Skyrider

by B. M. Bower

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  MEN ARE STUPID

  Into that same dawn light filed the riders of the Rolling R, drivingbefore them a small _remuda_. Behind them clucked the loaded chuck wagon,the leathery-faced cook braced upon the front seat, his booted feet farspread upon the scarred dashboard, his arms swaying stiffly to the pullof the four-horse team. Behind him still came the hoodlum wagon with itswater barrels joggling sloppily behind the seat. Little Curley drovethat, and little Curley's face was sober. It had been whispered in thebunk house that Skyrider was deep in disgrace, and Curley was worried.

  On the porch of the bungalow Sudden stood with his morning cigarunlighted in his fingers, watching the little cavaleade swing past to thegate. He waved his cigar beckoningly to Bill Hayden, turned his head toshake it at something Mary V had said from the doorway, and waited forBill to ride close.

  Mary V, camouflaged in her blue negligee worn over her riding clothes,came out and stood insistently, her two hands clasped around Sudden'sunwilling arm.

  "No, sir, dad, I'm not going back to bed. I'm going to say every littlething I want to say, and you and Bill have both got to listen. Get offthat horse, Bill. He makes me nervous, dancing around like that. Heavenknows I'm just about raving distracted, as it is. Dad, give Bill thatcigar so he won't look quite so disagreeable."

  Bill looked inquiringly at Sudden. It did not seem to him that even sospoiled an offspring as Mary V should be permitted to delay him now, whenminutes counted for a good deal. He wished briefly that Mary V belongedto him; Bill mistakenly believed that he would know how to handle her.Still, he took the cigar which Sudden obediently surrendered, and he gotdown off his horse and stood with one spurred foot lifted to the secondstep of the porch while he felt in his pocket for a match.

  "Well, now, Bill's in a hurry, Mary V. We haven't got time--"

  "You'd better take time, then! What's the use of Bill going off toSinkhole unless he listens to me first? Do you think, for gracious sake,I've been riding around all over the country with my eyes shut? Or do Ilook nearsighted, or _what_? What do you suppose I laid awake all nightfor, piecing things that I know together, if you're not going to payattention? Do you think, for gracious sake--"

  "There, now, we don't want to get all excited, Mary V. Sit down here andstop for-gracious-saking, and tell dad and Bill what it is you've seen.If it's anything that'll help run down them horse thieves, you'll getthat Norman car, kitten, if I have to pawn my watch." Sudden gave Bill alightened look of hope, and pulled Mary V down beside him on the stripedporch swing. Then he snorted at something he saw. "What's the ridingbreeches and boots for? Didn't I tell you--"

  "Well, Bill's going to lend me Jake, and I'll be in a hurry."

  "Like h--" Bill began explosively, and stopped himself in time.

  "Just like that," Mary V told him calmly. "Dad, if Bill doesn't let meride Jake, I don't believe I can remember some things I saw down onSinkhole range--through the field glasses, from Snake Ridge. I shallfeel so badly I'll just have to go into my room, and lock the door andcry--all--day--long!" To prove it, Mary V's lips began to quiver anddroop at the corners. To prepare for the deluge, Mary V got out herhandkerchief.

  Bill looked unhappy. "That horse ain't safe for yuh to ride," hetemporized. "He's liable to run away and kill yuh. He--"

  "I've ridden him twice, and he didn't," Mary V stopped quivering her lipslong enough to retort. "I don't see why people want to be so mean to me,when I am trying my best to help about those horse thieves, and when Iknow things no other person on this ranch suspects, and if they did, theywould simply be stunned at knowing there is a thief on their own payroll. And when I just want Jake so I can hel-lp--and Tango is getting solazy I simply _can't_ get anywhere with him in a month--" Mary V did it.She actually was crying real tears, that slipped down her cheeks and madelittle dark spots on her blue kimono.

  Bill Hayden looked at Sudden with harassed eyes. Sudden looked at Bill,and smoothed Mary V's hair--figuratively speaking; in reality he drew hisfingers over a silk-and-lace cap.

  "H--well, it's up to your dad. You can ride Jake if he's willin' to takethe chance of you getting your neck broke. I shore won't be responsible."Bill looked more unhappy than ever, not at all as though he gloried inhis martyrdom to the Rolling R.

  "Why, Jake's as gentle as a ki-kitten!" Mary V sobbed.

  "Like hell he's gentle!" muttered Bill, so far under his breath that hedid not feel called upon to apologize.

  "Well, now, we'll talk about Jake later on. Tell dad and Bill what it wasyou saw, and what you mean by a thief on the pay roll. I don't promiseI'll be simply stunned with surprise; that story young Jewel told lastnight does seem to have some awful weak points in it--"

  "Why dad _Selmer_! You know perfectly well that Johnny Jewel is the soulof honor! Why you owe an _apology_ to Johnny for ever _thinking_ such athing about him! Why, for gracious sake, must everybody on this ranch beso blind and stupid?" Mary V asked the glorious sunrise that question,and straightway hid her face behind her handkerchief.

  "Well, now, we're wasting time. I apologize to the soul of honor, andyou may ride Jake--when Bill or I are with you to see how he behaves.Now tell us what you know. This is a serious matter, Mary V. Far tooserious--"

  "I should think _I_ am the person who knows how serious it is," Mary Vcame from behind her handkerchief to remind him.

  "Just who or what did you see, through your field glasses, when youlooked from the top of Snake Ridge?" Sudden wisely chose to waive anyirrelevant arguments.

  "Why," said Mary V, "I first saw one of your men dodging along down adraw, to a place where there were some cottonwood trees. I saw him getoff his horse and wait there for a few minutes, and then I saw anotherman riding along the gully from the other direction. And so I saw themmeet, and talk a few minutes, and ride back. And--your man was in a greathurry, and the other man was a Mexican."

  "H-m-m. And who was my--"

  "And so I thought I'd ride a little farther, and see what they werewaving their hands toward the south for. And so I did. And it was veryhot," said Mary V pensively, "and I was so tired that when I found I wasclose to Sinkhole camp I went on and rested there. And before I left,that same Mexican came to the cabin, and Johnny didn't know him at all,because the Mexican said right away, 'I am the brother of Tomaso,' which,of course, was to introduce himself. And then he saw me, and he said hehad come to borrow some matches, and Johnny gave him some and he beat it.And after I left, I had gone perhaps a mile when I happened to look back,and the same Mexican was riding in a hurry to the cabin. So, of course,he had waited until I left. And that was the man," she finished with someattention to the dramatic effect, "who told Johnny he would take him towhere the airplane was sitting like a hawk--a broken-winged hawk--on theburning sands of Mexico."

  "Jerusalem!" Sudden paid tribute to the tale. But Bill said a shorterword. "And which one of my--"

  "And it was right after that," Mary V went on calmly, "that you foundyour man at Sinkhole talking with a very bad cold. The second night, I--Iwas curious. And so after you had called him up, I called him. I had towait a few minutes, as though he had to come into the house to answer.And _I_ knew perfectly well that it was not Johnny speaking. I--testedhim to make sure. I spoke of things that were perfectly ridiculous, andhe was afraid to seem not to understand. I said I was Venus speaking, andso he called me Miss Venus. And it was _not_ that Mexican," she addedquickly, seeing the guess in her dad's face. "He was a white man--anAmerican. I can _almost_ recognize the voice, in spite of his pretendedcold. I jarred him away from that once or twice. He said, 'Uh course Iknowed yer voice,' and no Mexican would say that."

  "So then I was _very_ curious. I--I knew Johnny would never permit thingsto be said that were said. So it was a beautiful moonlight evening, and Iwanted--I shall be expected to describe our Arizona plains by moonlight.So I decided that I would solve a mystery and collect my material thatevening, and I--went riding."

  "The deuce you--"

 
"So I had quite a distance to go, and I did not want to worry any one bybeing gone long. So I--er--didn't like to wake Bill up--"

  "Hunh!" from Bill, this time.

  "I really intended to take Tango as usual," Mary V explained withdignity. "I had no thought of intruding on a person's piggishness withtheir old race horse, but Jake came right up and put his nose in the feedpan, and--and acted so--sort of eager--and I knew he just suffers forexercise, standing in that old corral, so it was very wrong, but Iyielded to him. I rode him down to Sinkhole, and I found him a perfectlygentle lady's horse. So there now, Mr. Bill. You just--"

  "And what did you find at Sinkhole?" Sudden led her firmly back to thesubject.

  "I found that the beans were sour, and the bread was hard as a rock, andthere wasn't one thing to show that a meal had been cooked in that campfor two days, at least. And Johnny's bedding was gone--or some of it,anyway. And so was Sandy. So I came back, and changed horses, and tookTango. I knew, of course, how stingy a person can be about a horse. Andas I was riding away, behind that line of rocks so Mr. Stingy wouldn'tsee me, I saw a certain person come sneaking up to the corral and turnhis horse inside. It was just barely daylight then, but it was the sameperson I saw meet the Mexican.

  "And I hurried hack to Snake Ridge, so I got there quite early in themorning. And I saw two men ride off toward the eastern line of Sinkholerange, and they were not Johnny Jewel at all, which would be perfectlyimpossible. Because soon afterwards I saw something very queer beinghauled by mules, and that was Johnny bringing home his airplane,perfectly innocent."

  "Who's the fellow--" Sudden and Bill spoke together, the question whichharried the minds of both.

  "Of course," said Mary V, "I understand that some one from the ranchwould have to put them up to distracting Johnny's attention by lettinghim have that airplane. I can see that they would want to keep him busyso he wouldn't pay so much attention to the horses down there, and wouldnot notice a few horses gone now and then. So somebody had heard aboutthe airplane, and told them that Johnny was perfectly mad about aviation,and--"

  Sudden turned, and took her by the shoulders. "Mary V, who was that man?Don't try to shield him, because I shall--"

  "The very idea! I don't want to shield him at all. I merely want Jake,without any strings on him whatever. Because he can go like the verydickens, and I want to keep an eye on Tex myself. He won't pay anyattention--"

  "Tex! Good Lord! Bill, you--"

  "Listen, dad, I think I _deserve_ to have Jake. You _know_ I can ridehim, and you're so short-handed, and I can watch Tex--"

  "Go saddle him up for her, Bill, will you? I guess the kid's done enoughto put her on a par with the rest of us."

  "I'll say she has," Bill surrendered, a grin splitting his leathery facestraight across the middle. "I been watchin' Tex myself, but I didn'tknow it was horses he was after. I thought it was some woman."

  "I can't see what _makes_ men so stupid!" Mary V observed pensively. "Inever did like Tex. I don't like his eyes."

  "I see," said her dad. "You ought to 've told me before." And he addeddisapprovingly, "There's a good deal you ought to 've told your dad. Itwould have saved the Rolling R some mighty fine horses, I reckon. I don'tknow what your mother's going to say about me letting you go--"

  But Mary V had whisked into the house to complete her preparations forthe day's ride. Also to escape whatever her dad would have to say in thatparticular tone. She saw him leave the porch and follow Bill to thecorral, whereupon she immediately tried to call Johnny on the telephone.Failing in that, she proceeded to powder her nose.