his
sense of certainty propelled him whooping to where Mary V stood, her
camera once more slanted uselessly in her two hands, her lips set in a
line that usually meant trouble for somebody.

"How's that--hunh? Say, there's nothing like it! Did you get a picture of
that landing I made? Say--"

"It seems to me that you are doing all the saying, yourself," Mary
V interrupted him unenthusiastically. "It may be all very nice for
you, Johnny Jewel, to go sailing around in an aeroplane. I suppose
it _is_ very nice for you. I grant that without argument. But as for
me--" Sympathy for herself pushed her lips into a trembling, forced a
quiver into her voice.

"As for _me_, you went and stampeded Jake so he broke loose and went off
like a--a bullet! And Bill Hayden will just about _murder_ me for taking
him; I was going to sneak him back while the boys were out after more
horses, and sneak out again with Tango so Bill wouldn't know. And now
_look_ what a mess you've got me into! Of course _you_ don't care--you
and your darned old flying machine! I wish it had busted itself all to
pieces! And you too! And Sandy's stampeded after Jake, and I'm just glad
of it!" She gulped, forced back further angry-little-girl storming, and
recovered her young-lady sarcasm.

"But please don't let me interrupt your very fascinating new pastime. Of
course, since you are a young man of leisure, playing with your new toy
must seem far more important than the fact that I have about twenty miles
to walk--through the sand and the heat, and not even a canteen of water
to save me from parching with thirst. I--I must ask you to pardon me
for--for thrusting my merely personal affairs upon your notice. Well,
what are you grinning about? Do you think it's _funny_?"

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

A RIDER OF THE SKY

"I could take her home, old top--if I had the gas." Bland turned his pale
stare significantly from Mary V to Johnny. "Come through, bo. You know
you've got more gas hid out on me somewhere. I got a slant at the bill of
it, so I _know_. It wouldn't be polite to let the young lady walk home."

Johnny stilled him to silence with a round-eyed stare.

"Thank you, I'd much prefer to walk--if it was forty miles instead of
twenty!" Mary V chilled him further. "What are we going to do, Johnny? I
don't know _what_ will happen if Bill Hayden finds out that I borrowed
Jake. And then letting him get away, like that--"

"Sandy's at the pasture fence, I'd b