Skyrider | Page 7

defensively to a tolerant condescension.
"That wasn't so bad, if it hadn't shown on the face of it that it was just
dragged in to make a rhyme. Do you know what wight means, Miss
Selmer?"
Mary V was inwardly shaken. She had always believed that wight was
a synonym for dunce, but now that he put the question to her in that
tone, she was not positive. Her angry eyes faltered a little.
"I see you don't--of course. Used as a noun--you know what a noun is,
don't you? It means the name of anything. Wight means a person--any
creature. Originally it meant a fairy, a supernatural being. As an
adjective it means brave, valiant, strong or powerful. Or, it used to
mean clever."

"Oh, you! I hate the sight of you, you great bully!" Mary V ducked past
him and ran.
"I'll help you look it up in the dictionary if you don't know how,"
Johnny called after her maliciously, not at all minding the epithet she
had hurled at him. He went on more cheerfully, telling himself
unchivalrously that he had got Mary V's goat, all right. He began to
whistle under his breath, until he discovered that he was whistling
"Auld Lang Syne," and was mentally fitting to the tune the words:
"_Before I die, I'll ride the sky. I'll part the clouds like foam!_"
He stopped whistling then, but the words went on repeating themselves
over and over in his mind. "And by gosh, I will too," he stated defiantly.
"I'll show 'em, the darned mutts! They can yawp and chortle and call
me Skyrider as if it was a joke. That's as much as they know, the
ignorant boobs. Why, they couldn't tell an aileron from an elevator if it
was to save their lives!--and still they think I'm crazy and don't know
anything. Why, darn 'em, they'll pay money some day to see me fly!
Boy, I'd like to circle over this ranch at about three or four thousand
feet, and then do a loop or two and volplane right down at 'em! Gosh,
they'd be hunting holes to crawl into before I was through with 'em! I
will, too--"
Johnny went off into a pet daydream and was almost happy for a little
while. Some day the Rolling R boys would be telling with pride how
they used to know Johnny Jewel, the wonderful birdman that had his
picture in all the papers and was getting thousands of dollars for
exhibition flights. Tex, Aleck, Bud, Bill--Mary V, too, gol darn
her!--would go around bragging just because they used to know him!
And right then he'd sure play even for some of the insults they were
handing him now.
"Mary V Selmer? Let's see--the name sounds familiar, somehow. O-oh!
You mean that little red-headed ranch girl from Arizona? Oh-h, yes!
Well, give her a free pass--but I mustn't be bothered personally with her.
The girl's all right, but no training, no manners. Hick stuff; no class,
you understand. But give her a good seat, where she can view the
getaway."

Tex, Aleck, Bud, and Bill--little Curley was all right; Curley could
have a job as watchman at the hangar. But the rest of the bunch could
goggle at him from a distance and be darned to them. Old Sudden too.
He'd be kind of nice to old Sudden--nice in an offhand, indifferent kind
of way. But Mary V could get down on her knees, and he wouldn't be
nice to her. He should say not!
So dreamed Johnny Jewel, all the way to the mail box out by the main
road, and nearly all the way back again. But then his ears were assailed
with lugubrious singing:
"An' dlead the Great Bear ho-o-ome, An' dlead the Great Bear hoo-me,
I'll brand each star with the Rollin' R, An-n dlead the Great Bear
home!"
That was Bud's contribution.
"Aw, for gosh sake, shut up!" yelled Johnny, his temper rising again.
From the bungalow, when he passed it on his way to the bunk house,
came the measured thump-thump of a piano playing the same old tune
with a stress meant to mock him and madden him.
"Then if she'll smile I'll stop awhile, And kiss her snow-white hand."
That was Mary V, singing at the top of her voice, and Johnny walked
stiff-backed down the path. He wanted to turn and repeat to Mary V
what he had shouted to Bud, but he refrained, though not from any
chivalry, I am sorry to say. Johnny feared that it would be playing into
her hand too much if he took that much notice of her. He wouldn't give
her the satisfaction of knowing he heard her.
"It would be grand to kiss 'er hand, Her-rr snow-white hand