The Thunder Bird | Page 2

and Johnny Jewel never liked talking of
his failures, even to Mary V.
"Oh, Johnny, is that you? I've been waiting and waiting, and I just
wondered if you had enlisted and gone off to war without even calling
up to say good-by. I've been perfectly frantic. There's something--"
"You needn't worry about me enlisting," Johnny broke in, his voice the
essence of gloom. "They won't have me."
"Won't have--why, Johnny Jewel! How can the United States Army be
so stupid? Why, I should think they would be glad to get--"
"They don't look at me from your point of view, Mary V." Johnny's lips
softened into a smile. She was a great little girl, all right. If it were left
to her, the world would get down on its marrow bones and worship
Johnny Jewel. "Why? Well, they won't take me and my airplane as a
gift. Won't have us around. They'll take me on as a common buck
trooper, and that's all. And I can't afford--"
"Well, but Johnny! Don't they know what a perfectly wonderful flyer
you are? Why, I should think--"
"They won't have me in aviation at all, even without the plane," said
Johnny. "The papers came back to-day. I was turned down--flat on my
face! Gol darn 'em, they can do without me now!"
"Well, I should say so!" cried Mary V's thin, indignant voice in his ear.
"How perfectly idiotic! I didn't want you to go, anyway. Now you'll

come back to the ranch, won't you, Johnny?" The voice had turned
wheedling. "We can have the duckiest times, flying around! Dad'll give
you a tremendously good--"
"You seem to forget I owe your dad three or four thousand dollars,"
Johnny cut in. "I'll come back to the ranch when that's paid, and not
before."
"Well, but listen, Johnny! Dad doesn't look at it that way at all. He
knows you didn't mean to let those horses be stolen. He doesn't feel you
owe him anything at all, Johnny. Now we're engaged, he'll give you a
good--"
"You don't get me, Mary V. I don't care what your father thinks. It's
what I think that counts. This airplane of mine cost your dad a lot of
good horses, and I've got to make that good to him. If I can't sell the
darned thing and pay him up, I'll have to--"
"I suppose what I think doesn't count anything at all! I say you don't
owe dad a cent. Now that you are going to marry me--"
"You talk as if you was an encumbrance your dad had to pay me to take
off his hands," blurted Johnny distractedly. "Our being engaged doesn't
make any difference--"
"Oh, doesn't it? I'm tremendously glad to know you feel that way about
it. Since it doesn't make any difference whatever--"
"Aw, cut it out, Mary V! You know darn well what I meant."
"Why, certainly. You mean that our being engaged doesn't make a
particle--"
"Say, listen a minute, will you! I'm going to pay your dad for those
horses that were run off right under my nose while I was tinkering with
this airplane. I don't care what you think, or what old Sudden thinks, or
what anybody on earth thinks! I know what I think, and that's a plenty.
I'm going to make good before I marry you, or come back to the ranch.

"Why, good golly! Do you think I'm going to be pointed out as a joke
on the Rolling R? Do you think I'm going to walk around as a living
curiosity, the only thing Sudden Selmer ever got stung on? Oh--h, no!
Not little Johnny! They can't say I got into the old man for a bunch of
horses and the girl, and that old Sudden had to stand for it! I told your
dad I'd pay him back, and I'm going to do it if it takes a lifetime.
"I'm calling that debt three thousand dollars--and I consider at that I'm
giving him the worst of it. He's out more than that, I guess--but I'm
calling it three thousand. So," he added with an extreme cheerfulness
that proved how heavy was his load, "I guess I won't be out to supper,
Mary V. It's going to take me a day or two to raise three
thousand--unless I can sell the plane. I'm sticking here trying, but there
ain't much hope. About three or four a day kid me into giving 'em a
trial flight--and to-morrow I'm going to start charging 'em five dollars a
throw. I can't burn gas giving away joy rides to fellows that haven't any
intention of buying me out. They'll have to dig up the coin, after this--I
can let it go on the purchase price if they