n he had lain unconscious for so many days there in the
bedroom behind her; when a trained nurse had stood guard and would not
let Mary V so much as look at Johnny, and the doctor had spoken glibly
of hope, when his eyes told her how little hope there was, she had
suffered terribly. She had thought that she had touched the depths of
worry over Johnny--and she had not begun to know the meaning of the
word.

She lay a small, huddled heap of heartache, shrinking from her own
thoughts, shrinking from the sight of every one, dazed with terror of
what she might hear if any one spoke. Into this nightmare jingled the
telephone bell. Mary V gave a faint scream and put her hands over her
ears.

"There, there, baby--I'll answer it," her mother's voice came
soothingly, and Mary V shrank farther down in the hammock cushions.

"Oh--why--land alive! Just a minute--hold the line," she heard her
mother say in a strange, flustered voice. Then she called, "Mary V--I
guess you better come and--"

"Oh, I--_can't_, mommie! I'll go crazy if I have to hear--"

"There, there, baby, it's something you want to hear!"

Mary V's knees shook under her as she went to the telephone. Her voice
was pinched and feeble when she tried to call the stereotyped hello.

"Oh, hello, Mary V. That you? I just got in, and I thought I'd better
call up. I hear they're out looking for me--"

Mary V's eyes turned glassy. She made a faint sound and drooped
forward until her forehead rested on the table. The receiver slid
soundlessly into her lap and lay there while Johnny Jewel rattled on
hurriedly.

"--And so after that happened, we were held up till dark getting the
landing gear straightened out. And of course we couldn't fly very well
after dark. And then next morning, after Bland had cleaned out the
carburetor--say, it was straight mud in there and the screen was packed
solid, so of course she didn't get gas half the time, and that's what
ailed her--and when we did start, or was going to start, we found out
there wasn't enough gas in the tank to take us home. So I had to catch
an Injun and make him take a note to the nearest station for gas, and
wait till he got back with some. I'd have sent word on to you, but I
was in such a darned hurry I forgot--and the Injuns were all scared
stiff, and it was only by making them understand I wanted water for the
Bird, and nothing else would do."

"Mary V's fainted," mommie interrupted him then. "I