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 you