Skyrider

Skyrider

The Project Gutenberg eBook, Skyrider, by B. M. Bower, Illustrated by
Anton Otto Fischer
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Title: Skyrider
Author: B. M. Bower

Release Date: October 14, 2005 [eBook #16871]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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SKYRIDER***
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SKYRIDER
by
B. M. BOWER
with frontispiece by Anton Otto Fischer
1919

[Illustration: Johnny dared a volplane, slanting steeply down at the
herd.]

Boston Little, Brown, and Company

CONTENTS
Chapter
I
A Poet without Honor
II One Fight, Two Quarrels, and a Riddle
III Johnny Goes Gaily Enough to Sinkhole
IV A Thing that Sets like a Hawk

V Desert Glimpses
VI Salvage
VII Finder, Keeper
VIII Over the Telephone
IX A Midnight Ride
X Signs, and No One to Read Them
XI Thieves Ride Boldly
XII Johnny's Amazing Run of Luck Still Holds its Pace
XIII Mary V Confronts Johnny
XIV Johnny Would Serve Two Masters
XV The Fire that Made the Smoke
XVI Let's Go
XVII A Rider of the Sky
XVIII Flying Comes High
XIX "We Fly South"
XX Men Are Stupid
XXI Mary V Will not be Bluffed
XXII Luck Turns Traitor
XXIII Dreams and Darkness
XXIV Johnny's Dilemma

XXV Skyrider "Has Flew"!

SKYRIDER
CHAPTER ONE
A POET WITHOUT HONOR
Before I die, I'll ride the sky; I'll part the clouds like foam. I'll brand
each star with the Rolling R, And lead the Great Bear home.
I'll circle Mars to beat the cars, On Venus I will call. If she greets me
fair as I ride the air, To meet her I will stall.
I'll circle high--as if passing by-- Then volplane, bank, and land. Then
if she'll smile I'll stop awhile, And kiss her snow-white hand.
To toast her health and wish her wealth I'll drink the Dipper dry. Then
say, "Hop in, and we'll take a spin, For I'm a rider of the sky."
Through the clouds we'll float in my airplane boat--
Mary V flipped the rough paper over with so little tenderness that a
corner tore in her fingers, but the next page was blank. She made a
sound suspiciously like a snort, and threw the tablet down on the
littered table of the bunk house. After all, what did she care where they
floated--Venus and Johnny Jewel? Riding the sky with Venus when he
knew very well that his place was out in the big corral, riding some of
those broom-tail bronks that he was being paid a salary--a good
salary--for breaking! Mary V thought that her father ought to be told
about the way Johnny was spending all his time--writing silly poetry
about Venus. It was the first she had ever known about his being a poet.
Though it was pretty punk, in Mary V's opinion. She was glad and
thankful that Johnny had refrained from writing any such doggerel
about her. That would have been perfectly intolerable. That he should
write poetry at all was intolerable. The more she thought of it, the more
intolerable it became.

Just for punishment, and as a subtle way of letting him know what she
thought of him and his idiotic jingle, she picked up the tablet, found the
pencil Johnny had used, and did a little poetizing herself. She could
have rhymed it much better, of course, if she had condescended to give
any thought whatever to the matter, which she did not. Condescension
went far enough when she stooped to reprove the idiot by finishing the
verse that he had failed to finish, because he had already overtaxed his
poor little brain.
Stooping, then, to reprove, and flout, and ridicule, Mary V finished the
verse so that it read thus:
"Through the clouds we'll float in my airplane boat-- For Venus I am
truly sorry! All the stars you sight, you witless wight, You'll see when
you and Venus light! But then--I'm sure that I should worry!"
Mary V was tempted to write more. She rather fancied that term
"witless wight" as applied to Johnny Jewel. It had a classical dignity
which atoned for the slang made necessary by her instant need of a
rhyme for sorry.
But there was the danger of being caught in the act by some
meddlesome fellow who loved to come snooping around where he had