d levels. The drone of the
motor was a triumphal song. The flattening wind against his cheeks was
sweeter than kisses. Supreme confidence in himself and in the machine
stimulated him, made him ready to dare anything, do anything. Once more
he was a god, skimming godlike through space, gazing down on the little
world and the little, crawling things of the world with pity.

Ahead of him, Mary V never moved. Her little fingers never loosened their
grip of the padded leather. Wisps of her brown hair, caught in the
terrific air-pressure, stood back from her head like small pennants.

Black Ridge they passed, and it looked squatty and insignificant. Johnny
swerved a little to the westward, to avoid a series of washes and deep
gullies and small ridges between that might affect the smooth flight of
the plane. On and on and on, boring steadily through the air that rushed
to meet them--or so it seemed.

Far ahead, lumped on a brushless level which Johnny knew of old, a
little, milling cluster of antlike creatures attracted Johnny's eye.

He watched it a minute, knew it for a horse round-up, and chuckled to
himself. The Rolling R boys--and revenge for the sneers and the fleers
they had given him when he had only dared to _dream_ of flying. He wanted
to tell Mary V, but then he thought that Mary V's eyes were as sharp as
his. Yes, her fingers reluctantly loosened their hold and she tried to
point--and had her hand swept backward by the wind. She tried again, and
Johnny nodded, though Mary V could not see him without turning her head,
which she seemed to think she must not do.

The Rolling R boys--Tex and Bill Hayden and Curley and Aleck and one or
two more whom this story has not met--were driving a small herd of horses
from which they meant to cut out a few chosen ones for breaking. Away up
toward where the sun would be at two o'clock, a little droning dragonfly
thing coming swiftly, and a little imp of mischief whispering into the
willing ear of one who felt that he had suffered much and patiently. Mary
V, hanging on tight, with her lips pressed together and her eyes big and
bright behind her goggles, watched how swiftly the antlike creatures grew
larger and took the form of horses and men.

Johnny dared a volplane, slanting steeply down at the herd. He wanted to
get close enough so that they could see who he was, and he wanted to fill
his lungs and then shout down to them something that would make them
squirm. He meant to f