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