_ take Miss Selmer home for you. You ain't got your pilot's license
yet--by a long ways. I never heard of a flyer getting his license on a
thirty or forty minute course. It ain't done, bo--take it from me." He
spat into the sand with an air of patient tolerance.

"Are you all ready, Johnny?" Mary V's voice was rather alarmingly sweet.
"I'm not going to _touch_ this ducky little wheel. I'm afraid I might
think it was my car and do something queer. I shall let you drive--if you
_call_ it driving. Now if Mr. Halliday will crank up for us, we'll go."

"Mr. Halliday will let you set there till you get enough," Bland grinned
sourly. "I'm thinking of your safety, sister. I'm thinkin' more of you
than that piece of cheese in the pilot's seat."

"Mr. Halliday, won't you _please_ start the motor?" There was a
remarkable stress upon the "please," considering the gun in Mary V's
steady little right hand. She peered down owl-eyed at Bland through
the big goggles. "This is Arizona--where guns are not loaded with blanks,
Mr. Halliday. I'll prove it if you like. I'd just _love_ to shoot you!"

Bland Halliday drew his feet together as though he intended to run. Mary
V, still peering down through the goggles, shot a spurt of sand over the
toe of one scuffed shoe. Bland stepped aside hastily.

"I can't see well enough to be sure of missing you next time," Mary V
assured him. "Generally I can shoot awfully close and miss, but--I'd
_like_ to shoot you, really. You'd better crank the motor."

Bland saw the hammer lift again, ominously deliberate. He sidled
hurriedly down to the propeller. His pale stare never left the gun, which
kept him inexorably before its muzzle.

Johnny's eyes looked as big as his goggles, but he did not say a word.
And presently, after three rather hysterical attempts, Bland set the
propeller whirring, and ran out to one side, his hands up as though he
feared for his life if he lowered them. The motor's hum increased to the
steady roar which Johnny's ear recognized as the sound Bland got from it
when he started. And with an erratic wabbling the plane moved forward
jerkily, steadied a bit as Johnny set his teeth and all his stubbornness
to the work, and gradually--very gradually--lifted and went whirring
away through the sunlight.

They say that Providence protects children and fools. Johnny Jewel, I
think, could justly claim protection on both grounds. He was certainly
attempting a foolhardy feat, and he was doi