by B. M. Bower
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
A RIDER OF THE SKY
"I could take her home, old top--if I had the gas." Bland turned his palestare significantly from Mary V to Johnny. "Come through, bo. You knowyou've got more gas hid out on me somewhere. I got a slant at the bill ofit, 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 oftwenty!" Mary V chilled him further. "What are we going to do, Johnny? Idon't know _what_ will happen if Bill Hayden finds out that I borrowedJake. And then letting him get away, like that--"
"Sandy's at the pasture fence, I'd be willing to bet; but at that it'sgoing to be the devil's own job to catch him, me afoot. And he wouldn'tlet you on him if I did. I guess it's a case of ride the sky or walk,Mary V."
"Then we better be stepping, bo, before the wind comes up, as I'venoticed it's liable to, late in the forenoon. You dig up the gas, andI'll take her home."
"Thank you, I do not wish to trouble you, Mr. Halliday. Johnny can takeme, if anybody--"
"Who--him?" Bland Halliday's smile was twisted far to the left. "Say,where do you get that idea--him flyin' after one lesson? Gee, you mustthink flyin' is like driving a Ford!"
"You could go to the shack and 'phone home for some one to come afteryou," Johnny suggested uncertainly.
"And let them know where I am? You must be absolutely crazy, if youthink I'd consider such a thing. I'm supposed to be getting 'DesertGlimpses'--"
"Well, you sure got your glimpse," tittered Bland.
Mary V turned her back on him, took Johnny by the arm, and walked himaway for private conference.
"You better let him take you home, Mary V. He's all right--for flying.I've got to hand it to him there."
"And give him a chance to steal your aeroplane? He'd never bring it back.I know he wouldn't."
"He'd have to. I'd only give him gas enough to make the trip on, and--"
"And if he had enough to come back with, he'd have enough to get to therailroad with. Don't be stupid. You can take me; couldn't you, now,honest?"
"Well,--I feel as if I could, all right. But a fellow's supposed topractice a lot with an instructor before he gets gay and goes to flyingalone. Bland says--"
"Oh, plague take Bland! What would you have done if you hadn't run acrosshim at all? Would you have tried to fly?"
"You know it!" Johnny laughed. "I've sat in that seat and worked thecontrols every day since I got it. I know 'em by heart. I've studied thetheory of flying till I'll bet I could stick Bland himself on some of theprinciples. And I've been flying in my sleep for months and months. Sure,I'd have tackled it. But I wouldn't have had you along when I startedin."
"You know how the thing works, then. Well, come on back and work it!Unless you're scared."
"Me scared? Of an airplane? It's you I'm thinking about. I'd go alone,quick enough. Maybe we could both crowd into the front seat, and letBland pilot the machine. Then--"
"I abso-_lutely_ will not--fly with--Bland Halliday! If you won't take mehome, I'll walk!" Mary V pinched in her lips, which meant stubbornness.
Johnny heaved a sigh. "Oh, shoot! I'm game to tackle it if you are. Faras I'm personally concerned, _I know I can fly_." His lips, too, setthemselves in the line of stubbornness. And he added with perfectseriousness, "It ain't half as hard as topping a bronk."
He glanced back, saw that Bland had gone into the cleft, and hurried onto where he had buried the gasoline in the sand behind a jagged splinterof rock in a shallow niche.
"Well, the Jane changed her mind, did she?" Bland commented when Johnnyarrived at the plane with the gas. "Thought she would. Walking twentymiles ain't no sunshine, if you ask me. Better have the tank full-up, bo.It's always safer."
A suppressed jubilance such as had seized and held him when he firstbeheld the disabled airplane in the desert valley, filled Johnny now. Ashe climbed up and filled the tank his lips were pursed into a soundlesswhistle, his eyes were wide and shining, his whole tanned face glowed.Bland Halliday regarded him curiously, his opaque blue eyes shiftinginquiringly to Mary V, halted at a sufficient distance to take a picture.They were very young, these two--wholly inexperienced in the byways oflife, confident, with the supreme assurance of ignorance. It had been aqueer idea, hiding the gasoline; and threatened to be awkward, sinceBland was practically helpless out here in the sand and rocks. But thingsalways turned out the right way, give them time enough. The kid wasfilling the tank--at present Bland asked no more of the gods than that.His sour lips drew up at the corners, as they had done when Johnny hadmade him the proposition in Agua Dulce. Mary V closed her camera and cametoward them, walking springily through the sand, looking more than everlike a slim boy in her riding breeches and boots.
"All right. You lend Miss Selmer your goggles and cap, Bland. You won'tneed 'em yourself till I get back."
"Till you--what?"
"Till I get back. I aim to take Miss Selmer home." Johnny's lips werestill puckered; his face still held the glow of elation. But his eyeslooked down sidelong, searching Bland's face for his inmost thought.
Bland was staring, loose-lipped, incredulous. "Aw, say! D'yuh think I'llswallow that?" There was a threatening note beneath the whine of hisvoice.
"If you don't choke. Come on, Mary V; 'hop in, and we'll take a spin,'and all the rest of it. Venus'll have nothing on you. Here's my goggles;put 'em on. I'm going to borrow Bland's." It had occurred to Johnny thatMary V would probably shrink from wearing anything belonging to BlandHalliday; girls were queer that way.
Bland stepped pugnaciously forward; his pale eyes were unpleasantlyfilmed with anger. "Aw, I see your game, bo; but you can't get away withit. Not for a minute, you can't. You think I'm such a mark as that? Comedown here and work like a dog to get the plane ready to fly, and thenkiss yuh good-bye and watch yuh go off with it--and leave me here to rotwith the snakes and lizards? Oh, no! I'll take the young lady--"
"Give me a hand up, Johnny. The front seat? How perfectly _ducky_ to ridehome in an aeroplane! Oh, Johnny wants your goggles, Mr. Halliday." MaryV reached down quickly and lifted them off the irate aviator's headbefore he knew what she was after. "Here they are, Johnny. Sit down, andMr. Halliday will crank up--or whatever you call it. I'll send him rightback, Mr. Halliday, just as quick as ever he can make the trip!"
Mr. Halliday gave her a venomous glance, and a sneer which included themboth.
"Ain't it a shame she ain't equipped with a self-starter?" he fleered."You two look cute, settin' there; but I don't seem to see yuh making anyquick getaway, at that." He spread his legs and stood arrogantly, armsfolded, the sneer looking perfectly at home on his face.
"Don't be a darned boob!" Johnny snapped impatiently. "Turn 'er over.Miss Selmer wants me to pilot her home, and I'm going to tackle it. Youneedn't be scared, though; I'll come back."
"I don't think so," said Bland, teetering a little as he stood.
"I will, unless I bust something. And it's my machine, so I'm sure goingto be right careful that nothing busts." What Johnny wanted to do was getout and lick Bland Halliday till he howled, but since the gratificationof that desire was neither politic nor convenient, he promised himself asettlement later on, when Mary V was not present. Just now he must humorBland along.
"I don't think you'll come back," Bland repeated, "because I don't thinkyou'll start. There's a little detail to be looked after first--a littleswingin' on the propeller to be done. I don't see anybody doin' it. AndI never did hear of anybody flying without their motor running." Hetittered malevolently.
"Cut out the comedy, bo, and let me in there. You start 'er for me, and_I'll_ take Miss Selmer home for you. You ain't got your pilot's licenseyet--by a long ways. I never heard of a flyer getting his license on athirty or forty minute course. It ain't done, bo--take it from me." Hespat into the sand with an air of patient tolerance.
"Are you all ready, Johnny?" Mary V's vo
ice was rather alarmingly sweet."I'm not going to _touch_ this ducky little wheel. I'm afraid I mightthink 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 grinnedsourly. "I'm thinking of your safety, sister. I'm thinkin' more of youthan that piece of cheese in the pilot's seat."
"Mr. Halliday, won't you _please_ start the motor?" There was aremarkable stress upon the "please," considering the gun in Mary V'ssteady little right hand. She peered down owl-eyed at Bland throughthe 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. MaryV, still peering down through the goggles, shot a spurt of sand over thetoe of one scuffed shoe. Bland stepped aside hastily.
"I can't see well enough to be sure of missing you next time," Mary Vassured 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 sidledhurriedly down to the propeller. His pale stare never left the gun, whichkept 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 thepropeller whirring, and ran out to one side, his hands up as though hefeared for his life if he lowered them. The motor's hum increased to thesteady roar which Johnny's ear recognized as the sound Bland got from itwhen he started. And with an erratic wabbling the plane moved forwardjerkily, steadied a bit as Johnny set his teeth and all his stubbornnessto the work, and gradually--very gradually--lifted and went whirringaway through the sunlight.
They say that Providence protects children and fools. Johnny Jewel, Ithink, could justly claim protection on both grounds. He was certainlyattempting a foolhardy feat, and he was doing it with a childlikeconfidence in himself. As for Mary V--oh, well, Mary V was very young anda woman, and therefore not to be held accountable for her rash faith thatthe man would take care of her. Mary V had centuries of dependentwomanhood behind her, and must be excused.
Johnny wished that he had warned her about the peculiar tendency of theair currents to follow the contour of the ground. He climbed as high asBland had climbed at first, hoping to escape the abruptness of the wavessuch as he had studied patiently from charts, and which he had felt whenthey flew over arroyos and rough ground. He did not want Mary V to bealarmed, but the noise of the motor made speech impossible, so he let theexplanation go for the present. Mary V was sitting exactly in the center,grasping rather tightly the edges of the pit as a timid person holds fastto the sides of a canoe. Sitting so, she did not look in the least like ayoung woman who has just compelled a man at the point of a revolver to doher bidding. More like a child who is having its first boat ride, and whois holding its breath, mentally balanced between howls of fear andshrieks of glee. But Johnny did not believe she was scared.
Johnny was keyed up to the point of working miracles, of accomplishingthe impossible. Johnny was happy, a little awed at his own temerity,wholly absorbed in his determination to handle that airplane just as wellas Bland or any other living man could handle it. He kept remindinghimself that it was simple enough, if you only had the nerve to go aheadand _do_ it; if you just forgot that there was such a thing as falling;and, of course, if you knew what it was you ought to do, and how youought to do it. Johnny knew--theoretically. And it did not seem possibleto him that he could fall. He was master of a machine that was master ofthe air. He was riding the sky--and Mary V was there, riding with him,absolutely confident that he would not let her be hurt.
He did not attempt any "fancy stunts," such as Bland had done. He merelyclimbed to where he dared circle, then circled deliberately, carefully.When he came about so that the sun was warming his right shoulder, heflew straight for the Rolling R ranch, like a homing pigeon at sunset.
It was exhilarating--it was wonderful! Johnny, knowing the country sowell, avoided passing over the roughest places, keeping well out from thehills, and into the smoother flow over the broad levels. The drone of themotor was a triumphal song. The flattening wind against his cheeks wassweeter than kisses. Supreme confidence in himself and in the machinestimulated him, made him ready to dare anything, do anything. Once morehe was a god, skimming godlike through space, gazing down on the littleworld and the little, crawling things of the world with pity.
Ahead of him, Mary V never moved. Her little fingers never loosened theirgrip of the padded leather. Wisps of her brown hair, caught in theterrific air-pressure, stood back from her head like small pennants.
Black Ridge they passed, and it looked squatty and insignificant. Johnnyswerved a little to the westward, to avoid a series of washes and deepgullies and small ridges between that might affect the smooth flight ofthe plane. On and on and on, boring steadily through the air that rushedto meet them--or so it seemed.
Far ahead, lumped on a brushless level which Johnny knew of old, alittle, milling cluster of antlike creatures attracted Johnny's eye.
He watched it a minute, knew it for a horse round-up, and chuckled tohimself. The Rolling R boys--and revenge for the sneers and the fleersthey had given him when he had only dared to _dream_ of flying. He wantedto tell Mary V, but then he thought that Mary V's eyes were as sharp ashis. Yes, her fingers reluctantly loosened their hold and she tried topoint--and had her hand swept backward by the wind. She tried again, andJohnny 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 ortwo more whom this story has not met--were driving a small herd of horsesfrom which they meant to cut out a few chosen ones for breaking. Away uptoward where the sun would be at two o'clock, a little droning dragonflything coming swiftly, and a little imp of mischief whispering into thewilling ear of one who felt that he had suffered much and patiently. MaryV, hanging on tight, with her lips pressed together and her eyes big andbright behind her goggles, watched how swiftly the antlike creatures grewlarger and took the form of horses and men.
Johnny dared a volplane, slanting steeply down at the herd. He wanted toget close enough so that they could see who he was, and he wanted to fillhis lungs and then shout down to them something that would make themsquirm. He meant to flatten out a hundred feet or so above them andshout, "_For I'm a rider of the sky!_" and then give a range yell andclimb up away from them with arrogant indifference to their stunnedamazement.
Well, Johnny did it. That is, he volplaned, banked as much as he thoughtwise, and flattened out and yelled, "_I'm a rider of the sky!_" just ashe had planned.
It happened that no one heard him, though Johnny did not know that.Horses and men tilted heads comically and stared up at the great,swooping thing that came buzzing like a monstrous bumblebee that haslearned to stutter. Then the horses squatted cowering away from it, andscattered like drops of water when a stone is thrown into a pond.
Johnny did not see any more of it, for Johnny was busy. Which was a pity,for the horse of Tex bolted a hundred yards and began to pitch soterrifically that Tex was catapulted from the saddle and had to walk homewith a sprained ankle. Little Curley's horse took to the hills, andlittle Curley did not return in time for his dinner. Aleck and BillHayden went careening away toward the north, and one of the two strangerswent so far west that he got lost. Since that day no horse that waspresent can see a hawk fly overhead without suffering convulsions ofterror.
Johnny flew to a certain grassy spot he knew, not half a mile from thehouse, and landed. I cannot say that he landed smoothly or expertly, buthe landed with no worse mishap than a bent axle on the landing gear, anda squeal from Mary V, who thought they were going to keep on bouncinguntil they landed in a gully farther on. Johnny climbed down and turnedthe plane around by hand, and
Mary V helped him. Then she took a pictureof him and the plane, and climbed back and let Johnny take a picture ofher in the plane. It was rather tame, for by all the laws of logic theyshould have broken their necks.
Before he started back, Johnny leaned over and shouted to Mary V: "Youcan tell the boys they can sing that Skyrider thing all they want to,now."
"They won't want to--now," Mary V yelled back.