blic 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