The Thunder Bird | Page 3

do buy, you see. That's fair
enough--"
"Then you won't even listen to dad's proposition?" Mary V's tone
proved how she was clinging to the real issue. "It's a perfectly
wonderful one, Johnny, and really, for your own good--and not because
we are engaged in the least--you should at least consider it. If you insist
on owing him money, why, I suppose you could pay him back a little at
a time out of the salary he'll pay you. He will pay you a good enough
salary so you can do it nicely--"
Johnny laughed impatiently. "Let your dad jump up my wages to a
point where he can pay himself back, you mean," he retorted. "Oh--h,
no, Mary V. You can't kid me out of this, so why keep on arguing? You
don't seem to take me seriously. You seem to think this is just a whim
of mine. Why, good golly! I should think it would be plain enough to
you that I've got to do it if I want to hold up my head and look men in
the face. It's--why, it's an insult to my self-respect and my honesty to
even hint that I could do anything but what I'm going to do. The very
fact that your dad ain't going to force the debt makes it all the more

necessary that I should pay it.
"Why, good golly, Mary V! I'd feel better toward your father if he had
me arrested for being an accomplice with those horse thieves, or
slapped an attachment on the plane or something, than wave the whole
thing off the way he's doing. It'd show he looked on me as a man,
anyway.
"I'll be darned if I appreciate this way he's got of treating it like a
spoiled kid's prank. I'm going to make him recognize the fact that I'm a
man, by golly, and that I look at things like a man. He's got to be proud
to have me in the family, before I come into the family. He ain't going
to take me in as one more kid to look after. I'll come in as his equal in
honesty and business ability,--instead of just a new fad of Mary V's--"
"Well, for gracious sake, Johnny! If you feel that way about it, why
didn't you say so? You don't seem to care what I think, or how I feel
about it. You don't seem to care whether you ever get married or not.
And I'm sure I wasn't the one that did the proposing. Why, it will take
years and years to square up with dad, if you insist on doing it in a
regular business way--"
Johnny's harsh laugh stopped her. "You see, you do know where I stand,
after all. If I let it slide, the way you want me to, that's exactly what
you'd be thinking after awhile--that I never had squared up with your
dad. You'd look down on me, and so would your father and your
mother. They'd always be afraid I'd do some fool thing and sting your
dad again for a few thousand."
"Well, of all the crazy talk! And I've gone to the trouble of coaxing dad
to give you a share in the Rolling R instead of putting it in his will for
me. And dad's going to do it--"
"Oh, no, he isn't. I don't want any share in the Rolling R. I'd go to jail
before I'd take it."
Mary V produced woman's final argument. "If you cared anything at all
for me, Johnny, when I ask you to come back and do what dad is

willing to have you do, you'd do it. I don't see how you can be stubborn
enough to refuse such a perfectly wonderful offer. You wouldn't, if you
cared a snap about me. You act just as if you were sorry--"
"Aw, lay off that don't-care stuff!" Johnny growled indignantly.
"Caring for you has got nothing to do with it, I tell you. It's just simply
a question of what kinda mark I am. You know I care!"
"Well, then, if you do you'll come right over here. If you start now you
can be here by sundown, and it's nice and quiet and no wind at all.
You've absolutely no excuse, Johnny, and you know it. When dad's
willing to forget about those horses--"
"When I come, your dad won't have anything to forget about," Johnny
reiterated obstinately. "I do wish you'd look at the thing right!"
Mary V changed her tactics, relying now upon intimidation. "I shall
begin to look for you in about an hour," she said sweetly. "I shall keep
on looking till you come, or till it gets too dark. If you care anything
about me,