ng man, apparently not content with
the uproar of the country for the past three days, when he was believed
to be lost on the desert with his airplane, attempts one adventure too
many. When he brazenly carried off his sweetheart in his airplane he
forgot to first cut the telephone wire. That oversight cost him dear,
for now he languishes in jail, while the young lady, who is under age,
is being held by the sheriff--

It was sickening, because in a measure it was true, though he had never
thought of emulating Lochinvar or any one else. He had neither thought
nor cared about the public and what it would think, and the blatant way
in which he had been made to entertain the country at large humiliated
him beyond words.

He picked up the square, white envelope tightly sealed and addressed in
Mary V's straight, uncompromising chirography, turned it over,
reconsidered opening it, and flipped it upon the cot.

"There was an answer expected," the jailer lingered to hint broadly.
"The young lady is waiting, and she seemed right anxious."

But Johnny merely walked to the barred window and stared across at the
blank wall of another building fifteen feet away, and in a moment the
jailer went away and left him alone, which was what Johnny wanted most.

After a while he opened Mary V's letter and read it, scowling and
biting his lips. Mary V, it would seem, had read all that the papers
had to say, and was considerably upset by the facetious tone of most of
the articles.

". . . and I think it's perfectly terrible, the way everybody stares
and whispers and grins. What in the world made you act the way you did
and get arrested. And those were reporters that you shoved out of the
office, too, and that is why they wrote about us in such a horrid way.
And I shall never be able to live it down. I shall be considered
hysterical and always fainting, which is not true and a perfect libel
which they ought to be sent to jail for printing. I shall probably
have that horrid Lochinvar piece recited at me the rest of my life,
Johnny, and I should think you would be willing to apologize to the
sheriff and be nice now and make them let you off easy. And dad blames
me for eloping with you and thinks we had it planned before he got home
yesterday, and he says there was no excuse and it showed a lack of
confidence in his judgment. He says you are a d. fool and take
yourself too seriously, and it is a pity you couldn't have some sense