?
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