. But not as calls this other life which he had tasted. +There was no gainsaying the fact--ranch life had grown too tame, too +stale for Johnny Jewel. And there was no gainsaying that other +fact--that Mary V would have to reconcile herself to being an aviator's +wife, if she would mate with Johnny. + +He went to sleep thinking bitterly that neither he nor Mary V need +concern themselves at present over that point. It would be some time +before the issue need be faced, judging from Johnny's present prospects. + + + + +CHAPTER THREE + +JOHNNY WOULD DO STUNTS + +Bland woke him, just as day was coming. A new Bland, fresh +shaven,--with Johnny's razor,--and with a certain languid animation in +his manner that was in sharp contrast to his extreme dejection of the +night before. + +"Thought I'd come out and see if you was going to make a flight this +morning," he said. "It's a good morning for it, bo. How's she +working, these days? Old man at the ranch wouldn't let me try her out +after I'd fixed her up; said you was too sick to have the motor going. +So I couldn't be sure I'd made a good job of it. Give you any trouble?" + +Johnny sat up and knuckled his eyes, his mouth wide open in a capital +O. It seemed to him that Bland had his nerve, and he guessed shrewdly +that the aviator was simply making sure of his breakfast. When cats +come back they have a fashion of hanging around the kitchen, he +remembered. Oh, well, there was nothing to be gained by being nasty +and even Bland's company was better than none. + +"Hey, ain't yuh awake yet? I asked yuh how the motor's acting." + +"O--o--h, aw-righ!" yawned Johnny, blinking around for his boots. "I +ain't been flying much. Just flew over here from the ranch, and a +little circle now and then when something come along that looked like +money. I wanted to keep her in good shape in case the gover'ment--" + +"Trying to sell it back to the gover'ment, huh? I coulda told yuh, bo, +they wouldn't take it as a gift. She's a back number now--a has-been, +from the gover'ment viewpoint. Why don't you keep it? What yuh want +to sell it for, f'r cat's sake? She's a gold mine if you know how to +work it, bo--take it from me." + +"Well, I wish to thunder you'd show me the gold, then," Johnny retorted +crossly, pulling on his boots. + +"Lend us a smoke, will yuh, old top? The money's here, all right, if +yuh just know how to get it out. And flying for the gover'ment ain't +the way. I'll say a man's got to be his own boss if he wants to pull +down real money. Long as you're workin' for somebody else, he's +getting the velvet. You ain't, believe me. And the gover'ment as a +boss--" + +"Well, good golly, come to the point!" snapped Johnny. "How can I make +money with this plane?" He gave it a disgruntled look, and turned to +Bland. "She's a bird of a millionaire's toy, if you ask me," he said. +"She's a fiend for gas and oil, and every time you turn 'er around +there's some darned thing to be fixed or replaced. I'm about broke, +trying to keep her up till I can sell out. It's coffee and sinkers for +you, old timer, if you're going to eat on me. Another meal like you +had last night, and we'll both have to skip a few in order to buy gas +to joy-ride some cheap sport that lets on he's thinking of buying. I +suppose your idea is--" + +"F'r cat's sake give me a chance to tell yuh! Course you'll go broke +trying to support the plane. You're goin' at it backwards. Make the +plane support you. That's my idea. And you do it by exhibition flying +for money--not sailin' around giving the whole damn country a free +treat. + +"I know--you think I'm a bum and all that; maybe you think I'm a crook, +fer all I know. And you turn up your nose at anything I say. But +lemme tell yuh, old top, I ain't a D. and O. because I never made any +money flyin'. It's because I blowed what I made. And it's because I +made so damn' much it went to my head and made a fool outa me. Listen +here, bo: I bought me a Stutz outa what I earned flyin' in one +season--and I blowed money right and left and smashed the car and like +to of broke my neck, and had to pay damages to the other feller that +peeled my roll down to the size of a pencil. The point is, it took +_money_ to do them things, didn't it? And I made it flyin' my own +plane. That's what you want to soak into your system. _I made big +money flying_. What I done with the money don't need to worry you--you +ain't copyin' me for morals. + +"Now what you want to do is learn some stunts, first off. You learn to +loop and tail-slide and the fallin' leaf, and to write your name, and +them things. It ain't so hard--not for a guy like you that ain't got +sense enough to be afraid of nothing. The way you went off in that +plane with the girl made my hair stand on end, and that's no kiddin', +neither. If you'd had a fear germ in your system you wouldn't 'a' done +that. But you done it, and got away with it, is the point. And you +been gittin' away with it right along--and you not knowin' your motor +any more'n I know ridin' on a horse!" + +"Aw, say! That's goin' too far," protested Johnny, but Bland gave him +no heed. + +"You learn the stunts--early in the morning when there ain't the hull +town out to rubber--and then pull off an exhibition or two. +Seventy-five dollars is the least you ever need to expect. Don't go in +the air for less. From that up--depends on how spectacular you are. +The public loves to watch for the death fall. That's what they pay to +see--not hopin' you get killed, but not wantin' to miss seeing it in +case yuh do. And with this the only airplane around here--why, say, +bo, it's a cinch!" + +Johnny fanned the smoke away from his face and eyed Bland with lofty +tolerance. "And where do you expect to come in? You needn't kid +yourself into hoping I'll take you for a self-forgetful martyr person. +What's the little joker, Bland?" + +Bland turned his pale, opaque stare upon Johnny for a minute. "Aw, for +cat's sake, gimme the doubt, bo! I'm human in more ways than tryin' to +see how much booze I kin lap up. It's a chance I want to start fresh. +This bumming around ain't getting me anything. I'm sick of it. You +gotta be learnt to do exhibition stuff, and I'm the guy that can learn +yuh. You'll want a mechanician to keep your motor in shape. I can +_make_ a motor, gimme the tools. You want somebody that knows the game +to kinda manage things. You're Skyrider Johnny, same as the boys at +the ranch calls yuh. Yon gotta have a flunkey, ain't yuh? I'm willin' +to be it. I'll change my name, so nobody needs to know it's Bland +Halliday. Or you can gimme a share in the net profits, and I'll keep +the name and make it pull things our way. They's no use talking, bo, +I've got the goods! The name Bland Halliday is a trademark for +flyin'--and never mind if it also stands for damfool. I'll brace up +and give yuh the best I got. Honest, that's what I want--a chance to +get on my feet agin. I'd ruther help you fly your plane than fly one +of my own. I'd run amuck agin if I owned anything I could raise money +on. + +"If you think I tried to do you dirt, back there in the desert, bo, +you're wrong. Ab-so-lutely. I thought you was fixing to double-cross +me, and git away with the plane and leave me there. It got my +goat--I'll say it did--that desert stuff. So I hid the gas, so you +couldn't go off and leave me. But that's behind us. You can give me a +chance now to straighten up, and I can put you in the way to make big +money. You think it over, bo. They's no great hurry, and we can make +a flight now and see how she stacks up. Be a sport--go fill up the +tank and let's go." + +Johnny ground the cigarette stub under his heel in the dirt, shrugged +his shoulders with a fine imitation of perfect indifference, and +yawned. He would think over Bland's idea. He did not, of course, +intend to fall for anything that did not look like good business, and +he was not at all anxious to have Bland for a partner. Indeed, having +Bland for a partner was about the last thing Johnny would ever expect +himself to do. Still, there was no harm in letting Bland down easy. A +flight or two, maybe, would give Johnny some good pointers. He had +learned much from Bland, in a very short time, he admitted readily to +himself. He could learn more, and he could let Bland go over the +motor. By that time he would maybe have a buyer. If not, he would +have time to decide about exhibition flying. + +Johnny did not know that as he went after gas his step was springier +than it had been for a long, long while. He did not know why it was +that he whistled while he filled the torpedo-shaped tank--indeed, +Johnny did not even know that he whistled, nor that it was the first +time since he had worked over his plane down at Sinkhole Camp when all +his dreams were bright, and bad luck had not knocked at his door. Yet +he did whistle while he made ready for flight, and his eyes were big +and round and eager, said he moved with the impatient energy of a youth +going to his favorite game. These signs Mary V would have recognized +immediately; Johnny did not know the signs existed. + +Bland helped himself to a pair of new coveralls of Johnny's and +tinkered with the motor. Johnny went around the plane, testing cables +and trying to conceal even from himself his new hope of keeping it. + +"All right, bo," Bland announced at last. "Kick the block away and +let's run her out. She sounds pretty fair--better than I expected." + +It pleased Johnny that Bland seemed to take it as a matter of course +that he should occupy the front seat. The last time they had flown +together, Bland had occupied it perforce, with Johnny and two guns +behind him. After all, Johnny reflected, he would not have been so +suspicious of Bland if Mary V had not influenced him. And every one +knows that girls take notions with very little reason for the +foundation. Bland was a bum, but the little cuss seemed to want to +make good, and a man would be pretty poor stuff that wouldn't help a +fellow reform. + +With that comfortable readjustment of his mental attitude toward the +birdman, Johnny strapped himself in, pulled down his goggles while +Bland eased in the motor. He saw Bland glance to right and left with +the old vigilance. He felt the testing of controls, the unconscious +tensing of nerves for the start. They raced down the calf pasture, +nosed upward and went whirring away from a dwindling earth, straight +toward the heart of the dawn. + +It was like drinking of some heady wine that blurs one's troubles and +pushes them far down over the horizon. Johnny forgot that he had +problems to solve or worries that nagged at him incessantly. He forgot +that Mary V, away off there to the southwest, had probably cried +herself to sleep the night before because he had disappointed her. He +was flying up and away from all that. He was soaring free as a bird, +and the rush of a strong, clean wind was in his face. The roar of the +motor was a great, throbbing harmony in his ears. For a little while +the world would hold nothing else. + +They were climbing, climbing, writing an invisible spiral in the air. +Bland half turned his head, and Johnny caught his meaning with +telepathic keenness. They were going to loop, and Bland wanted him to +yield the control and to watch closely how the thing was done. + +They swooped like a hawk that has seen a meadow mouse amongst the +grass. They climbed steeply, swung clean over, so that the earth was +oddly slipping past far above their heads; swung down, flattened out +and flew straight. It was glorious. + +A second time Bland looped, and yet again. It was exactly as Johnny +had known it would be. He who had flown so long in his day-dreaming, +who had performed wonderful acrobatics in his imagination, felt the +sensation old, accustomed, milder even than in his dreams. + +Once more, and he did the loop himself, hardly conscious of Bland's +presence. Bland turned his head, signalling, and did a flop, righted, +and was flying straight in the opposite direction. Again, and flew +southeast by the sun. They practised that manoeuver again and again +before Johnny felt fairly sure of himself, but once he did it he was +one proud young man! + +All this while the familiar landmarks were slipping behind them. +Tucson was out of sight, had they thought to look for it. And all this +while the sturdy motor was humming its song of force triumphant. +Subsequently it stuttered faintly in expressing itself. Triumph was +there, but it was not so joyously sure of itself. Bland glided, +cocking an anxious ear to listen while he slowed the motor. It was +there, the stutter--more pronounced than before; and once that pulsing +power begins to flag a little and grow uncertain, there is but one +thing to do. + +They glided another ten miles or so before Bland picked a spot that +looked safe for landing. They had one ill-chosen landing still vivid +in their memory, and Johnny carried a long, white scar along the side +of his head and a tenderness of the scalp to assist him in remembering. + +Wherefore they came down circumspectly in a flat little field beside a +flat little stream, with a huddle of flat dwellings drawn back shyly +behind a thin group of willows. They came down gently, bouncing toward +the willows as though they meant to drive up to the very doorway of the +nearest hut. As they came on, their great wings out-spread rigidly, +the propeller whirring at slackened speed, the motor sputtering +unevenly, the doorway spewed forth three fat squaws and some naked +papooses who fled shrieking into the brush behind the willows. + + + + +CHAPTER FOUR + +MARY V TO THE RESCUE + +Mary V Selmer was a young woman of quick impulses, a complete disdain +for consequences as yet unseen, and a disposition to have her own way, +to override obstacles man-made or sent by fate to thwart her desires. +Ask any man on the Rolling R Ranch, where Mary V was born; they will +bear witness that this is true. + +Mary V had fired the first gun in the battle of wills. She had told +Johnny Jewel that she would expect him to fly straight to the ranch--if +Johnny loved her. Mary V did not mean to seem dictatorial; she merely +wanted Johnny to come back to the Rolling R, and she took what seemed +to her to be the surest means of bringing him. So, serenely sure of +Johnny's love, she had no misgivings when the sun went down and those +wonderful, opal tints of the afterglow filled all the sky. + +Johnny would be hungry, of course. She wheedled Bedelia, the cook, +into letting her keep the veal roast hot in the oven of the gasoline +range. She herself spread one of mommie's cherished lunch cloths on +Bedelia's little square table in the kitchen alcove, where she and +Johnny could be alone while he ate. She dipped generously into the +newest preserves and filled a glass dish full for him. She raided the +great refrigerator, closing her eyes to the morrow's reckoning. Johnny +would be hungry, Johnny was a sort of prodigal, and the fatted calf +should be killed figuratively and the ring placed upon his finger. + +She told her mommie and her dad that Johnny was coming, and that +everything was all right, and Johnny would be sensible and settle down +now, because he was not going to enlist after all. She kissed them +both and flew back to the kitchen because she had thought of something +else that Johnny would like to eat. + +This, you must understand, was while Johnny was feeding Bland,--and +himself,--in "Red's Quick Lunch", and worrying because Bland tactlessly +chose such expensive fare as T-bone steak and French fried. She was +out on the porch, watching the sky toward Tucson and looking rather +wistful, while Johnny was generously sorting out clothes for Bland and +insisting upon the bath and the change before Bland should sleep in +Johnny's bed. Mary V, you will observe, had no telepathic sense at all. + +She watched while dark came and brought its star canopy,--and did not +bring Johnny. Long after she saw the rim of hills draw back into vague +shadows, she remained on the porch and listened for the hum of the +airplane speeding toward her. He would come, of course; he loved her. + +Johnny did love her more than he had ever loved any one in his life, +but a man's love is not like a woman's love, they say. + +"He must have had some trouble with his motor," Mary V observed +optimistically to her sleepy parents, when their early bedtime arrived. +"I'm going to leave the lights all on, so he'll see where to land. It +will be tremendously exciting to hear him come buzzing up in the dark. +It'll sound exactly like an air raid--only he won't have any bombs to +drop." + +"He'll have himself to drop," her mother tactlessly pointed out. "I +guess he won't do much flying around in the dark, Mary V. Not if he's +got sense enough to come in when it rains. You go to bed, and don't be +setting out there in the mosquitoes. They're thick, to-night." + +"Well, for gracious sake, mom! It's perfectly easy to fly at night. +Over in France they _always_--" + +"It's the lightin' I'm talking about," her mother interrupted with that +terrible logic that insists upon stating unpleasant truths, "And this +ain't France, Mary V. You go on to bed. I'm going to turn out the +lights." + +"And have him bump right into the house? A person would think you +wanted Johnny to smash himself all to pieces again! And it isn't going +to cost anything so terrible to leave the lights on for another little +minute, mom! A few cents' worth of gas will run the dynamo--" + +"For land's sake, Mary V, don't go into a tantrum just at bedtime. +Who's talking about cost? Your father can't sleep with all the lights +turned on in the house, and neither can I. And it ain't a particle of +use for you to sit up and wait for Johnny; he won't come to-night, and +you needn't look for him." + +Mary V did not want to hear a statement of that kind, even if it were a +mere argumentative flourish on the part of a selfish, unsympathetic +parent who would jeopardize a person's life rather than annoy herself +with a light or two burning. Mary V immediately had what her mother +called a tantrum. That is, she began to cry and to declaim +unreasonably that no one cared whether Johnny smashed himself all to +pieces in the dark--that perhaps certain persons wished that Johnny +would fall and be killed, just so they could sleep! + +Her mother may have been weak in discipline, but now that Mary V was +spoiled to the extent of having tantrums, she proved herself a +sensible, level-headed sort of woman. She went away to her bed quite +unmoved by the tears and self-pity, and left Mary V alone. + +"You turn out all the lights except the porch light, Mary V," Old +Sudden himself commanded from his bedroom door. "I guess if he comes, +one light will be as good as a dozen. You better do as your mother +tells you. The kid's got more sense than to tackle flying from Tucson +after sundown. If I thought he didn't have, I'd kick him off the +ranch!" + +This perfectly heartless statement served to distract Mary V's mind +from her mother's lack of feeling. She obediently turned out the +lights,--all the lights, since they meant to kill Johnny in cold +blood!--and wept anew upon the darkened porch, while swarms of +mosquitoes hummed just without the screen, sending a slim scout through +now and then to torment Mary V, who spatted her chiffon-covered arms +viciously and wished that she were dead, since no one had any feelings +or any heart or any conscience on that ranch. + +It was midnight before healthy youth demanded sleep and dulled her +half-feigned agonies of self-pity. It was morning before she began to +feel really uneasy about Johnny. After her tantrum she slept late, so +that when she awoke it was past time for Johnny's arrival, supposing he +had started at sunrise, which she now admitted to herself was the most +sensible time for the flight. Eight o'clock--and he must have started, +else he would have called her up on the 'phone and told her he was not +coming. For that matter, he would have called up the night before if +he had not meant to do as she wanted him to do. Of course, Johnny was +awfully stubborn sometimes, and he might have waited until morning, +just to worry her. But he would have called up if he hadn't intended +to come. A little thing like hanging up her receiver would not bother +him, she argued, and a little obstacle like long-distance toll never +occurred to Mary V, whose idea of poverty was vague indeed. + +He must have started this morning, at the latest. And he should have +been here before now. To make sure that he had not come while she +slept Mary V went to a window overlooking the open space between the +house and corrals. It was empty, but to make doubly sure she asked +Bedelia. For answer, Bedelia threatened to quit, declaring shrilly +that she would not work where nothing was safe under lock and key, and +a girl might work her fingers to the bone putting up jell for spoiled, +ungrateful, meddlesome Matties to waste, and so forth and so on. + +Mary V wisely withdrew from the kitchen without having her question +answered. She asked no more questions of any one. In silk kimono and +Indian moccasins, one of her pet incongruities, she forthwith explored +the yard down by the corrals which the bunk house had hidden from her +view. There was no sign of Johnny Jewel's airplane anywhere. Mary V +was thorough, even to the point of looking for tracks of the little +wheels, but at last she was convinced, and returned to the porch to +digest the ominous fact of Johnny's failure to arrive. + +He must have started,--she would not admit the possibility that he had +deliberately ignored her ultimatum,--but she would make sure. So she +called Tucson on the telephone and was presently in conversation with +the clerk at Johnny's hotel. + +Hotel clerks are usually quite positive that they know what they are +supposed to know about their guests. This clerk interviewed somebody +while Mary V held the line, and later returned to assure her that Mr. +Jewel had been seen leaving the lobby the night before, and had not +returned. A strange young gentleman had occupied Mr. Jewel's room. +No, Mr. Jewel had not been seen since last evening. The clerk was +positive, but since Mary V's voice was young and feminine, he permitted +her to hold the line while he called the night clerk to the 'phone. +The result was disheartening. Mr. Jewel had brought in a young man, +and later had left the hotel. The young man had gone out very early +and neither had returned. Could he do anything else for her? + +Mary V thanked him coldly and hung up the receiver, mentally calling +the clerk names that were not flattering. Why in the world did he keep +harping on that one fact that Johnny had gone out and had not come +back? Why didn't he know where Johnny had gone? What, for gracious +sake, was a hotel clerk for, if not to tell a person what she wanted to +know? The strange young man who had slept in Johnny's room meant +nothing at all to Mary V just then. + +She had a dislike of creating unnecessary excitement, but it did seem +as though something ought to be done about Johnny. All her faith was +pinned to the fact that he had let her final word stand uncontradicted; +he had not told her he would not come. She went outside and stared for +awhile in the direction of Tucson, turning with a little start when her +mother spoke just behind her. + +"Did Johnny tell you he was coming, Mary V?" + +"My goodness, mom! Of _course_, he--well, it was just the same as +saying he would. I told him he had to come and I'd expect him, and he +didn't say he wouldn't. Why, for gracious sake, do you suppose I went +and fixed his din--dinner--?" Mary V gulped down a sob she had not +suspected was present. + +"Well, there, now, don't cry about it. You'll have plenty better +reasons to cry after you're married to him. Seems to me the boy's +changed considerable, if he comes and goes at the crook of your finger, +Mary V. Johnny's most as stubborn as you be, if I'm any judge. If I +was in your place, Mary V, I'd 'phone and find out if he's started, +before I commenced crying because he was late." + +"I did 'phone. And he wasn't at the hotel--" + +"Land sakes, child, I heard you! You might as well have asked what the +weather was like. If I was you I'd ask if his airplane is there. If +it is, there's no sense in you straining your eyes looking for it. If +it ain't, he's likely on the way somewhere. But from what I heard of +your talk last night, and from what I know about Johnny--" + +"For pity's _sake_, mom! If you listened in--" + +"There now, Mary V, you shouldn't object to your own mother overhearing +anything you've got to say. And if you expect me to clap my hands over +my cars and start on a long lope across the desert the minute you begin +to 'phone--" + +Mary V laughed and gave her mother a bear-hug. Mommie was a plump +matron, and the idea of her loping across the desert with her hands +over her ears was funny. "You do have tremendously sensible ideas, +mommie, though you simply do not understand Johnny as I do. I am +perfectly positive that he would not disappoint me. However, I'll just +make sure when he started. I'm so afraid of some horrible accident--" + +"Well, you 'phone first, before you begin to borrow trouble," her +mother advised her shrewdly. "I know if you had laid down the law to +me the way you did to Johnny, I'd stay away if it was the last thing I +did on earth. And Johnny--" + +Mary V called Tucson again, and mommie subsided so as not to interrupt. +There was a delay while the hotel clerk obligingly sent a boy over to +where Johnny kept his airplane. While she waited for his ring, Mary V +went restlessly out to watch the sky toward Tucson. Half an hour +slipped away. Mary V was just declaring pettishly that she could walk +to Tucson and find out, while she waited for that idiotic clerk, when +he called her. Mary V listened, hung up the receiver with trembling +fingers, and went to find her mother in the kitchen. + +"Mommie, the plane is gone, and they are almost sure he went last +night, because he was seen going that way after he left the hotel. So +he did start, just as I told him to do--and something awful has +happened to him--and where's dad?" + +Mary V's father, whom men for some unaccountable reason called "Sudden" +when he was not present, crawled out from under the rear end of his +battered touring car when Mary V's moccasins and the fluttering hem of +blue kimono moved within his range of vision. Sudden's face was +smudged with black grease and the dust of the desert, and in his hand +was a crescent wrench worn shiny where it had nipped nuts and bolts. + +"You musta done some fancy driving the other day," he greeted his +anxious-faced daughter. "Didn't you know you was sliding a wheel every +time you threw on the brake? Wonder to me is you didn't skid off a +grade somewhere!" He hitched himself into a new and uncomfortable pose +and set the wrench on a nut, screwing his well-fed face into an +agonized grimace while he put his full strength into the turn. "If I +could find a man that I'd trust my life with on these roads, I'd have +me a chauffeur," he grumbled for the millionth time. "That reformed +blacksmith musta welded these nuts on to the bolts," he added, and +muttered something savage when the wrench slipped and he barked a +knuckle. "Well, what yuh want? Go ahead and have it, or do it--only +don't stand watching me when I'm trying to--" He gritted his teeth, +threw the wrench away and picked up another. "Go ask your mother," he +exclaimed. "Tell her I'll let you if she will." + +At another time Mary V would have deeply resented the implication that +she never approached her dad save when she wanted something; or more +likely she would have stated her want before her dad had time to speak. +Just now she was hopefully watching a buzzard that sailed on +outstretched, rigid wings, high in the sky. It seemed to be circling +toward the ranch, and it looked like an airplane flying very high. +Mary V's heart forgot to beat while she watched it. But the buzzard +sighted something, flapped its wings and went off in another direction, +and the girl winced as though some one had dropped a leaden weight on +her chest. + +"Dad!" The voice did not sound like Mary V's, and her father ducked his +head out where he could look up at her with startled attention. "We +must have the car--and all the boys--and get out and find Johnny. +He--he started in his airplane, to come to the ranch. And they haven't +seen him since last night, and--and you know what happened at Sinkhole!" + +Sudden got heavily to his feet and stood looking down at her, his +whimsical mouth slack with dismay. But he pulled himself together and +took the dominant, cool initiative which was so much a part of his +nature. + +"You say he started last night. How do you know?" + +"The hotel clerk--I 'phoned--oh, don't start cross-questioning, dad! I +_know_! His plane is gone, and--he should have been here last night! +He was alone, and--oh, get the boys and start them out! There isn't a +minute--he may be dead somewhere--or hurt--" + +"Now, now, we'll only bungle things by getting excited, Mary V. I'll +send the cook after the boys while I fix this brake and fill up the gas +tank. You go get some clothes on, and tell your mother to get the +emergency box ready, in case he's hurt. And if you can be calm enough, +you 'phone to Tucson to the sheriff, and tell him to send out a party +from that end, and work this way. Tell them to scatter out, but keep +the general airline to the ranch. We'll start in from here. And for +Lord's sake, baby, don't look like that! We'll find him--and the +chances are he's all right; maybe landed for some little repair or +something. Now hurry along, if you expect to go with me, because I +won't wait a minute." + +Mary V looked at her dad, standing there grease-smudged and calm and +capable, and half the terror went out of her eyes to leave room for +hope. Her dad had such a way of gathering up the threads of logic and +drawing them firmly into coherent action--just as a skilled driver +would take the slack reins of a runaway team and pull them down to a +steady pace. It seemed to her that Johnny Jewel was half found before +ever her dad laid down the wrench and began unscrewing the cap of the +gas tank. + +Like a fluttering bluebird she flew back to the house to do his +bidding. Excited she was, and worried, and more than ever inclined to +exclamation points and unfinished sentences; but she was no longer +panic-stricken. She was the Mary V who would move heaven and earth and +slosh all the water out of our five oceans in her headlong +determination to do what she had set out to do. + +In two minutes she had her mother and Bedelia rushing around like +scared hens, trying to collect the things she wanted to take for +Johnny's comfort and welfare. In three she was bullying the +long-distance operator. In five she was laying down the law to the +sheriff, just as though he were one of her father's cowpunchers. + +"Get all the men you can," she commanded, when she had reached the +details, "and scatter them like a round-up. You know how, of course. +And keep them within sight of each other, and make them keep watch in +every hollow and wash and high brush--because an airplane might not +show up very plainly if it's all smashed. And 'phone to all the places +down this way, and make all the men you can get out and help. It's +tremendously important that you find Mr. Jewel immediately, because he +may be badly hurt. My father will give a thousand dollars to the man +who finds him. You tell that to every one, Mr. Sheriff, will you, +please? And say that the Rolling R will pay well for the time of those +who aren't lucky enough to win the reward. We will pay every man +twenty-five dollars that goes out. And have an automobile follow you, +with a doctor in it, to take care of John--Mr. Jewel, when he is found. +We will start all our riders out from here, and ride until we meet you. +Now hurry! Don't stop for a lot of red tape and orders and things--get +right out on the trail. And don't forget the thousand dollars reward." +Just when the sheriff was saying "Aw right--goo'by," Mary V thought of +something else. + +"Be sure and have every man carry an extra canteen for Mr. Jewel. +Injured men are always tremendously thirsty. And don't forget that +every man will get twenty-five dollars, and the man that finds him--" + +The sheriff had hung up, which was rude of him. Mary V had several +other little suggestions to make--but men never do want to be told +anything, especially by a woman. Mary V was glad she had not been +permitted to say that the sheriff would of course receive an especially +attractive reward. He could go without, now, just for his smartness. + +The Rolling R boys, hastily summoned by the cook who had galloped off +without removing his flour-sack apron, came racing in and saddled fresh +mounts. In a surprisingly short time they were filling canteens and +gathering in a restive circle around the big touring car where the boss +sat behind the wheel, and Mary V, fidgeting on the seat beside him, was +telling them all for gracious sake to hurry up and get started, and not +fool around until dark. + +Bill Hayden got his orders, leaning down from his horse so that Mary +V's impatient young voice should not submerge her father's in Bill's +big, sun-peeled ears. "All right--better scatter out right now, soon +as we git past the fence. You foller along about in the middle." He +wheeled and was gone, overtaking the boys who were already starting for +the gate, which little Curley held open until the last man should pass. + +Sudden stepped on the starter, the big car began to gurgle. The search +was on. A hundred men were presently combing the desert land and +looking for an airplane that had not flown that way--just because +Johnny Jewel was true to his supreme purpose in life. And just because +Johnny's whole heart and soul were set upon repaying a conscience debt +to Mary V's father, Mary V herself was innocently saddling his +conscience with a still greater debt. For that is the way Fate loves +to set us playing at cross-purposes with each other. + + + + +CHAPTER FIVE + +GODS OR SOMETHING + +"Well, here we are," Johnny announced with more cheerfulness than the +occasion warranted. "Now what?" + +Bland was staring slack-jawed after the squaws. "Wasn't them Injuns?" +he wanted to know, and his voice showed some anxiety. "We want to get +outa here, bo, while the gittin's good. You bring any guns?" His pale +eyes turned to Johnny's face. "I'll bet they've gone after the rest of +the bunch, and we don't want to be here when they git back. I'll say +we don't!" + +Johnny laughed at him while he climbed down. "We made a dandy landing +anyway," he said. "What ails that darned motor? She didn't do that +yesterday." + +Bland grunted and straddled out over the edge of the cockpit, keeping +an eye slanted toward the brush fringe. What Johnny did not know about +motors would at any other time have stirred him to acrimonious +eloquence. Just now, however, a deeper problem filled his mind. Could +he locate the fault and correct it before that brush-fringe belched +forth painted warriors bent on massacre? He pushed up his goggles and +stepped forward to the motor. + +"I put in new spark plugs just the other day," Johnny volunteered +helpfully. "Maybe a connection worked loose--or something." He got up +on the side opposite Bland, meaning to help, but Bland would have none +of his assistance. + +"Say, f'r cat's sake, keep a watch out for Injuns and leave me alone! +I can locate the trouble all right, if I don't have to hang on to my +skelp with both hands. You got a gun?" + +"Yeah. Back in Tucson I have," Johnny suppressed a grin. Bland's +ignorance, his childlike helplessness away from a town tickled him. +"But that's all right, Bland. We'll make 'em think we're gods or +something. They might make you a chief, Bland--if they don't take a +notion to offer you up as a burnt offering to some other god that's got +it in for yuh." + +Bland, testing the spark plugs hastily, one after the other, dropped +the screwdriver. "Aw, f'r cat's sake, lay off that stuff," he +remonstrated nervously. "Fat chance we got of godding over Injuns this +close to a town! They're wise to white men. Quit your kiddin', bo, +and keep a watch out." And he added glumly, "Spark plugs is O.K. +Maybe it's the timer. I'll have to trace it up. Quit turning your +back on that brush! You want us both to git killed? Hand me out that +small wrench." + +"Say, I know what ailed them squaws, Bland. Gods is right. You know +what they thought? They took us for their Thunder Bird lighting. I'll +bet they're making medicine right now, trying to appease the Bird's +wrath. And say, listen here, Bland. If they do come at us, all we've +got to do is start up and buzz at 'em. There ain't an Injun on earth +could face that." + +Bland lifted a pasty face from his work. "Fat chance," he lamented. +"You'd oughta brought your gun. Back there at Sinkhole you was damn +generous with the artillery--there where you had no use for it. Now +you fly into Injun country without so much as a sharp idea. Bo, you +give me a pain!" + +Johnny spied an Indian peering fearfully out from the branches of a +willow. He ducked behind the motor and hissed the news to Bland. +Bland nearly fell from his perch. + +"Gawd!" he gasped, clinging to a strut while he stared fascinatedly in +the direction Johnny had indicated. "Git in, bo, and we'll beat it. +She may have power enough to hop us outa this death trap. We can come +down somewheres else." He clawed back and climbed in feverishly. + +Johnny emitted a convulsive snort. "Death trap" sounded very funny, +applied to this particular bit of harmless landscape. Behind him, +Bland was imploring him to hurry, and Johnny climbed in. + +"You let me pilot the thing," he ordered. "I know Injuns. I still +have hopes of saving our lives, Bland. We'll scare 'em to death. +We'll be their Thunder Bird for 'em. Now lemme tell yuh, before we +start--oh, we're safe for the present. They'll stutter some before +they attack us in here--say, good golly, Bland! Is that your teeth +chattering? Hold your jaws still, can't yuh, while I tell yuh what +we'll do?" + +"F'r cat's sake, hurry! I seen another one peekin' around the corner +of the house!" + +"Now listen, Bland. The Navajos have got a Thunder Bird mixed up in +their religion, and I guess maybe these Injuns will have, too. If so, +we are reasonably safe. They must not know we're plain human--we've +got to be gods come down to earth, and this is the Thunder Bird. Or +another kind of bird. We'll make 'em think that. They don't sabe +flying machines--see? And we'll find out where they're all at, and fly +low over their heads to convince them that didn't see us come down. +It'll scare 'em, and work on their superstition, so when we come down +again to locate that motor trouble, they'll stand in awe of us long +enough to give us time to get in shape. You leave the soaring to me, +Bland. I'll pull us through all right. Think she'll lift us off the +ground?" + +"She's _gotta_ lift us!" Bland chattered. "She's runnin' better since +we landed. And say, bo, don't go any closer to them--" + +Johnny told him to shut up; he was running things. Whereupon he +circled and taxied back down the field, thankful that the soil was +sun-baked and hard. The motor ran smoothly again--a fact which Bland +was too scared to notice. He gasped when Johnny turned back toward the +huts, but beyond a protesting look over his shoulder he gave no sign of +dissent. + +They started to climb, got fifty feet from the ground and the motor +began to spit and pop again. Then it stalled completely, and they came +down and went bouncing over the uneven surface and stopped again, a rod +or so nearer the willows than before. + +Several scuttling figures left that particular hiding place like +rabbits scared out of a covert, and Bland took heart again. A few +minutes he spent crouched down in the cockpit, watching the willows, +and when nothing happened he ventured forth, armed with pliers and +wrench, and went at the motor. + +"Sounds to me like poor contact," he diagnosed the trouble. "Like the +breaker-points are roughened, maybe. You'll have to work the gawd +stuff, bo, and work it right. Because if I start tearing into the hull +ignition system, we ain't going to be able to hop outa here at a +minute's notice, nor even start the motor and buzz at 'em." + +"Fly at it," said Johnny, eyeing the huts speculatively. He was +hungry, and certain odors floated to his nostrils. Something left +cooking over a fire was beginning to scorch, if his nose told the +truth, and it seemed a shame to let food burn when his stomach clamored +to be filled. + +With Bland watching him nervously, he crossed the little open space and +entered the hut nearest, presently emerging with two flat cakes in his +hand. Another hut yielded a pot of stew which he thought it wise not +to analyze too closely. It was this which had begun to burn, but it +was still fairly palatable. So, with a can of water from a muddy +spring, they breakfasted, their hunger charitably covering much +distrust and dulling for the time even Bland's fear of the place. + +The sun, shining its Arizona fiercest though the season was early fall, +brought a cooked-varnish smell from the wings. There was no shade save +the scant shadow which the scraggly willows and brush cast over the +edge of the parched field, and of that Bland refused to avail himself. +He would rather roast, he said. + +Johnny conscientiously carried the kettle back to the hut, then set to +work helping Bland. Which help consisted mainly of turning the +propeller whenever Bland wanted to start the motor; a heartbreaking +task in that broiling heat, especially since the motor half the time +would not start at all. Crimson, the perspiration streaming down his +cheeks like tears, Johnny swung on that propeller until Bland's grating +voice singing out "Contact!" stirred murder within his soul and he +balked with the motor and crawled under a wing. + +"Yon can start her yourself if you want to start," he growled when +Bland expostulated. "I've turned that darned propeller enough to fly +from here to New York. Why don't you get in and locate the trouble?" + +"There ain't any trouble--not according to the look of things. Acts +like water in the gas, or something. F'r cat's sake, don't lay down on +the job now, bo! We gotta beat it outa here." + +"I'm ready to go any time you are," Johnny retorted, mopping neck and +chest while he lay sprawled on his back. "But I'd rather stay here +till Christmas than get sun-struck trying to start, I'm all in." + +Bland could not budge him and swore voluminously while he worked over +the motor. Finally he too gave up and crawled under a wing where the +heat was not quite so unendurable, and tried to think of something he +had not done but which he might do to correct the motor trouble. No +Indians having been sighted since their second landing, he could push +his fear of them into the back of his mind until a dark face peered out +at him again. + +Miles away to the west men were sweating while they rode, searching for +this very airplane that sat so placidly in the midst of an Indian corn +field. Farther away the news went humming along the wires, of a young +aviator lost with his airplane on the desert. The fame of that young +aviator was growing apace while he lay there, casually wishing there +was a telephone handy so he could call up Mary V and tell her he had a +plan which might make him big money without his having to sell his +plane. + +Not once did it occur to him that any one would be especially concerned +over his absence. Not once did he look upon this mishap as anything +more serious than an unpleasant incident in the life of a flyer. He +went to sleep, lying there under a wing of his plane, and presently +Bland himself drifted off into dreams that would have been much less +agreeable had he known that a full two dozen Indians had crawled into +the willows and were peering timorously out at them. + +It was past noon when Bland awoke. Johnny was still sound asleep, +snoring a little now and then. Bland grumbled more profanity, sent a +questing glance toward the willows and saw nothing to alarm him, +crawled out into the searing sunlight and tried to work. But the motor +was so hot he could not touch it anywhere. His pliers and wrenches +were too hot to hold, and his face felt scorched where the sun fell +upon it. So Bland crawled back again and cursed the land that knew +such heat, and himself for being in it, and presently slept again. + +Hunger woke Johnny at last, and he straight-way woke Bland, politely +intimating that it was about time he got busy and did something. +Johnny did not propose to settle down for life in that neighborhood, he +pointed out. There must be something they could do, if the darned +engine wasn't broken anywhere. + +Bland, too miserable to argue, sat up and pushed greasy fingers through +his lank hair. Having remained alive and unharmed for so long in that +neighborhood, his faith in Johnny's knowledge of Indians waxed +stronger. He began to think less of his danger and more about the +motor. + +The thing mystified him, who could tear a motor apart and put it +together again. What he felt he ought to do was impossible for lack of +the proper tools, Johnny's emergency kit being quite as useless for any +real emergency as such kits usually are. Merely as an experiment he +removed the needle valve and washed several specks of dirt off it with +gasoline. Without hesitation the motor started, and Bland cursed +himself quite sincerely for not having sooner thought of the simple +expedient. He must be getting feeble-minded, he said, while he +adjusted the mixture and made ready to fly. + +Once more they taxied down the denuded corn field, turned and ascended +buoyantly, boring into the hot breeze that rose as the shadows +lengthened into late afternoon. They circled, climbing steadily. Then +pop--pop-pop-pop--pop, the motor began to stutter. The earth lifted to +them as if pulled up by a string. They could see more huts and tiny +figures running like disturbed ants. The field where they had spent +most of the day broadened beneath them, like a brown blanket spread to +receive them. + +They came down with a jolt that bent the axle of the landing gear, sent +them bounding into the air, and all but wrecked them. They went +ducking and wobbling up to the willow fringe and swung off just in time +to escape plunging into a deep little creek. As they stopped they +heard a great crackling of brush and glimpsed many forms fleeing +wildly, but they were too engrossed in their own trouble to be greatly +impressed. One wing had barely escaped damage with the tilting of the +machine, and the near-catastrophe chilled them both with the memory of +a certain other forced landing which had not ended so harmlessly. They +climbed down soberly and inspected the landing gear. + +"Well, that can be fixed," Bland stated in the tone of one who is +grateful that worse has not befallen. "I'll say it was a close shave, +though, bo." + +"I'll try and straighten the axle, while you see what ails that cussed +motor. Good golly! We'll be here all night at this rate. And if we +keep on hopping over this field like a lame crow, we'll be plumb outa +gas. For a mechanic that can _make_ a motor, Bland, you sure ain't +making much of a showing!" + +"Aw, f'r cat's sake, lay off the crabbing! Gimme the tools and I'll +rip your damn motor apart so quick it'll make your head swim! I'll say +I've tied into a sweet mess of trouble when I tied up with you. I +mighta knowed I'd git the worst of it. Look at what I was handed the +other time I throwed in with you! Got stuck in a cave and had to live +like a darned animal, and double-crossed when I'd helped you outa the +hole you was in. And now you wish this job on to me and begin to lay +the blame on me when this mess of junk fails to act like a motor. Come +off down here with a monkey wrench and a can opener and expect me to +rebuild a motor that oughta been junked ten year ago!" + +"Aw, shut up!" snapped Johnny, and stalked off to find something they +could eat. "Monkey wrench and can opener are about as many tools as +you know how to use--unless maybe it's a corkscrew." + +He went on, muttering because he had ever let himself be imposed upon +by Bland Halliday. Muttering too because he had started out that +morning to do stunts, instead of trying to find a buyer for the machine +as he had first planned. Now the prospect of getting back to Tucson +that night looked very remote indeed. And the winning of a fortune +doing exhibition work looked even more remote. "Unless we take up a +collection amongst the Injuns cached out in the brush," he grinned +ruefully to himself. "We're liable to take up a collection all right, +if we have to sleep here--but it won't be money." + + + + +CHAPTER SIX + +FAME WAITS UPON JOHNNY + +That day was a terrible one for Mary V. The big car went lurching here +and there over roads that never expected an automobile to travel them, +and Mary V watched and hoped and would not give up when even her dad +showed signs of yielding to heat and discouragement. + +Before noon they had met the sheriff and some of his men, and had +compared notes and given what information they could. The sheriff, in +a desert-scarred Ford loaded mostly with water and some emergency +rations, had managed to scatter his men and yet keep in fairly close +touch with them, and he seemed very sure that the search had been +thorough as far as they had gone. Young Jewel, he asserted, had not so +much as dropped a handkerchief on the ground they had covered, or his +men would certainly have found it. + +This, while it served as a temporary relief from the dread of hearing +the worst, merely postponed the full knowledge of a disaster which Mary +V could not bear to contemplate. They drove to a rendezvous previously +agreed upon with Bill Hayden and gleaned what news the boys had to +tell. Which was no news at all. Their search had been as barren of +results as the sheriff's, and Mary V's eyes, when they turned from face +to face, were hard to meet. Little Curley, who had been Johnny Jewel's +especial admirer and champion when that youth was spending his days +more or less tumultuously at the Rolling R Ranch, was seen to draw his +shirt sleeve hastily across his eyes after he had confronted Mary V for +a minute's questioning. + +She watched with painful interest a car that came bouncing toward them +over the rough trail they had taken. When it arrived their fears might +become a terrible certainty. Two men occupied the dusty roadster, and +neither was Johnny, and their haste implied great urgency. Mary V +weakened to the point of covering her face with her hands as they drew +near. But they were merely reporters anxious for news. + +That afternoon other reporters appeared, and the next day an +enterprising motion-picture concern had a camera man on the job. The +mystery of the vanished airplane grew with the passing hours. The +desert fairly swarmed with men, and theories were thick as lizards. On +the second night beacon fires were burning on every hilltop, and water +was being hauled in barrels to certain rest stations where the +searchers could come and recuperate. Old Sudden achieved some +front-page fame himself as a stalwart Napoleon of the desert--which he +profanely resented, by the way. + +On the third day Mary V was ordered to stay at home. There were +reasons which her father did not care to dwell upon, which made it +extremely undesirable that the girl should be present when her lover +was discovered. And, since the search had narrowed to a point where +discovery was practically certain within a few hours, Sudden was not to +be cajoled or bullied. + +Mary V was lying on the porch, wondering dully when the nightmare would +end and she would wake up and find life just as it had always been, +with Johnny alive and full of fun and ready to argue with her over +every little thing. It seemed grotesquely impossible that her own +innocent command that he come to her should result in all this horror. + +Upheld at first by a frenzied hope that they should find him, she now +dreaded the finding, and refused to reckon the time since she had last +heard his voice over the telephone. Hurt and without water or food on +the desert in all that heat--she set her teeth to stifle a groan. A +little while ago when he had been so sure that he could enlist as a +flyer, she had shrunk from the thought of his going to war. Before +that, when he had lain unconscious for so many days there in the +bedroom behind her; when a trained nurse had stood guard and would not +let Mary V so much as look at Johnny, and the doctor had spoken glibly +of hope, when his eyes told her how little hope there was, she had +suffered terribly. She had thought that she had touched the depths of +worry over Johnny--and she had not begun to know the meaning of the +word. + +She lay a small, huddled heap of heartache, shrinking from her own +thoughts, shrinking from the sight of every one, dazed with terror of +what she might hear if any one spoke. Into this nightmare jingled the +telephone bell. Mary V gave a faint scream and put her hands over her +ears. + +"There, there, baby--I'll answer it," her mother's voice came +soothingly, and Mary V shrank farther down in the hammock cushions. + +"Oh--why--land alive! Just a minute--hold the line," she heard her +mother say in a strange, flustered voice. Then she called, "Mary V--I +guess you better come and--" + +"Oh, I--_can't_, mommie! I'll go crazy if I have to hear--" + +"There, there, baby, it's something you want to hear!" + +Mary V's knees shook under her as she went to the telephone. Her voice +was pinched and feeble when she tried to call the stereotyped hello. + +"Oh, hello, Mary V. That you? I just got in, and I thought I'd better +call up. I hear they're out looking for me--" + +Mary V's eyes turned glassy. She made a faint sound and drooped +forward until her forehead rested on the table. The receiver slid +soundlessly into her lap and lay there while Johnny Jewel rattled on +hurriedly. + +"--And so after that happened, we were held up till dark getting the +landing gear straightened out. And of course we couldn't fly very well +after dark. And then next morning, after Bland had cleaned out the +carburetor--say, it was straight mud in there and the screen was packed +solid, so of course she didn't get gas half the time, and that's what +ailed her--and when we did start, or was going to start, we found out +there wasn't enough gas in the tank to take us home. So I had to catch +an Injun and make him take a note to the nearest station for gas, and +wait till he got back with some. I'd have sent word on to you, but I +was in such a darned hurry I forgot--and the Injuns were all scared +stiff, and it was only by making them understand I wanted water for the +Bird, and nothing else would do." + +"Mary V's fainted," mommie interrupted him then. "I guess it was too +sudden, hearing you on the wire when she thought you was dead. You +better wait and call up after awhile when her mind's more settled. +She's had an awful hard time. I'm real glad you're all right, Johnny, +but I've got to take care of Mary V now." + +Johnny's eyes were very wide open when he came out of the telephone +booth in the hotel lobby. That Mary V should faint when she heard his +voice sounded rather incredible, but it seemed to confirm the strange +intent looks and the flustered manners of every one around that hotel. +People seemed to be flocking in from the street and from other parts of +the hotel, and that they were gathering to gaze upon him, Johnny Jewel, +came with a shock. + +Three reporters came at him so impetuously that the foremost man +skidded on the polished floor and all but fell. Bland was plucking at +his elbow and whispering, "You let me handle the publicity, bo!" The +clerk was staring at him, both palms planted firmly on the desk, and +men were pushing up and craning for a look at him. Johnny whirled +suddenly and retreated to the telephone booth, shutting the door +tightly behind him. It was the first time in his life that he had run +from any one. + +To gain time, he called up the Rolling R Ranch again and managed to get +Bedelia, the cook, on the 'phone. Bedelia was perfectly willing to +tell all she knew, and she appeared to know a great deal. Johnny held +the receiver to his ear until his elbow cramped, and said "uh-huh" once +in a while, and wondered how much Bedelia was exaggerating the truth. +As a matter of fact Bedelia was giving him a conservative history of +the past three days and, indirectly, she was explaining the crowd in +the lobby behind him. + +Telephone booths are not any too comfortable on a hot day, and Johnny +emerged rather limp and sober. + +He edged in to where Bland was gesticulating in the center of a group +that seemed to be drinking in his words eagerly. + +"I'm going on to the ranch, Bland," he said shortly. "Jar loose here +and come help get the machine ready." + +"In a minute, bo. As I was saying--" + +"Ah--I hear you had quite an adventure, Mr. Jewel, down among the +Indians with your airplane. Now, just where--" + +"I'm in a hurry," Johnny hedged. "I don't know anything about any +adventure. We had a little carburetor trouble, and had to wait for gas +before we could get back. That's all." He grabbed Bland firmly by one +arm and hustled him outside, where men were seemingly waiting far his +appearance. + +"Oh, Mr. Jewel! I wish you'd tell me--" + +"I'm in a hurry! Good golly, folks seem to think talking is all there +is to do in this world! Come on, Bland." He hurried on, his mind +absorbed in grasping the full significance of Bedelia's excited report +of events at the Rolling R and this curious crowd that gaped at him. +The thought of Mary V lying unconscious, stricken by the sound of his +voice over the telephone, nagged at him persistently and unpleasantly. +He had not told Bedelia that he was coming, and now he feared that his +unheralded appearance might be another shock to Mary V; but he would +not take the time to go back and warn her, for all that. Instead, he +walked a little faster to where his plane was waiting. + +"I think you're making a bad play, bo--duckin' out when all them +newspaper guys are hot after dope on us," Bland expostulated while he +drilled along beside his boss. "I give 'em some scarehead stuff, but +they'd lap up a lot more. We can get a lot of valuable publicity right +now if we play 'em right. I give 'em that gawd stuff for a start-off, +and I made--" + +"Shut up and save your breath," snapped Johnny. "I'm not chasing up +any newspaper notoriety now." + +"Well, it'd be better business if yah did, bo--I'll say it would. Why, +it's free advertising we couldn't have pulled off on a bet, if we'd +tried to frame it. Absolutely not. Well, mebby your duckin' out right +now is a good play, too. It'll keep 'em chasin' yuh for more--and I'll +say that's about the only way to handle them smart guys. Oncet you +chase them, the stuff's off. You can bust your spine in four different +places and wreck your machine, and mebby get a four- or five-line +notice down in a corner next the dentist ads. It's worse, too, since +the war begun. There ain't no more chance, hardly, of getting +front-page publicity. Say, a couple of 'em took your picture. D' yuh +know that?" + +"No, and I don't care," Johnny retorted. + +Just now nothing mattered save getting to the Rolling R as soon as +possible and stopping that idiotic search for him. He hustled Bland +around to such good purpose that by the time the reporters had trailed +him to the hangar he was already in his seat and was barking "Contact!" +at Bland, who was unhappily turning the propeller at stated intervals +and wondering when he would ever again have a square meal, and hoping +that no misfortune would delay their arrival at the Rolling R, where he +remembered hungrily certain past achievements of the cook. + +"Going back to your Indian tribe?" one smiling, sandy-haired fellow +called out to Johnny. + +"No. I'm going to the Rolling R!" Johnny retorted unguardedly. +"Ready, Bland? Contact!" + +The motor started, and Bland pulled down his cap. "His best girl lives +at the Rolling R. He's goin' to see her," he informed the sandy-haired +man as he passed him. "They're engaged." He climbed up and took his +place, tickled at the chance to hand out more "dope." The sandy-haired +one seemed tickled, too, until he saw that his ears had not been the +only ones to drink in Bland's words. + +They moved hastily aside as the big plane swung round and went down the +field like a running plover. They watched it swing and come back, +taking the air easily, thrumming its high, triumphant note. They +tilted heads backward and followed it as Johnny circled, getting his +altitude. They squinted into the sun to see the plane head straight +away toward the Rolling R, its little wheels looking very much like the +tucked-up feet of some gigantic bird, until it had dwindled to the +rigid, dragon-fly outline. + +"He's got nerve, that kid!" the sandy-haired one declared to his +fellows. "Didn't care a whoop for publicity--did you fellows get that? +I'd been wondering if it wasn't some frame-up, but it's on the level. +That boy couldn't frame anything." + +"Not with those eyes," a sallow companion agreed. "I seem to know that +other bird. He's a crook, if I know faces." + +"He's just the mechanic. He don't count. But that kid--say, I like +that kid!" And he added enthusiastically, "Great story, that stuff the +mechanic doped out for us. We'd never have pulled it out of the kid." + +"I wish I could remember that bird. I ought to know him. Leaves a bad +taste in my memory, somehow. You're right--it's some story." + + + + +CHAPTER SEVEN + +MERELY TWO POINTS OF VIEW + +Mary V wadded a soft cushion under the nape of her neck, looked again +at Johnny sprawled in her dad's pet chair and smoking a cigarette after +a very ample meal that had been served him half-way between dinner and +supper, and stifled a sigh. Johnny was alive and well and full of +enthusiasm as ever. He had just finished telling her all the wonderful +things he could do and would do with his airplane, and the earnings he +had hopefully mentioned ran into thousands of dollars, and left a nice +marrying balance after her father's debt was paid. Yet Mary V felt a +heaviness in her heart, and though she listened to all the wonderful +things Johnny meant to do, she could not feel that they were really +possible. + +Something else troubled Mary V, but just now, with Johnny there before +her almost like one risen from the grave, she dreaded to recognize the +thing that shadowed the back of her mind. Johnny turned his head and +looked at her, and she forced a smile that held so little joy that even +Johnny was perturbed. + +"What's the matter? Don't you believe I can do it?" he challenged her +instantly. "There's no reason why I can't. It's being done all the +time. Other flyers make as much money as your dad makes here on the +ranch. And--you know yourself, Mary V, I couldn't settle down and be +just a rider again. Fighting bronks is too tame, now--too slow. I'll +have to make a flyer of you, Mary V, and then you'll know--" + +Mary V suddenly buried her face in a cushion. Johnny heard a smothered +sob and got up, looking very much astonished and perturbed. With a +glance over his shoulder to make sure no one saw him, ho put an arm +awkwardly around her shaking shoulders. + +"If you don't want to fly, you needn't," he reassured her. "I didn't +mean you had to. I only meant--" + +"It--it isn't that at all," Mary V managed to enunciate more or less +clearly. "But we've been simply crazy, worrying about you and thinking +all kinds of horrible things, and--" + +"Well, but I'm all right, you see, so you don't need to worry any more. +I was all right all the time, if you had only known it. You don't want +to let that give you a prejudice against flying. It's just as safe as +riding bronks." + +"It--it isn't the safeness." Mary V choked back a sob and wiped her +eyes. "But you don't seem to take it seriously at all!" + +"Now, you know I do! It's the most serious thing in my whole +life---except you, of course. And you know--" + +"I don't mean that!" Mary Y gave a small stamp with her slipper toe on +the porch floor, thereby proving how swiftly her resilient young self +was coming back to a normal condition after the strain of the past +forty-eight hours. "You ought to know what I mean." + +Johnny sat down again and looked at her with his eyebrows pulled +together. Mary V had always been more or less puzzling in her swift +changes of mood, wherefore this sudden change in her did not greatly +surprise him. + +"Well, what do you mean, then?" he asked patiently. "Seems to me I've +been taking everything too seriously to suit you, till just this +minute. I've been pretty serious, let me tell you, about making good, +and now I can see my way clear for the first time since all those +horses were run off right under my nose, while I was busy with my +airplane, getting it in shape to fly. You've been after me all the +time because I couldn't let things slide. Don't you think, Mary V, +you're kinda changeable?" + +Mary V gave him a quick, intent look and bit her lower lip. "I only +wish I could change you a little bit," she retorted. "I don't want to +be disagreeable, Johnny, after you were given up for lost and +everything, and then turned out to be all right. But that's just the +trouble! You--" + +"The trouble is that I wasn't killed? Good golly!" + +"No, I don't mean that at all. But we thought you were, and everybody +in the country was simply frantic, and you weren't even--" + +"Huh!" Johnny got up, plainly hesitating between dignified retreat and +another profitless argument with Mary V. Another, because his +acquaintance with her had been one long series of arguments, it seemed +to him; and profitless, because Mary V simply would not be logical, or +ever stick to one contention, but instead would change her attack in +the most bewildering manner. + +"I'm very sorry," he said stiffly, "that the whole country was frantic +without due cause. But I never asked them to take it upon themselves +to get all fussed up because I happened to be late for my meals. I was +foolish enough to take it for granted that a man has a right to go +about his business without asking permission of the general public. I +didn't know the public had my welfare on its mind like that. I'll have +to call a meeting after this, I reckon, and put it to vote whether I +can please go up in my little airplane. Or maybe the public will pass +the hat around and buy a string to tie on to me, so I can't get too far +away. Then they can take turns holding the string and pull me down +when they think I've been up long enough! Darned boobs--what did they +want to get up searching parties for? Couldn't they find anything else +to do, for gosh sake?" + +"Why, Johnny Jewel!" Righteous indignation brought Mary V to her feet, +trembling a little but with the undaunted spirit of her fighting +forebears shining in her eyes. "Johnny Jewel, you silly, ungrateful +boy! What if you had been hurt somewhere? You'd have been glad enough +then for the public to take some interest in you, I guess!" + +"Well, but I wasn't hurt," Johnny reiterated with his mouth set +stubbornly. "They had to go and worry the life outa you, Mary +V--that's what I'm kicking about. They--" + +Mary V gazed at him strangely. "But you see, Johnny, it was I who +worried the life out of them! When you didn't come, I got dad started, +and then I 'phoned the sheriff and offered a reward and big pay and +everything, to get men out. All the sheriff's men will get twenty-five +dollars a day, Johnny, for hunting you. And there was a reward and +everything. So don't blame the public for taking an interest in +whether you were killed or not. Blame me, Johnny--and dad, and the +boys that have been riding day and night to find you." + +Johnny reddened. "Well, I appreciate it, of course, Mary V--but I +don't see why you should think--" + +"Because, Johnny, you didn't come the next morning after I told you to +come. And the hotel clerk found your plane was gone, so--" + +"But I never said I'd come. I told you I wouldn't come to the ranch +till I had the money to square up with your dad. I meant it--just +that. You must have known I wasn't talking just to be using the +telephone." + +"But you knew I expected you just the same. And how could I know--how +could I _dream_, Johnny, that instead of coming or letting me know, or +anything, you would take up with that perfectly horrible Bland Halliday +again, and go off in the opposite direction, and be gone three whole +days without a word? I'm sure I wouldn't have believed it possible +you'd do a thing like that, Johnny. I--I can't believe it now. It--it +seems almost worse than if you had started for the ranch and--" + +"Got killed on the way, I suppose! I like that. I must say, I like +that, Mary VI You'd rather have me with my neck broken than not doing +exactly as you say. Is that it?" + +Mary V set her teeth together until she had herself under control, +which, had you known the girl, would have meant a great deal. For Mary +V was not much given to guarding her tongue. + +"Johnny, tell me this: After knowing Bland Halliday as you do, and +after knowing what I think of him, and what he tried to do down there +at Sinkhole when he was going to steal your airplane and fly off with +it, _why_ have you taken up with him again, without one word to me +about it? And why didn't you take the time and the trouble to call me +up and say what you were going to do, when you knew that I'd be looking +for you? I hate to say it, Johnny, but it does look as though you +didn't care one bit about me or what I'd think, or anything. You've +just gone crazy on the subject of flying, and that Bland Halliday is +just working you, Johnny, for an easy mark. You think it's pride +that's holding you back from taking dad's offer and staying here and +settling down. But it isn't that at all, Johnny. It's just plain +conceit and swell-headedness, and I hate to tell you this, but it's the +truth. + +"That airplane has simply gone to your head and you can't look at +anything sensibly any more. If you could, you'd have _kicked_ that +miserable Bland Halliday when he came sneaking around--wanting money +and a square meal, and you needn't deny it, Johnny. But no, instead of +taking the chance that's given you to make good, you turn up your nose +at it because it isn't spectacular enough to keep you in the limelight +as the original Boy Wonder! And you--you take that crook, that tramp, +that--that _bum_ as a partner, and imagine you're going to do wonderful +things and get rich and everything! And you won't do anything except +give that tramp a chance to steal you blind!" + +"I didn't say I'd taken Bland as a partner. But I may do it, at +that--if my judgment approves of the deal." + +"Your judgment! Johnny Jewel, you haven't got any more judgment than a +cat!" + +This was putting it rather strongly, since Mary V had fully intended to +guard her tongue, being careful not to antagonize him. That heady +young man now stood glaring at her in a thoroughly antagonistic manner. +Speech trembled on his lips that would not formulate the scathing +rebuke surging within his mind. He had been called conceited, +swell-headed, inconsiderate of others, and now this final insult was +heaped upon the full measure of his wrongs, just when he had a clear +vision of future achievements that should have dazzled any young woman +whose life was to be linked with his. But Mary V, he reminded himself, +could not look beyond her own little desires and whims. Because she +had tried to lay down the law for him and he had failed to obey, she +refused to see that he was playing for big stakes and that he could not +be expected to throw everything up just because she had been worried +over him for a couple of days. The mere fact that he had not been lost +on the desert, as every one supposed he was, could not affect his plans +for the future, though Mary V seemed to think that it should. + +"Well, since that is the way you feel toward me, I may as well drift," +he made belated retort in a tone of suppressed wrath. "I guess it +would have been better if I'd stayed away, I'll remember--" + +"For gracious _sake_, what does make you so horrid?" Mary V now had +one arm crooked around his neck, which he stiffened stubbornly. With +her other hand she was tweaking his ears rather painfully. "You're +going to stay right here and behave yourself till dad comes, and you're +going to have a talk with him about your affairs before you go doing +anything silly. You know perfectly well that my father's advice is +worth something. Everybody in the country thinks he has a wonderful +brain when it comes to business or anything like that. He can tell you +what you ought to do, Johnny, if you'll only be sensible and listen to +him." + +"What do I want to listen to him for?" Johnny's eyes looked down at +her with no softening of his anger. "Good golly! Do you think your +dad's got the only brain in the world? How do men run their affairs, +and get rich, that never heard of him, do you suppose? I don't want to +mock your dad--he's all right in his own field, and a smart man and all +that. But he don't know the flying game, and his advice wouldn't be +worth the breath he'd use giving it. Perhaps I am conceited and +swell-headed and a few other things, but I am perfectly willing to take +a chance on my own judgment for awhile yet, anyway. When I do need +advice, I'll know where to go." + +"To Bland Halliday, I suppose!" Mary V took away her arm and stood +back from him. "You'd take a tramp's advice before you would my +father's, would you?" She pressed her lips together, seeming to hold +back with difficulty a storm of reproaches. + +"I would, where flying is concerned." Johnny's lips spelled anger to +match her own. "He knows the game, and your father doesn't. And just +because Bland's playing hard luck is no reason why you need call him +names. Give the devil his due, anyway." + +"I just perfectly ache to do it!" cried Mary V. "He wouldn't be +talking you into all kinds of crazy things--" + +"Crazy because they don't happen to appeal to you," Johnny flung back. +"Oh, well, what's the use of talking? You don't seem to get the right +angle on things, is all." He busied himself with a cigarette, his +face, that had been so boyishly eager while he told her his plan, gone +gloomy with the self-pity of one who feels himself misunderstood. + +Mary V had gone back to her hammock and was lying with one arm thrown +up across the cushion, her face concealed behind it. She, too, felt +miserably misunderstood. Flighty she was, spoiled and impulsive, but +beneath it all she had her father's practical strain of hard sense. +Mary V had grown older in the past three days. She had faced some +bitter possibilities and had done a good deal of sober thinking. She +felt now that Johnny was carried away by the fascination of flying, and +that Bland's companionship was the worst thing in the world for him. +She was hurt at Johnny's lack of consideration for her, at his complete +absorption in himself and his own plans. She wanted him to "settle +down," and be content with loving her and with being loved--to be +satisfied with prosperity that carried no element of danger. + +Moreover, that he had not troubled to send her any message but had +deliberately gone flying off in the opposite direction with Bland, +regardless of what she might think or suffer, filled her with something +more bitter than mere girlish resentment. Johnny was like one under a +spell, hypnotized by his own air castles and believing them very real. + +Mary V had no faith in his dreams, and not even to please Johnny would +she pretend that she had. She had nothing but impatience for his +plans, nothing but disgust for his partner, nothing but disappointment +from his visit. She moved her arm so that she could look at him, and +wondered why it should give her no pleasure to see him standing there +unharmed, sturdy, alive to his finger tips--him whom she had but a +little while ago believed dead. Johnny, I must confess, was cot a +cheerful object. He was scowling, with his face turned so that Mary V +saw only his sullen profile; with his mouth pinched in at the corners +and his chin set in the lines of stubbornness. + +As if he felt her eyes upon him, Johnny turned and sent her a look not +calculated to be conciliating. If Mary V wanted to sulk, he'd give her +a chance. He certainly could not throw up all his plans just on her +whim. + +"I guess I'll go down and help Bland," he said in the repressed tone of +anger forcing itself to be civil. "We ought to be getting back +to-night." He opened the screen door, gave her another look, and went +off toward the corral, sulks written all over him. + +Mary V waited until she was sure he did not mean to turn back, then +went off to her room, shut the door with a force that vibrated the +whole house, and turned the key in the lock. + + + + +CHAPTER EIGHT + +SUDDEN MUST DO SOMETHING + +"I been thinking, bo, what we better do." Bland climbed down from the +motor and approached Johnny eagerly, casting suspicious glances here +and there lest eavesdroppers be near. That air of secrecy was a habit +with Bland, yet it never quite failed to impress Johnny and lend weight +to Bland's utterances. Now, having been put on the defensive by Mary +V, he was more than ever inclined to listen. + +"Shoot," he said glumly, and sent a resentful glance back at the house. +At least, Bland showed some interest in his welfare, he thought, and +regretted that it had not occurred to him to tell Mary V that and see +how she would take it. + +"Well, bo, all this limelight stuff is playing right into your mitt. I +didn't spill who I was to them news hounds, and I don't have to. I let +you take all the foreground. I was the mechanic--see? So it's you +that will have to put this over; and put it over strong, I say. + +"Now first off you want some catchy name for the plane, and you've got +it ready-made. All yuh need is paint to put it on with. Across the +top of the wings you want to paint THE THUNDER BIRD--just like that. +Get the idea? And we'll go back to Tucson and clean up a piece of +money. While you work into the exhibition stuff we can take up +passengers and make good money. Ten minutes of joyride, at ten dollars +per joy--you mind the mob that follered us to the hotel just for a +look-in? Say one in ten takes a ride, look at the clean-up! You take +'em yourself, bo--do the flunkey work and look wise. I never mentioned +the joyridin' at first, because I look on that as side money, and +exhibition flyers don't do nothing like that. They think it cheapens +'em, and it does. But right now it means quick money, see. With all +this publicity, and the Injun name--say, it's a cinch, bo! They'll +fall over theirselves to git a ride. + +"My idea is to get the name painted on right now, before we go back. +Then we'll circle over town and do a few flops and show our sign. So +right away the name'll stick in their minds and make good advertising. +Then when we land, the mob'll be there--I'll say they will! And +they'll take a ride, too. I wonder is there any lampblack on the +place?" + +Johnny smoked a cigarette and studied the proposition. It looked +feasible. Moreover, it promised ready money, and ready money was +Johnny's greatest, most immediate need. Not a little of his +captiousness with Mary V was caused by his secret worry over his empty +pockets. He grinned ruefully when the thought struck him that, if the +bald truth were known, he himself did not have much more than the price +of one joyride in his own machine! He had been seriously considering +asking Curley for a loan when that staunch little friend returned from +the search, but it galled his pride to borrow money from any one. +Bland's idea began to look not only feasible but brilliant. It would +establish at once his independence and furnish concrete proof to Mary V +that his determination to fly was based on sound business principles. +Supposing he only took up four or five passengers a day, he would make +more money than he could earn in two weeks at any other occupation. + +Bland seemed to read this thought. "You can count on an average of ten +a day, bo--that's a hundred dollars. Sometimes, like on Sundays, it +would run to two and three hundred bones. I guess that will let you +throw your feet under the table regular--what?" + +"What about you?" Johnny asked, looking up at him studiedly. + +"Me? I'll tell yuh, bo. You give me the second ten bucks you take in. +You keep the rest until the tenth passenger, and give me that, and then +the fifteenth. And you pay all expenses. That's fair enough, ain't +it? I'll make good money when you make better. Any exhibition work, +you give me half, because it'll really be me that's pulling off the +stunts. The public needn't be wise to that. You as Skyrider Johnny, +see. I'm just anybody, for the present." + +"Why all this modesty to-day? When you first wanted to go in with me, +I couldn't call you no violet, Bland. You said then that your name was +worth a lot." + +Bland's loose lips parted in a crafty grin. "It is worth a lot, bo--to +keep it under cover right now. One of them newspaper guys reminded me +of somebody. I don't think he remembered me--but it wouldn't do us no +good now to joggle his memory, bo. I ain't saying he's got anything on +me--only--" + +"Only he has," Johnny rounded out the sentence dryly. "All right. I'm +willing to play that way till I find out more about you. We'll try +your scheme out. It can't do any hurt." + +He went off to the shed where all sorts of things were stored, looking +for lamp black. And Bland, seeing ready money just ahead, overlooked +Johnny's blunt distrust of him, and pulled the corners of his mouth out +of their habitual whining droop and whistled to himself while he +tinkered with the motor. + +Johnny was up on a stepladder laboriously painting the R on THUNDER +when old Sudden drove into the yard with half the Rolling R boys packed +into the big car. They had heard the strident humming of the plane +when Johnny made his homing flight, and craning necks backward, had +seen him winging away to the Rolling R. They had guessed very close to +the truth, and for them the search ended right there. So, after +signalling the other searchers, many of the boys had ridden back in the +car, leaving patient, obliging little Curley to bring home their horses. + +Bud and Aleck, who had ridden uncomplainingly from dawn to dark, +looking for Johnny's remains, straightway pulled him, paint-pot and +all, from the stepladder and began to maul him affectionately and call +him various names to hide their joy and relief. Which Johnny accepted +philosophically and with less gratitude than he should have shown. + +"What yo' all doin', up there?" Bud wanted to know when the first +excitement had subsided. "Writin' poetry for friend Venus to read? +I'll bet that there's where Skyrider has been all this while! I'll bet +he's been visitin' with Venus and brandin' stars with the Rollin' R +whilst we been ridin' the tails off our hawses huntin' his mangled +ree-mains. Ain't that right, Eyebrow?" + +Bland grinned sourly. "Us, we been gawdin' amongst the Injuns," he +stated loftily. "We sure had some time. I'll say we did! Say, we're +goin' to be ready to do business now pretty quick. Don't you birds +want to fly? Just a little ways--to see how it feels?" + +Halfway up the stepladder Johnny stopped. "What's the matter with you, +Bland?" he asked sharply. "You crazy?" + +"We're out to do business. That's right, boys. Now's your time to +fly. All it takes is a little nerve--and ten dollars." + +"Shut up!" growled Johnny. "Don't be a darned boob." + +The boys looked at one another uncertainly. It might be some obscure +joke of Bland's, and they were wary. + +"Fly where?" Bud guardedly sought information. + +"Anywheres. Just a circle or two, to show yuh how this ranch looks to +a chicken hawk, and down again," Bland persisted, in spite of Johnny. + +"Yeah--it's that _down again_ I wouldn't much hanker for," Aleck put +in. "I seen how you and Skyrider come down, once." + +"That there was him learnin' not to pick nice, deep, soft sand for a +landin'," Bland explained equably, glancing up to where Johnny was +painting a somewhat wobbly B. "He ain't done it lately, bo." + +"Lemme up there, Skyrider, and see what it is yo'all are paintin' on," +Bud pleaded. "If it's po'try, maybe I can sing it." + +Johnny relaxed into a grin, but he did not answer the jibe. He was +disgusted with Bland for having such bad taste as to drum up trade here +on the ranch, among the boys who had ridden hard and long, believing +him in dire need. He hoped the boys would not guess that Bland was in +earnest; a poor, cheap joke is sometimes better than tactless +sincerity. He was even ashamed now of the name he was painting on the +wings. That, too, seemed cheap and pointless. He felt nauseated with +Bland Halliday and his petty grafting. + +A little more and he would have told Bland so and sent him about his +business. At that moment of revulsion against Bland he was almost in +the mood to give up the whole scheme and do as Mary V wished him to do: +settle down there at the ranch and work out his debt where he had made +it. Looking down into the grimy, friendly faces of those who had +braved desert wind and sun for him, the sallow, shifty-eyed face of +Bland Halliday seemed to epitomize the sordid avariciousness of the man +and made him wonder if any measure of success would atone for the +forced intimacy with the fellow. Mary V, had she known his mood then, +might have won her way with him and altered immeasurably the future. + +But Mary V knew only that he was staying down there with that +unbearable Bland Halliday, fussing around his horrid old airplane +instead of coming to the house and telling her he was sorry. Besides, +there was her dad, who had gone to all that trouble and expense for +him, not so much as getting a word of thanks or appreciation from +Johnny. Instead of coming right away to see her dad, he was down there +fooling with the boys. What, for gracious sake, ailed Johnny lately? +He ought to have a good talking to, she decided. Perhaps her dad could +talk some sense into him--she was sure that she couldn't. + +So she stopped her dad when he was on the point of going down where +Johnny was, and she told him what perfectly crazy ideas Johnny had, and +how he had refused to listen to a word she said, but instead had taken +up with Bland Halliday again. And wouldn't dad please talk to Johnny? + +"He keeps harping on owing you for those horses he lost," she said +impatiently. "I've told him and told him that you don't care and would +never hold it against him, but he won't listen. He keeps on talking +about paying it back, and making good before we can be married and all +that. And he simply will not consent to come and make good on the +ranch, and pay you out of his salary, if he feels he must pay. + +"He says ranching is too tame for him--dad, think of that! Too tame, +when he knows very well it would mean-- But he doesn't seem to care +whether we're together or not. He says he can make a fortune flying, +and he said he might go in partnership with Bland Halliday. He says we +can't think of being married until he has paid you--and he imagines he +can earn the money with that airplane! And I know perfectly well he +can't, because if he does make a cent Bland Halliday will cheat him out +of it. And dad--" Mary V's voice trembled "--he went off that morning +with that fellow, exactly in the opposite direction from the ranch! He +never intended to come, and he didn't care enough to tell me, even. He +just went as if nothing in the world mattered! And we were all +hunting--" + +"Well, if you look at it that way it's easy enough to handle him," +Sudden observed. "I've been thinking myself the young imp showed +mighty little thought for you. Of course you don't want to marry a +fellow like that." + +"Why, I do too! What, for gracious sake, ever put that idea into your +head? But I don't want him to act like a perfectly crazy lunatic. I +wish you'd speak to him. He won't listen to me--we just quarrel when I +try to reason with him." + +Sudden smoothed down his face with his hand. "I expect you do, all +right. The dove of peace is going to find mighty poor roosting on your +roof, babe, if I'm any judge." + +"I suppose you mean I'm quarrelsome, but you simply don't understand. +It was Johnny who quarrelled with me because I wanted him to have some +sense. I wish you'd speak to him, dad." + +"Oh, I'll speak to him," her dad promised grimly. + +Still, he did not immediately proceed to speak. Instead, he drove the +car down to the garage and put it away, passing rather close to the +airplane without giving much attention to Johnny. His casual wave of a +hand could have meant almost anything, and Johnny felt a small tremor +of apprehension. When he was merely one of the men on the payroll he +had stood just a bit in awe of old Sudden, and he could not all at once +throw off the feeling, even though Sudden had willingly enough +acknowledged him as a prospective son-in-law. He allowed a blob of +black paint to place a period where no period should be while he stared +after Sudden's bulky form in the dust-covered car. + +Sudden busied himself in the garage, turning up grease cups and going +over certain squeaky spots with the oil can while he studied the +problem before him. He had once before likened Johnny Jewel to a +thoroughbred colt that must be given its head lest its temper be +spoiled for all time. Just now the human colt seemed inclined to bolt +where the bolting threatened disaster to Mary V. The question of using +the curb or giving a free rein was a nice one; and the old car was +given an astonishing amount of oil before Sudden wiped his hands on a +bit of waste with the air of a man who had just made an important +decision. + +"If you've got time," he said to Johnny, when he approached the group +at the plane, "I'd like to have a little talk with you. No hurry, +though. Glad to see you got back all right. You had the whole country +guessing for a while." + +Johnny scowled, for the subject was becoming extremely unpleasant. +"I'm sorry--but I don't see what I can do about it, unless I go off and +smash things up to carry out the program as expected," he retorted, and +it did not occur to him that the words sounded particularly ungracious. +The thing was on his nerves so much that it seemed to him even Sudden +was taunting him with the trouble he had caused. + +"No, the show's over now, and the audience has gone home. No use +playing to an empty house," Sudden drawled. + +Johnny looked at him quickly, suspiciously. He had an overwhelming +wish to know just exactly what Sudden meant. He climbed down and took +the ladder back to the shed near by. + +"I'm ready for the talk, Mr. Selmer," he said when he came back. +Whatever Sudden had in his mind, Johnny wanted it in plain speech. A +white line was showing around his mouth--a line brought there by the +feeling that his affairs had reached a crisis. One way or the other +his future would be decided in the next few minutes. + +He followed Sudden to the house and into the office room fronting the +corrals and yards. Sudden sat down before his desk and Johnny took the +chair opposite him, his spirits still weighted by the impending crisis. +He tried to read in Sudden's face what attitude he might expect, but +Sudden was wearing what his friends called his poker expression, which +was no expression at all. His very impassiveness warned and steadied +Johnny. + + + + +CHAPTER NINE + +GIVING THE COLT HIS HEAD + +"You and Mary V are engaged to be married," Sudden began abruptly. "Have +you any particular time set for it, or any plans made?" + +Johnny faced him steadily and explained just what his plans were. That +Mary V had undoubtedly forestalled him in the telling made no difference +to Johnny. Since Sudden had asked him, he should have it straight from +headquarters. We all know what Johnny told him; we have heard him state +his views on the subject. + +"H-mm. And how long do you expect it will take to pay me for the horses?" + +Johnny hesitated before he plunged--but when he did he went deep enough +in all conscience. "With any kind of luck I expect to be square with you +in a year at the latest." + +"A year. H-mm! Will you sign a note for that three thousand, with +interest at seven per cent., and give your flying machine as security?" + +"I will, provided I can pay it any time within the year," Johnny +answered, trying to read the poker face and failing as many a man had +failed. + +Sudden nodded, pulled a book of note blanks from a drawer and calmly drew +up a note for three thousand dollars, payable "on or before" one year +from date, with interest at seven per cent. per annum, with a bill of +sale of Johnny's airplane attached and taking effect automatically upon +default of payment of the note. + +Johnny read the document slowly, pursing his lips. It was what he had +proclaimed to Mary V that he wished to do, but seeing it there in black +and white made the debt look bigger, the year shorter, the penalty of +failure more severe. It seemed uncompromisingly legal, binding as the +death seal placed upon all life. He looked at Mary V's father, and it +seemed that he, too, was stern and uncompromising as the agreement he had +drawn. Johnny's shoulders went back automatically. He reached across +the desk for a pen. + +"There will have to be witnesses," said Sudden, and opened a door and +called for his wife and Bedelia. Until they came Johnny sat staring at +the bill of sale as though he meant to commit it to memory. "One +military type tractor biplane . . . ownership vested in me . . . without +process of law . . ." He felt a weight in his chest, as though already +the document had gone into effect. + +When he had signed his name and watched Bedelia's moist hand, reddened +from dishwater, laboriously constructing her signature while she breathed +hard over the task, the plane seemed irrevocably lost. Mommie, leaning +close to his shoulder so that a wisp of her hair tickled his cheek while +she wrote, gave him a little cheer by her nearness and her unspoken +friendliness. She signed "Mary Amanda Selmer" very precisely, with +old-fashioned curls at the end of each word. Then, quite unexpectedly, +she slipped an arm around Johnny's neck and kissed him on his tanned +cheek where a four-day's growth of beard was no more than a brown fuzz +scarcely discernible to the naked eye. She gave his shoulder two little +affectionate pats that said plainly, "There, there, don't you worry one +bit," and went away without a word. Johnny gulped and winked hard, and +wished that Mary V was more like her mother, and hoped that Sudden was +not looking at him. + +Sudden was folding the paper very carefully and slipping it into an +envelope, on the face of which he wrote "John Ivan Jewel, $3000. secured +note, due ----" whenever the date said. When he finally looked up at +John Ivan Jewel, that young man was rolling a cigarette with a fine +assumption of indifference, as though giving a three-thousand-dollar note +payable in one year and secured with all he owned in the world save his +clothes was a mere bagatelle; an unimportant detail of the day's business. + +Sudden smoothed his face down with the palm of his hand, as he sometimes +did when Mary V demanded that she be taken seriously, and spoke calmly, +with neither pity, blame, nor approval in his voice. + +"I have held you accountable for the horses stolen through your neglect +while you were in charge of Sinkhole range and therefore responsible for +their safety within a reasonable limit. The expenses of your sickness +after your fall with your flying machine, I will take care of myself. +You were at that time trying to find Mary V, which naturally I +appreciated. More than that, I make it a rule to pay the expenses of any +man hurt in my employ. + +"The expense I have been under in hiring men, letting my own work go to +the devil, and so forth, while we thought you were lost, I shall not +expect you to pay. As I understand the matter, you had no intention of +coming to the ranch and had not said that you were coming. The expense +of looking for you really ought to come out of Mary V--and serve her +right for having so much faith in you. I am lucky in one sense--I shan't +have to pay the thousand-dollar reward the kid so generously offered in +my name for your recovery. The bonus she offered that sheriff's posse +will mighty near eat up that new automobile she's been wanting, though. +Maybe next time--" + +"I'll buy Mary V an automobile if she wants one--when I get the note +paid," Johnny stated boyishly, to show his disapproval of Sudden's +hardness. + +Sudden once more passed his palm thoughtfully over the lower half of his +face. "Mary V ought to appreciate that," he said dryly, and Johnny +flushed. + +"Anyway, it ain't right to make her suffer for being worried about me. +That was my fault, in a way. If you'll tell me how much you're out--?" + +"That's all right. It's on me, for falling so easy for one of Mary V's +spasms. I was led to believe you had actually started for the ranch--in +which case I was justified in supposing you had come to grief somewhere +en route. We'll let it go." He cleared his throat, glanced at Johnny +from under his eyebrows, took a cigar out of a drawer, and bit off the +end. + +"Now under the circumstances, I think I have a right to know how you +expect to pay that note. I realize that if I leave the flying machine in +your hands it's going to depreciate in value, and the chances are it'll +go smash and I'll be out my security. Don't you think you had better run +it under a shed somewhere and go to work? Of course it's nothing to me, +so long as I get my money, just how you earn it. Working for me you +couldn't earn any three thousand dollars in a year--you ain't worth it to +anybody. You're too much a kid. You ain't grown up yet, and I couldn't +depend on you like I can on Bill. But I could strain a point, and pay +you a thousand dollars a year, and split the debt into three or four +yearly payments. In four years," he pointed out relentlessly, "you might +come clear--with hard work and good luck." + +"On the other hand, when Mary V marries with our consent she gets a third +interest in the Rolling R. Her husband will naturally fall into a pretty +good layout. So you might fix it with the kid to jump down the four +years some. That's between you and--" + +"That's an insult! I'll pay you, and it won't be any Rolling R money +that does it, either. When I marry Mary V or any other girl it's my +money that will support her. I may be a kid, all right--but I ain't that +kind of a hound. I don't know the law on such things, but there ain't +anything in that Bill of Sale that says I've got to stand my plane in +your cow shed till I've paid the note, and I won't do it. The plane +ain't yours till I don't pay. Seems to me you better wait till the +note's due before you begin to worry, Mr. Selmer. And I'll set your mind +at rest on one point, anyway. The plane may go to smash, as you say, but +if I don't smash with it, I'll pay you that three thousand. And you +don't have to strain any point, either, to give me a job. When I want to +work for you I'll sure tell you so. In the meantime, I don't know as +it's very businesslike for you to go prying into my plans. You've +accepted my note, and you've got your security, and what the hell more do +you want?" + +Sudden was very much occupied with his cigar just then, and he did not +answer the challenge. Moreover, he was having some difficulty with his +poker face, which showed odd twitchings around his mouth. But Johnny did +not wait for a reply. He was started now, and he went on hotly, +relieving his mind of a good many other little grievances. + +"You don't go around asking other men how they expect to meet their +obligations a year from now, do you? Then why should you think you've +got a right to butt in on my private business, I'd like to know? Put my +plane in your cow shed and go to work for you! Huh! I've caused you +trouble and expense enough, I should think, without saddling myself on +you like that. I appreciate all you have done--but I absolutely will not +get under your wing and let you pet and humor me along like you do Mary +V. Why, good golly! You've spoiled and humored her now until I can't do +a thing with her! Why, she harps on my staying here at the ranch--under +dad's wing, of course!--instead of getting out and making something of +myself. You didn't fool around and let somebody else shoulder your +responsibilities, did you? You didn't let somebody plan for you and +dictate to you and do all your thinking--no, you bet your life you +didn't! And nobody's going to do it for me, either. If I haven't got +brains enough and guts enough to make good for myself, I'll blow the top +of my head off and be done with it." + +He rose and pushed his chair back with a kick that sent it skating +against the wall. His stormy blue eyes snapped at Sudden as though he +would force some display of emotion into that smooth, impassive, well-fed +countenance, the very sight of which lashed his indignation into a kind +of fury. + +"If you really think I don't amount to any more than to hang around here +for you to support, why the devil don't you kick me out and tell Mary V +not to marry me? You must think you're going to have a fine boob in the +family! And it's to show you--it's--why the hell don't you--what I can't +stand for," he blurted desperately, "is your insinuating right to my face +that I'd want to marry Mary V to get a third interest in the Rolling R. +I want to tell you right now, Mr. Selmer, you couldn't give me any third +interest nor any one millionth interest. If I thought Mary V had put you +up to that I'd absolutely--but she didn't. She knows where I stand. +I've told her straight out. Mary V's got more sense--she knows me better +than you do. She knows--" + +"There's another thing I neglected to mention," Sudden drawled, blowing +smoke with maddening placidity under the tirade. "It's none of my +business how you hook up with that tramp flyer out there--but you +understand, of course, that flying machine is tied up in a hard knot by +this note. I couldn't accept any division of interest in it, you know. +You have given it as security, affirming it to be your own property. So +whatever kind of deal you make with him or any one else, the flying +machine must be kept clear. Selling it or borrowing money on +it--anything of that kind would be a penal offence. You probably +understand this--but if so, telling you can do no harm; and if you didn't +know it, it may prevent you from making a mistake." + +"I guess you needn't lay awake nights over my going to the pen," Johnny +replied loftily. "I believe our business is finished for the present--so +good day to you, Mr. Selmer." + +"Good day, Mr. Jewel. I wish you good luck," Sudden made formal reply, +and watched Johnny's stiff neck and arrogant shoulders with much secret +amusement. "Oh--Mary V's out on the front porch, I believe!" + +Johnny turned and glared at him, and stalked off. He had meant to find +Mary V and tell her what had happened, and say good-by. But old Sudden +had spoiled all that. A donkey engine would have stalled trying to pull +Johnny around to the front porch, after that bald hint. + +As it happened, Mary V was not taking any chances. She was not on the +front porch, but down at the airplane, snubbing Bland most unmercifully +and waiting for Johnny. When he appeared she was up in the front seat +working the controls and pretending that she was speeding through the air +while thousands gaped at her from below. + +"I'm doing a make-believe nose dive, Skyrider," she chirped down at him, +looking over the edge through Johnny's goggles, and hoping that he would +accept her play as a tacit reconciliation, so that they could start all +over again without any fussing. No doubt dad had fixed things up with +Johnny and everything would be perfectly all right. "Look out below." + +"You better do a nose dive outa there," Johnny told her with terrific +bluntness. "I'm in a hurry. I want to make Tucson yet this afternoon." + +Mary V's mouth fell open in sheer amazement. + +"Johnny Jewel! Do you mean to tell me you're going to leave? And I was +just waiting a chance to ask you if you won't give me a ride! I'm just +dying to fly, Johnny." + +Johnny looked at her. He turned and looked back at the house. He looked +at the boys and at Bland. He took a deep breath, like a man making ready +to dive from some sheer height into very deep water. "All right, stay +where you are--but leave those controls alone. Want to show the boys a +new stunt, Bland? We'll take Miss Selmer up, and you ride here on the +wing. You can lay down close to the fuselage and hang on to a brace. +They've been doubting your nerve, I hear." He climbed in, pulling off +his cap for Mary V to wear. "Reach down there on the right-hand side, +Mary V, and get me those extra goggles. All right--come on, Bland, let's +show 'em something." + +Bland hesitated, plainly reluctant to try the stunt Johnny had suggested. +But Johnny was urgent. "Aw, come on! What's the matter with you? They +do it all the time, over in France! Turn her over. All ready? +Retard--contact!" + +Bland cranked the motor, but it was plain that his mind was working +furiously with some hard problem. Should he refuse to ride on a wing and +let Johnny fly off without him? All Bland's hatred of the wilderness, +his distrust of men who wore spurs and big hats as part of their daily +costume, shrieked no. Where the plane went he should go. Should he +consent to ride flat on his stomach on a wing, with the wind sweeping +exhaust fumes in his face and the earth a dwindling panorama of +monotonous gray landscape far beneath him? His nerves twittered uneasily +at the suggestion. + +But when the motor was going and the plane quivering and kicking back a +trail of dust, and Johnny had his goggles down and was looking at him +expectantly, Bland chose the lesser woe and laid himself alongside the +fuselage with his head tucked under a wire brace, his hands gripping +brace and wing edge, his toes hooked, and his cheek pressed against the +sleek covering. He grinned wanly at the boys who watched him, and sent +one fervent request up to Johnny. + +"F'r cat's sake, bo, don't stay up long--and keep her balanced!" + +"Hang on!" Johnny shouted in reply. + +The plane veered round, ran down the smooth space alongside the corrals, +lifted, and went climbing up toward the lowering sun. Then it wheeled +slowly in a wide arc, still climbing steadily, swung farther around, +pointed its nose toward Tucson, and went booming away, straight as a +laden bee flies to its hive. + + + + +CHAPTER TEN + +LOCHINVAR UP TO DATE + +In the Tucson calf pasture adjoining the shed now vested with the +dignity of a hangar, the Thunder Bird came to a gentle stand. Bland +slid limply down and leaned against the plane, looking rather sick. +Mary V pushed up her goggles and looked around curiously, for once +finding nothing to say. Johnny unfastened his safety belt and +straddled out. + +He had done it--the crazy thing he had been tempted to do. That is, he +had done so much of it. Unconsciously he repeated to Mary V what he +had said to Bland down in the Indiana corn patch. + +"Well, here we are." + +Mary V unfastened herself from the seat, twisted around and stared at +Johnny, still finding nothing to say. A strange experience for Mary V, +I assure you. + +"Well," said Johnny again, "here we are." His eyes met Mary V's with a +certain shyness, a wistfulness and a daring quite unusual. "Get out. +I'll help you down." + +"Get--out?" Mary V caught her breath. "But we must go back, Johnny! +I--I never meant for you to bring me away up here. Why, I only meant a +little ride--" + +"Now we're here," said Johnny, "we might as well go on with it--get +married. That," he blurted desperately, "is why I brought you over +here. We'll get married, Mary V, and stop all this fussing about when +and how and all that. When it's done it'll be done, and I can go ahead +the way I've planned, and have the worry off my mind. There's time yet +to get a license if we hurry." + +Bland muttered something under his breath and went away to the calf +shed and reclined against it disgustedly, too sick from the exhaust in +his face all the way to speak his mind. + +"But Johnny!" Mary V was gasping. "Why, I'm not ready or anything!" + +"You can get ready afterwards. There's just one thing I ought to tell +you, Mary V. If you do marry me, you can't take anything from your +dad. I can't buy you a new automobile for a while yet, but I'll do the +best I can. The point is, your dad is not going to support you or do a +thing for you. If you're willing to get along for a while on what I +can earn, all right. I guess you won't starve, at that." + +"Well, but you said you wouldn't get married, Johnny, until you'd +paid--" + +"I changed my mind. The best way is to settle the marrying part now. +I'll do the paying fast enough. Are you coming?" + +Mary V climbed meekly out and permitted her abductor to lift her to the +ground, and to kiss her twice before he let her go. Events were moving +so swiftly that Mary V was a bit dazed, and she did not argue the +point, even when she remembered that a white middy suit was not her +idea of the way a bride should be dressed. The very boldness of +Johnny's proposition, its reckless disregard of the future, swept her +along with him down the sandy side street which already held curious +stragglers coming to see what new sensation the airplane could furnish. +These they passed without speaking, hurrying along, with Bland, like a +footsore dog, trailing dejectedly after. + +They passed the hotel and made straight for the county clerk's office, +too absorbed in their mission to observe that their passing had brought +the three newspaper men from the hotel lobby. Bland fell into step +with one of these and gave the news. The three scented a good story +and hastened their steps. + +In the county clerk's office were two strangers who glanced +significantly at each other when Johnny entered the room with Mary V +close behind him and with Bland and the three reporters following like +a bodyguard. + +"Here they are," said a short, fat man whom Mary V recognized vaguely +as the sheriff. He gave a little, satisfied, nickering kind of +chuckle, and the sound of it irritated Johnny exceedingly. "Old man's +a good guesser--or else he knows these young ones pretty well. Ha-ha. +Well, son, you can get any kind of license here yuh want, except a +marriage license." Place a chuckle at the end of every sentence, and +you will wonder with me what held Johnny Jewel from doing murder. + +"And who the heck are you?" Johnny inquired with a deadly sort of calm. +"You ain't half as funny as you look. Get out." With a jab of his +elbow he pushed the sheriff and his chuckle away, guessing that the man +with an indoor complexion and a pen behind his ear was the clerk. Him +he addressed with businesslike bluntness. He wanted a marriage +license, and he could see no reason why he should not have it. The man +with the chuckle he chose to ignore, instinct telling him that haste +was needful. + +The clerk was a slow man who deliberated upon each sentence, each +signature. Eager prospective bridegrooms could neither hurry him nor +flurry him. He took the pen from behind his ear as a small concession +to Johnny's demand, but he made no motion toward using it. + +"Are you sure this is the couple?" he cautiously inquired of the +sheriff. + +"Sure, I am. I knew this kid of Selmer's--have known her by sight ever +since she could walk. It's the couple, all right. The girl's eighteen +on the twenty-fourth day of next January, at five o'clock in the +morning. If you like, Robbins, I'll call up Selmer. I guess I'd +better, anyway. He may want to talk to these kids himself." + +The clerk put his pen behind his ear again and turned apologetically to +Johnny. "We'd better wait," he said mildly. "If the young lady's age +is questioned, I have no right--" He waved his hand vaguely. + +"You bet it's questioned," chuckled the sheriff. "Her dad 'phoned the +office and told us to watch out for 'em. Made their getaway in that +flying machine there's been such a hullabaloo about. He had a hunch +they'd make for here." He turned to Johnny with a grin. "Pretty cute, +young man--but the old man's cuter. Every town within flying distance +has been notified to look out for you and stop you. Your wings," he +added, "is clipped." + +Johnny opened his mouth for bitter retort, but thought better of it. +Nothing could be gained by arguing with the law. He whirled instead on +Bland and the three reporters, standing just within the open door. + +"What the hell are you doing here?" he demanded hotly. "Who asked you +to tag around after me? Get out!" Whereupon he bundled Bland out +without ceremony or gentleness, and the three scribes with him; slammed +the door shut and turned the key which the clerk had left in the lock. +"Now," he stated truculently, "I want that marriage license and I want +it quick!" + +The sheriff was humped over the telephone waiting for his connection. +He cocked an eye toward Johnny, looked at his colleague, and jerked his +head sidewise. The man immediately stepped up alongside the irate one +and tapped him on the arm. + +"No rough stuff, see. We can arrest--" + +"Don't you _dare_ arrest Johnny!" Mary Y cried indignantly. "What has +he done, for gracious sake? Is it a crime for people to get married? +Johnny and I have been engaged for a long, long while. A month, at +least!--and dad knows it, and has thought it was perfectly all right. +I told him just this afternoon that I intended to marry Johnny. He has +no right to tell everybody in the country that I am not old enough. +Why didn't he tell me, if he thought I should wait until after my +birthday?" + +"If that's my father you're talking to," she attacked the sheriff who +was attempting to carry on a conversation and listen to Mary V also, +"I'd just like to say a few things to him myself!" + +The sheriff waved her off and spoke into the mouthpiece. "Your girl, +here, says she wants to say a few things . . . What's that? . . . Oh. +All right, Mr. Selmer, you're the doctor." + +He turned to Mary V with that exasperating chuckle of his. "Your +father says he'd rather not talk to you. He says you can't get +married, because you're under age, and you can't marry without his +consent. So if I was you I'd just wait like a good girl and not make +any trouble. Your father is coming after you, and in the meantime I'll +take charge of you myself." + +"You will like hell," gritted Johnny, and hit the sheriff on the jaw, +sending him full tilt against the clerk, who fell over a chair so that +the two sprawled on the floor. + +For that, the third man, who was a deputy sheriff as it happened, +grappled with Johnny from behind, and slipped a pair of handcuffs on +his wrists. The deadly finality of the smooth steel against his skin +froze Johnny into a semblance of calm. He stood white and very still +until the deputy took him away down a corridor into another building +and up a steep flight of dirty stairs to a barren, sweltering little +room under the roof. + +Baffled, stunned with the humiliation of his plight, he had not even +spoken a good-by to Mary V, who had looked upon him strangely when he +stood manacled before her. + +"Now you've made a nice mess of things!" she had exclaimed, half +crying. And Johnny had inwardly agreed with her more sweepingly than +Mary V suspected. A nice mess he had made of things, truly! +Everything was a muddle, and like the fool he was, he went right on +muddling things worse. Even Mary V could see it, he told himself +bitterly, and forgot that Mary V had said other things,--tender, +pitying things,--before they had led him away from her. + +He had no delusions regarding the seriousness of his plight. +Assaulting an officer was a madness he should have avoided above all +else, and because he had yielded to that madness he expected to pay +more dearly than he was paying old Sudden for his folly of the early +summer. It seemed to him that the rest of his life would be spent in +paying for his own blunders. It was like a nightmare that held him +struggling futilely to attain some vital object; for how could he ever +hope to achieve great things if he were forever atoning for past +mistakes? + +Now, instead of earning money wherewith to pay his debt to Sudden, he +would be sweltering indefinitely in jail. And when they did finally +turn him loose, Mary V would be ashamed of her jailbird sweetheart, and +his airplane would be--where? + +He thought of Bland, having things his own way with the plane. +Dissipated, dishonest, with an instinct for petty graft--Johnny would +be helpless, caged there under the roof of their jail while Bland made +free with his property. It did not occur to him that that he could +call the law to his aid and have the airplane stored safe from Bland's +pilfering fingers. That little gleam of brightness could not penetrate +his gloom; for, once Johnny's indomitable optimism failed him, he fell +deep indeed into the black pit of despair. + +Strangely, the failure of his impromptu elopement troubled him the +least of all. It had been a crazy idea, born of Mary V's presence in +the airplane and his angry impulse to spite old Sudden. He had known +all along that it was a crazy idea, and that it was likely to breed +complications and jeopardize his dearest ambition, though he had never +dreamed just what form the complications would take. Even when he +landed it was mostly his stubbornness that had sent him on after the +marriage license. He simply would not consider taking Mary V back to +the ranch. It was much easier for him to face the future with a wife +and ten dollars and a mortgaged airplane than to face Sudden's +impassive face and maddening sarcasm. + +Darkness settled muggily upon him, but he did not move from the cot +where he had flung himself when the door closed behind his jailer. He +still felt the smooth hardness of the handcuffs, though they had been +removed before he was left there alone. + +He did not sleep that night. He lay face down and thought and thought, +until his brain whirled, and his emotions dulled to an apathetic +hopelessness. That he was tired with a long day's unpleasant +occurrences failed to bring forgetfulness of his plight. Until the +morning crept grayly in through his barred window he lay awake, and +then slid swiftly down into slumber so deep that it held no dreams to +soothe or to torment with their semblance of reality. + +Two hours later the jailer tried to shake him awake so that he could +have his breakfast and the morning paper, but Johnny swore incoherently +and turned over with his face to the wall. + + + + +CHAPTER ELEVEN + +JOHNNY WILL NOT BE A NICE BOY + +The jailer reappeared later, and finding Johnny sitting on the edge of +the cot with his tousled head between his two palms, scowling moodily +at his feet, advised him not unkindly to buck up. + +Without moving, Johnny told him to get somewhere out of there. + +"Your girl's father is here and wants to talk to you," the jailer +informed him, overlooking the snub. + +"Tell him to go to hell," Johnny expanded his invitation. "If you +bring him up here I'll kick him down-stairs. And that goes, too. Now, +get out of here before I--" + +"Aw, say, you ain't in any position to get flossy. Look where you +are," the jailer reminded him good-naturedly as he closed the door. + +He must have repeated Johnny's words verbatim, for Sudden did not +insist upon the interview, and no one else came near him. At noon the +jailer brought him a note from Mary V, along with his lunch, but Johnny +had no heart for either. He had just finished reading the front-page +account of his exploits, and his mood was blacker than ever. + +No man likes to see his private affairs garbled and exaggerated and +dished to the public with the sauce of a heartless reporter's wit. The +headlines themselves struck his young dignity a deadly blow: + + +BIRDMAN FURNISHES NEW SENSATION! + +Modern Lochinvar Lands in Jail! + +Thunder Bird Carries Maiden Off. + +Telephone Halts Flight in County Clerk's Office, Where Couple is +Arrested. Abductor Attacks Sheriff Viciously. Is Manacled in Presence +of Hysterical Young Heiress Who Faints as Her Lover is Overpowered. +Irate Father Hurries to the Scene. + +After keeping the country in a turmoil of excitement over his +disappearance in an airplane, the Skyrider, young Jewel, flies boldly +to Rolling R ranch and abducts beautiful Mary V Selmer, only daughter +of the rich rancher who led the search for the missing birdman. + +Romance is not dead, though airplanes have taken the place of horses +when young Lochinvar goes boldly out to steal himself a bride. Modern +inventions cannot cool the hot blood of youth, as young Jewel has once +more proven. This sensational young man, apparently not content with +the uproar of the country for the past three days, when he was believed +to be lost on the desert with his airplane, attempts one adventure too +many. When he brazenly carried off his sweetheart in his airplane he +forgot to first cut the telephone wire. That oversight cost him dear, +for now he languishes in jail, while the young lady, who is under age, +is being held by the sheriff-- + + +It was sickening, because in a measure it was true, though he had never +thought of emulating Lochinvar or any one else. He had neither thought +nor cared about the public and what it would think, and the blatant way +in which he had been made to entertain the country at large humiliated +him beyond words. + +He picked up the square, white envelope tightly sealed and addressed in +Mary V's straight, uncompromising chirography, turned it over, +reconsidered opening it, and flipped it upon the cot. + +"There was an answer expected," the jailer lingered to hint broadly. +"The young lady is waiting, and she seemed right anxious." + +But Johnny merely walked to the barred window and stared across at the +blank wall of another building fifteen feet away, and in a moment the +jailer went away and left him alone, which was what Johnny wanted most. + +After a while he opened Mary V's letter and read it, scowling and +biting his lips. Mary V, it would seem, had read all that the papers +had to say, and was considerably upset by the facetious tone of most of +the articles. + + +". . . and I think it's perfectly terrible, the way everybody stares +and whispers and grins. What in the world made you act the way you did +and get arrested. And those were reporters that you shoved out of the +office, too, and that is why they wrote about us in such a horrid way. +And I shall never be able to live it down. I shall be considered +hysterical and always fainting, which is not true and a perfect libel +which they ought to be sent to jail for printing. I shall probably +have that horrid Lochinvar piece recited at me the rest of my life, +Johnny, and I should think you would be willing to apologize to the +sheriff and be nice now and make them let you off easy. And dad blames +me for eloping with you and thinks we had it planned before he got home +yesterday, and he says there was no excuse and it showed a lack of +confidence in his judgment. He says you are a d. fool and take +yourself too seriously, and it is a pity you couldn't have some sense +knocked into you. But you must not mind him now because he is angry +and will get over it. But Johnny, please do be a good boy now and +don't make us any more trouble. I am sure I never dreamed what you had +in mind, but I would have married you since we started to, but now it +is perfectly odious to have it turn out such a fizzle, with you in jail +and I being preached at every waking moment by dad and mommie. If you +had only kept your temper and waited until dad and mommie got here, I +am sure we would be married by now, because I could have made them give +their consent and be present at the Wedding and everything go off +pleasantly instead of such a horrid mess as this is. + +"I want you to promise me now that you will be good, and I will make +dad get the judge to let you off. Won't you please see dad and be nice +to him? His calling you a d. fool does not mean anything. That is +dad's way when he is peeved, and the jailer says you told him dad could +go to h. That is why he said it and not on general principles, because +he does really like you, Johnny. Of course we could see you anyway, +because you couldn't help yourself, but dad won't do it unless you are +willing to be good. So please, dear, won't you let us come up and talk +nicely together? I am sure the sheriff bears no ill will though his +jaw is swelled a little but not much. So we can get you out of this +scrape if you will meet us halfway and be a nice sensible boy. Please, +Johnny. + +"Your loving Mary V." + + +Johnny read that last paragraph three times, and gave a snort with each +reading. If being let off easy involved the intercession of Mary V's +father, Johnny would prefer imprisonment for life. At least, that is +what he told himself. And if being a nice sensible boy meant that he +was to apologize to the sheriff and say pretty please to Sudden, the +chance of Johnny's ever being nice and sensible was extremely remote. +His loving Mary V had said too much--a common mistake. What she should +have done was confine her letter to a ten-word message, and tear the +message up. A fellow in Johnny's frame of mind were better left alone +for a while. + +He sulked until he was taken down into the police court, where his +crime was duly presented to the judge and his sentence duly pronounced. +Knowing nothing whatever of the seamy side of life, as it is seen +inside those dismal houses with barred windows, Johnny thought he was +being treated with much severity. As a matter of fact, his offence was +being almost forgiven, and the six days' sentence was merely a bit of +discipline applied by the judge because Johnny sulked and scowled and +scarcely deigned to answer when he was spoken to. + +The judge had a boy of his own, and it seemed to him that Johnny needed +time to think, and to recover from his sulks. Six days, in his +opinion, would be about right. The first two would be spent in +revilings; the third and fourth in realizing that he had only himself +to blame for his predicament, and the fifth and sixth days would +stretch themselves out like months and he would come out a considerably +chastened young man. + +Another thing Johnny did not know was that, thanks to Mary V's father, +he was not herded with the other prisoners, where the air was bad and +the company was worse. He went back to his room under the roof, where +the jailer presently visited him and brought fruit and magazines and a +great box of candy, sent by Mary V with a doleful little note of +good-by as tragic as though he were going to be hanged. + +Johnny was sulkier than ever, but his stomach ached from fasting. He +ate the fruit and the candy and gloomed in comparative comfort for the +rest of that day. + +The next day, when the jailer invited him down into the jail yard for a +half hour or so, Johnny experienced a fresh shock. Somewhere, high in +the air, he heard the droning hum of his airplane. Bland was not +neglecting the opportunity Johnny had inadvertently given him, then. + +Johnny craned his neck, but he could not see the plane in the patch of +sky visible from the yard. He listened, and fancied the sound was +diminishing with the distance. Bland was probably leaving the country, +though Johnny could not quite understand how Bland had managed to get +the funds for a trip. Perhaps he had taken up a passenger or two--or +if not that, Bland undoubtedly had ways of raising money unknown to the +honest. + +Oh, well, what did it matter? What did anything matter? All the world +was against John Ivan Jewel, and one treachery more or less could not +alter greatly the black total. Not one friendly face had he seen in +the police court--since he did not call the reporters friendly. Mary V +had not been there, as he had half expected; nor Sudden, as he had +feared. The sheriff had not been friendly, in spite of his chuckle. +Bland had not shown up--the pop-eyed little sneak!--probably because he +had already planned this treachery. + +He went back to his lonely room too utterly depressed to think. +Apathetically he read the paper which his jailer brought him along with +the tobacco which Johnny had sent for. Smoke was a dreary comfort--the +paper was not. The reporters had lost interest in him. Whereas two +columns had been given to his personal affairs the day before, his +troubles to-day had been dismissed with a couple of paragraphs. They +told him, however, that the "irate father" had taken the weeping maiden +out of town and left the "truculent young birdman pining in captivity." +It was a sordid end to a most romantic exploit, declared the paper. +And in that Johnny agreed. He could not quite visualize Mary V as a +weeping maiden, unless she had wept tears of anger. But the fact that +her irate father had taken her away without a word to him seemed to +Johnny a silent notice served upon him that he was to be banished +definitely and forever from her life. So be it, he told himself +proudly. They need not think that he would ever attempt to break down +the barrier again. He would bide his time. And perhaps some day-- + +There hope crept in,--a faint, weary-winged, bedraggled hope, it is +true,--to comfort him a little. He was not down and out--yet! He +could still show them that he had the stuff in him to make good. + +He went to the window and listened eagerly. Once more he heard the +high, strident droning of the Thunder Bird. He watched, pressing his +forehead against the bars. The sound increased steadily, and Johnny, +gripping the bars until his fingers cramped afterwards, felt a +suffocating beat in his throat. A great revulsion seized him, an +overwhelming desire to master a situation that had so far mastered him. +What were six days--five days now? Why, already one day had gone, and +the Thunder Bird was still in town. + +Johnny let go the bars and returned to his cot. The brief spasm of +hope had passed. What good would it do him if Bland carried passengers +from morning until night, every day of the six? Bland couldn't save a +cent. The more he made, the more he would spend. He would simply go +on a spree and perhaps wreck the plane before Johnny was free to hold +him in check. + +Once more the motor's thrumming pulled him to the window. Again he +craned and listened, and this time he saw it, flying low so that the +landing gear showed plainly and he could even see Bland in the rear +seat. He knew him by the drooping shoulders, the set of his head, by +that indefinable something which identifies a man to his acquaintances +at a distance. In the front seat was a stranger. + +He could see the swirl of the propeller, like fine, circular lines +drawn in the air. The exhaust trailed a ribbon of bluish white behind +the tail. And that indescribable thrumming vibrated through the air +and tore the very soul of him with yearning. + +There it went, his airplane, that he loved more than he had ever loved +anything in his life. There it went, boring through the air, all +aquiver with life, a sentient, live thing to be worshipped; a thing to +fight for, a thing to cling to as he clung to life itself. And here +was he, locked into a hot, bare little room, fed as one feeds a caged +beast. Disgraced, abandoned, impotent. + +It was in that hour that Johnny found deeper depths of despair than he +had dreamed of before. Bedraggled hope limped away, crushed and +battered anew by this fresh tragedy. + + + + +CHAPTER TWELVE + +THE THUNDER BIRD TAKES WING + +The days dragged interminably, but they passed somehow, and one morning +Johnny was free to go where he would. Where he would go he believed +was a matter of little interest to him, but without waiting for his +brain to decide, his feet took him down the sandy side street to the +calf shed that had held his treasure. He did not expect to see it +there. For three days he had not heard the unmistakable hum of its +motor, though his ears were always strained to catch the sound that +would tell him Bland had not gone. Some stubborn streak in him would +not permit him to ask the jailer whether the airplane was still in +town. Or perhaps he dreaded to hear that it was gone. + +His glance went dismally over the bare stretches he had used for his +field. The wind had levelled the loose dirt over the tracks, so that +the field looked long deserted and added its mite to his depressed +mood. He hesitated, almost minded to turn back. What was the use of +tormenting himself further? But then it occurred to him that his whole +world lay as forlornly empty before him as this field and hangar, and +that one place was like another to him, who had lost his hold on +everything worth while. He had a vague notion to invoke the aid of the +law to hold Bland and the plane, wherever he might be located, but he +was not feeling particularly friendly toward the law just now, and the +idea remained nebulous and remote. He went on because there was really +nothing to turn back for. + +His dull apathy of despair received something in the nature of a shock +when he walked around the corner and almost butted into Bland, who had +just finished tightening a turnbuckle and stepped back to walk around +the end of a wing. Bland's pale, unpleasant eyes watered with +welcome--which was even more surprising to Johnny than his actual +presence there. + +"Why, hello, old top! They told me you'd be let out t'day, but I +didn't know just when. You're looking peaked. Didn't they feed yuh +good?" + +Johnny did not answer. He went up and ran his fingers caressingly +along the polished propeller blade that slanted toward him; he fingered +the cables and touched the smooth curve of the wing as if he needed +more evidence than his eyes could furnish that the Thunder Bird was +there, where he had not dared hope he would find it. Bland came up +with an eager, apologetic air and stood beside him. He was like a dog +that waits to be sure of his mastery mood before he makes any wild +demonstrations of joy at the end of a forced separation. + +"I been overhauling the motor, bo, and I got her all tuned up and in +fine shape for you. She's ready to take the long trail any old time. +I flew her for a couple of days, bo; took up passengers fast as they +could climb in and out. I knew you said you was about broke, so I went +ahead and took in some coin. I'll say I did. Three hundred bones the +first day,--how's that? There was a gang around here all day. I +didn't get a chance to eat, even. Second day I made a hundred and +ninety, and got a flat tire, so I quit. Next day I took in a hundred +and thirty. Then I put her in here and went to work on the motor. I +figured, the way they had throwed it into you, you'd probably want to +beat it soon as you got out, and I was afraid to overwork the motor and +maybe have to wait while I sent to Los Angeles for new parts. It was +time to quit while the quittin' was good, bo. Here's your money--all +except what I spent for gas and oil and a few tools and one thing and +another. I kept out my share, and I ain't chargin' you for flying. +That goes in the bargain, that I'll fly in an emergency like that. So +this is yours." Then he had to add an I-told-you-so sentence. "Goes +to prove I was right, don't it? Didn't I say there was big money in +flyin'?" + +He held out a roll of bills tied with a string; a roll big as Johnny's +wrist. Johnny looked at it, looked into Eland's lean, grimy face +queerly. "Good golly!" he said in a hushed tone, and that was the +first normal, Johnny-Jewel phrase he had spoken for six days. + +"Well, there's plenty to see yuh through, if you want to try the +Coast," Bland urged, watching Johnny's face avidly. "Way they done yuh +dirt here, bo, I couldn't git out quick enough, if it was me. I'll say +I couldn't. And out there's where the real money is. Here, I've taken +everybody up that's got the nerve and the ten dollars. In Los Angeles +you can be taking in money like that every day. F'r cat's sake, bo, +let's git outa this. They ain't handed you nothin' but the worst of +it." + +He had changed his point of view considerably since he painted the +picture of easy wealth in Tucson, to be won on the strength of the +newspaper publicity Johnny had acquired. He had seen something in +Johnny's face that encouraged him to suggest Los Angeles once more as +the ultimate goal of all true aviators. Johnny had nothing to hold +him, now that Mary V had broken with him--as Bland understood the +separation. With Mary V's influence strong upon Johnny's decisions, +Bland had bided his time; but there was nothing now to hold him, +everything to urge him away from the place. And Bland pined for the +gay cafes on Spring Street. (They are not so gay nowadays, but that is +beside the point, for Bland remembered them as being gay, and for their +gayety he pined.) + +Johnny resorted to his old subterfuge of rolling and smoking a +cigarette very deliberately while he made up his mind what to do. And +Bland watched his face as a hungry dog watches for flung scraps of food. + +"Aw, come on, bo! F'r cat's sake let's get to a regular town where we +got a chance to make real money! Why--think of it! We can start now, +and with luck we can sleep in Los Angeles to-night. And it won't be +hot like it is here, and you can git a decent meal and see a decent +show while you put yourself outside it. And," he added artfully, +giving the propeller a pull, "the Thunder Bird is achin' to fly. Look +underneath, bo. I've got her name painted on the under side, too, so +she'll holler her name like a honkin' goose as she flies. And you +don't want her to go squawking Thunder Bird to these damn' hicks, I +guess, and keep 'em rememberin' that you spent six days--" + +"That'll be about all," Johnny cut him short. "No, I don't want +anything more of this darn country. I'm willing to fly to Los Angeles +or Miles City, Montana--just so we get outa here. Come on, if you're +ready. We'll make a bee line for the Coast. We'd better take grub and +water in case of accidents. You know what happened to the poor devils +that lost this plane in the first place, before I got it." + +Bland's jaw went slack. Los Angeles, that had seemed so near, wavered +and receded like a fading mirage. What had happened to those who had +abandoned the plane where Johnny had found it was a horror Bland +disliked to contemplate; a horror of thirst and crazed wanderings over +hot Band and through parched greasewood, with lizards and snakes for +company. + +"There can't be any accidents, bo," he said uneasily. "I've went over +the motor careful, and we oughta make it with about two stops for gas +and oil. If I thought we'd git caught out--" + +Johnny threw away his cigarette stub and straightened his shoulders. +"Well, we're going to try it," he stated definitely. "You needn't +think I'm anxious to get caught out in that damned desert--I know what +it's like, a heap better than you do, Bland. There's ways to commit +suicide that's quicker and easier than running around in circles on the +desert without water. I aim to play safe. You go down town and buy an +extra water bag and some grub. And when we start we'll follow the +railroad. Beat it--and say! Don't go and load up with sandwiches like +a town hick. Get half a dozen small cans of beans, and some salt and +pancake flour and matches and a small frying pan and bucket and a hunk +of bacon and some coffee. And say!" he called as Bland was hurrying +off, "don't forget that water bag!" + +Bland nodded to show that he heard, and struck a trot down the street. +And Johnny, while he occupied himself with going over the plane and +making sure that the gas tank was full and there was plenty of oil, +almost whistled until the thought of Mary V pulled his lips down at the +corners. He wanted to call up the ranch and see if she were there, and +tell her where he was going, but that seemed foolish, after a week of +silence from her. He shrank from the possibility of being told that +Mary V wished to have nothing to do with him. So pride stiffened his +determination to go on and let them think what they pleased of him. + +Bland came back with a furtive look in his pale-blue eyes. Johnny gave +him a keenly appraising glance, edged close and sniffed, and decided +that he was too suspicious and that Bland's sneaking look was merely an +outcropping of his nature and had nothing to do with prohibition. +Bland had the supplies in a gunny sack and made haste to stow them away +to the best advantage. + +Bland carried a guilty conscience. The hotel clerk had hailed him as +he passed and had inquired for Johnny. "Long distance" had a call for +him, and had insisted that Johnny be found at once and put in +connection with the "party" who wished to talk with him. Bland had +promised to find Johnny and tell him, and had hurried on. A block +farther down the street a messenger boy had hailed him and asked him if +he knew where Johnny Jewel was. "Long distance" was calling and had +orders to search the town and get Johnny on the 'phone at once. The +call had come in just after Johnny had left the jail, and no one seemed +to know where he had gone. + +"It's his girl--the one he tried to elope with," the boy had informed +Bland with that uncanny knowledge of state secrets which messenger boys +are prone to display. "She'll tear the telephone out by the roots if +we don't get him. Is he over to the flying-machine shed?" + +Bland lied, and promised again that he would try and find Johnny and +tell him to hurry to a telephone. Bland had shaved seconds off every +minute thereafter, getting through with his errand and back to the +hangar. He had expected to be followed out there, and he was in a +secret agony of haste which he betrayed in every move he made. + +But Johnny was himself in a hurry to be gone, and excitement over the +adventure and a troubled sense of running away occupied his mind so +that he gave little heed to Bland. He climbed in, and Bland raised his +two arms to the propeller blade and waited with visible impatience for +the word. He had that word. And Bland, who had glanced over his +shoulder and glimpsed some one coming,--some one who much resembled a +messenger boy,--turned the motor over with one mighty pull, and made +the cockpit in two jumps and a straddle. + +"We're off, bo! Give it to 'er!" he shouted, in a tone quite foreign +to his usual languid whine, and fastened his safety belt. + +Johnny settled himself, felt out his controls, gave her more gas. A +uniformed young fellow, running toward them, shouted something, but +Johnny gave no heed. Uniforms did not appeal to him, anyway. He +scowled at this one and went taxieing down the field, spurned the +earth, and whirred off into the air. + +"We want to climb to about ten thousand," Bland shouted over his +shoulder, "and f'r cat's sake, don't let's lose sight of the railroad." + +Rapidly the earth dropped away. The town shrunk to a handful of toy +houses flung carelessly down upon a dingy gray carpet, with a yellow +seam stretched across--which was the railroad--and yellow gashes here +and there. The toy houses dwindled to mere dots on a relief map of +gray with green splotches here and there for groves and orchards not +yet denuded of leaves. Their ears were filled with the pulsing roar of +the motor, their faces tingled with the keen wind of their passing +through the higher spaces. + +Away down below, where the dust they had kicked up had not yet settled, +the messenger boy stood open-mouthed, with his cap tilted precariously +on the bulge of his head, a damp lock of hair straggling down into his +right eyebrow, while he craned his neck to stare after the dwindling +speck. + +He waited, leaning against the shady side of the shed with his feet +crossed; but the Thunder Bird did not circle back and prepare to +descend the invisible spiral it had climbed so ardently. Two +cigarettes he smoked leisurely, now and then tilting back his head and +squinting into the silent blue depth above. He drew out his book and +looked at the slip saying that Johnny Jewel was being called by the +Rolling R Ranch on long-distance telephone. He squinted again at the +sky, cocked his ear like a spaniel and got no faint humming, replaced +the slip in his book and the book in his torn-down pocket, and +presently meandered back to town. + +Away off to the west, so high that it looked a mere speck floating +swiftly, the Thunder Bird went roaring, steadily boring its way to +journey's end. And a little farther to the south, Mary V was making +life unpleasant for the telephone operator and for her mother who +preached patience and courtesy to those who toll, and for her dad who +had ventured to inquire what she wanted to dog that young imp for, +anyway, and why didn't she try waiting until he showed interest enough +in somebody besides himself to call her up? And where was her pride, +anyway? + +Then, after what seemed to Mary V sufficient time to call Johnny from +the farthest corner of the universe, the telephone jangled. The +operator told her, with what Mary V called a perfectly intolerable tone +of spite, that her "party" could not be located for her at present, as +he had left town. + +"And I hope to goodness he stays!" gritted Mary V, slamming the +receiver on its hook. "With dad acting the way he did and treating +Johnny like a _dog_, and with Johnny acting worse than dad does and +treating me as if I were to blame for everything, I just wish men had +never been born. I don't see what use they are in the world, except to +drive a person raving distracted. Now, dad, just see what you have +done!" She confronted Sudden like a small fury. "You wanted to teach +Johnny a lesson, and you refused to let me see him while he was in +jail, just because he told you to go somewhere. And you know perfectly +well that you swore worse about him. And he did not plan to elope. +He--he just did it because I was right there and--handy. And now see +what you've done! You wouldn't let me go to him, and now he's out, and +he has left town, and nobody knows where he is! I should think, for a +parent who is responsible to heaven for his offspring's happiness, +you'd be ashamed of yourself. You let me be engaged to him, and now +you've gone and balled things up until I wish I were dead!" + +About that time Johnny turned his head and stared wistfully down at the +gray expanse sliding away beneath him. Off there to the left was the +Rolling R Ranch--and Mary V. He wondered dully if it would hurt her, +this abrupt ending of their dreams. Or had she ever really cared? + +Bland, sitting in front with his guilty secret, felt the swing Johnny +was unconsciously giving to the plane, and set his control against it. +The Thunder Bird veered, hesitated, and came back to the course. +Johnny took a long breath and turned his eyes to the front again. The +past was past--the future lay all before him. He set his teeth +together and drove the Thunder Bird straight into the west. + + + + +CHAPTER THIRTEEN + +TEE HEGIRA OF JOHN IVAN JEWEL + +Fiction would give to the venture a hairbreadth escape or two and many +insurmountable obstacles which would, of course, be triumphantly +surmounted by the hero. But fact will have it otherwise, and the +chronicler of events must not be blamed if the hegira of John Ivan +Jewel lacked excitement. + +The Thunder Bird flew high, with a steady air current behind which gave +the plane more speed than Johnny had hoped for, and brought them close +to Yuma before the gas gauge began to worry him. They descended +cautiously, circled over the town like a wild duck over a pond, +choosing their landing. They alighted without mishap and Johnny hired +a decent-looking Mexican to watch the plane and protect it from curious +meddlers while he and Bland went into town and ate their fill, and +bought gas and oil to be delivered immediately. Before the town had +fairly awakened to the fact that an airplane had descended in its +immediate vicinity, they were off again, climbing once more to the high +air lanes that made smoother going. + +The motor worked smoothly, the hand of the tachometer wavering around +twelve hundred, and the altometer registering nine thousand feet, save +when they dipped and lifted to the uneven currents over the mountains. +The Thunder Bird seemed alive, glorying in her native element. The +earth slid away like a map unrolled endlessly beneath them. Desert and +little towns on the railroad like broken beads strung loosely on a taut +wire. Salton Sea was cool and tempting, though the air shimmered all +around it with heat. They flew the full length of it and on up the +valley. Then they climbed higher and so breasted the currents flowing +over the San Jacintos. And over a little town set in level country +they wheeled, descending and searching for a field. Again they landed +and filled their gas tank and went on. Always it was the distance +ahead that called them. Always they grudged the minutes lost, as +though they were racing against time and the stakes were high. + +After the last stop, exaltation seized Johnny and lifted him high above +the sordid things of earth. Trouble dropped away from him; rather, it +was left behind as he flew toward the sunset, He lost the sense of +weight that clogs the bodies of human creatures plodding over the +earth's uneven surface and became as an eagle, soaring high on wings +that never tired. Never before had he remained so long in flight, +wherefore he had never attained so completely that birdlike feeling of +mastery in the air. Falling seemed impossible; as easily could his +senses have visualized falling through the earth in the old days of +crawling. There was no earth. There was only a sliding relief map far +below to guide him in his triumphant flight. Tucson, the Rolling +R--they were clouds that hovered far back on the horizon of his mind. +Mary V was a dim vision that came and went but never quite took +definite form. The roar of the motor he had long ceased to hear. +Godlike he floated with wings outspread, straight into the sunset. + +The sliding map below took on strange, beautiful colors of purple and +gold and rose, with sometimes a wonderful blending of all. Before him +the sky was a gorgeous, piled radiance. The earth colors changed, +softened, deepened to a mysterious shadowy expanse, with here and there +a brightness where the sun touched a hilltop. + +"We better drop a little," Bland shouted. "I gotta keep my bearings!" + +Swiftly the vague outlines sharpened. Groves and groves and groves +appeared beneath them. And small islands of twinkling stars, set in +patterns and squares, with here and there a splotch of brightness. And +single stars that had somehow strayed and lay twinkling, lost in the +great squares of dark green. + +"We gotta make it before dark," Bland yelled. "I been away a year. I +need daylight--" + +They gave her more gas, and Johnny became conscious of the motor's +voice. Eighty miles she was doing now, on a gentle incline that lifted +the earth a little nearer. The glory before them was deepening to ruby +red that glowed and darkened. Beneath the heaped radiance lay a sea of +stars--and beyond, a smooth floor of polished purple. + +"There's Los Angeles--and over beyond is the ocean!" called Bland, +turning his head a little. + +Johnny sucked in his breath and nodded, forgetting that Bland could not +see the motion. + +"Gimme the control--I gotta pick out a landing! I'll head for +Inglewood. They's a big field--" + +Inglewood meant nothing at all to Johnny, even had he heard the name +distinctly, which he did not. It cost him an effort to yield the +control, but he pulled hands and feet away and sat passive, breathing +quickly, gazing down at the wonders spread beneath him. For this was +his first amazed sight of Los Angeles, though he had twice passed +through the city in a train that clung to dingy streets and left him an +impression of grime and lumbering trucks and clanging street cars and +more grime, and Chinese signs painted on shacks, and slinking figures. + +But this was a magic city spread beneath him. It glowed and twinkled +behind the thin veil of dusk. There seemed no end to the lights which +overflowed the lower slopes of the cupped hills at their right and +hesitated on the very brink of the purpling ocean before them. + +Bland shut off the motor and they glided, the plane silent as a great +bat. The city disclosed houses, and streets down which lighted cars +seemed to be standing still, so much greater was the speed of the +Thunder Bird. They passed the thickest sprinkle of lights and headed +for dark slopes midway between the indrawing hills. Many pairs of +bright lights crawled along a narrow black pathway. Now the ocean was +nearer, so that Johnny could see a fringe of white along its edge where +waves lapped up to the lights. + +They swooped, flattened out, and glided again while Bland picked up +certain landmarks. The motor spoke, its voice increased while they +banked in a circle and swooped again. Now a long bare stretch lay just +ahead. The motor stopped, and they volplaned steeply; flattened, +dipped a little, skimmed close to earth, touched, lifted again. + +"F'r cat's sake, what they went and done to this field?" Bland's +whining voice complained, and he swung the Thunder Bird away from a +long windrow of dried vines, just in time to avoid entangling the +wheels. They settled, ran along uneven surface for a space. A small +loose pile lay just ahead, and Bland veered sharply away. Another pile +to the left caught the wheels just as the tail was settling. The +Thunder Bird jerked, staggered drunkenly, wheeled over the pile and +then, with a gentle determination quite unexpected in so docile a bird, +turned itself up on its nose and with a splintering crash of the +propeller tilted on over until it lay flat on its back. Which was a +silly ending to so glorious a flight. + +Johnny, hanging upside down with the strap strained tight across his +loins, with Bland dangling before him, felt even sillier than the +Thunder Bird looked. He freed himself after the first paralyzing shock +of surprise, dropped on all fours upon the upper wing covering, and +crawled out between the front braces. A minute later Bland followed, +looking extremely foolish. + +"That's a hell of a way to land!" Johnny snorted. "What kinda pilot +are you, for gosh sake?" + +"Aw, how was I to know they'd went and planted this field to beans? I +been away a year, almost. It was a good field when I was here before. +Come on and let's turn her back, bo, before all the cylinders is full +of oil." Then Bland added with a surprising optimism in one so given +to complaining, "We're here, and we ain't hurt, and Los Angeles is just +back there a ways. I'm satisfied." + +"Yes, and we shelled the beans--that's something more," Johnny +sarcastically added to the sum of their blessings. + +With some labor they turned the Thunder Bird right side up. It was too +dark to estimate the damage, and Bland suggested that they catch a +street car and ride into town. He did not inform Johnny then how far +they must walk before they would be within catching distance, and +Johnny started off willingly enough, after Bland had convinced him that +the Thunder Bird would be perfectly safe until morning. It was a quiet +neighborhood, he declared, and no one would be likely to come near the +place. If they did, they could not fly off with the Thunder Bird +unless they happened to be carrying an extra propeller around with +them. This, Johnny suspected, was Bland's best attempt at irony. + +They walked and they walked, at first along a rough country road that +seemed real boulevard to Johnny, who was accustomed to the trails of +Arizona. Later they emerged upon asphalt, and trudged along the edge +of that for a time, moving aside as swift bars of light bathed them +briefly, with the swish of speeding automobiles brushing close. +Johnny's head was roaring with the remembered beat of the Thunder +Bird's motor. In the silence between automobiles it deafened him so +that Bland's drawling voice came to him dully, the words muffled. + +"We'll have to get us a car," Bland repeated three times before Johnny +understood. + +"Oh. I thought you meant we're getting close to a car," Johnny +grumbled. "How much farther we got to walk, for gosh sake?" + +"About a mile now, bo. It's only--" + +"A mile! Good golly! I thought we was flying to Los Angeles! You +never said we had to walk half the way from Tucson. What in thunder +made you fly forty miles beyond the darned place! Just so you'd have a +chance to wreck the plane? A hell of a pilot you are!" + +Bland protested, trailing a step behind Johnny, whose stride had +lengthened with the bad news. Did Johnny think, f'r cat's sake, he +could light in front of the Alexandria and call a bell-hop to take the +plane? Did he think they could put the darn thing in an auto park? +What about telephone wires and electric light wires and trolley wires? +Bland would like to know. Leave it to Johnny, the crowd would now be +roped off the spot and the cops fighting to make a gangway for the +ambulance, and women would edge up and faint at the ghastly sight. +Leave it to Johnny-- + +"Leave it to me," Johnny cut in acrimoniously, "and we'd have landed +right side up, anyway. I wouldn't have lit in the middle of a mess of +beans. Beans! Good gosh! For half a cent I'd go back and make camp +there. That's what we ought to do, anyway, instead of walking all +night, getting to town. We've got grub enough--and there's _beans_!" + +"Aw, now, bo, have a heart! You wait till I lead you into the Frolic, +and you won't say beans no more. You wait till you git your knees +pushed under the mahogany and the head waiter scatters the glasses +around your plate, and you lamp the dames--" + +He stopped abruptly, his jaw going slack with dismay. "Only we ain't +got the scenery for no such place as the Frolic," he mourned. "Lookin' +the way we do, we'd be eyed suspicious if we went to grab a tray in +Boos Brothers! Some Main Street waffle joint is about our number, +unless--" + +"A waffle joint sounds good to me," Johnny said. "I didn't come out +here to spend money. I'm here to make it." + +"That's all right, bo. I ain't going to hit any flowery path either. +But listen, old top. We've had a hard day, and before that a bunch of +'em. We've earned one good meal, ain't we? That ain't going to hurt +nobody, bo. Just to celebrate our arrival and git the taste of the +desert out of our mouths. I'll say we've earned it. And it needn't +cost so much. And listen here, bo. I know a place on Main where we +can rent the scenery. Lots of fellers do that, and nobody the wiser. +I don't mean open-face coats, neither. Just some good clothes that +have got class will do fine. And we can git a shave there, and go to +the Frolic and have some regular chow, bo, and listen to the tra-la-la +girlies warble whilst we eat. Come on. Be a regular guy for oncet!" + +"Do regular guys wear borrowed clothes? Not where I come from, they +don't." + +"Aw, them hicks! Well, you can buy what you want, if that suits you +better. I'll take you to a place that keeps open evenings. There'll +be time enough. The Frolic don't hardly git woke up till ten or +'leven, anyway." + +"At that it will be closed for the night before we arrive," Johnny +stated morosely. "It's a wonder to me you let the ocean stop you, +Bland. + +"Why didn't you go on and light in Japan? We could have caught a boat +back then, instead of walking." + +Once more Bland protested and explained and defended himself. But +Johnny had already drifted off into troubled meditation rendered +somewhat vague and inconsequential by his rapid changes of financial +condition, moods, environment--the brief ecstasy of his triumphant +flight that had so ridiculous a climax. Small wonder that Bland's +whining voice failed to register anything but a dreary monotone of +meaningless words in Johnny's ears. Small wonder that Johnny's +thoughts dwelt upon little worries that could have no possible bearing +upon the big things he meant to do. + +How much would a new propeller cost? Would all the barber shops be +closed when they reached town? He needed a haircut and a hot bath +before he would feel fit to walk the streets. Should he take at once +the position he meant to maintain, and stop at the best hotel in town, +as an aviator who owned the plane he flew and had a roll of money in +his pocket might be expected to do? Or should he go to some cheap +rooming house and save a few dollars, and sink into obscurity among the +city's strange thousands? + +He remembered the headlines concerning him--front-page headlines that +crowded Europe's war into second place! He had not seen anything much +about himself lately, though the jailer had brought him a paper every +morning. Certainly his misfortune had not been given the prominence +accorded to his disappearance. If he should go to some good hotel and +register as John Ivan Jewel, Tucson, Arizona, the reporters might +remember the name. Probably they would, and his arrival would be +announced-- + +What would they think, if he walked in just as he was; leather coat, +aviator's cap with the ear-tabs flapping, corduroy breeches tucked into +riding boots that needed a shine and the heels straightened? Would +they put him out, or would they think he was so rich and famous he +didn't give a darn? + +He wondered what Mary V would think, if she knew that he was here in +Los Angeles. Would she care whether she ever saw him again? Or could +girls forget a fellow all at once? Were they still engaged, so long as +she did not return his ring? He wished he knew what was the rule in +cases like this. Then it struck him that Mary V could not return the +ring now if she wanted to. She would not know where to send it. She +might have sent it to him while he was in jail--but probably she feared +that the reporters might hear about it. How much would a propeller +cost, any way? There would probably be more than that broken--the +Thunder Bird had turned over with quite a jolt. + +No, certainly he should not spend money on high-priced hotels until he +had things moving again. There would be no more money coming in until +the plane was repaired--darn it, there was always that big hump in the +trail; always something in the way, something to postpone his grasping +at success! Now he'd have to sleep in some hot, frowsy little room for +about four bits, instead of luxuriating in a suite as he would like to +do. + +They reached the little suburban village and the street car. Johnny +had an impulse to stop there for the night and leave the city to a more +propitious time, but Bland was already licking lips in anticipation of +the joys of Spring Street, and made such vehement protest that Johnny +yielded. If he stayed in Inglewood Bland would go on without him, and +Johnny did not want that, for Bland might not come back. And whatever +his mental and moral shortcomings, Bland was somebody whom Johnny knew; +if not a friend, yet a familiar personality in a city filled with +strangers. + +Perhaps it was the night that veiled the city's big human workaday side +and showed only the cold, blue-white residence streets palm-shaded and +remote, and the inhospitable closed stores and shops of the business +district, that gave Johnny a lost, lonesome feeling of utter +homelessness. For the matter of that, Johnny could not remember when +he was not homeless--but he did not often feel depressed by the fact. +He followed Bland down the car steps at Fifth Street, walked with him +past a delicatessen store whence apartment dwellers were trickling, +their hands full of small paper bags and packages. They looked pale +and sickly and harassed to Johnny, to whom desert-browned faces were a +standard by which he measured all others. + +A barber shop reminded him of grime and untrimmed hair, and he halted +so abruptly that Bland forged several paces ahead before he missed him. +He turned back grumbling, just as Johnny went in at the door, and +followed grudgingly. He had wanted a glass of beer first of all, but +yielded the point and took his shave resignedly. + +Johnny spent a full hour in that shop, and when he emerged he was worth +the second glance he got from the girls hurrying homeward. Tubbed, +shaven, trimmed, a fresh shine on boots that still showed the marks of +spurs worn from dawn to dark when those boots were new, he towered +above Bland Halliday, who looked dingier and more down-at-heel than +ever by contrast. It would take more than shaven jowls to make a +gentleman of Bland. + +They went on to Broadway, crossed it precariously, and reached the +pavement by what Johnny considered a hair's-breadth of safety as a big +car slid past his heels. They passed lighted plate-glass windows +wherein silver and gold gleamed richly. Then Bland unwittingly pushed +Johnny Jewel from the edge of obscurity into the bright light of +notoriety again. + +Bland said, "I know a joint where we can git a good room for fifty +cents--and no questions asked, bo." + +They happened at that moment to be nearing the immaculate white-gloved +doorman who stands ward over the entrance to the Alexandria. Johnny +looked at him, saw what exclusive hostelry was named upon his cap band, +and stopped. "You can go to your joint where they don't ask +questions," he said somewhat loftily to Bland. "I'll stop here where +they don't have to." + +Bland gasped, but Johnny was already turning in past the immaculate +white-gloved one who bowed as Johnny brushed him by. Bland had only +time enough to mutter, "I'll wait here till you register," before +Johnny disappeared into the subdued elegance where Bland would not +venture. "Till they throw yuh out, you boob," Bland amended his +parting sentence. "Stoppin' at the Alexandria--hnm!" + +Johnny, secure in his fresh cleanness and his ignorance of the +traditions of the place, strode through the onyx-pillared lobby peopled +with well-fed, modish human beings who conversed in modulated voices or +bustled in and out, engrossed with affairs which might or might not be +of national importance. At the desk a perfectly groomed, worldly wise +aristocrat proffered a pen well inked and gave Johnny what Bland would +have termed the double O. + +Before he had finished pressing blotter upon "John Ivan Jewel, Tucson, +Arizona", his brain had registered certain details and his smile had +attained a certain quality of deference. + +"We are glad to have you with us, Mr. Jewel. Ah--a room and bath, say +on the sixth floor? Ah--did you have a good flight, Mr. Jewel?" + +Oh, the adaptability of American youth! "Made it in seven hours +continuous flight," Johnny informed him carelessly. "Nothing to it. +Yes, the sixth floor will be all right. Didn't bring any +baggage--didn't want to load the plane down." + +And that clerk, to whom baggageless guests are ever objects of +suspicion, smiled understandingly and called his favorite boy, and when +Johnny's back was turned, immediately whispered the news that that +Arizona flyer who had been so much in the public eye lately, was a +guest of the hotel, having flown over in five hours. + + + + +CHAPTER FOURTEEN + +FATE MEETS JOHNNY SMILING + +Johnny inspected his room and bath on the sixth floor and straightway +began to worry about the bill. The shaded reading lamp by the bed +impressed him mightily, as did the smoking set on its own little +mahogany stand, and the coat-hangers in the closet. Johnny was +accustomed to stopping in hotels where the furnishings were all but +nailed down, and the little conveniences were conspicuously absent. +This, he decided, was a regular place; a home for millionaires. He +doubted very much whether the Thunder Bird was worth the furniture in +this one room, and wondered at his own temerity in making free with it. +To brace his courage he must untie the roll of money Bland had given +him in Tucson and count the bank notes twice. + +"By golly, I can stand one night here, any way," he reassured himself +finally, and took a long breath. + +Just then a bell boy tapped discreetly on the door, and when Johnny +opened it he slipped in with a pitcher of ice water, which he carried +to a table with the air of a loyal henchman serving his king, which +means that he was thinking of tips. In the exuberance of his fresh +sensation of affluence and his gratitude for the service, Johnny pulled +off a five-dollar bill and gave it to the boy. The bell boy said, +"Thank you, sir," and added breathlessly, "Gee, I wish I was an +aviator, Mr. Jewel!" + +Sir and Mister all in one breath, and to be called an aviator besides +had a perceptible effect upon Johnny. He swaggered across the room +that had a moment ago awed him to the point of wanting to walk on his +toes. Of course he was an aviator! Hadn't he been flying in his own +plane? What more did it take, for gosh sake? A pilot's license was a +mere detail, alongside the night he had made that day. He should say +he was an aviator! + +The 'phone tinkled. A man from the _Times_ wanted to talk with him, it +seemed. Johnny gruffly told him over the house 'phone that he didn't +care to be interviewed. "You boys get too fresh," he censured. "You +don't stick to facts. You're going to get in trouble if you don't let +up on me. I hate this publicity stuff, anyway. I wish you'd go off +somewhere and die quietly and leave me alone." + +"Well, just let me come up and explain," the reporter urged. "All I +want is a story of your flight across country. You're mistaken if you +think I'm guilty of--" + +"Oh, well, if that's all you want. But I'm just about off reporters +for life. You'll have to do some apologizing, believe me!" + +Johnny was sprawled on the nice, white bed, with his boot heels cocked +up on the expensive mahogany footboard. He had the two big, puffy +pillows wadded under his head and the reading lamp lighted and throwing +a rosy shadow on his tanned countenance. The smoking set was pulled +close and he was reaching for a match when the reporter knocked. + +"Come in," he called boredly, and fanned the smoke from before his face +that he might look upon this unwelcome visitor who was going to +apologize for the sins of his colleagues in Arizona. + +The reporter, once he was inside, did not look apologetic, nor did he +resemble a reporter, as Johnny knew them. He was a slim young man, +tall enough to wear his clothes like the Apollos you see pictured in +tailors' advertisements. Indeed, he much resembled those young men. +He wore light gray, with the coat buttoned at the bottom and loose over +his manly chest. He also wore a gray hat tilted over one temple in the +approved style for illustrated catalogues. He had gray gloves crumpled +in one hand and a cane in the other, and he stood with his immaculately +shod feet slightly apart, gently swung the cane, and regarded Johnny +with a faint smile of extreme boredom. + +Johnny bore the scrutiny in silence, stifling the impulse to rise and +offer Apollo a chair. Instead, he turned lazily and knocked the ash +collar off his cigarette, and afterward thumped the top pillow before +he resettled himself. + +"Won't cost anything to sit down," he observed amiably. "Well, where's +that apology?" + +The slim young man laughed to himself, deposited his cane and gloves on +a chair, moved his feet slightly farther apart and produced a small +pad. "For the sins I may commit, I humbly apologize. Whatever it was +your sagebrush scribes perpetrated I didn't write it, therefore we +should not quarrel. A few details on your trip to-day will be of +interest, Mr. Jewel." + +Johnny grinned. "There ain't any details. We just flew till we got +here, and then we lit." + +"We?" The gray-clad one lifted a finely formed eyebrow. + +"My mechanic and me." + +"Ah." The fellow made a mark or two with his pencil and waited for +more--until he perceived that more would not be forthcoming. + +"And now that you have lit, what do you expect to do, may I ask?" + +"Oh-h--" Johnny covered a wide yawn with his palm, "make money. What +else is there to do?" + +"Go broke," the reporter suggested, smiling again--with less boredom, +by the way. + +"Old stuff," Johnny grunted. "I aim to be different." + +The fashion plate laughed almost humanly. "If half they said of you is +true, you've nothing to complain about. By the way--how much of it was +true? I mean how you salvaged the plane from Mexico and used it to +catch horse thieves, and the Indian god stuff, and the Lochinvar--" + +Johnny sat up belligerently. "Say! What are you looking for? +Trouble?" + +"Merely verifying rumors. A very natural professional caution, I +assure you." + +"Caution! Hnh! Funny way you've got of being cautious, old-timer. +I'd call it a fine way of heading down-stairs without waiting for the +elevator." + +"I understand--perfectly. So you have no settled plans for the future, +I take it? Just ready for whatever turns up that looks promising?" + +Johnny grunted and looked at his watch. Hunger, which he had forgotten +in the novelty of his surroundings, began to manifest itself again. He +got up and gleaned his aviator's helmet from a branch of the mahogany +hatrack and looked at it dubiously, wishing that it was his Big Four +Stetson instead. + +"What I'm ready for right now is chuck," he said pointedly. "I ain't +fortune teller enough to give you any line on my future. I wish to +heck I could. I'm out here to make good at flying. Money--that's what +I want. Lots of it. But right now I want a square meal more than +anything. So I'm afraid--" + +"All right, Jewel. I cease to be a news hound and become your host, +with your permission. Let me take you to a regular place, will you? I +haven't had dinner yet myself." + +"You ain't? Good golly! What you been doing all day?" + +The reporter who had ceased to be a reporter checked a smile while he +picked up gloves and cane and opened the door. + +"Say! If I told you all I've been doing, old man, you'd think flying +from Tucson is a snap! It's a merry life we newspaper men lead. Not." + +They were at the elevator before it occurred to Johnny that he was +deviating considerably from his intended line of conduct. He +remembered that Bland had promised to wait for him outside the door. +He was not at all certain that Bland would do so in the face of +temptations,--such as hunger and thirst,--but it seemed a shabby trick +to play him nevertheless. Instinct warned him that Bland could not be +included in the invitation. Bland was indefinably but inexorably out +of it. This fellow--and there Johnny remembered that he did not know +the name of his host, and that he had but a moment ago all but +threatened to throw him down six flights of winding stairs built all of +steel or marble or some hard fireproof substance that would make +painful tobogganing. He eyed askance the nameless one and was +impressed anew by the absolute correctness of his attire. He wondered +that the fellow was not ashamed to be seen in public with him. + +"My name, by the way, is Lowell. Cliff Lowell." This was in the +elevator. "The desk clerk will tell you as much as any one need know +about me, if you feel the need of credentials." The elevator halted, +and the human automaton who operated it slid open the door. "I don't +often yield to these sudden impulses myself. But life is a bore--and +you are different. I somehow feel as if we are going to hit it off all +right together. At any rate, I am willing to gamble on the +acquaintance for one evening. I take it you are in the same boat--eh?" + +"Sure," said Johnny, flattered without in the least knowing what it was +that warmed him toward Cliff Lowell so suddenly. "I suppose I ought +to--my mechanic was to wait outside for me--" + +Cliff Lowell lifted an eyebrow and smiled a little smile. "You must +have a very well-trained mechanic if he really would wait outside at +this time in the evening." He bowed and lifted his hat to an +impressive old lady in some glittery, lacy kind of gown, and Johnny +bowed also and blushed because a girl just beyond the old lady gave him +a slant-eyed glance and the shadow of a smile. Ten steps farther a +fierce looking man with a wide, white frontage and a high silk hat +slowed his pace and cried, "Why, hello, Cliff!" in a manner not at all +fierce. Between there and the entrance Johnny counted seven important +looking persons who recognized his host as an acquaintance. He began +to wonder at his own presumption in receiving one of Los Angeles' +leading citizens as he had received Cliff Lowell. It was with a +conscious effort that he maintained his attitude of sturdy independence. + +Bland, it transpired, had tired of waiting for Johnny. He was nowhere +to be seen, and with a parting salute from the white-gloved doorman +they set out briskly for the regular place Cliff Lowell had chosen to +honor with his patronage. The regular place was such a very regular +place that it had disdained blatant electric signs and portents of its +presence. Cliff led Johnny up a flight of narrow stairs and turned +sharply to the left through a subdued kind of vestibule that gave no +inkling of what lay beyond, except that a chipper young hat boy took +their headgear and the cane and gloves before they went on. + +Johnny Jewel, desert product that he was, nearly stampeded before Cliff +had safely seated him, with the help of the head waiter, who spoke with +a full French flavor. The table chosen for them stood before a long +divan whereon they sat side by side and faced the room filled to +overflowing with small groups of diners who seemed very much at home +there and very much pleased with life and with one another. Many of +them called greetings to Cliff Lowell, who responded with his bored +smile, like a matinee idol who feels he needs a vacation. + +Girls with improbable complexions and sophisticated eyes sent Johnny +curious glances and provocative smiles when their companions were not +looking. "Movie queens," Cliff Lowell explained in an undertone, +"coming and going. Some of them dreaming of coronation, others about +ready for the axe. It has taken them just about ten seconds to +register interest in the strange male person who must be Somebody or he +would not be here in high boots and flannel shirt." + +Johnny flushed. "You saw the clothes I had on, and you brought me +here," he retorted. "The joke's on you." + +"No less than seven have given me the high sign to bring you over and +introduce you," Cliff Lowell went on imperturbably. "They are +frantically searching their memories at the present moment, trying to +place you. They are positive that you are some star whom they have not +met, and they are trying to remember what picture they ought to mention +when the introduction has been successfully accomplished." He paused +long enough to murmur an order to a hovering waiter whose English was +almost unintelligible to Johnny because of its French. + +"Should the crisis have to be met suddenly, do you wish to dodge the +publicity that would follow if I told just who you are? There are +certain incidents which you do not care to have recalled. I made sure +of that at the hotel, you remember." + +"I don't want to know anybody. I came here to eat. If I can't do that +without being introduced to a lot of folks, I'll beat it and find some +lunch counter that will feed me without trying to make a boob outa me. +I ain't dressed to meet company, anyway. And I don't want anything +from this bunch except to be left alone." + +"Fair enough," Cliff sighed contentedly and leaned back at his ease. +"You're wiser than you realize. Knowing this bunch wouldn't get you +anywhere, except at the bottom of your pile, maybe. What you want is +to steer clear of everything that will interfere with what you're +after. Here come the eats--you'll know presently why I brought you +here." + +Waiters came, brought strange preparations of food which were a +revelation to Johnny, to whom meat had meant just meat, boiled, roasted +or fried, to whom salad meant two or three kinds of vegetables hashed +together and served sour. Girls' glances were wasted upon him while he +tasted dubiously, succumbed to each new and delicious viand, and +explored farther, secretly eager for more wonders. + +"I know now why you brought me here," he sighed contentedly after the +coffee was served. "It wasn't to see the girls, either. Grub's got +possibilities I never dreamed about." + +Lowell smiled, sent a negligent nod toward a group that had just come +in and recognized him, and tendered Johnny his tooled leather cigarette +case. + +"I never talk business until after I am fed," he observed. "But +now--since you have nothing definite in view except the making of +money, suppose you listen to a little proposition I am going to make +you. It's rather confidential, however--" + +"My ears are open," said Johnny, "and my mouth is shut. I don't have +to like your proposition, but in case I don't I can forget things +mighty easy." + +"Good. I'll make it short, and you can take it or leave it. I am not +a reporter; not the kind of reporter you mean. I gather special stuff +for a big news syndicate. Big stuff, stuff the little fellows never +dream of going after. I get, of course, big returns. + +"My real object in seeing you to-night was not exactly the getting of a +news item for any paper. I saw your name on the register, found that +you had flown over here, and wanted to see you and take your measure +for the job I have in mind. + +"Briefly, the proposition is this: I need a flyer who can fly, knows a +little of the desert, has got some nerve on the ground as well as in +the air, and who can keep his mouth shut. It's harder than you may +think to find one who measures up, and who is willing to avoid the +limelight. They all want publicity, and publicity is what this job +must shun. What I am working on now is big stuff across the border. I +can get the news, all right--I am in touch with some of the big men +over there--but the deuce of it is the going back and forth. This +embargo business that has been framed lately is interfering with my +work. I could get a passport, yes. Perfectly simple. I could go +across, and I could get the news I want. But the bother of it, and the +delay here and there is--well, it's a big handicap. You can see that +easily. + +"My idea, therefore, and I think it's a good one, is to hire you to +take me over and back. It might take all your time and it might +not--but I should want to have you on call, ready to go anywhere, any +time, at a moment's notice. It would make a tremendous difference in +the time-saving alone. You would have to--what about your mechanic?" + +"What about him? I don't just get you." Johnny looked at him startled. + +Lowell sat leaning one elbow lightly on the table, his slim, manicured +fingers tapping silently the rhythm of some tune which he was +subconsciously following. It was the only sign of nervousness he +displayed, save a frequent swift scanning of faces in the room. Any +diner there who observed him would have said that Cliff was retailing +some current scandal which concerned an acquaintance. Any diner would +have said that the good-looking boy in flyer's togs was listening with +mental reservations, ready to argue a point, but nevertheless eager to +hear the whole story. + +"I mean, what about the mechanic? Have you any contract with him, or +are you tied up with him in any way? Can you get rid of him, in other +words?" + +Johnny studied his little cup of coffee, his subconscious mind +registering the incongruity of such a skimpy amount of coffee after +such an amazingly ample meal. Consciously he was having a hurried, +whispered conversation with his native honesty. + +"Well--I ain't married to Bland," he stated judicially, meeting +candidly the other's intent stare. "I never made any contract with +him. He agreed to do certain things for me if I'd bring him here--and +I brought him. On top of that, he talked about our doing certain +things when we got here--it was exhibition flying and taking up +joyriders--and I kinda fell in with the idea. I never said, right out +in so many words, that I'd do it. I just kinda let it ride along the +way he said. He sure expects me to go ahead, but--" + +Lowell exhaled a mouthful of smoke and sipped his coffee as though he +was relieved of some doubt. "That's all right, then. You are free to +change your mind. And you're lucky that you have something to change +to, if I may say what I think. There's nothing in that sort of thing +any more. It would scarcely pay for the wear and tear on your machine, +I imagine. You certainly could not pull down any real money doing that +little stuff. Now let's see--" + +He smoked and studied some mental question until Johnny grew restive +and finished the demitasse at a gulp. "Let's see. Suppose we say a +thousand dollars a week for you and your machine. It will be worth +that to me if you make good and take me across where I want to go, +whenever I want to go, and fetch me back without bringing all the +border patrols buzzing around, asking why and how. That, frankly, is +one point that must be taken care of. It is no crime to cross the +border without a passport--if you can get across. Technically it is +unlawful at the present time, but in reality it is all right, if you +can get away with it. We could not walk up boldly and say, 'Listen, we +want permission to fly across the line on business of our own.' They'd +have to say no. That's their orders, issued to stop a lot of smuggling +and that sort of thing. But we are not smugglers--at least," he +qualified with a faint smile, "I am not. What I shall bring back will +be legitimate news of international importance, gleaned in a legitimate +way. In fact it will be of some use to the government, though the +government could scarcely authorize me to gather it. + +"Now as to credentials, you will do me a favor if you look me up. As +to yourself, I know all about you, thanks to that adventurous spirit +which brought you into the limelight and is really of tremendous value +to me. Seriously now, as a sporting proposition and a chance to make +money, how does it strike you?" + +"Why--it looks all right, on the face of it." Johnny was trying to be +extremely cautious. "I'll have to think it over, though. For one +thing, I'll want to do some figuring before I can say whether the price +is right. It costs money to keep an airplane in the air, Mr. Lowell. +You'd be surprised to see just how much a fellow has to pay out to keep +a motor in good mechanical shape. And, of course, I wouldn't look at +it at any price unless I was dead sure it was straight. If you'll +excuse my saying so, I ain't after dirty money. It's got to be clean." + +"That's the stuff! I'm glad to hear you come right out and say so, +because that's where I stand. I want you to look me up. Here's the +card of the International News Syndicate--they handle nothing but big +political stuff, you understand. A sort of secret service of +newspaperdom. Ask them about me and about the proposition. They'll be +paying you the money--not me. Ask any one else you like, only don't +mention this particular matter we've been discussing. As the lawyers +say, secrecy is the essence of this contract." He laughed and crooked +a finger at the waiter who had served them so assiduously, got his +dinner check and paid it with a banknote that, even deducting the high +cost of eating in a regular place, returned him a handful of change. +He tipped the waiter generously and rose. + +"You'd have to keep under cover as much as possible," he continued +planning, when they were again on the street. "How much attention did +you attract, Mr. Jewel, when you landed?" + +"Why, not any. It was about dark, and we lit in a beanfield over +beyond Inglewood. We left the plane there and came in on a street car. +I don't guess anybody saw us at all." + +"Fine! This is playing our way from the start. If any one notices +your name on the hotel register and asks you questions, you came after +certain parts for your motor--any errand will do--and you expect to +leave again at any time. This does not commit you to the proposition, +Mr. Jewel. It is merely keeping our lines straight in case you do +accept. I want you to sleep on it--but please don't talk in your +sleep!" He laughed, and Johnny laughed with him and promised +discretion. + +The last he saw of Cliff Lowell that night, Cliff was talking with a +group of important-looking men who treated him as though they had known +him for a long, long while. Their manifest intimacy struck Johnny as a +tacit endorsement of Cliff's character and reputation. It would seem +almost an insult to go around quizzing people about a man so popular +with the leading citizens, Johnny told himself. He would think the +proposition over, certainly. He was not fool enough to jump headfirst +into a thing like that at the first crook of a stranger's finger, but-- + +"Good golly! Talk about luck! Why, at a thousand dollars a week, I +can pay old Sudden off in a month, doggone him. And have a thousand to +the good. And if the job holds out for another month or two--" + +That, if you please, is how Johnny "thought it over and did some +figuring!" + + + + +CHAPTER FIFTEEN + +ONE MORE PLUNGE FOR JOHNNY + +The grinding clamor of passing street cars jarring over the Spring +Street crossing woke Johnny to what he thought was moonlight, until it +occurred to him that the pale glow must come from street lamps. The +air was muggy, filled with the odor of damp soot. He sniffed, turned +over with the bed covering rolled close around him, snuggled his cheek +into a pillow, yawned, rooted deeper, opened his eyes again, and turned +on the reading light by his bed. It was five-thirty--red dawn in +Arizona where his dreaming had borne him swiftly to his old camp at +Sinkhole. Five-thirty would be getting-up time on the range, but in +Los Angeles the hour seemed an ungodly time to crawl out of bed. He +reached for his "makings" and rolled a cigarette which he smoked with +no more than one arm and his head exposed to the clamminess of the +atmosphere. + +He ought to return to the Thunder Bird by daylight, he mused, but he +did not know how to get there. He needed Bland for pilot, but he did +not know where to find Bland. Now that he came to consider finding +people and places, it occurred to him that neither did he know where to +find Cliff Lowell. Thinking of him made Johnny wonder what kind of +news gathering it was that could make it worth a thousand dollars a +week to a man to have a swift, secret means of locomotion at his +command. It had sounded plausible enough last night, but now he was +not so sure of it. It might be some graft--it might even be a scheme +to rob him of his plane. It would be a good idea to look into matters +a little before he went any farther, he decided. When Bland showed up, +he'd go out and take a look at the Thunder Bird, and get her in shape +to fly. Then they'd get to work. But a thousand dollars a week sure +did sound good, and if the proposition was on the square-- + +He snuggled down and began to build an air castle. Suppose it was +straight, and he went into the deal with Lowell; and suppose he worked +for two months, say. That would be eight--well, say nine thousand, the +way weeks lap over on the calendar. Suppose by Christmas he had eight +thousand dollars clear money. (Five hundred a month ought to run the +plane, with any kind of luck.) Well, what if he took the Thunder Bird +and his eight thousand, and flew back to the Rolling R and lit in the +yard just about when they were sitting down to their Christmas dinner. +He'd walk in and lay three thousand dollars down on the table by old +Sudden, and tell him kind of careless, "I happened to have a little +extra cash on hand, so I thought I'd take up that note while I thought +of it. No use letting it go on drawing interest." + +Say, maybe Sudden's eyes wouldn't stick out! And Mary V would kind of +catch her breath and open her eyes wide at him, and say, "Why, +Johnny--?" And say--no, jump up and put her arms around his neck +and--slide her lips along his cheek and whisper-- + +An hour and a half later he awoke, saw with dismay that it was seven +o'clock, and piled out of bed as guiltily as though an irate round-up +boss stood over him. The Thunder Bird to repair, a big business deal +to be accepted or rejected,--whichever his judgment advised and the +fates favored,--and he in bed at seven o'clock! He dressed hurriedly, +expecting to hear an impatient rapping on the door before he was ready +to face a critical business world. If he had time that day, he ought +to get himself some clothes. He would not want to eat again in that +place where Cliff Lowell took him, dressed as he was now. + +He waited an impatient five minutes, went down to the lobby,--after +some trouble finding the elevator,--and found himself alone with the +onyx pillars and a few porters with brushes and things. A different +clerk glanced at him uninterestedly and assured him that no one had +called to see Mr. Jewel that morning. He left word that he would be +back in half an hour and went out to find breakfast. Luck took him +through the side entrance to Spring Street, where eating places were +fairly numerous. He discovered what he wanted, ate as fast as he could +swallow without choking on his ham and eggs or scalding his throat with +the coffee, and returned to the hotel. + +No, there had been no call for Mr. Jewel. Johnny bought a morning +paper, but could find no mention of his arrival in Los Angeles. Cliff +Lowell, he decided, must be playing the secrecy to the limit. It did +not please him overmuch, in spite of his revilings of the press that +had made a joke of his troubles. Couldn't they do anything but go to +extremes, for gosh sake? Here he had made a record night,--he had +distinctly told that clerk the time he had made it in,--and Cliff +Lowell knew, too. Yet the paper was absolutely dumb. They ignored +everything he did that was worth notice, and yawped his private affairs +all over their front pages. That man Lowell was taking too much on +himself. Johnny hadn't agreed to take the job yet; he very much +doubted whether he would take it at all. He would rather be his own +boss and fly when he pleased and where he pleased. This flying over +into Mexico and back looked pretty fishy, come to think of it. If it +was against the law, how did Lowell expect to get away with it? If it +wasn't, why be so darned secret about it? + +For three quarters of an hour, perhaps longer, Johnny dismissed the +thousand-dollar-a-week job from his mind and waited with rising +indignation for Bland. What had become of the darned little runt? +Here it was nine o'clock, and no sign of him. The lobby was beginning +to wear an atmosphere of sedate bustling to and fro. Johnny watched +travelers arrive with their luggage, watched other travelers depart. +Business men strayed in, seeking acquaintances. The droning chant of +pages in tight jackets and little caps perched jauntily askew +interested him. Would Bland, when he came, have sense enough to send +one around calling out "Mr. Jew-wel--Mr. John-ny Jew-wel"? Johnny knew +exactly how it would sound. Cliff Lowell might, but he did not want to +see Cliff. The more he thought about him the more he distrusted that +proposition. A thousand dollars a week did not sound convincing in the +broad light of day. It was altogether too good to be true. Why, good +golly! Nobody but a millionaire could afford to pay that much just for +riding around; and if they could, they'd buy themselves an airplane. +They wouldn't rent one, that was certain. + +At ten o'clock Johnny mentally blew up. He had not come to Los Angeles +to sit around in any doggone hotel like an old woman waiting for a +train, and if Bland or anybody else thought he'd hang around there all +day-- He went to the desk, left word that he had gone out to +Inglewood, watched the clerk scribble the information on a slip of +paper and put it in his key box, and went out wondering how he was +going to find his way to the Thunder Bird. But his natural initiative +came to his aid. He saw an automobile with a FOR HIRE sign on it, held +brief conversation with the driver, and was presently leaning back on +the cushions watching luckless pedestrians dodge out of the way. The +sight, I may add, restored his good humor to the point of forgetting +his dignity and crawling over into the front seat where he proceeded to +scrape acquaintance with the driver. Los Angeles was a great place, +all right--when you can see it from the front seat of an automobile. +Johnny began to talk automobiles to the man and managed to extract a +good deal of information, that may or may not have been authentic, +concerning the various "makes" and their prices and speed. Not that he +intended to buy one; but still, with good luck, there was no reason why +he should not, when he had that note paid. A car certainly did give +class to a man--and according to this fellow it would be a real economy +to own one. This man said he looked upon a car as a necessity; and +Johnny very quickly adopted his point of view and began to think how +extravagant he was not to own one. Why, take this trip, for instance. +If he owned the car himself, all it would cost him to go to Inglewood +would be the gas he would burn. As it was, it would probably mean ten +or fifteen dollars before he was through. An automobile of your own +sure did mean a big saving all around--time and money. Take a job like +this man Lowell had offered, why, he could very soon own a car. A +thousand dollars a week, for a few weeks--it was his to take, if he +wanted to do it-- + +There he went again, playing with the thought until they slid through +Inglewood and out on the boulevard that curved flirtatiously close to a +railroad track, where he had tramped with Bland--good golly! Was that +only last night? Tired and hungry and blue, with a broken plane to +think of and Mary V and the Rolling R to forget--last night. And here +he was, debating with himself the wisdom of accepting an offer of a +thousand dollars a week, thinking seriously of buying himself an +automobile! Was it two miles to where they had turned out of the bean +field on to the highway? It certainly didn't seem that far today. +Except for the curves which he remembered he would have thought the +driver had made a mistake when he slowed and swung short into a rough +trail that crossed the railroad. But there was the Thunder Bird +sitting disconsolately with a broken nose and Lord knew what other +disabilities, in the bean field where he had left her. He felt as +though he had been away for a month. + +With a pencil and paper he was carefully setting down what slight +repairs he would need to make, when a big, dark red roadster swung off +the boulevard and came chuckling toward them down the rough trail. +Cliff Lowell was driving, and he greeted Johnny with a careless +assurance of their unity of interest that would make it difficult for +Johnny to hold off, if holding off proved to be his ultimate intention. + +Cliff climbed out and came up to the Thunder Bird, standing with his +feet slightly apart, pulling off his driving gloves that he might light +a cigarette. + +"They told me at the hotel you were out here, so I came on. Better +send that car back to town," he suggested frugally. "I'll take you in. +No use wasting money on car hire when you don't have to. I want to +talk to you, anyway." + +Johnny hesitated, then paid his driver and let him go. + +"I've got to go around to a supply house and get me a new propeller," +he said afterwards. "And a control wire snapped. We made a bum +landing last night--or my mechanic did. He claimed he knew this field, +so I let him go ahead." + +"Where is he? Did you let him out?" + +"I didn't, but I will if he don't show up; pronto." Johnny's tone was +the tone of accustomed authority. "He failed to report, this morning." + +Cliff reached into an inner pocket and drew out a flat package, which +he proceeded to open, using a wing for a table. "I've been busy this +morning," he announced, laying his cigarette down on the wing. Johnny +promptly swept the cigarette to the ground and crushed it under his +heel. Wing coverings are rather inflammable, and he was not taking any +chances. + +"Pardon the carelessness. I don't know much about airplanes, old man. +Well, I went to the boss and had a talk with him, after I left you last +night. I put the proposition up to him, and he is rather keen on it. +He sees the value of getting news by airplane. The saving of time and +the avoidance of publicity will double its value--to say nothing of the +chance that we may be able to pick up something of immense importance +to the government. Mexican situation, you know--all that sort of thing. + +"So he put me in touch with parties that could furnish this." _This_ +was a large photographic bird's-eye map of a country which looked very +much like Arizona, or the wild places anywhere next the Mexican +borderline. "Where I got it I am not at liberty to say. It's a +practice map--done for the training in aerial photography that is +essential nowadays in warfare. The government is going in rather +strong on that sort of thing. This is authentic. Take a good look at +it through this glass and tell me what you think of it. Can you see +any place that would make a possible secret landing for an airplane, +for instance?" + +"Golly!" Johnny whispered, as Cliff's meaning flashed clean-cut through +the last sentence. He studied the photograph with pursed lips, his +left eye squinted that his right eye might peer through a small reading +glass. "It would depend on the ground," he answered after a minute. +"I'd want to fly over it before I could tell exactly. If it was soft +sandy for instance--" (Bland would have snickered at that, knowing what +reason Johnny had for realizing the disadvantages of soft sand as a +landing place.) "But the topography looks very practicable for the +purpose." (Nothing like talking up to your audience. Johnny was proud +of that sentence.) + +"All right. We'll lay that aside for further investigation. I'm glad +you have the plane out here away from every one. We'll take a run over +to that locality in my car--it's open season for ducks, and there's +that lake you see on the map. A couple of shotguns and our hunting +licenses will be all the alibi we'll need. You must know how to get +about in the open country, living in Arizona as you have, and I'm +counting a good deal on that. That's one reason why I made you the +offer, instead of these flyers around here--and by the way, that's one +point that made you look like a safe bet to the old man. + +"I was talking to him about salary, and he's willing to go stronger +than I said, if you make good. He said it would be worth about two +hundred a day, which is considerably better than the thousand a week +that I named." + +Cliff knew when to stop and let the bait dangle. He fussed with a +fresh cigarette, paying no apparent attention to Johnny, which gave +that young man an idea that he was wholly unobserved while he dizzily +made a mental calculation. Fourteen hundred a week--go-od golly! In a +month--or would it last for a month? + +"How long a job is this?" he demanded so suddenly that the words were +out before he knew he was going to ask the question. + +"How long? Well--that's hard to say. Until you fail to put me across +the line safely, I suppose. There's always something doing or going to +be done in Mexico, old man--and it's always worth reporting to the +Syndicate. How long will people go on reading their morning paper at +breakfast?" He smiled the tolerant, bored smile that Johnny associated +with his first sight of Cliff. "I should say the job will last as long +as you make good." + +"Well, that puts it up to me, then. I'd want an agreement that I'd be +paid a week in advance all the time. That's to cover the risk of +costly breakage and things like that. At the end of every week I'd be +free to quit or go on, and you'd be free to let me out if I didn't +suit. With that understanding I'll try her out--for a week, starting +to-morrow morning." He added, by way of clinching the matter, "And +that goes." + +Cliff Lowell blew a thin wreath of smoke and smiled again. "It goes, +far as I am concerned. I think the old man will agree to it, providing +you take oath you'll keep the whole thing secret. I haven't preached +that to you, but the whole scheme blows up the minute it is made +public. You understand that, of course, and I'm not afraid of you; but +the old man may want some assurance. If he does, you can give it, and +if he does not, it will be because he is taking my word that you are +all right. + +"Now let's get down to business. How long will it take you to get the +machine in shape? And can't you make arrangements with the owner of +this field to leave it here for the present--and perhaps get him to +keep an eye on it? Wait. You leave him to me. I think he's a Jap, +and I know Japs pretty well. I'll go hunt him up and talk to him. If +we can run it under cover for a couple of days, all the better." + +He climbed into his car and went off down the road to where the roofs +of several buildings showed just above a ridge. His talk must have +been well lubricated with something substantial in the way of legal +tender, for presently he returned, and behind him a team came down the +road hauling a flat hayrack on which four Japs sat and dangled their +legs to the jolting of the wagon. + +"He's a good scout, and he will keep the plane under cover for us," +Cliff announced in a satisfied tone. "They're going to load it on the +wagon and haul it home, where there's a shed I think will hold it. If +it won't, we'll buy it and knock out an end or something." + +The four Japs, chinning unintelligibly and smiling a good deal, loaded +the Thunder Bird to Johnny's satisfaction, hauled it to the buildings +over the ridge, and after they had knocked all the boards off one side +to admit the wings, ran it under a shed. Afterwards they nailed all +the boards on again while Johnny stood around and watched them +uneasily, secretly depressed because his Thunder Bird was being penned +in by gibbering brown men who might be unwilling to return it to him on +demand. + +For good or ill, he was committed now to Cliff Lowell's project. Even +though he was committed for only a week, qualms of doubt assailed him +at intervals during their roaring progress to the city. Cliff drove +with an effortless skill which filled Johnny with envy. Some +day--well, a car like this wouldn't be so bad. And if the job held out +long enough-- Why, good golly, think of it! And Mary V thought he +couldn't make any money with his airplane. Wanted him to go to work +for her dad--think of that! + +Thinking of it; he tried to silence the qualms. Tried to reassure +himself with Cliff's very evident sincerity, his easy assurance that +all would be well. Johnny had been canny enough to make the agreement +by the week--surely nothing much could go wrong in that little while, +and if he didn't like the look of things after a week's try-out, he +could quit, and that would be all there would be of it. It was too +good a chance to let slip by without a trial, anyway. A man would be a +fool to do that; and Johnny, whatever he thought of himself, did not +consider himself a fool. + + + + +CHAPTER SIXTEEN + +WITH HIS HANDS FULL OF MONEY AND HIS EYES SHUT + +Under Cliff's direction, that afternoon Johnny did what a woman would +call shopping. He bought among other things a suit of khaki such as +city dwellers wear when they go into the wilds. Cliff had told him +that he must not appear among people in the clothes of a flyer, but +must be a duck hunter and none other when they left Los Angeles. When +that would be, Johnny did not know; nor did he know where they were +going. But a duck hunter he faithfully tried to resemble when he let +Cliff into his room at five o'clock in the evening, which meant after +the lights were on in the quiet hallways of the Alexandria, and the +streets were all aglow. Cliff looked, if not like a hunter, at least +picturesque in high, laced boots and olive-drab trousers and coat that +had a military cut. + +"Fine! We'll get under way and eat somewhere along the road, if you +don't mind. What about that mechanic? Has he shown up yet?" Cliff's +boredom was gone, along with his swagger stick. + +"Naw. I guess the little runt went on a spree. I thought he'd be here +when I got back, but he wasn't, and the clerk said nobody had called +for me except you." + +"All the better. You won't have to bother explaining to him without +telling him anything. If you ever do run across him, give him a +temperance talk--and the boot. That will be convincing, without your +needing to furnish any other reason for letting him out. By the +way,"--reaching casually into a pocket,--"here is your first week's +salary. The boss made it fifteen hundred a week, straight. And he +said to tell you he would add a hundred every week that you deliver the +goods. That is giving a tremendously square deal, in my opinion. But +it's the boss's way, to make it worth a man's while to do his level +best." + +Round-eyed, Johnny took the roll of bank notes and flipped the ends +with eager fingers. Golly! One with five hundred on it--he had never +seen a five-hundred-dollar bill in his life, until this one. And +fifties--six or seven of them, and four one-hundreds, and the rest in +twenties and three or four tens for easy spending. He had a keen +desire to show that roll to Mary V, and ask her whether he could make +money flying, or whether she would still advise him to go to work for +her dad! Why, right there in his hand was more money than Sudden +thought he was worth in a year, and this was just one week's salary! +Why, good gosh! In another week he could pay that note, and start +right in getting rich. Why, in a month he could own a car like +Cliff's. Why-- + +Cliff, watching him with sophisticated understanding of the dazzling +effect of so much money upon a youth who had probably never before seen +fifteen hundred dollars in one lump, smiled to himself. Whatever small +voice of doubt Johnny had hearkened to, the voice would now be hushed +under the soft whisper of the money fluttering in Johnny's fingers. + +"Well, I'll call a porter to get these things down so you can settle +for the room. You had better just check out without leaving any word +of where you're going." Cliff turned to the 'phone. + +"That'll be easy, seeing I don't know," Johnny retorted, crowding the +money into his old wallet that bulged like the cheeks of a pocket +gopher, busy enlarging his house. + +"Fine," Cliff flung sardonically over his shoulder. He called for a +porter to remove the luggage from room six-seventy-eight, and laid his +fingers around the door knob. "I'll be down at the S.P. depot waiting +for you, Jewel. There's a train in half an hour going north, so it +will be plausible enough for you to take a taxi to the depot. Go +inside, just as though you were leaving, see. And when the passengers +come off the train, you join the crowd with your gun case and grip, and +come on out to where I'll he waiting. Can you do that?" + +"I guess I can, unless somebody runs over me on the way." + +"Then I'll be going. The point is, we must not leave here +together--even on a duck hunt!" He smiled and departed, at least three +minutes before the porter tapped for admission. + +There was no hitch, although there was a margin of safety narrow enough +to set Johnny's blood tingling. He had "checked out" and had called +his taxi and watched the porter load in gun case and grip, had tipped +him lavishly and had slipped a dollar into the willing palm of the +doorman, when he leaned in to get the address to give the driver. And +then, just as the taxi was moving on, over the doorman's shoulder +Johnny distinctly saw Bland turn in between the rubber plants that +guarded the doorway. A pasty-faced, dull-eyed Bland, cheaply +resplendent in new tan shoes, a new suit of that pronounced blue loved +by Mexican dandies, a new red-and-blue striped tie, and a new soft hat +of bottle-green velour. + +For ten seconds Johnny was scared, which was a new sensation. For +longer than that he had a guilty consciousness of having +"double-crossed" a partner. He had a wild impulse to stop the taxi and +sprint back to the hotel after Bland, and give him fifty dollars or so +as a salve to his conscience, even though he could not take him into +this new enterprise or even tell him what it was. Uncomfortably his +memory visioned that other day (was it only yesterday morning? It +seemed impossible!) when he had wandered forlornly out to the hangar in +Tucson and had found Bland true to his trust when he might so easily +have been false; when everything would seem to encourage him to be +false. How much, after all, did Johnny owe to Bland Halliday? Just +then he seemed to owe Bland everything. + +It was all well enough for him to argue that his debt to Bland had been +paid when he brought him to Los Angeles, and that Bland could have no +just complaint if Johnny declined to continue the partnership longer. +Bland, he told himself, would have quit him cold any time some other +chance looked better. It was Johnny's plane, and Johnny had a right to +do as he pleased with it. + +For all that, Johnny rode to the S.P. depot feeling like a criminal +trying to escape. He took his luggage and sneaked into the waiting +room, sought an inconspicuous place and waited, his whole head and +shoulders hidden behind a newspaper which he was not reading. Cliff +Lowell could have found nothing to criticize in Johnny's manner of +screening his presence there; though he would probably have been +surprised at Johnny's reason for doing so. Johnny himself was +surprised, bewildered even. That he, who had lorded over Bland with +such patronizing contempt, should actually be afraid of meeting the +little runt! + +A stream of hurrying people, distinguished from others by their seeking +glances and haste and luggage, warned him presently that he would be +expected outside. He picked up his belongings and joined the +procession, but he came very near missing Cliff altogether. He was +looking for the dark-red roadster that had eaten up distance so +greedily between Inglewood and the city, and he did not see it. He was +standing dismayed, a slim, perturbed young fellow in khaki, with a grip +in one hand and a canvas gun case in the other, when some one touched +him on the arm. He needed the second glance to tell him it was Cliff, +and even then it was the smooth, bored voice that convinced him. Cliff +wore a motor coat that covered him from chin to heels, a leather cap +pulled down over his ears, and driving goggles as concealing as a mask. +He led the way to a touring car that looked like any other touring +car--except to a man who could know the meaning of that high, long, +ventilated hood and the heavy axles and wheels, and the general air of +power and endurance, that marked it a thoroughbred among cars. The +tonneau, Johnny saw as he climbed in, was packed tight with what looked +like a camp outfit. His own baggage was crowded in somehow, and the +side curtains, buttoned down tight, hid the load from passers-by. +Cliff pulled his coat close around his legs, climbed in, set his heel +on the starter. + +A pulsing beat, smooth, hushed, and powerful, answered. Cliff pulled +the gear lever, eased in the clutch, and they slid quietly away down +the street for two blocks, swung to the left and began to pick up speed +through the thinning business district that dwindled presently to +suburban small dwellings. + +"Put on that coat and the goggles, old man," Cliff directed, his eyes +on the lookback mirror, searching the highway behind them. "We've got +an all-night drive, and it will be cold later on, so the coat will +serve two purposes. It's hard to identify a man in a passing +automobile if he's wearing a motor coat and goggles. You couldn't +swear to your twin brother going by." + +"This is a bear of a car," Johnny glowed, all atingle now with the +adventure and its flavor of mystery. "I didn't know you had two. I +was looking for the red one." + +"I forgot to tell you." Which Johnny felt was a lie, because Cliff +Lowell did not strike him as the kind of man who forgot things. "Yes, +I keep two. This is good for long trips when I want to take +luggage--and so on." His tone did not invite further conversation. He +seemed absorbed now in his driving; and his driving, Johnny decided, +was enough to absorb any man. Yard by yard he was sending the +big-nosed car faster ahead, until the pointer on the speedometer seemed +to want to rest on 35. Still, they did not seem to be going so very +fast, except that they overhauled and passed everything else on the +road, and not once did a car overhaul and pass them. Cliff glanced +often into the mirror, watching the road behind them for the single +speeding light of a motor cop--because Los Angeles County, as you are +probably aware, does not favor thirty-five miles an hour for +automobiles, but has fixed upon twenty-five as a safe and sane speed at +which the general public may travel. + +But Cliff was wary, chance favored them with fairly clear roads, and +the miles slid swiftly behind. They ate at San Juan Capistrano not +much past the hour which Johnny had all his life thought of as supper +time. Cliff filled the gas tank, gave the motor a pint of oil and the +radiator about a quart of water, turned up a few grease cups and +applied the nose of the oil can here and there to certain bearings. He +did it all with the fastidious air of a prince democratically inclined +to look after things himself, the air which permeated his whole +personality and made Johnny continue calling him Mr. Lowell, in spite +of a life-long habit of applying nicknames even to chance acquaintances. + +Cliff climbed in and settled himself. "We want to make it in time to +get some hunting at daylight," he observed in a tone which included the +fellow at the service station who was just pocketing his money for the +gas and oil. "I think we can, with luck." + +Luck seemed to mean speed and more speed, The headlights bored a white +pathway through the dark, and down that pathway the car hummed at a +fifty-mile clip where the road was straight. Johnny got thrills of +which his hardy nerves had never dreamed themselves capable. Riding +the sky in the Thunder Bird was tame to the point of boredom, compared +with riding up and over and down and around a squirmy black line with +the pound of the Pacific in his ears and the steady beat of the motor +blending somehow with it, and the tingle of uncertainty as to whether +they would make the next sharp curve on two wheels as successfully as +they had made the last. Mercifully, they met no one on the hills. +There were straight level stretches just beyond reach of the tide, and +sometimes two eyes would glare at them, growing bigger and bigger. +There would be a _swoo--sh_ as a dark object shot by with mere inches +to spare, and the eyes would glare no longer. By golly, Johnny would +have a car or know the reason why! He'd bet he could drive one as well +as Cliff Lowell too, once he had the feel of the thing. + +"Too fast for you?" Cliff asked once, and Johnny felt the little +tolerant smile he could not see. + +"Too fast? Say, I'm used to _flying_!" Johnny shouted back, ready to +die rather than own the tingling of his scalp for fear. He expected +Cliff to let her out still more, after that tacit dare, but Cliff did +not for two reasons: he was already going as fast as he could and keep +the road, and he was convinced that Johnny Jewel had hardened every +nerve in his system with skyriding. + +Oceanside was but a sprinkle of lights and a blur of houses when they +slipped through at slackened speed, lest their passing be noted +curiously and remembered too well. On again, over the upland and down +once more to the very sand where the waves rocked and boomed under the +stars. Up and around and over and down--Johnny wondered how much +farther they would hurl themselves through the night. Straight out +along a narrow streak of asphalt toward lights twinkling on a blur of +hillside. Up and around with a skidding turn to the right, and Del Mar +was behind them. Down and around and along another straight line next +the sands, and up a steep grade whose windings slowed even this brute +of a car to a saner pace. + +"This is Torrey Pine grade," Cliff informed him. "It isn't much +farther to the next stop. I've been making time, because from San +Diego on we have rougher going. This is not the most direct route we +could have taken, but it's the best, seeing I have to stop in San Diego +and complete certain arrangements. And then, too, it is not always +wise to take a direct route to one's destination. Not--always." He +slowed for a rickety bridge and added negligently, "We've made pretty +fair time." + +"I'd say we have. You've been doing fifty part of the time." + +"And part of the time I haven't. From here on it's rough." + +From there on it was that, and more. There had been a rain storm which +the asphalt had long forgotten but the dirt road recorded with ruts and +chuck-holes half filled with mud. The big car weathered it without +breaking a spring, and before the tiredest laborer of San Diego had +yawned and declared it was bedtime, they chuckled sedately into San +Diego and stopped on a side street where a dingy garage stood open to +the greasy sidewalk. + +Cliff turned in there and whistled. A lean figure in grease-blackened +coveralls came out of the shadows, and Cliff climbed down. + +"I want to use your 'phone a minute. Go over the car, will you, until +I come back. Where can I spot her--out of the way?" + +The man waved a hand toward a space at the far end, and Cliff returned +to his seat and dexterously placed the car, nose to the wall. + +"You may as well stay right here. I'll not be gone long. You might +curl down and take a nap." + +It was not an order, but Johnny felt that he was expected to keep +himself out of sight, and the suggestion to nap appealed to him. He +found a robe and covered himself, and went to sleep with the readiness +of a cat curled behind a warm stove. He did not know how long it was +before Cliff woke him by pulling upon the car door. He did not +remember that the garage man had fussed much with the car, though he +might have done it so quietly that Johnny would not hear him. The man +was standing just outside the door, and presently he signalled to +Cliff, and Cliff backed out into the empty street. He nodded to the +man and drove on to the corner, turned and went a block, and turned +again. The streets seemed very quiet, so Johnny supposed that it was +late, though the clock set in the instrument board was not running. + +They went on, out of the town and into a road that wound up long hills +and down to the foot of others which it straightway climbed. Cliff did +not drive so fast now, though their speed was steady. Twice he stopped +to walk over to some house near the road and have speech with the +owner. He was inquiring the way, he explained to Johnny, who did not +believe him; Cliff drove with too much certainty, seemed too familiar +with certain unexpected twists in the road, to be a stranger upon it, +Johnny thought. But he did not say anything--it was none of his +business. Cliff was running this part of the show, and Johnny was +merely a passenger. His job was flying, when the time came to fly. + +After a while he slid farther down into the seat and slept. + + + + +CHAPTER SEVENTEEN + +"MY JOB'S FLYING" + +The stopping of the motor wakened him finally, and he sat up, +stretching his arms and yawning prodigiously. His legs were cramped, +his neck was stiff, he was conscious of great emptiness. By the stars +he knew that it was well toward morning. Hills bulked in the distance, +with dark blobs here and there which daylight later identified as live +oaks. Cliff was climbing out, and at the sound of Johnny's yawn he +turned. + +"We'll camp here, I think. There's no road from here on, and I rather +want daylight. Perhaps then we will decide not to go on. How would a +cup of coffee suit you? I can get out enough plunder for a meal." + +"I can sure do the rest," Johnny cheerfully declared. "Cook it and eat +it too. Where's there any water?" + +"There's a creek over here a few yards. I'll get a bucket." With his +trouble-light suspended from the top of the car, Cliff moved a roll of +blankets and a bag that had jolted out of place. In a moment he had +all the necessary implements of an emergency camp, and was pulling out +cans and boxes of supplies that opened Johnny's eyes. Evidently Cliff +had come prepared to camp for some time. + +Over coffee and bacon and bread Johnny learned some things he had +wanted to know. They were in the heart of the country which Cliff had +shown him on the relief map, miles from the beaten trail of tourists, +but within fifteen miles of the border. + +"There's a cabin somewhere near here that we can use for headquarters," +Cliff further explained. "And to-day a Mexican will come and take +charge of camp and look after our interests while we are over the line. +I have ordered a quantity of gas that will be brought here and stored +in a safe place, and there is a shelter for the plane. I merely want +you to look over the ground, make sure of the landing possibilities, +and fix certain landmarks in your mind so that you can drop down here +without making any mistake as to the spot. When that is done we will +return and bring your airplane over. It is only about a hundred and +forty miles from Los Angeles, air line. You can make that easily +enough, I suppose?" + +"I don't see why not. A hundred and forty miles ain't far, when you're +lined out and flying straight for where you're going." + +"No. Well, one step at a time. We'll just repack this, so that we can +move on to the cabin as soon as it's light enough. I don't think it +can be far." + +Daylight came and showed them that the cabin was no more than a long +pistol shot away. Johnny looked at Cliff queerly. City man he might +be--city man he certainly looked and acted and talked, but he did not +appear to rely altogether upon signposts and street-corner labels to +show him his way about. Just who and what was the fellow, anyway? +Something more than a high-class newspaper man, Johnny suspected. + +That cabin, for instance, might have been built and the surroundings +ordered to suit their purpose. It was a commonplace cabin, set against +a hill rock-hewn and rugged, with a queer, double-pointed top like twin +steeples tumbled by an earthquake; or like two "sheep herders' +monuments" built painstakingly by giants. The lower slope of the hill +was grassy, with scattered live oaks and here and there a huge bowlder. +It was one of these live oaks, the biggest of them all, with +wide-spreading branches drooping almost to the ground, that Cliff +pointed out as an excellent concealment for an airplane. + +"Run it under there, and who would ever suspect? Mateo is there +already with his woman and the kiddies. Has it ever occurred to you, +old man, how thoroughly disarming a woman and kiddies are in any +enterprise that requires secrecy?" + +"Can't say it has. It has occurred to me that kids are the limit for +blabbing things. And women--" + +"Not these," Cliff smiled serenely. "These are trained kiddies. They +do their blabbing at home, you'll find. They're better than dogs, to +give warning of strangers prowling about." + +He must have meant during the day they were better than dogs. They +drove up to the cabin, swung around the end and turned under a live oak +whose branches scraped the car's top, while four dogs circled the +machine, barking and growling. Still no kiddies appeared, but their +father came out of a back door and drove the dogs back. He was +low-browed, swart and silent, with a heavy black mustache and a mop of +hair to match. Cliff left the car and walked away with him, speaking +in an undertone what Johnny knew to be Spanish. The low-browed one +interpolated an occasional "Si, si, senor!" and gesticulated much. + +"All right, Johnny, this is Mateo, who will look after us at this +end--providing there's nothing to hinder our using this as +headquarters. How about that flat, out in front? Is it big enough for +a flying field, do you think? You might walk over it and take a look." + +Stiffly, Johnny climbed down and walked obediently out across the open +flat. It was fairly smooth, though Mateo's kids might well be set +gathering rocks. The hills encircled it, green where the rocks were +not piled too ruggedly. He inspected the great oak which Cliff had +pointed out as a hiding place for the plane. Truly it was a wonder of +an oak tree. Its trunk was gnarled and big as a hogshead, and it +leaned away from the steep slope behind it so that its southern +branches almost touched the ground. These stretched farther than +Johnny had dreamed a tree could stretch its branches, and screened +completely the wide space beneath. It was like a great tent, with the +back wall lifted; since here the branches inclined upward, scraping the +hillside with their tips. The Thunder Bird could be wheeled around +behind and under easily enough, and never seen from the front and +sides. It was so obviously perfect that Johnny wondered why Cliff +should bother to consult him about it. He wondered, too, how Cliff had +found the place, how he had completed so quickly his plans to use it +for the purpose. It looked almost as though Cliff had expected him and +had made ready for him though that could not be so, since not even +Johnny himself had known that he was coming to the Coast so soon. But +to have the place all ready, with a man to take charge and all in a few +hours, was an amazing accomplishment that filled Johnny with awe. +Cliff Lowell must be a wizard at news-gathering if his talents were to +be measured by this particular achievement. + +"Well, do you think it will serve?" Catlike, Cliff had come up behind +him. + +"Sure it will serve. If you can think up some way to hide the track of +the plane when it lands, it wouldn't be found here in a thousand years. +But of course the marks will show--" + +"Just what kind of marks?" + +"Well, the wheels themselves don't leave much of a track, and the wind +fills them quick, anyway. But the drag digs in. If you've ever been +around a flying field you've noticed what looks like wheel-barrow +tracks all over, haven't you? That's something you can't get away +from, wherever you land. Though of course some soil holds the mark +worse than others." + +"That will be attended to. Now I'll show you just where this spot is +on the map." He produced the folded map and opened it, kneeling on the +ground to spread it flat. "You see those twin peaks up there? They +are just here. This is the valley, and right here is the cabin. You +might take this map and study it well. You will have to fly high, to +avoid observation, and land with as little manoeuvering as possible. +For ten or fifteen miles around here there is nothing but wilderness, +fortunately. The land is held in an immense tract--and I happen to +know the owners so that it will be only chance observers we need to +fear. You will need to choose your landing so that you can come down +right here, close to the oak, and be able to get the machine under +cover at once. I'll mark the spot--just here, you see. + +"Now, I shall have Mateo bring the blankets here under the tree. I +feel the need of a little sleep, myself. How about you? We start back +at dark, by the way." + +"How about that duck hunting?" + +"Ducks? Oh, Mateo will hunt the ducks!" Cliff permitted himself a +superior smile. "We shall have sufficient outlet for any surplus +energy without going duck hunting. You had better turn in when I do." + +"No, I slept enough to do me, at a pinch. If Mateo can get a horse, I +want to ride up on this pinnacle and take a look-see over the country. +I can get the lay of things a whole lot better than goggling a month at +your doggone maps." + +Cliff took a minute to think it over and gave a qualified consent. +"Don't go far, and don't talk to any one you may meet--though there is +no great chance of meeting any one. I suppose," he added grudgingly, +"it will be a good idea for you to get the lay of the country in your +mind. Though the map can give you all you need to know, I should +think." + +On a scrawny little sorrel that Mateo brought up from some hidden +pasture where the feed was apparently short, Johnny departed, aware of +Mateo's curious, half-suspicious stare. He had a full canteen from the +car and a few ragged slices of bread wrapped in paper with a little +boiled ham. In spite of the fact that he had lately forsworn so tame a +thing as riding, he was glad to be on a horse once more, though be +wished it was a better animal. + +He climbed the hill, zigzagging back and forth to make easier work for +the pony, until he was high above the live-oak belt and coming into +shale rock and rubble that made hard going for the horse. He +dismounted, led the pony to a shelving, rock-made shade, and tied him +there. Then, with canteen and food slung over his shoulder, Johnny +climbed to the peak and sat down puffing on the shady side of one of +the twin columns. + +Seen close, they were huge, steeple-like outcroppings of rock, with +soil-filled crevices that gave foothold for bushes. In all the country +around Johnny could see no other hilltop that in the least resembled +this, so it did not seem to him likely that he would ever miss his way +when he travelled the air lanes. + +For awhile he sat gazing out over the country, which seemed a +succession of green valleys, hidden from one another by high hills or +wooded ridges. Mexico lay before him, across the valley and a hill or +two--fifteen miles, Cliff Lowell had told him. It would be extremely +simple to fly straight toward this particular hill, circle, and land +down there in front of the oak. Cliff had spoken of risk, bat Johnny +could not see much risk here. It must be across the line, he thought. +Still, Cliff had said he had friends there, which did not sound like +danger. They had considered it worth fifteen hundred a week, though, +to fly across these fifteen miles into Mexico and back again. Johnny +shook his head slowly, gave up the puzzle, and took out his wallet to +count the money again. + +Half an hour he spent, fingering those bank notes, gloating over them, +wondering what Mary V would say if she knew he had them, wishing he had +another fifteen hundred, so he could pay old Sudden and be done with +it. An unpleasant thought came to him and nagged at him, though he +tried to push it from him; the thought that it would be Sudden's +security that he would be risking--that the Thunder Bird was not really +his until he had paid that note. + +The thought troubled him. He got up and moved restlessly along the +base of the towering rock, when something whined past his ear and +spatted against a bowlder beyond. Johnny did not think; he acted +instinctively, dropping as though he had been shot and lying there +until he had time to plan his next move. He had not been raised in gun +smoke, but nevertheless he knew a bullet when he heard it, and he did +not think himself conceited when he believed this particular bullet had +been presented to him. Why? + +On his stomach he inched down out of range unless the shooter moved his +position, and then, impelled by a keen desire to know for sure, he +adopted the old, old trick of sending his hat scouting for him. A dead +bush near by furnished the necessary stick, and the steep slope gave +him shelter while he tested the real purpose of the man who had shot. +It might be just a hunter, of course--only this was a poor place for +hunting anything but one inoffensive young flyer who meant harm to no +one. He put his hat on the stick, pushed the stick slowly up past a +rock, and tried to make the hat act as though its owner was crawling +laboriously to some fancied shelter. + +For a minute or two the hat crawled unmolested. Then, _pang-g_ came +another bullet and bored a neat, brown-rimmed hole through the uphill +side of the hat, and tore a ragged hole on its way out through the +downhill side. Johnny let the hat slide down to him, looked at the +holes with widening eyes, said "Good gosh!" just under his breath, and +hitched himself farther down the slope. + +His curiosity was satisfied; he had seen all of the country he needed +to see and there was nothing to stay for, anyway. When he reached. +the patient sorrel pony a minute or two later (it had taken him half an +hour or more to climb from the pony to the peak, but climbing, of +course, is much slower than coming down--even without the acceleration +of singing rifle bullets) he was perspiring rather freely and puffing a +little. + +For a time he waited there under the shelf of rock. But he heard no +sound from above, and in a little while he led the pony down the other +way, which brought him to the valley near a small pasture which was +evidently the pony's home, judging from the way he kept pulling in that +direction. Johnny turned the horse in and closed the gate, setting the +old saddle astride it with the bridle hanging over the horn. He did +not care for further exploration, thank you. + +What Johnny would like to know was, what had he done that he should be +shot at? He was down there by Cliff Lowell's invitation-- Straightway +he set off angrily, taking long steps to the cabin and the great oak +tree beside it. The two dogs and five half-naked Mexican children +spied him and scattered, the dogs coming at him full tilt, the children +scuttling to the cabin. Johnny swore at the dogs and they did not +bite. He followed the children and they did not stop. So he came +presently to the oak and roused Cliff, who came promptly to an elbow +with a wicked looking automatic pointed straight at Johnny's middle. + +"Say, for gosh sake! I been shot at twice already this morning. +What's the idea? I never was gunned so much in my life, and I live in +Arizona, that's supposed to be bad. What's the matter with this darned +place?" + +Cliff tucked the gun out of sight under his blanket, yawned, and lay +down again. "You caught me asleep, old man. I beg your pardon--but I +have learned in Mexico that it's best to get the gun first and see who +it is after that. Did you say something about being shot at?" + +"I did, but I could say more. Here I am down here without any gun but +that cussed shotgun, and I didn't have that, even, when I coulda used +it handy. And look what I got, up here on the hill!" He removed his +hat and poked two fingers through the two holes in the crown. "Some +movie stuff! What's the idea?" + +Cliff nearly looked startled. He called, "Oh, Mateo!" And Mateo came +in haste, bent down, and the two murmured together in Mexican. +Afterwards Cliff turned to Johnny with his little smile. + +"It's all right, old man--glad you weren't hurt. It was a mistake, +though. You were a stranger, and it was thought, I suppose, that you +were spying on this place. While it was a close call for you, it +proves that we are being well cared for. Better forget it and turn in." + +He yawned again and turned over so that his back was toward Johnny, and +that youth took the hint and departed to find blankets to spread for +himself. He was tired enough to lie down and sleepy enough to sleep, +but he could not blandly forget about those bullets as Cliff advised. +There were several things he wanted to know before he would feel +perfectly satisfied. + +Since the Thunder Bird was not here, why should strangers be shot at? +Their only trouble would be with the guards along the boundary, when +they tried to cross back from Mexico. But they had not tried it yet. +The guards were still happily unaware of how they were going to worry +later on, so why the shooting? + +"Oh, well, thunder! They didn't hit me--so I should care. If Cliff +wants to set guards around this camp before there's anything to guard, +that's his business. Like paying me before I fly, I guess. He's got +the guards up there practising, maybe. I should worry; my job's +flying." + + + + +CHAPTER EIGHTEEN + +INTO MEXICO AND RETURN + +Bright-eyed, eager for the adventure trail, Johnny swung the propeller +of the Thunder Bird over three times and turned to Cliff. "Here's +where you learn one of the joys of flying. Hold her there while I +climb in. When I holler contact, you kick her over--if you're man +enough." + +Cliff smiled, dropped his cigarette and ground it under his heel, then +reached up and grasped the propeller blade. "I never actually did +this, but I've watched others do it. I suppose I must learn. Oh, +before we go up, I ought to tell you that I'd like to go on over the +line this morning if possible. If you can fly very high, and when you +near the line just glide as quietly as possible, I think it can be +managed without our being seen. And since it is only just daylight +now, it should not be late when we arrive." + +"It should not," Johnny agreed. "Arriving late ain't what worries a +flyer--it's arriving too doggone unexpected. Where do we light, in +Mexico? Just any old place?" + +"Straight toward Mateo's camp, first--flying very high. From there on +I'll direct you. Shall we start?" + +"You're the doctor," grunted Johnny, not much pleased with Cliff's +habit of giving information a bit at a time as it was needed. It +seemed to betray a lack of confidence in him, a fear that he might tell +too much; though how Johnny could manage to divulge secrets while he +was flying a mile above the earth, Cliff had probably not attempted to +explain. + +Because he was offended, Johnny gave Cliff what thrills he could during +that flight. He went as high as he dared, which was very high indeed, +and hoped that Cliff's ears roared and that he was thinking pleasant +thoughts such as the effect upon himself of dropping suddenly to that +sliding relief map away down below. He hoped that Cliff was afraid of +being lost, and of landing on some high mountain that stuck up like a +little hill above the general assembly of dimpled valleys and spiny +ridges and hills. But if Cliff were afraid he did not say so, and when +the double-pointed hill that Johnny had reason to remember slid toward +them, Cliff pointed ahead to another, turned his head and shouted. + +"See that deep notch in the ridge away off there? Fly toward that +notch." + +Johnny flew. The double-pointed hill drifted behind them, other hills +slid up until the two could gaze down upon their highest peaks. +Beyond, as Cliff's maps had told him, lay Mexico. At eight thousand +feet he shut off the motor and glided for the notched ridge. The +patrol who sighted the Thunder Bird at that height, with no motor hum +to call his attention upward, must have sharp eyes and a habit of +sky-gazing. Cliff, peering down over the edge of the cockpit, must +have thought so, for he laughed aloud triumphantly. + +"Fine! I think we are putting one over on my friends, the guards," he +cried, with more animation than Johnny had yet observed in him. +Indeed, it occurred to Johnny quite suddenly that he had never heard +Cliff Lowell laugh heartily out loud before. "How far can you keep +this up--without the motor?" + +"Till we hit the ground," drawled Johnny, who was enjoying his position +of captain of this cruise. He had been taking orders from Cliff for +about forty-eight hours now without respite save when he slept, and +even his sleep had been ordered by Cliff. + +"I could make that twelve miles or so from here, though. Why?" + +"In the twelve miles you would not be using gas--could you glide to the +ridge, circle and fly high again, and back to Mateo's camp without +stopping for gas?" + +Johnny gave a grunt of surprise. "I guess I could," he said. "Why?" + +"Then do it. Just that. On this side of the notch you will see--when +you are close enough--a few adobe buildings. I want to pass over those +buildings at a height of, say, five hundred feet; or a little lower +will be better, if you can make it. Then circle and come back again. +And try and make the return trip as high as you did coming down, until +you are well past those mountains we passed over, just inside the line. +Then come down at camp as inconspicuously as possible. I may add that +as we pass over the buildings I mentioned, please start your motor. I +am not expected at just this time, and I wish to attract attention." + +"Hunh!" grunted Johnny. "You'd sure attract attention if I +didn't--because how the deuce would you expect me to climb back from +five hundred feet to eight thousand or so, without starting the motor?" + +Cliff did not answer. He was busy with something which he had brought +with him; a square package to which Johnny had paid very little +attention, thinking it some article which Cliff wanted to have in camp. + +Evidently this was not to be a news-gathering trip, though Johnny could +not see why not, now they were over here. Why just sail over a few +houses and fly home? He could see the houses now, huddled against the +ridge. A ranch, he guessed it, since half the huddle appeared to be +sheds and corrals. A queer place to gather news of international +importance, thought Johnny, as he volplaned down toward the spot. He +threw in the motor and was buzzing over the buildings when Cliff +unstrapped himself, half rose in his seat and lifted something in his +arms. + +"Steady," he cried. "I want to drop this over." Whereupon he heaved +it backward so that it would fall clear of the wing, and peered after +it through his goggles for a minute. "You can go home now," he shouted +to Johnny, and settled down in his seat with the air of a man who has +done his duty and has nothing more on his mind. + +Mystified, Johnny spiraled upward until he had his altitude, and +started back for the United States. Clouds favored him when he crossed +the boundary, hiding him altogether from the earth. Indeed, they +caused him to lose himself for a minute, so that when he dropped down +below the strata of vapor he was already nearly over the double-pointed +hill that was his landmark. But Cliff did not notice, and a little +judicious manoeuvering brought him into the little valley and headed +straight for the oak, easily identified because Mateo was standing +directly in front of it waving a large white cloth. + +They landed smoothly and stopped exactly where Johnny had planned to +stop. He climbed out, Cliff following more awkwardly, and the three of +them wheeled the Thunder Bird under the oak where it was completely +hidden. + +It was not until he had come out again into the warm sunshine of +mid-morning that Johnny observed how the kiddies were playing their +part. They had a curious little homemade wheelbarrow rigged, and were +trundling it solemnly up and down and over and around the single mark +made by the tail drag. A boy of ten or twelve rode the barrow solidly +and with dignity, while a thin-legged girl pushed the vehicle. Behind +them trotted two smaller ones, gravely bestriding stick horses. +Casually it resembled play. It would have been play had not Mateo gone +out where they were and inspected the result of stick-dragging and +barrow-wheeling, and afterwards, with a wave of his hand and a few +swift Mexican words, directed them to play farther out from the oak, +where the Thunder Bird had first come to earth. Solemn-eyed, they +extended the route of their procession, and Johnny, watching them with +a queer grin on his face, knew that when those children stopped +"playing" there would be no mark of the Thunder Bird's landing left +upon that soil. + +"I've sure got to hand it to the kids," he told Cliff, who merely +smiled and pulled out his cigarette case for a smoke. + + + + +CHAPTER NINETEEN + +BUT JOHNNY WAS NEITHER FOOL NOR KNAVE + +Cliff smiled faintly one morning and handed Johnny a long manila +envelope over their breakfast table in Mateo's cabin. "Your third +week's salary," he idly explained. "Do you want it?" + +"Well, I ain't refusing it," Johnny grinned back. "I guess maybe I'll +stick for another week, anyway." He emptied his coffee cup and held it +up for Mateo's woman to refill, trying to match Cliff Lowell's careless +air of indifference to the presence of seventeen hundred dollars on +that table. "That is, if you think I'm making good," he added +boyishly, looking for praise. + +"Your third week's salary answers that, doesn't it? From now on it may +not be quite so easy to make good. Perhaps, since I want to go across +this evening as late as you can make a safe landing over there, I ought +to tell you that a border patrol saw us yesterday, coming back, and +wondered a little at a government plane getting over the line. He did +not report it, so far as I know. But he will make a report the next +time he sees the same thing happen." + +"I wish I didn't have that name painted clear across her belly," Johnny +fretted. "But if I went and painted it out it would all be black, and +that would be just as bad. And if I took off the letters with +something, I'm afraid I'd eat off the sizing too, or weaken the fabric +or something. I ought to recover the wings, but that takes time--" + +Cliff gave him that tolerant smile which Johnny found so intolerable. +"It is not at all necessary. I thought of all possible contingencies +when I first saw the Thunder Bird. Across the line the name absolutely +identifies it, which is rather important. On this side it is known as +a bird fond of doing the unusual. Your reputation, old man, may help +you out of a tight place yet. Now we are duck hunters, remember. +Hereafter we shall be hunting ducks with an airplane--something new, +but not at all improbable, especially when it is the Thunder Bird doing +the hunting. We must carry our shotguns along with us, and a few ducks +as circumstantial evidence. If we stray across the line accidentally, +that will be because you do not always look where you are flying, and +watch the landmarks." + +"This, of course, in case we are actually caught. Though I do not see +why that should happen. They have no anti-aircraft guns to bring us +down. It may be a good idea to carry an auxiliary tank of gasoline in +case of an emergency." + +"I don't see why--not if I fill up over there every time I land. I can +stay up three hours--longer, if I can glide a lot. Of course that high +altitude takes more, in climbing up, and flying while you're up there, +but the distance is short. I'll chance running outa gas. I don't want +the extra weight, flying high as we have to. The motor's doing all she +wants to do, just carrying us." + +Cliff did not argue the point, but went out to his car, fussed with it +for a few minutes, and then drove off on one of the mysterious trips +that took him away from Mateo's cabin and sometimes kept him away for +two days at a time. Johnny did not know where Cliff went; to see the +boss, perhaps, and turn in what news he had gleaned--if indeed he had +succeeded in gleaning any. Sometimes the long waits were tiresome to a +youth who loved action. But Johnny had been schooled to the monotony +of a range line-camp, and if he could have ridden over the country +while he waited, he would not have minded being left idle most of the +time. + +But he did not dare leave camp for more than half an hour or so at a +time, because he never knew what minute Cliff might return and want +him; and when one is being paid something like ten dollars an hour, +waking or sleeping, for his time, one feels constrained to keep that +precious time absolutely available to his employer. At least, Johnny +felt constrained to do so. He could not even go duck hunting. Mateo +hunted the ducks, using Johnny's gun or Cliff's, and seldom failing to +bring back game. It would be ducks shot by Mateo which would furnish +the circumstantial evidence which Cliff mentioned that morning. + +Johnny went out to the Thunder Bird, shooed three kids from under the +wings, and began to fuss with the motor. One advantage of being idle +most of the time was the easy life the Thunder Bird was leading. The +motor was not being worn out on this job, at any rate. + +So far he had not spent a hundred dollars of his salary on the upkeep +of his machine. He was glad of that, because he already had enough to +pay old Sudden and have the price of a car left over. With the Thunder +Bird clear, and a couple of thousand dollars to the good--why, he would +not change places with the owner of the Rolling R himself! He could go +back any time and vindicate himself to the whole outfit. He could pick +Mary V up and carry her off now, without feeling that he was taking any +risk with her future. Poor little girl, she would be wondering what +had become of him; he'd write, or send a wire, if Cliff would ever open +his heart enough to take a fellow with him to where there was a +post-office or something. + +He was beginning to feel a deep need of some word from Mary V, was +Johnny. He was beginning to worry, to grow restive down here in the +wilderness, seeing nothing, doing nothing save kill time between those +short, surreptitious flights across to the notched ridge and back +again. Two weeks of that was beginning to pall. + +But the money he was receiving did not pall. It held him in leash, +silenced the doubts that troubled him now and then, kept him +temporizing with that uneasy thing we call conscience. + +He climbed now into the cockpit, testing the controls absent-mindedly +while he pondered certain small incidents that caused him a certain +vague discomfort whenever he thought of them. For one thing, why must +a gatherer of news carry mysterious packages into Mexico and leave them +there, sometimes throwing them overboard with a tiny parachute +arrangement, as Cliff had done on the first trip, and flying back +without stopping? Why must a newspaper man bring back certain +mysterious packages, and straightway disappear with them in the car? +That he should confer long and secretly with men of florid complexions +and an accent which hardens its g's and sharpens its s's, might very +plausibly be a part of his gathering of legitimate news of +international import. Though Johnny rather doubted its legitimacy, he +had no doubt whatever of its world-wide importance. Certain nations +were at war--and he was no fool, once he stopped dreaming long enough +to think logically. + +Those packages bothered him more than the florid gentlemen, however. +At first he suspected smuggling, or something like that. But +gun-running, that staple form of border lawbreaking, did not fit into +any part of Cliff's activities, though opium might. But when he had +made an excuse for handling one or two of the packages, they routed the +opium theory. They were flat and loosely solid, as packages of paper +would be. Not state documents such as melodramas use to keep the +villains sweating--they did not come in reams, so far as Johnny knew. +He could think of no other papers that would need smuggling into or out +of a country as free as ours where freedom of the press has become a +watchword; yet the idea persisted stubbornly that those were packages +of paper which he had managed to take in his hands. + +As a pleasing relief from useless cogitation on the subject, Johnny +took his bank roll from a pocket he had sewed inside his shirt. Like a +miser he fingered the magic paper, counting and recounting, spending it +over and over in anticipatory daydreams. Thirty-two hundred dollars he +counted in bills of large denomination--impressively clean, crisp +bills, some of them--and mentally placed that amount to one side. That +would pay old Sudden, interest and all. What was left he could do with +as he pleased. He counted it again. There were three hundred dollars +left from what Bland had earned--Bland-- What had become of Bland, +anyway? Little runt might be broke again; in fact, it was practically +certain that he would be broke again, though he must have had close to +a hundred dollars when they landed in Los Angeles. Oh, well--forget +Bland! + +So there were the three hundred--gee golly, but it had cost, that short +stay in the burg of Bland's dreams. A hundred dollars gone like the +puff of a cigarette! Well, there were the three hundred left--he'd +have been broke, pronto, if he had stayed there much longer. Another +hundred he had spent on the Thunder Bird--golly, but propellers do cost +a lot! And that shotgun he never had had a chance to shoot--Cliff sure +was a queer guy, making him buy all that scenery, and then caching him +away so no one ever got a chance to size him up and see whether he +looked like a duck hunter or not. Well, anyway, let's see. There were +a thousand in big juicy hundreds; and five hundred more in fifties and +twenties-- + +Out beyond the oak's leafy screen the dogs were barking and growling +and the children were calling shrilly. Johnny hastily put away his +wealth and eased himself up so that he could peer out through the +branches. He had not consciously feared the coming of strangers, yet +now he felt his heart thumping noisily because of the clamor out in the +yard. While he looked, two horsemen rode past and stopped at the cabin. + +Now Johnny had been telling himself what a godsend some new face would +be to him, yet he did not rush out to welcome the callers and ask the +news of the outside world which Cliff was so chary of giving. He did +not by any sound or movement declare his presence. He simply craned +and listened. + +One of the men he could not see because of a great, overhanging limb +that barred his vision. The other happened to stop just opposite a +very good peephole through the leaves. The kiddies were standing back +shyly, patently interrupted in their pretended play of trundling the +wheelbarrow and dragging the stick horses over the yard. Rosa, the +thin-legged girl, stood shyly back with her finger in her mouth, in +plain sight of Johnny, though she could not see him in the deep shadow +of the leaves. + +It was the man that interested Johnny, however. He was a soldier, +probably one of the border patrol. He sat his horse easily, erect in +the saddle, straight-limbed and alert, with lean hard jaw and a gray +eye that kept glancing here, there, everywhere while the other talked. +It was only a profile view that Johnny saw, but he did not need a look +at the rest of his face with the other gray eye to be uncomfortably +convinced that not much would escape him. + +"It circled and seemed to come down somewhere on this side the Potreros +and it has not been seen since. Ask the kids if they saw something +that looked like a big bird flying." This from the unseen one, who had +raised his voice as impatience seized him. These Mexicans were so +slow-witted! + +Johnny heard Mateo's voice, speaking at length. He saw Rosa take her +finger from her mouth, catch up a corner of her ragged, apron and twist +it in an agony of confusion, and then as if suddenly comprehending what +it was these senores wished to know, she pointed jerkily toward the +north. Perhaps the others also pointed to the north, for the +lean-jawed soldier tilted his head backward and stared up that way, and +Mateo spoke in very fair English. + +"The kids, she's see. No, I dunno. I'm busy I don' make attenshions. +I'm fine out when--" + +"We know when," the efficient looking soldier interrupted. "You keep +watch. If you see it fly back, see just where it comes from and where +it goes, and ride like hell down to camp and tell us. You will get +more money than you can make here in a year. You sabe that?" + +"Yo se, senor--me, I'm onderstan'." + +"You know where our camp is?" + +"Si, senor capitan. Me, I'm go lak hell." + +"Well, there's nothing more to be got here. Let's get along." And as +they moved off Johnny caught a fragmentary phrase "from Riverside." + +The children had taken up their industrious play again, and their +mother had turned from the open doorway to hush the crying of Mateo's +youngest in the cabin. Mateo called the children to him and patted +them on the head, and the senora, their mother, brought candy and gave +it to them. They ran off, sucking the sweets, gabbling gleefully to +one another. Cliff Lowell had been right, nothing is so disarming as a +woman and children about a place where secrets are kept. + +There had been no suspicion of Mateo's cabin and the family that lived +there in squalid content. The incident was closed. + +But Johnny slumped down in the seat again and glowered through the +little, curved windshield at the crisply wavering leaves beyond the +Thunder Bird's nose. He was not a fool, any more than he was a crook. +He was young and too confiding, too apt to take things for granted and +let the other fellow do the worrying, so long as things were fairly +pleasant for Johnny Jewel. But right now his eyes were open in more +senses than one, and they were very wide open at that. + +There was something very radically wrong with this job. The fiction of +legitimate news gathering in Mexico could no longer give him any +feeling save disgust for his own culpability. News gathering did not +require armed guards--not in this country, at least--and such mysteries +as Cliff Lowell dealt in. The money in his possession ceased to give +him any little glow of pleasure. Instead, his face grew all at once +hot with shame and humiliation. It was not honest money, although he +had earned it honestly enough. If it had been honest money, why should +those soldiers go riding through the valleys, looking for him and his +plane? It was not for the pleasure of saying howdy, if Johnny might +judge from the hard-eyed glances of that one who had stopped in plain +view. + +It was not honest money that he had been taking. Why, even the kids +out there knew it was not honest! Look at Rosa, playing shrewdly her +part of dumb shyness in the presence of strangers--and she thinking all +the while how best she could lie to them, the little imp! It was not +the first time she had shown her shrewdness. Why, nearly every time +Cliff wanted to make a trip across the line, those kids climbed the +hill to where they could look all over the flat and the near-by hills, +and if they saw any one they would yell down to Mateo. If the +interloper happened to be close, they had orders to roll small rocks +down for a warning, so Cliff one day told Johnny with that insufferably +tolerant smile. Cliff brought them candy and petted them, just for +what use he could make of them as watchdogs. Would all that be +necessary for a legitimate enterprise? Wouldn't the guards have orders +to shut their eyes when an airplane flew high, bearing a man who +gathered news vital to the government? + +Once before Johnny had been made a fool of by horse thieves who plied +their trade across the line. They had given him this very same +airplane to keep him occupied and tempt him away from his duty while +they stole Rolling R horses at their leisure. Wasn't this very +money--thirty-two hundred dollars of it--going to pay for that bit of +gullibility? Gulled into earning money to pay for an earlier piece of +gross stupidity! + +"The prize--mark!" he branded himself. "By golly, they've got me +helping 'em do worse than steal horses from the Rolling R, this time; +putting something over on the government is their little stunt--and by +golly, I fell for the bait just like I done the other time! _Huhn_!" +Then he added a hopeful threat. "But they had me on the hip, that +time--this time it's going to be different!" + +For the rest of that day he brooded, waiting for Cliff. What he would +do he himself did not know, but he was absolutely determined that he +would do something. + + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY + +MARY V TAKES THE TRAIL + +On a Saturday afternoon Spring Street at Sixth is a busy street, as +timid pedestrians and the traffic cop stationed there will testify. In +times not so far distant the general public howled insistently for a +subway, or an elevated railway--anything that would relieve the +congestion and make the downtown district of Los Angeles a decently +safe place to walk in. But subways and elevated railways cost money, +and the money must come from the public which howls for these things. +Gradually the public ceased to howl and turned its attention to dodging +instead. For that reason Sixth and Spring remains a busy corner, +especially at certain hours of the day. + +On a certain Saturday, months before the traffic cops grew tired of +blowing whistles and took to revolving silently at stated intervals +with outspread wings after the manner of certain mechanical toys, Mary +V Selmer came from the Western Union's main office, and thanked heaven +silently that her new roadster of the type called the Bear Cat was +still standing at the curb where she had left it. Just beyond it on +the left a stream of automobiles grazed by--but none so new and shiny, +so altogether elegantly "sassy" as the Bear Cat. Mary V, when she +stepped in and settled herself behind the steering wheel, matched the +car, completed its elegant "sassiness," its general air of getting +where it wanted to go, let the traffic be what it might and +devil-take-the-fenders. + +Mary V was unhappy, but her unhappiness was somewhat mitigated by the +Bear Cat and her new mole collar that made a soft, fur wall about her +slim throat to her very ears and the tip of her saucy chin, and the +perky hat--also elegantly "sassy"--turned up in front and down behind, +and the new driving gauntlets, and the new coat that had made dad groan +until he had seen Mary V inside it and changed the groan to a proud +little chuckle of admiration. + +Mary V was terribly worried about Johnny Jewel. She had been sure that +he had come to Los Angeles, and she had pestered her dad into bringing +her here in the firm belief that she would find him at once and "have +it out with him" once and for all. (Just as though Mary V could ever +settle a quarrel once and for all!) But though she had haunted all the +known and some of the unknown flying fields, she had found no trace of +Johnny. That messenger boy in Tucson had insisted that the plane +climbed high and then flew toward the Coast. And at Yuma she had +learned that the Thunder Bird had alighted there for gas and oil and +had flown toward Los Angeles. But so far as Mary V could discover, it +was still flying. + +Hoping to wean her from worrying about Johnny, dad had bought the Bear +Cat. Mary V had owned it for ten days now, and its mileage stood at +1400 and was just about ready to slide another "1" into sight. The +Bear Cat had proven itself a useful little Cat. + +Now she shifted from neutral to second, disdaining low speed +altogether, and swung boldly out into the stream of traffic. A Ford +shied off with a startled squawk to let the Bear Cat by. A hurrying +truck that was thinking of cutting in to get first chance within the +safety zone passage thought better of it when Mary V honked her big +Klaxon at him, and stopped with a jolt that nearly brought the Ford to +grief behind it. + +But Mary V ignored these trifles. She was busy wondering where she +should go next, and she was scanning swiftly the faces of the +passers-by in the hope of glimpsing the one face she wished most of all +to see. + +She reached the corner just as the frame closed against her, and with +one small foot on the clutch pedal and the other on the brake, she +leaned back and scanned the crowd. Abruptly she leaned and beckoned, +saw that her signal went unregarded, and gave three short but terrific +blasts of her Klaxon. Five hundred and forty-nine persons reacted +sharply to the sound and sent startled glances her way. The traffic +cop whirled and looked, the motorman on the car waiting beside her +leaned far out and craned, and the conductor grasped both handrails and +took a step down that he might see the better. + +Mary V ignored these trifles. Bland, for whom she had meant it, jumped +and turned a pale, startled pair of eyes her way, and to him she +beckoned imperiously. He hesitated, glanced this way and that, making +a quick mental decision. Mary V had once been candidly tempted to +shoot him and had dallied with the temptation to the point of cocking +her sixshooter and aiming it directly at him. She looked now quite +capable of repeating the performance and of completing what she had +merely started last summer. He went to the edge of the curb, obeying +her expectant stare. The expectant stare continued to transfix him, +and he stepped off the curb and close to the Bear Cat that was growling +in its throat. + +"Bland Halliday, where have you _been_, for gracious sake? And where's +Johnny?" + +"I ain't been anywhere but here--and I wisht I knowed where Johnny was. +I--" + +"Bland Halliday, you tell me instantly! Where's Johnny?" + +"Honest, I don't know. I been looking for him myself, and--" + +"Bland Halliday, do you want to be torn limb from limb, right here on +the public street before everybody? I want to know where Johnny is, +and I want to know _now_." + +"Aw, f'r cat's sake! I ain't saw Johnny f'r three weeks--not since the +night we got here. I been looking--" + +Behind them sounded a succession of impatient honks that extended +almost to Seventh Street. The traffic cop had blown his whistle, the +street car had clanged warning and gone on. The truck had shaved past +Mary V and the Ford had followed. Other cars coming up behind had +mistaken the Bear Cat's inaction for closed traffic and had stopped. +Others had stopped behind them; then two other street cars slid up and +blocked the way around. + +Mary V was quite oblivious to all this. She was glaring at the one +link between herself and Johnny Jewel. She was bitterly regretting the +fact that she had no gun with which to scare Bland into telling the +truth, and she was wondering what other means of coercion would prove +effective. Bland knew where Johnny was, of course. He was lying, for +some reason--probably because he had the habit and couldn't stop. + +Bland kept an eye on Mary V's right hand. He suspected a gun, and +when, in involuntary obedience to the frantic honkings behind her, she +let her hand drop to the gear lever, Bland turned to flee. + +"Bland, you come back here!" Bland came. "What do you mean, trying to +avoid answering a perfectly civil question?" + +"I did answer it," Bland protested in his whining tone. "I said I +didn't know--" + +"That's no answer; that's nothing but a plain old lie. You do know +perfectly well where he is. You left Tucson with Johnny, and you left +Yuma with him. Bland Halliday, what have you done with him?" + +Bland's eyes turned slightly glassy. Like a trapped animal, he sent +roving glances here and there--and took in the purposeful approach of +the traffic cop. He turned again toward the curb. + +"Don't you dare attempt to leave before--" + +"What's the matter here? What you blocking traffic for? Don't you +know I can--" + +"Oh! Am I in the way here? I shall move immediately, of course. +Thank you so much! It's really no trouble at all, and I'm tremendously +sorry if I have inconvenienced you or the general public any. I +believe you are really _glad_, down deep in your heart, when somebody +gives you an excuse to leave that horrid little square spot for a +minute. Don't you nearly go wild, having to--Bland! What are you +standing there holding up traffic for? Get in!" + +Looking completely dazed and helpless, Bland got in. + +"Now we're all ready, Mr. Policeman. Run along back and point the herd +again before all the nice little tame Fords get walked on. I hear one +squalling now. And thank you so much." + +Mary V let in the clutch. The Bear Cat slid out across the street, +scattering pedestrians and jeopardizing wheels and fenders as it ducked +past them. The traffic cop stood still for a minute, rubbing his chin +vaguely and staring after Mary V. Then he went back to his post, +grinning and frowning--which gave him a strange, complex expression. + +"Aw, say, Miss Selmer--" + +"Will you be quiet? Haven't you done harm enough, for gracious sake? +Aren't you satisfied with getting me almost put in jail innocently? If +you had told me at once where Johnny is, I'd be miles away by now. But +no--you hold up traffic trying to deceive me, and I almost get pinched. +I should think you'd be ashamed. Where is Johnny? If you have done +anything to him, Bland Halliday, I'll--hang you!" + +"I been telling yuh all I know about it. I don't know where he is, and +I don't know where the plane is. They're both of 'em gone, and that's +Gawd's truth, Miss Selmer. Last I seen of Johnny he was goin' in the +Alexandria. He said he was going to stop there. He registered all +right--I seen his name. He stayed all night, and he was gone the next +day when I went after him. And the plane's gone, I been out there, and +I can't find so much as a sign of it. And that was three weeks ago. +And you kin hang me till I'm dead, but I can't tell nothin' more. +Don't yuh spose I want to know where's he at?" + +"Well--" Mary V crossed the path of a street car, leaving the motorman +shivering while he stood on the bell that clamored wildly. "Maybe you +are telling the truth--but I doubt it." They were across Figueroa +Street and speeding out toward Westlake. The Bear Cat was breaking the +speed law, and Mary V had no time to say more. + +"Where you takin' me, f'r cat's sake?" + +"Oh--for a ride. Don't you like to ride?" Mary V's voice was filled +with amiability; too much so to satisfy Bland, who eyed her with +suspicion. + +"Aw, a fellow can't never git a square deal no more. Here I been +hunting the town over trying to git some line on Skyrider. Went and +left me in the lurch after me helping him to a roll of kale that would +choke a nelephant! And I never charged him nothin' for flying, except +just what we agreed on before he got throwed in jail. Handed him over +close to five hundred dollars when he come out--piloted him here, took +him into town, and was planning on helping him to make more money, and +what does he do? Ducks into the Alexandria, leavin' me waitin' +outside, hungry and thirsty and tired as a dog. Him with five hundred, +me with seventy-five! And _he_ wouldn't a knowed any different if I'd +trimmed him! Who was to keep tabs on how many passengers I took up? +And what does he do? Gives me the slip right there in the Alexandria, +that's what he done. I ain't been able to locate him yet, but if ever +I do--" + +Mary V swung the Bear Cat out and passed a limousine as though it were +standing still--which it emphatically was not. What if Bland were +telling the truth? What if Johnny had actually dropped out of sight +with five hundred dollars in his possession? That would mean--she +refused to consider just what it would mean. She would wait until her +dad had gotten the truth out of Bland Halliday. She was taking Bland +home, hoping that her dad was there so that she would not be compelled +to keep Bland any longer than was necessary. Bland was seedier than he +had been in Tucson, if that were possible. Too evidently he had no +part of the seventy-five dollars left, if he had ever possessed that +much. Mary V would like to disbelieve everything he said, but a +troubled doubt of his falsity assailed her. + +She drove a little faster and presently brought Bland to the door of a +cheerful, wide-porched bungalow patterned somewhat after the Rolling R +home. Old Sudden was just pulling on his driving gloves ready to step +into his own car when the Bear Cat slid up and stopped. He looked at +Bland casually, looked again quickly, pursing his lips. Whereupon his +poker face hid what he thought. + +"Dad, come back into the house and talk to Bland Halliday. He told me +the strangest story about Johnny, and--and I wish you'd just talk to +him and see if it's true." Mary V was not altogether without +consideration for the feelings of another, but candor was the keynote +of her nature, and she was very much perturbed, and she did not really +feel that a fellow like Bland Halliday had any feelings to consider. + +Sudden smoothed a smile off his mouth. "Well, now, this is very +thoughtful of you; very thoughtful. I appreciate your coming to +consult me before you have settled the whole thing yourself. Come into +the house, young man." + +An hour later, Sudden leaned back in his chair and looked at Mary V. +Tight-lipped, paler than she had any right to be, Mary V met the look +wide-eyed. Bland moved his feet anxiously, watching them both. + +"I played square with him," he whined. "Either he didn't, or else--" + +Sudden's eyes turned to Bland and settled there meditatively. "Yes, I +guess you did," he admitted. "Looks like you had played fair. Where +are you stopping? I'll take you back down town. Need money?" + +"Dad! Aren't you going to _do_ anything? If Bland is telling the +truth, don't you see what it means? Something must have happened--" + +"Well, now, that will all be attended to, kitten. According to Bland, +Johnny checked out before he disappeared. Also his airplane +disappeared with him. That doesn't look like he'd been made away with, +exactly. He's all right, probably--but we'll find out. I've a right +to know what he did with that flying machine; it's security for that +note of his!" + +Mary V sprang to her feet and faced him. "Dad Selmer, I would never +have believed a person on oath if they had said you could be so +perfectly mean and mercenary! If that's all you care about, why take +the Bear Cat and give me that note! Go on--take it! I guess Johnny +has a right to do as he pleases until the note is due, at any rate. +You might at least treat Johnny with ordinary business courtesy, I +should think. You know perfectly well that you wouldn't dare hound +your other creditors like that. But if you are really worried about +that note, I shall deem it a pleasure and a privilege to pay it myself, +and I'm sure the Bear Cat is good for the amount, or if you prefer you +may hold back my allowance, and I shall go without clothes and +everything until it is paid. It's a perfect outrage to keep nagging +Johnny when he's doing his level best and not asking any help from you +or any one else. I'm sure I honor and respect him all the more, and +you would too if you had a drop of human blood--now what are you +grinning for--and trying to hide it? Dad Selmer, you do make me +perfectly furious at times!" + +Mary V laid hands upon her father and for his shortcomings she +"woolled" him until his grizzled hair stood straight on end. Sudden +protested, tried to hold her off at arm's length and found her all +claws, like an excited wildcat. + +"Now, now--" + +"Tell me then what you are going to do. And don't try to make me +believe you only care for that horrid note. Every time I think of you +making that poor boy sign over everything he had on earth, except me, +of course, and you wouldn't let him have me when he wanted--why, dad, I +could shake you till--" + +Bland was edging to the door. He had no experience with families and +domestic upheavals, and he did not know just how serious this quarrel +might prove. He expected Sudden to order Mary V from the house--to +disown her, at the very least. He did not want to be a witness when +Sudden broke loose. But Sudden called him back and turned to Mary V. + +"Here, let me go. You're scaring off the only evidence we've got that +Johnny landed here. You stay right here and behave yourself, young +lady. I might want to 'phone you, if I get a clue--" + +"Oh, dad! Cross your heart you'll 'phone the very instant you find out +anything? Here's your hat--do, for gracious sake, hurry!" + + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE + +JOHNNY IS NOT PAID TO THINK + +On that same Saturday afternoon, at about the time when Mary V sighted +Bland at the southeast corner of Sixth and Spring, Johnny stood just +under the peak behind Mateo's cabin and saw a lone horseman ride across +the upper neck of the little valley and disappear into the brush on the +side opposite him. He waited impatiently. The rider did not reappear, +but presently he saw what looked like a human figure crouched behind a +rock well up the slope. Johnny stared until his eyes watered with the +strain, but he could not be sure that the object was a man. If it +were, the man was without a doubt placed there for purposes of +observation. The thought was not a pleasant one. + +He waited, himself crouched now behind a jutting fragment of rock, and +thought he saw the object move. A little later the sun, sliding +farther down the sky, reflected a glittering something just above that +rock. A bit of glass would do that--the lenses of a field glass, for +instance. Two lenses would shine as one, Johnny believed, and was +thankful that his slope was in shadow. + +Taking it for granted that some one was watching the valley, he studied +the spot where the glitter had already winked out--possibly because the +man had moved the field glasses, sweeping the valley. It was a good +place for a spy, Johnny admitted. There was a slight ridge just there, +so that the view was clear for some distance in either direction; +Mateo's cabin was in plain sight, and the surrounding hills. He hoped +the fellow would see nothing suspicious and would presently give up +that post; in the meantime he was effectually treed. There was no +shelter that he dared trust on the first rocky half of the descent, and +to climb up and over the peak he would surely reveal himself, unless +the fellow's attention happened to be centered on something else. + +Johnny studied his predicament. The man could see everything--but +could he hear? He was half a mile off, Johnny judged, estimating the +distance with an accuracy born of long living in the country of far +skylines. The spy would need sharp ears indeed to hear anything less +than a shout. + +Johnny picked up a pebble, aimed, and threw it at the roof of Mateo's +cabin. The pebble landed true and rattled off, hitting the ground with +a bounce and rolling away in the grass. The children, playing in the +open as they always did, stopped and looked up inquiringly, then went +on with their play. Mateo came cautiously from the back door and to +him Johnny called, thankful that the observer on the hillside could not +see through the cabin to where Mateo stood. + +"Stay where you are," he called. "Can you hear me?" + +Mateo nodded emphatically. + +"All right. Take your gun and start off across the flat, down the way +Cliff will come. Act like you didn't want to be seen. There's +somebody across on the hill, up here, and I want to see if he'll follow +you. You get me?" + +"Si, yes. I'm go." + +"After awhile you can come back. If you see Cliff, tell him he's after +ducks. Sabe?" + +"Yo se. I'm onderstan'." + +"All right. Go back in the house and come out the front door and start +off." + +Mateo waved his hand and disappeared. In five minutes or less Johnny +saw him walking away from the cabin and glancing frequently at the +hills upon either hand. His manner might have been called stealthy, if +one were looking for stealth. Johnny was looking for something else, +and presently he gave a grunt of satisfaction. The object behind the +rock stood up and levelled his glasses at Mateo. Johnny waited until +he was sure and then scrambled down to the protection of another +bowlder. He peered from there up the valley and after some searching +discovered his man working carefully along a side hill, evidently +anxious to keep Mateo in sight. Johnny worked down another rod or two, +reconnoitered again, made another sliding run for it, and stopped +behind a clump of brush. In that way he reached the shelter of the +oak, feeling certain that he had not been seen. + +Through the screen of branches he looked out across the little valley, +but he could not see any one at all, not even Mateo. So he turned to +his one solace, The Thunder Bird, and dusted it as carefully as a young +girl dusts her new piano. With a handful of waste he went over the +motor, wiping it until it shone wherever shining was possible, and +tried not to think of the man on the hillside. That was Cliff's +affair--until Johnny was ready to make the affair his. + +"I wish I knew just what he's up to," Johnny fretted. "If I just +_knew_ something! I'd look like a boob now, wouldn't I, if the guards +nabbed us? They might try to pin most anything on me, and I wouldn't +have any comeback. It don't look good, if anybody asks me! And if +they--" + +"Man's come here," Rosa announced close behind him in a tense whisper. +"Walking." + +Johnny jumped and went on his toes to a spot where he could look +through the foliage. + +"Walking down," explained Rosa, and waved a skinny hand toward the hill +behind them. + +"Did you see him?" + +"No, senor. I'm seeing rocks falling where somebody walks down." + +There was nothing to do but wait. Johnny pushed the girl toward the +cabin and saw her scramble under the lowest branches and join the +others unconcernedly, tagging the boy Josef, and, then running off into +the open--where she could see the hillside--with Josef running after. +She did not seem to be watching the hill, while she was apparently +absorbed in dodging Josef, but Johnny gathered from her gestures that +the man was still coming and that he was making for the cabin. He was +wondering what she meant by suddenly sinking to the ground in shrill +laughter, when he heard a step behind him. He whirled, startled, his +hand jerking back toward the gun he wore. + +"I approve your watchfulness, but you happened to be watching in the +wrong direction," said Cliff, brushing dirt from his hunting clothes. +"Well, they are getting warm, old man. They have eliminated Riverside +as a probable hang-out for the mystery plane, and--" He waved a hand +significantly while he stood his shotgun against the bole of the tree. + +"Some one saw us land in this valley," he added. "Luckily they do not +suspect Mateo yet. I saw him going down the flat and sent him on to +tell the patrol a lot they already knew. He saw the plane come down, +but has not been able to find the exact spot. He thinks it took the +air again. His ninos told him of a big bird flying east. Great boy, +Mateo. Great kids. Did they see me coming?" + +"Sure they did. Rosa's eagle eye spotted a rock or two rolling down +and came and told me." + +"Good girl, Rosa. The car's over in another valley, parked under a +tree very neatly and permanently and in plain sight. Its owner is off +hunting somewhere. By its number plates they will never know it. Good +old car." + +"You seem tickled to think they're after you," Johnny observed, rolling +a cigarette by way of manifesting complete unconcern. "What's the next +move?" + +"Get me across without letting them see where we come from. Can you +fly at night?" + +"Sure, I can fly at night. Don't the Germans fly at night all over +London? I won't swear I'll light easy, though." + +"There'll be a moon," said Cliff. "I've got to get over, and I've got +to light, and I've got to get back again. There are no if's this time; +it's _got_ to be done." + +"A plane chased us, day before yesterday," Johnny informed him, fanning +the smoke from before his face and squinting one eye while he studied +Cliff. "It was a long way off, and I got down before it was close +enough to see just where I lit. It came back yesterday and scouted +around, flying above five thousand feet up. To-day I saw two of them +sailing around, but they didn't fly over this way. They were over +behind this hill, and high. We'd better do our flying at night, +old-timer." + +"You can dodge them. You've got to dodge them," said Cliff. + +"If I fly," Johnny qualified dryly. + +"You've got to fly. You're in to your neck, old man--and there's a +loop ready for that." Then, as though he had caught himself saying +more than was prudent, he laughed and amended the statement. "Of +course, I'm just kidding, but at that, it's important that you make +this flight and as many more as you can get away with. There's +something to be brought back to-night--legitimate news, understand, but +of tremendous value to the Syndicate." He reached into his pocket and +drew out an envelope such as Johnny had learned to associate with money. + +"Here's two thousand dollars, old man. The boss knows the risk and +added a couple of hundred for good measure, this week. When you land +me over there to-night I'll give you this." He smiled disagreeably. +"I think you'll fly, all right--for this." + +"Sure, I'll fly--for that. I was kidding. For two thousand I'd fly to +Berlin and bring back a lock of old Kaiser Bill's hair." + +"That's the way to talk, old man! I knew you were game. I told the +boss so, when he asked if we could count on you. I said you had nerve, +no political prejudices, and--that you need the money." + +"That's my number, I guess," Johnny admitted, grinning. + +Cliff laughed again, which made three distinct impulses to laughter in +one conversation. This was not like Cliff's usual conservatism. As +Johnny had known him he laughed seldom, and then only at something +disagreeable. He was keyed up for something; a great coup of some sort +was in sight, Johnny guessed shrewdly, studying Cliff's face and the +sparkle in his eyes. He was like a man who sees success quite suddenly +where he has feared to look upon failure. Johnny wondered just what +that success might mean--to others. + +"I bet you're putting over something big that will tickle Uncle Sam +purple," he hazarded, giving Cliff a round-eyed, admiring glance. + +"It will tickle him--purple, all right!" Cliff's tone had a slight edge +on it. "You're sitting in a big game, my boy, but you aren't paid to +ask questions. You go ahead and earn your two thousand. You do the +flying, and let some one else do the thinking." + +"I get you," said Johnny laconically and took himself and his thinkless +brain elsewhere. + + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO + +JOHNNY MAKES UP HIS MIND + +"No political prejudices--hunh!" Johnny was filling the gas tank, and +while he did it he was doing a great deal of thinking which he was not +paid to do. "This newspaper business--say, she's one great business, +all right. It's nice to have a boss that jumps your wages up a couple +of hundred at a lick, and tells you you needn't think, and you mustn't +have any political prejudices. Fine job, all right. Will I fly by +moon-light? Will I? And them government planes riding on my tail like +they've been doing the last two trips? Hunh!" + +Cliff came then with a bundle under his arm. Johnny cast a suspicious +eye down at him, and Cliff held up the package. + +"I want to take this along--rockets; to let them know we're coming. +Then they'll have flares for us to land by." + +"Been planning on some night-riding, hunh?" + +"Naturally; I would plan for every contingency that could possibly +arise." + +"Hunh. That covers them planes that have been line-riding over this +way, too, I reckon." Johnny climbed down and prepared to pump a little +more air into one tire. + +"Possibly. Don't let those airplanes worry you, old man. They have to +catch us, you know." + +"No? I ain't worrying about 'em. The one that does the thinking on +this job can do the worrying. I'm paid to fly." Johnny laughed sourly +as he glanced up from where he squatted beside the wheel. + +"Let it go at that. Are you about ready? It will be dark in another +half hour--dark enough to fly, at least." Cliff was moving about +restlessly in the gloom under the tree. For all his earlier +exhilaration he seemed nervous, in haste to be done. + +"You said moonlight," Johnny reminded him, putting away the pump. + +"I know, but it's best to get out of here and over the line in the +dark, I think. The moon will be up in less than an hour. Be ready to +leave in half an hour--and don't start the motor until the very last +minute. Mateo has not come back yet. If they are holding him--" + +"I'm ready to go when you are. Let's run her out before it's plumb +dark under here. She can't be seen in this light very far--and if a +man comes close enough to see her, he'd get wise anyway. Uh course," +he apologized quickly, "that's more thinking than I'm paid to do, but +you got to let me think a little bit now and then, or I can't fly no +two thousand dollars worth to-night." + +"I meant thinking about my part in the game. All right, I've got her +right, on this side. Take up the tail and let's run her out." + +In the open the children were running back and forth, playing tag and +squealing over the hazards of the game. When the Thunder Bird rolled +out with its outspread wings and its head high and haughty, they gave a +final dash at one another and rushed off to get wheelbarrow and stick +horses. They were well trained--shamefully well trained in the game of +cheating. + +Johnny looked at them glumly, with an aversion born of their uncanny +obedience, their unchildlike shrewdness. Fine conspirators they would +make later on, when they grew a few years older and more cunning! + +"Head her into the wind so I can take the air right away quick," he +ordered Cliff, and helped swing the Thunder Bird round. + +Dusk was settling upon the very heels of a sunset that had no clouds to +glorify and therefore dulled and darkened quickly into night, as is the +way of sunsets in the southern rim of States. + +Already the shadows were deep against the hill, and in the deepest +stood the Thunder Bird, slim, delicately sturdy, every wire taut, every +bit of aluminum in her motor clean and shining, a gracefully potent +creature of the air. Across her back her name was lettered crudely, +blatantly, with the blobbed period where Johnny had his first mental +shock of Sudden's changed attitude toward him. + +While he pulled on his leather helmet and tied the flaps under his +chin, and buttoned his leather coat and pulled on his gloves, Johnny +stood off and eyed the Thunder Bird with wistful affection. She was +going into the night for the first time, going into danger, perhaps +into annihilation. She might never fly again! He went up and laid a +hand caressingly on her slanted propeller, just as he used to stroke +the nose of his horse Sandy before a hard ride. + +"Good old Thunder Bird! Good old Mile High! You've got your work cut +out for yuh to-night, old girl. Go to it--eat it up." + +He slid his hand down along the blade's edge and whispered, "It's you +and me for it, old girl. You back my play like a good girl, and we'll +give 'em hell!" + +He stepped back, catching Cliff's eye as Cliff took a last puff at his +cigarette before grinding it under his heel. + +"Thought I saw a crack in the blade," Johnny gruffly explained his +action. "It was the way the light struck. All right; turn her over, +and we'll go." + +He climbed in while Cliff went to the propeller. Never before had +Johnny felt so keenly the profanation of Cliff's immaculate, gloved +hands on his beloved Thunder Bird. + +"Never mind, old girl. His time's short--or ours is," he muttered +while he tested his controls. "All right--contact!" he called +afterwards, and Cliff, with a mighty pull, set the propeller whirling +and climbed hastily into his place. + +The kiddies, grouped close to watch the Thunder Bird's flight, blinked +and turned their faces from the dust storm kicked up by the exhaust. +The plane shook, ran forward faster and faster, lifted its little +wheels off the ground and went whirring away toward the dark blur of +the mountains that rimmed the southern edge of the valley. + +Johnny circled twice, getting sufficient altitude to clear the hills, +then flew straight for the border. In the dark Cliff would not know +the difference between one thousand feet and five thousand, and Johnny +wanted to save his gas. He even shut off his motor and glided down to +one thousand before he had passed the line, and picked up again and +held the Thunder Bird steady, regardless of the droning hum, that would +shout its passing to those below. + +"Isn't this rather low?" Cliff turned his head to shout. + +Johnny did not read suspicion in his voice, but vague uneasiness lest +the trip be brought to a sudden halt. + +"It's all right. They can't do anything but listen to us go past. +I've got to keep my landmarks." + +Cliff leaned and peered below, evidently satisfied with the +explanation. A minute later he was fussing with the flare he meant to +set off for a signal, and Johnny was left free to handle the plane and +do a little more of that thinking for which he was not paid. + +The night sky was wonderful, a deep translucent purple studded with +stars that seemed closer, more humanly intimate than when seen from +earth even in the higher altitudes. The earth was shadowy, remote, +with now a growing brightness as the moon slid up into sight. Before +its light touched the earth the Thunder Bird was bathed in its glow. +Cliff's profile emerged clear-cut from the dusk as he gazed toward the +east. Johnny, too, glanced that way, but he was not thinking then of +the wonderful effect of the rising moon upon the drifting world below. +He was wondering just why this trip to-night should be so important to +Cliff. + +It would not be the first time that Johnny had gone ahead with his eyes +shut, but that is not saying he would not have preferred travelling +with them open. His lips were set so stubbornly that the three tiny +dimples appeared in his chin,--his stubborn-mule chin, Mary V had once +called it,--and his eyes were big and round and solemn. Mary V seeing +him then would surely have asked herself, "What, for gracious sake, is +Johnny up to now?" + +But Mary V was not present, and Cliff Lowell was fully absorbed in his +own thoughts and purposes; wherefore Johnny's ominous expression went +unnoticed. + +In the moonlight the notched ridge showed clear, and toward it the +Thunder Bird went booming steadily, as ducks fly south with the first +storm wind of November. A twinkling light just under the notch showed +that Cliff's allies were at home, whether they expected him or not. +Johnny veered slightly, pointing the Thunder Bird's nose straight +toward the light. + +Cliff half turned, handing something back over his shoulder. + +"Can you drop this for me, old man, when we are almost over the +hacienda? The fuse is lighted, and I'm afraid I might heave it on to +the wing and set us afire." + +Johnny heard only about half of what Cliff was saying, but he +understood what was wanted and took the bomb-like contraption and +balanced it in his hand. Cliff had said rockets, but this thing was +not like any rocket Johnny had ever seen. Some new aerial signal bomb, +he guessed it, and thought how thoroughly up-to-date Cliff was in all +his tools of trade. + +He poised the thing on the edge of the cockpit, waited until they were +rather close, and then gave it a toss overboard. For a few seconds +nothing happened. Than, halfway to the ground a great blob of red +light burst dazzlingly, lighting the adobe building with a crimson glow +that floated gently earthward, suspended from its little parachute. + +Cliff handed back another, and Johnny heaved it away from the plane. +It flared white; the third one, dropped almost before the door of the +main building, revealed three men standing there gazing upward, their +faces weird in its bluish glare. Red, white and blue--a signal used +sacrilegiously here, he thought. + +Johnny circled widely and came back to find the landing place lighted +by torches of some kind. He was not interested in details, and what +they were he did not know or care. The landing was marked for him +plainly, though he scarcely needed it with the moon riding now above +the low rim of hills. + +He came down gently, and Cliff, remembering to give Johnny his money, +climbed out hurriedly to meet the florid gentleman who had never yet +failed to appear when the Thunder Bird landed. Johnny did not know his +name, for Cliff had never mentioned it. The two never talked together +in his presence, but strolled away where even their voices would not +reach him, or went inside the adobe house and stayed there until Cliff +was ready to return. News gathering, as Johnny saw the news gathered, +seemed to be mighty secret business, never to be mentioned save in a +whisper. + +The florid gentleman came strolling toward them through the moonlight, +smoking a big, fat cigar whose aroma reminded Johnny of something +disagreeable, like burning rubbish. Tonight the florid gentleman's +stroll did not seem to match his face, which betrayed a suppressed +excitement in spite of the fat cigar. He reached out, caught Cliff's +arm, and turned back toward the house, forgetting all about his stroll +as soon as he began to speak. He forgot something else, for Johnny +distinctly heard a sentence or two not meant for his ears. + +"I've put it through all right. I got them to sign with the +understanding that they don't turn a hand till you bring the money. +You can take--" + +That was all, for even on that still night the florid gentleman's voice +receded quickly to an unintelligible mumbling. They went inside, and +the door closed. Johnny and the Thunder Bird were once more shut out +from their conference. + +Johnny spied a Mexican who was leaning against the wall of a smaller +building, smoking and staring pensively across the moonlighted plain +toward that portion of the United States where the Potreros hunched +themselves up against the stars. + +"Bring me some gas, you!" he called peremptorily. + +The Mexican pulled his gaze away from the vista that had held him +hypnotized and straightened his lank form reluctantly. From a bench +near by he picked up a square kerosene can of the type made +internationally popular by a certain oil trust, inspected it to see if +the baling-wire handle would hold the weight of four gallons of +gasoline, and sauntered to a shed under which a red-leaded iron drum +lay on a low scaffold of poles. A brass faucet was screwed into the +hole for a faucet. He turned it listlessly, watched the gasoline run +in a sparkling stream the size of his finger, went off into a +moon-dream until the oil can was threatening to run over, and then shut +off the stream at its source. He picked up the can with the air of one +whose mind is far distant, came like a sleepwalker to where Johnny +waited, set the can down, and turned apathetically to retrace his steps +to where he could lean again. + +"That ain't all. Bring me a can of water as fast as you brought the +gas. We may want to go back to-night." + +"Si," sighed the Mexican and continued to drift away. + +"Don't be in a hurry. Come and lift the can up to me." + +The Mexican returned as slowly as he had departed, and picked up the +can. Johnny dropped a half dollar into it, whereat the Mexican's eyes +opened a trifle wider. + +"What's the name of that red-faced friend of Cliff's?" Johnny asked, +taking the can and beginning to pour gas into the Thunder Bird's tank. + +"Quien sabe?" murmured the listless one. + +Johnny paused, and another coin slipped tinkling into the can. + +"What did you say?" + +The Mexican hesitated. He would like very much to see that other coin. +It had sounded heavy--almost as heavy as a dollar. He turned his head +and looked attentively at the house. + +"Quien sabe, senor." The senor he added for sake of the coin he had +not seen. "Mucho name, Ah'm theenk." + +"Think some more." Johnny poured the last of the gas and caused +another clinking sound in the can. The Mexican's eyes were as wide +open now as they would ever be, and he even called a faint smile to his +countenance. + +"Some-_times_--Sawb," he recollected, and reached for the can. + +"Sawb--What y'mean, Sawb? That's no name for a man. You mean Schwab?" + +"Si, senor--Sawb." He glanced again at the house distrustfully, as if +he feared even his murmur might be overheard. + +"All right. Get the water now." + +"Si, senor." And he went for it at a trot, that he might the sooner +investigate the source of those clinking sounds. + +"Schwab! Uhm-hm--he looks it, all right." He stepped down to the +ground, pulled a handful of silver from his pocket and eyed it +speculatively, glancing now and then after the receding Mexican. "He'd +tell a lot to get it all," he decided. "He'd tell so much he'd make up +about four thirds of it. I guess those birds ain't taking greasers +like him into their secrets, and he's spilled all he knows when he +spilled the fellow's name. Four bits more will do him fine." Wealth, +you will observe, was inclining Johnny toward parsimoniousness. + +He got the water from the hopeful Mexican, gave him the half dollar and +brief thanks, filled the radiator, and waited for Cliff. And in a very +few minutes Cliff came out, walking as though he were in a hurry. The +florid gentleman stood framed in the doorway, watching him as friendly +hosts are wont to gaze after departing guests, out west where guests +are few. Like a departing guest Cliff turned for a last word. + +"I'll be back soon as possible," he called to the man Schwab. "A +little after sunrise, probably. Better wait here for me." + +Schwab nodded and waved his cigar, and Johnny grinned to himself while +he straddled into his seat. + +Cliff went straight to the propeller. "Take me to Los Angeles, old +man. You can light where you did before; there won't be any bean vines +in the way this time. I had the Japs clear off and level a strip for a +landing. It's marked off with white flags, so you can easily see it in +this moonlight. Luck's with us; I was afraid we might have to wait +until morning, but this is fine. Several hours will be saved." + +"I've got you," Johnny said--and he did not mean what Cliff thought he +meant. "All ready? Contact!" + + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE + +JOHNNY ACTS BOLDLY + +Off to the right and flying high, two government planes circled slowly +over the boundary line. Long before the Thunder Bird had put the map +of Mexico behind her the two planes veered that way, their fishlike +fuselages and the finned rudders gleaming like silver in the moonlight. +Cliff, happening to glance that way, moved uneasily in his seat and +cursed the moon he had so lately blessed. + +"Better duck down somewhere; can't you dodge 'em?" he yelled back at +Johnny, who was himself eyeing perturbedly the two swift scouts. + +"You let me handle this. It's what I'm paid for," he yelled back, and +banked the Thunder Bird sharply to the left. He had not yet crossed +the border; until he did so those scouting machines dare not do more +than keep him in view. But keeping him in view was absurdly simple in +that cloudless sky, white-lighted by the moon. + +To a person looking up from the earth, the situation would have +appeared to be simple--a matter of three planes zooming homeward after +a long practice flight. The five-pointed star in the black circle, +painted on each wing Of the government planes, would probably have been +invisible at that height, and the bold lettering of THE THUNDER BIRD +indistinguishable also on the shadowed underside of the outlaw plane. +To the government planes she was branded irrevocably as they looked +down upon her from their superior height. There was no mistaking her, +no hope whatever that the scouts might think her anything but the +outlaw plane she was, flying in the face of international law, +trafficking in treason, fair game if she once crossed the line. + +On she went, boring through the night, heading straight for Tia Juana, +which lies just south of the line. Just north of that invisible line +her pursuers held doggedly to the course. + +"Turn back," Cliff turned to shout to Johnny who was driving big-eyed, +his lips pursed with the tense purpose that held him to his work. +"Turn back and land at the rancho. We'll never make Los Angeles with +those damned buzzards after us. I'll have to notify Sch--somebody." + +"Send him a thought message, then." + +"Turn back when I tell you!" Cliff twisted around as far as his safety +belt would permit, that he might glare at Johnny. His tone was the +long of stern authority. + +"Can't be done! The Thunder Bird's took the bit in her teeth. I'm +just riding' and whippin' down both sides!" Johnny laughed aloud, +Cliff's tone releasing within him a sudden, reckless mood that gloried +in the sport of the chase and forgot for a moment its grim meaning. +"Whoo-ee! Go to it, old girl! They gotta go some to put salt on +_your_ tail--whoo-ee!" + +"Are you crazy, man? Those are government planes! They're probably +armed. They'll get us wherever we cross the line--turn back, I tell +you! You're under orders from me, and you'll fly where I tell you! +This is no child's play, you fool. If they get me with what +papers--it'll be a firing squad for you if they catch you--don't forget +that! Damn you, don't you realize--" + +"Sit down!" roared Johnny. "And shut up!" + +"I won't shut up!" Cliff's eyes, as Johnny saw them facing the moon, +looked rather wild. "You're working for me, and I order you to take me +back to Schwab's. You better obey--it will go as hard with you as it +will with me if those planes get in their work. Why, you fool, they--" + +"What the heck do I care about them? I'm working for a bigger man than +you are right now. Sit down!" + +"Stop at Tia Juana then and let me out. But I warn you--" + +"Shut up!" + +"I will not! You'll do as I tell you, or I'll--" + +"Now will you shut up?" Johnny swung his gun, a heavy, forty-four +caliber Colt, of the type beloved of the West. Its barrel came down +fairly on the top of Cliff's leathern helmet and all but cracked his +skull. Cliff shut up suddenly and completely, sliding limply down into +his seat. + +"By gosh, you had it coming!" Johnny muttered as he settled back into +his seat. He had never knocked a man cold before, and his natural +soft-heartedness needed bracing. He had let Cliff rave as long as he +dared, dreading the alternative. But now that it was done he felt a +certain relief to have it over. He could turn his mind wholly to the +accomplishment of another feat which would take all his nerve. + +That other thing had looked simple enough in contemplation, but the +actual doing of it presented complications. The simplicity of the plan +vanished with the sighting of those two scouting planes that persisted +in paralleling his course and herding him away from the line he fain +would cross. + +Tia Juana with its flat-roofed adobes lay ahead of him now, its lights +twinkling like fallen stars. Away off to the right he could see the +blurred lights of San Diego and the phosphorescent gleam of the bay and +ocean beyond. Beautiful beyond words was the broad view he got, but +its beauty could only vaguely impress him then, though he might later +recall it wistfully. + +He looked toward San Diego with longing; looked at the two planes that +hounded him, then gazed straight ahead at the ocean. Perhaps they +would not follow him beyond their station at North Island. They would +maybe circle and come back, watching for his return, or they might keep +to the shore line, flying north, and thinking to head him off when he +turned inland. At least, he reasoned, that is what he would do if he +were following an outlaw plane and saw it head out over the ocean, +straight for Honolulu. + +So over Tia Juana he flew and made for the sea like a gull that has +flown too far from its nesting place. He watched and saw the two +planes spiraling upward, climbing to a higher altitude where it would +be easy to dart down at him if he swung north. They suspected that +trick, evidently, and were preparing to swoop and follow. + +The beach, pale yellow in the moonlight, with a riffle of white at its +edge, slid beneath him. The ocean, heaving gently, rolled under, the +moon reflected from its depths. + +Cliff sat slumped down in his seat, his head tilted upon one shoulder. +He had not moved nor made a sound, and his limp silence began to worry +Johnny. What if he had struck too hard, had killed the man? A little +tremor went over him, a prickling of the scalp. Killing Cliff had no +part in his plans, would be too horrid a mischance. He wished now that +he had left him alone, had let him bluster and threaten. Perhaps Cliff +would not have had presence of mind enough to do what Johnny had feared +he would do when he saw capture was inevitable: drop overboard what +papers he carried that would incriminate him with the United States +Federal officers. With empty pockets Cliff would be as free of +suspicion as Johnny himself--a mere passenger in a plane that had flown +too far south. He would then be fairly safe in assuming that Johnny +would never dare to cross the line with him under the eye of those who +watched from the sky. It had been the fear of that ruse that had +brought Johnny to the point of violence to Cliff's person, but he was +sorry now that he had not risked taking that chance. + +Flying has its inconveniences, after all, for Johnny could not stop to +investigate the injury he had done to Cliff. He would have to go on, +now that he was started, but the thought that he might be flying with a +dead man chilled what enthusiasm he had felt for the adventure. + +On over the ocean he flew until he had passed the three-mile limit +which he hazily believed would bar the planes of the government unless +they had express orders to follow him out. Looking back, he saw that +his hunters seemed content to wheel watchfully along the shore line, +and presently he banked around and flew north. + +From the Mexican line to San Diego is not far--a matter of twenty miles +or so. Across the mouth of San Diego bay, on the inner shore of which +sits the town, North Island stretches itself like a huge alligator +lying with its back above water; a long, low, sandy expanse of +barrenness that leaves only a narrow inlet between its westernmost tip +and the long rocky finger of Point Loma. + +Time was when North Island was given over to the gulls and long-billed +pelicans, and San Diego valued it chiefly as a natural bulkhead that +made the bay a placid harbor where the great combing rollers could not +ride. But other birds came; great, roaring, man-made birds, that rose +whirring from its barrenness and startled the gulls until they grew +accustomed to the sight and sound of them. Low houses grew in orderly +rows. More of the giant birds came. Nowadays the people of San Diego, +looking out across the bay, will sometimes look again to make sure +whether the sailing object they see is an airplane or only a gull. In +time the gull will flap its wings; the airplane never does. All +through the day the air is filled with them--gulls and airplanes +sharing amicably the island and the air above it. + +Up from the south, with her nose pointed determinedly northward and her +rudder set steady as the tail of a frozen fish, the Thunder Bird came +humming defiantly, flying swift under the moon. Over San Diego bay, +watching through night-glasses the outlaw bird, the two scouting planes +dipped steeply toward their nesting place on North Island. Three +planes were up with students making practice flights and doing +acrobatics by moonlight. These saw one scout go down and land, saw the +other circle over the field and climb higher, bearing off toward the +mainland to see what the outlaw plane would do. + +The Thunder Bird swung on over the island, banked and came back over +Point Loma, heading straight for the heart of the flying station. She +was past the finlike reef where the pelicans foregather, when the +searchlight brushed its white light over that way, seeking her like a +groping finger; found her and transfixed her sternly with its pitiless +glare. + +There was no hiding from that piercing gaze, no possibility of +pretending that she was a government plane and flying lawfully there. +For straight across her middle, from wing-tip to wing-tip, still +blazoned THE THUNDER BIRD in letters as bold and black as Bland's brush +and a quart of carriage paint could make them. + +She volplaned, flattened out a thousand feet or so above the island, +circled as the searchlight, losing her when she dipped, sought her +again with wide sweeping gestures of its accusing white finger. + +Blinded by the glare, poor Johnny was banking to find a landing place +among that assemblage of tents, low-eaved barracks, hangars, shops--the +city built for the purpose of teaching men how to conquer the air. +Something spatted close beside him on the edge of the cockpit as he +wheeled and left a ragged hole in the leather. Johnny's brain +registered automatically the fact that he was being shot at. They +probably meant that as a hint that he was to clear out or come down, +one or the other. Well, if they'd take that darned searchlight out of +his eyes so he could see, he would come down fast enough. + +In desperation he slanted down steeply toward an open space, and the +open space immediately showed a full border of lights, revealing itself +a landing field such as he had read of and dreamed of but had never +before seen. It shot up at him swiftly; too swiftly. He came down +hard. There was a jolt, a bounce and another jolt that jarred the +Thunder Bird from nose to tail. + +After a dazed interval much briefer than it seemed, Johnny unstrapped +himself and climbed out unsteadily. He looked fearfully at Cliff, but +there was no sign of life there. Cliff's head had merely tilted from +the right shoulder to the left shoulder, and rested there. + +Uniformed young men came trotting up from all sides. Two carried +rifles, and their browned faces wore a look of grim eagerness, like men +looking forward to a fight. Johnny pushed up his goggles and stared +around at them. + +"Where's your captain or somebody that's in charge here? I want to see +the foreman of this outfit, and I want to see him quick," he demanded, +as the two armed young athletes hustled him between them. "Here, lay +off that grabbing stuff! Where do you get that? I ain't figuring on +any getaway. I'm merely bringing a man into camp that stacks up like a +spy or something like that. Better have a doctor come and take a look +at him; I had to land him on the bean with my six-gun, and he acts +kinda like he's hurt. He ain't moved since." + +"Well, will you listen to that!" One of the foremost of the unarmed +group grinned. "This here must be Skyrider Jewel, boys, no mistake +about that--he's running true to form. 'Nother elopement--only this +time he's went and eloped with a spy, he claims." + +"Here comes the leatherneck. You'll wish you hadn't of lit, Skyrider. +You'll be shot at sunrise for this, sure!" + +"You know it! It's a firing squad for yours, allrighty!" + +Johnny gave them a round-eyed, disgusted glare. "They can shoot and be +darned; but the boss has got to see Cliff Lowell and the papers he's +got on him, if I have to wade through the whole hunch of you! Do you +fellows think, for gosh sake, I just flew over here to give you guys a +treat? Why, good golly! You--" + +"Here, you come along with me and do your talking to the commandant," a +gruff voice spoke at his shoulder. + +"And let these gobblers fool around here and maybe lose the stuff this +man's got in his clothes! Oh-h, no! Bring him along, and I'll go. +I'd sure like a chance to talk to somebody that can show a few brains +on this job. That's what I came over here for. I didn't have to land, +recollect." + +The petty officer gave an order or two. The guards fell in beside +Johnny with a military preciseness that impressed him to silence. From +somewhere near two men trotted up with a field stretcher, and upon it +Cliff was laid, still unconscious. + +"You sure beaned him right," one of them observed, looking up at Johnny +with some admiration. + +"Yes, and I'd like to bean the whole bunch of you the same way. You +fellows ain't making any hit with me at all," Johnny retorted uncivilly +as he left under guard for headquarters. + +A few minutes later he was standing alone before a man whose clean-cut, +military bearing, to say nothing of the insignia of rank on his +uniform, awed Johnny to the point of calling him "sir" and of couching +his replies in his best, most grammatical English. The guards had been +curtly dismissed, for which he was grateful, and he had the +satisfaction of stating his case in private. Johnny did not want those +fellows out there to hear just how easily he had been fooled. They +seemed to know altogether too much about him as it was. + +The commandant listened attentively to what John Ivan Jewel had to say. +John Ivan Jewel had nearly finished his story when he thought of +another phase of the affair, and one that had begun to worry him +considerably. + +"I forgot to tell you about the money. I've got a good deal from them +since I started. They paid me on a sliding scale, beginning with +fifteen hundred dollars a week and ending with two thousand that Cliff +paid me this evening. I've got it all with me." + +Prom his secret pocket Johnny drew all his wealth, counted off four +hundred dollars and handed the rest to his inquisitor. + +"This four hundred dollars is my own, that I brought from Arizona," he +explained, flushing a little under the keen eyes of Captain Riley. +"This is honest money; the rest is what they paid me for flying back +and forth across the line." + +The commandant turned the big roll of bank notes over, looking at it +quizzically. + +"Who is really entitled to this money?" he asked Johnny crisply. + +"Well, I--I don't know, sir. It's what they paid me for flying." + +"And did you fly as agreed upon?" + +"Yes, sir; I made trips back and forth whenever Cliff wanted me to. +That is, up to the time I lit out for here, so you could see for +yourself what he's up to. He ordered me to go back to Schwab's place, +but I wouldn't. I--I knocked him on the head and came on. But until +then I flew as agreed upon." + +"Do you feel that you earned this money?" + +"Well--taking everything into consideration--yes, sir, I do. I think +now I worked for them much cheaper than any other aviator would have +done. + +"Yes. Well, you spoke of that four hundred being honest money, thus +differentiating it from this money. Don't you consider this is honest +money? What do you mean by honest?" + +Johnny flushed unhappily. "Well, it's kinda hard to explain, but I +guess I meant that I wasn't doing the right thing when I was earning +that money you've got. I meant it wasn't clean money, the way I look +at it now. Because it was crooks I was working for, and I don't know +how they got it. I worked honestly for it, for them, but the work +wasn't honest with the government. It's kinda hard--" + +"I think I'll just give you a receipt for this. How much is it?" + +"There ought to be about seventy-two hundred there, all told, sir." + +Captain Riley looked at him queerly and proceeded to count the +astounding wealth of John Ivan Jewel. Then he very matter-of-factly +wrote a receipt, which Johnny accepted with humility, not at all sure +of what the captain thought or intended. + +"Now, tell me this. Is this young man---the one you brought in--is he +the only one you know who has been concerned in this--er--business? + +"Yes, sir, on this side he is. Cliff spoke about his boss several +times, but he never told me who his boss was. An International News +Syndicate, he claimed. But I know now that was just a stall. I don't +think there was any such thing. There's a Mexican, Mateo, down where +we kept the plane--" + +"Mateo--yes, we have Mateo." Captain Riley sat drumming his fingers +gently on the table, studying Johnny with his chin dropped a little so +that he looked up under his eyebrows, which grew long, unruly hairs +here and there. + +Johnny's eyes rounded with surprise. He wanted to ask how they had +come to suspect Mateo when they had seemed so unsuspicious, but he let +it go. + +"There's another one, named Schwab, over in Mexico where we always +went," he divulged. "He's the one Cliff got those papers +from--whatever they were. And he's the one that expects to get some +money in the morning. I heard that much. I--I could get him, too," he +added tentatively. + +"Out of Mexico?" Captain Riley stirred slightly in the chair. + +"Yes, sir. I'm pretty sure I could. I was planning to nab him, if +you'd let me." + +"You mean you could bring him--as you brought this man Lowell?" + +Johnny's lips tightened. "If I had to--yes, sir. I'd knock him on the +head same as I did Cliff. Only I wouldn't hit quite so hard next time." + +Captain Riley bit his lip. "Better hit hard if you hit at all," he +advised. "That's a very good rule to remember. It applies to a great +many things." + +Then he straightened his shoulders a bit and called his orderly, who +again impressed Johnny with his military preciseness when he stood at +attention and saluted. Captain Riley's whole manner seemed to stiffen +to that military preciseness, though Johnny had thought him stiff +enough before. + +"Detain this man," he commanded crisply, "until further orders. If he +is hungry, feed him; and see that he has a decent place to sleep. The +petty officers' quarters will do." + +He watched the perturbed John Ivan Jewel depart under guard, and his +eyes were not half so stern as his tone had been. Then he reached for +his desk 'phone and called up the repair shop. + +"Run that Thunder Bird plane into the shop and repair it to-night," he +commanded. "You will probably need to shift motors, but preserve the +present appearance of the plane absolutely. It must be ready to fly at +sunrise." + +Then, being all alone where he could afford to be just a human being, +he grinned to himself, "So-ome boy," he chuckled. "Hope he doesn't +lose any sleep to-night. So-ome boy." + + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR + +THE THUNDER BIRD'S LAST FLIGHT FOR JOHNNY + +Over North Island the high, clear notes of the bugle sounding reveille +woke Johnny. Immediately afterward a guard appeared to take him in +charge, from which Johnny gathered that he was still being "detained." +He did not want to be detained, and he did not feel that they had any +right to detain him. He flopped over and pulled the blankets over his +ears. + +"Here, you get up. Captain wants you brought before him right after +chow, and that's coming along soon as you can get into your pants. You +better be steppin'." + +"Aw, what's he want to see me for?" Johnny growled. It would be much +pleasanter to go back to his dream of Mary V. + +"Why, to shoot you, stupid. Whadda yuh think?" + +"I'd hate to tell yuh right to your face, but at that I may force +myself to it if you hang around long enough," Johnny retorted, getting +into his clothes hurriedly, for the morning was chill and bleak. +"Where's that chuck you was talking about? Say, good golly, but you're +a sorry looking bird. I'm sure glad I ain't a soldier." + +"Whadda yuh mean, glad? It takes a man to do man-size work. That's +what I mean. Wait till about twelve of us stand before yuh waiting for +the word! Lucky for you this sand makes soft digging, or you wouldn't +have pep enough left to dig your own grave, see." + +"You seem to know. Is yours dug already? They musta had you at it +last night." + +The guard grinned and suspended hostilities until after Johnny had +eaten, when he led him out and across to where Johnny's inquisitor of +the night before awaited his coming. Captain Riley was not so +terrifying by daylight. For one thing, he betrayed the fact that he +wore large, light-tan freckles, and Johnny never did feel much awe of +freckles. Captain Riley also wore a smile, and he was smoking a cigar +when Johnny went in. + +"Good morning, Mr. Jewel. I hope you slept well." + +"I guess I did---I never stayed awake to see," Johnny told him quite +boldly for a youth who had blushed and said "sir" to this man last +night. + +"You landed pretty hard last night, I hear." + +"Why--yes, I guess I did. It looked to me around here last night as +though I had fallen down bad." + +"And what has made you so cheerful this morning?" Captain Riley +actually grinned at Johnny. He could afford to, since Johnny was not +in service and therefore need not be reminded constantly of the +difference between officer and man. + +"I dunno--unless maybe it's because the worst is done and can't be +helped, so there's no use worrying about it." + +"Well, I can't agree with you, young man. You may possibly do worse +to-day. Last night, for instance, you brought in a man who has been +very much wanted by the government. We did not know that he was the +man until you landed with him, but certain papers he carried furnished +what proof we needed. You spoke of another--a man named Schwab. Now I +am not going to ask you to bring him in. He is in Mexico, and the laws +of neutrality must be preserved. I shall have nothing whatever to do +with the matter. I wish he were on this side, though. There's quite a +good-sized reward offered for his arrest--in case he ever does get back +on our side of the line." + +"Mhm-hmh--I--see," said Johnny, in his best, round-eyed judicial manner. + +"Yes. He's a criminal of several sorts, among them the crime of +meddling with the government. He's over there now--where he can do the +most harm. + +"Y-ess--he's over there--_now_," Johnny agreed guardedly. + +"However, I can't send you over after him, I am sorry to say. It is +impossible. If ever he comes back, though--" + +"He'd be welcome," Johnny finished with a grin. + +"We'd never part with him again," the captain agreed cheerfully. +"Well, that Thunder Bird plane of yours had quite a jolt, from the +report. You cracked the crank-case for one thing, and broke the tail. +I had the plane run in and repaired last night, so it's all ready now +for you to go up. We really are much in your debt for bringing in this +man Lowell; though your manner of doing it was rather unusual, I must +admit. Are you--er--ready to fly?" + +"Fly where?" Johnny nerved himself to ask, though he knew well enough +where he intended to fly. + +"Fly away from North Island," smiled Captain Riley, who was not to be +caught. "Civilian planes are not permitted here." + +"If I come back would I be shot at?" + +"Oh, no--I think not, so long as you come peacefully." + +"I'll come peacefully all right; what I'm wondering now is, will the +other fellow?" Johnny looked toward the door suggestively. + +Captain Riley laughed and rose to his feet. "Young man, you seem to +know a sure way of making men peaceful! They tell me that Cliff Lowell +came to himself about two o'clock this morning. For awhile they +thought you had finished him." + +"Well, it's time all good flyers were in the air; I'll go with you and +see you start. I'm rather curious over that Thunder Bird of yours. I +want a look at her." + +In his youth and innocence--John Ivan Jewel wondered why it was that +the soldiers looked astonished even while they saluted their commanding +officer. He did not know that he was being especially honored by +Captain Riley, which is perhaps a good thing. It saved him a good deal +of embarrassment and left him so much at ease that he could talk to the +captain almost as freely as if he had not worn a uniform. + +"Good-by--and good luck," said Captain Riley, and shook hands with +Johnny. "I'll be glad to see you again--and, by the way, I'm just +keeping that money until you call for it." + +Johnny climbed in and settled himself, then leaned over the edge where +the bullet had nicked so that his words would not carry to the man +waiting to crank the motor. + +"I'll call for that money in about two hours," he said. "I ain't +saying good-by, Captain. I'll see yuh later." + +Captain Riley stood smiling to himself while he watched the Thunder +Bird take the air. That it took the air smoothly, spiraling upward as +gracefully as any of his young flyers could do, did not escape him. +Nor did the steadiness with which it finally swung away to the +southeast. + +"That boy's a born flyer," he observed to his favorite first +lieutenant, who just happened to be standing near. "They say he never +has had any training under an instructor. He just _flew_. He'll make +good--a kid like that is bound to." + +Up in the Thunder Bird Johnny was thinking quite different thoughts. +"He thinks I won't be able to deliver the goods. He was nice and +friendly, all right--good golly, he'd oughta be! He admitted right out +plain that they wanted Cliff bad. But he's hanging on to my money so +he'll have some hold over me if I don't bring in Schwab for him. And +if I don't, and go back for my money, he'll--well, firing squad won't +be any kidding, is what I mean. + +"O-h-h, no! Captain Riley can't fool me! Wouldn't tell me to get +Schwab over here--didn't dare tell me. But he makes it worth a whole +lot to me to get him, just the same. He knows darn well if I don't +I'll never dare to go back, and he'll be over seven thousand dollars +better off." Johnny, you will observe, had quite forgotten that +receipt in his pocket, which Captain Riley might find it hard to +explain if he attempted to withhold the money. + +His doubt of the Captain increased when, looking back, he spied two +swift scouting planes scudding along a mile or two behind him. That +they might be considered a guard of honor rather than spies sent out to +see that he did not play false never occurred to him. + +"Aw, you think maybe I won't do it!" he snorted angrily, his young +vanity hurt. "All right, tag along and be darned. I'll have Schwab +and be flying back again before you can bank around to fly hack and +tattle where I went. That's what I mean. I ain't going to be done +outa no seven thousand dollars; I'll tell the world I ain't." + +Getting Schwab was absurdly simple, just as Johnny had felt sure it +would be. He flew to where he would be expected to cross the line had +he come from Los Angeles. Schwab would be impatient, anxious to get in +his fingers the money Cliff was supposed to bring. He did not wait at +the house, but came out to meet the Thunder Bird. Johnny had been sure +that he would do that very thing. + +To keep the nose of the Thunder Bird toward Schwab so that he could not +see that only one man returned with her was simple. Until he was close +Schwab did not suspect that Cliff was not along. Even then he was not +suspicious, but came hurrying up to know why Johnny came alone. Schwab +wanted that money--they always do. + +"Where's my man?" he demanded of Johnny, who had brought the landing +gear against an old fence post used to block the wheels, and shut the +motor off as much as he could and keep it running. + +"Your man is sick." Which was true enough; Cliff was a very sick man +that morning. "You'll have to come to him. Get in--it won't take +long." + +Schwab hung back a little, not from fear of Johnny but because he had +no stomach for flying. "Well, but didn't he send--" + +"He didn't send a darned thing but me. He wouldn't trust me to bring +anything else. Get in. I'm in a hurry." + +"What's the matter with him? He was all right last night." Still +Schwab hung back. "I'll wait until he can come. I--I can't leave." + +Then he found himself looking up into the barrel of Johnny's +six-shooter. "I was told to bring you back with me. Get in, I said." + +"This is some trick! I--" + +"You get--_in_!" + +So Schwab climbed in awkwardly, his face mottled and flabby with fear +of the Thunder Bird. + +"Fasten that strap around you--be sure it's fast. And put on this cap +and goggles if you like. And sit still." Then he called to the +languid Mexican who was idly watching him from afar. "Hey! Come and +pull the block away from the wheels." + +The Mexican came trotting, the silver of the night before clinking in +his overalls pocket. Grinning hopefully, he picked up the post and +carried it to one side. But Johnny was not thinking then of tips. He +let in the motor until the Thunder Bird went teetering around in a wide +half circle and scudded down the level stretch, taking the air easily. + +"This is an outrage!" Schwab shouted. + +"Where are you taking me?" + +"Oh, up in the air a ways," Johnny told him, but the roar of the motor +so filled Schwab's unaccustomed ears that he could hear nothing else. +And presently his mind became engrossed with something more immediately +vital than was his destination. + +They were getting too high up, he shouted. Johnny must come down at +once--or if he would not do that, at least he must fly lower. Did +Johnny mean to commit suicide? + +For answer Johnny grinned and went higher, and the face of Schwab +became not mottled but a sickly white. He sat gripping the edges of +the cockpit and gazing fearfully downward, save when he turned to +implore, threaten, and command. He would report Johnny to his +employers. He could make him sorry for this. He would make it worth +his while to land. He would do great things for Johnny--he would make +him rich. + +From five thousand feet Johnny volplaned steeply to four thousand, and +Schwab's sentences became disconnected phrases that ended mostly in +exclamation points. So pleased was Johnny with the effect that he flew +in scallops from there on--not unmindful of the two scouting planes +that picked him up when he recrossed the line and dogged him from there +on. + +"I suppose," snorted Johnny to the Thunder Bird, "they think they're +about the only real flyers in the air this morning. What? Can't you +show 'em an Arizona sample of flying? What you loafing for? Think +you're heading a funeral? Well, now, this is just about the proudest +moment you've spent for quite some time. This man Schwab---he craves +excitement. Can't you hear him holler for thrills? And don't you +reckon that Captain Riley will be cocking an eye up at the sky about +now, looking to see you come back. Come, come--shake a wing, here, and +show 'em what you're good for!" + +Whether the Thunder Bird heard and actually did shake a wing does not +matter. Johnny remembered that he had yet some miles to fly, and +proceeded to put those miles behind him in as straight a line as +possible. Schwab's voice came back to him in snatches, though the +words were mostly foreign to Johnny's ears. Schwab seemed to be +indulging in expletives of some sort. + +"Don't worry, sauerkraut, we'll show you a good time soon as we get +along a few miles. There's some birds behind us I'm leading home +first." + +"My God, don't go straight down again! It makes me sick," wailed +Schwab. + +"Does? Oh, glory! That ain't nothing when you get used to it, man. +Be a regular guy and like it. I'll _make_ you like it, by golly. Come +on, now--here's San Diego--let's give 'em a treat, sauerkraut. You +never knew you'd turn out to be a stunt flyer, hey? Well, now, how's +this?" + +"Whee-ee! See the town right down there? Head for it and keep +a-goin', old girl! _Whee-ee_! Now, here it goes, sliding right up +over our heads! Loop 'er, Thunder Bird, loop 'er! You're the little +old plane from Arizona that's rode the thunder and made it growl it had +enough! In Mexico I got yuh, and to Mexico you went and got me a +regular jailbird that Uncle Sammy wants. You're takin' him to +camp--whoo-ee! Give your tail a flop and over yuh go like a doggone +tumbleweed in the wind! + +"Come on, you little ole cop planes that thinks you're campin' on my +trail! You'll have to ride and whip 'em, now I'm tellin' yuh, if you +want to keep in sight of our dust! Sunfish for 'em, you doggone +Thunder Bird! You're the flyin' bronk from Arizona, and it's your day +to fly!" + +With the first loop Schwab went sick, and after that he had no wish +except to die. Whether the Thunder Bird rode head down or tail down he +neither knew nor cared. Nor did Johnny. As he yelled he looped and he +dived, he did tail spins and every other spin that occurred to him. +For the time being he was "riding straight up and fanning her ears," +and his aerial bronk was pulling off stunts he would never have +attempted in cold blood. + +He thought it a shame to have to stop, but North Island was there +beneath him, a flock of planes were keeping out of his way and +forgetting their own acrobatics while they watched him, and Johnny, +with an eye on his gas gauge and his mind recurring to his parting +words with Captain Riley, straightened out reluctantly and got his +bearings. There was room enough for one more nose dive, and he took it +exuberantly, trying to see how many turns he could make before he must +quit or smash into a building or something. + +There was the field, just ahead of him. He flattened, banked, and came +down circumspectly enough, considering how his head was whirling when +he finally came to a stand. He crawled out, looking first at Schwab to +see what he was doing. + +What Schwab was doing has no bearing whatever on this story. Schwab +was not feeling well, wherefore he was not showing any interest +whatever in his surroundings and probable future. John Ivan Jewel +laughed unfeelingly while he beckoned a guard who was coming up at a +trot and needed no beckoning. + +"Here's another man for your boss to take charge of," Johnny announced. +"And lead me to him right now. I've got a date with him." + +This guard was a new guard and looked dubious. But presently the +captain's orderly appeared and took charge of the situation, so Johnny +straight-way found himself standing before Captain Riley "Well, I'm +back," he announced cheerfully. "And I've got Schwab out there." + +Captain Riley dismissed the orderly before he unbent enough to reply. +But then he shook hands with John Ivan Jewel just as though he had not +seen him a couple of hours before. He was a very pleased Captain +Riley, as he showed by the broad grin he wore on his freckled Irish +face. + +"Schwab," he said, "will be taken care of. He's a deserter from the +army, you know. Held a captaincy and disgraced the uniform in various +ways, the crowning infamy being the sale of some important information, +a year or so ago when things were at the touchiest point with Mexico. +We nearly had him, but he deserted and got across the line, and since +then he has been raising all kinds of cain in government affairs. Of +course, his capture is a little out of my line, but I don't mind +telling you that it's a big thing for me to have both these men turned +over to me. I can't go into details, of course--you would not be +especially interested in them if I could. But it's a big thing, and I +want you to know--" + +The telephone interrupted him, and he turned to answer it. + +"Yes, yes, this is Captain Riley speaking. Yes, who is this, please? +Who? Oh, yes! Yes, indeed, no trouble at all, I assure you. Yes, I +will give the message--yes, certainly. I shall send him right over. +At your command, believe me. Not at all--I am delighted, yes; just one +moment. Would you like to talk with him yourself? Just hold the line, +please." + +One should not accuse a man like Captain Riley of smirking, but his +smile might have been mistaken for a smirk when he turned from the +telephone. He straightened it out at once, however, so that he spoke +with a mere twinkle to Johnny. + +"Some one in San Diego," he said, "would like to speak with you. I +judge it's important." + + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE + +OVER THE TELEPHONE + +"Hello?" cried Johnny, wondering vaguely who could be calling him from +San Diego. "Oh--who? Mary V! Why, good golly, where did you come +from? . . . Oh, you did? . . . Say, that was some bronk-riding I did +up there among the clouds--what? . . . Oh, yes, I just happened to feel +that way." + +In the U.S. Grant hotel Mary V was talking excitedly into the 'phone. +"I don't know why I happened to drive down here, but I did, and I just +got here in time to see you come flying over and then you did all those +flip-flops--Johnny Jewel, do you mean to tell me _that's_ the way you +have been acting all the time?" + +"Oh, no--I happened to have a fellow along that I wanted to give him a +treat!" + +"A _treat_! Do you call that a treat, for gracious sake? What are you +doing over there? I want you to come over here just as quick as ever +you can, Johnny. Bland is here; I brought him down with me because +he's a very good mechanic and besides, he was very much worried and +trying to find you, so I thought he could help, and he did. He saw the +Thunder Bird come sailing overhead before I noticed it, for I was +driving, and a street car was hogging the crossing and trying to head +me off, so I didn't happen to look up just then. And when I did--why, +Johnny, I thought sure you were coming right down on top of us! Did +you do that deliberately just to scare me, you bad boy? Now you come +right over here just as quick as ever you can! I am sure I have been +kept waiting long enough--" + +"You have," Johnny agreed promptly. "I'm coming, Mary V, and when I +get there you're going to marry me or I'll turn the town bottom side +up. You get that, do you? Your dad ain't going to head us off this +time, I've made good, and doggone him, I can pay that note and have +enough left over to buy me an airplane, or you an automobile or both, +by golly! And tell Bland I'll make it all right with him, too. I +kinda left him in the lurch for awhile, but I couldn't help that. I've +been thinking, Mary V, what I'll do. I'm going to give Bland the +Thunder Bird. Doggone it, he's done a whole lot for me, and I guess +he's got it coming. There's planes here that can fly circles around +the old Thunder Bird, and I'm going to have one or break a leg. I'll +. . . What's that? . . . Oh, all right, I'll come on and do my talking +later. Being a government line, I guess maybe I'd better not hold this +telephone all day. Sure, I'm crazy to see you! All right, all right, +I'm coming right now!" + +"With apologies for overhearing a private conversation," said Captain +Riley, "speaking of getting a new plane, why don't you enlist as an +aviator? I can use you very nicely and would like to have you here. +How would a second lieutenancy strike you, Jewel? I can arrange it for +you very easily--and let me tell you something: Before many months roll +by it will be a matter of patriotism to serve your country. We shall +be at war before long, unless I miss my guess. Better come in now. +You--your being married will not interfere, I should think--seeing you +intend to continue flying, anyway. I wonder, by the way, why I am not +invited to be present at that wedding?" + +"Well, good golly! You're invited right now, if you mean you'll go. +Mary V will be one proud little girl, all right. And say, Captain, of +course I'll have to talk it over with Mary V first, but that offer you +just made me sure listens good. I tried to enlist--that's what I +wanted all along--but I was turned down. But if you'll say a word for +me--" + +"Your Mary V is wanting," Captain Riley grinned. "And if I may judge +from the brief conversation I had with her over the 'phone just now, we +had better be on our way!" + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE THUNDER BIRD*** + + +******* This file should be named 14486.txt or 14486.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/4/8/14486 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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