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 stre