armed young athletes hustled him between them. "Here, lay
off that grabbing stuff! Where do you get that? I ain't figuring on
any getaway. I'm merely bringing a man into camp that stacks up like a
spy or something like that. Better have a doctor come and take a look
at him; I had to land him on the bean with my six-gun, and he acts
kinda like he's hurt. He ain't moved since."

"Well, will you listen to that!" One of the foremost of the unarmed
group grinned. "This here must be Skyrider Jewel, boys, no mistake
about that--he's running true to form. 'Nother elopement--only this
time he's went and eloped with a spy, he claims."

"Here comes the leatherneck. You'll wish you hadn't of lit, Skyrider.
You'll be shot at sunrise for this, sure!"

"You know it! It's a firing squad for yours, allrighty!"

Johnny gave them a round-eyed, disgusted glare. "They can shoot and be
darned; but the boss has got to see Cliff Lowell and the papers he's
got on him, if I have to wade through the whole hunch of you! Do you
fellows think, for gosh sake, I just flew over here to give you guys a
treat? Why, good golly! You--"

"Here, you come along with me and do your talking to the commandant," a
gruff voice spoke at his shoulder.

"And let these gobblers fool around here and maybe lose the stuff this
man's got in his clothes! Oh-h, no! Bring him along, and I'll go.
I'd sure like a chance to talk to somebody that can show a few brains
on this job. That's what I came over here for. I didn't have to land,
recollect."

The petty officer gave an order or two. The guards fell in beside
Johnny with a military preciseness that impressed him to silence. From
somewhere near two men trotted up with a field stretcher, and upon it
Cliff was laid, still unconscious.

"You sure beaned him right," one of them observed, looking up at Johnny
with some admiration.

"Yes, and I'd like to bean the whole bunch of you the same way. You
fellows ain't making any hit with me at all," Johnny retorted uncivilly
as he left under guard for headquarters.

A few minutes later he was standing alone before a man whose clean-cut,
military bearing, to say nothing of the insignia of rank on his
uniform, awed Johnny to the point of calling him "sir" and of couching
his replies in his best, most grammatical English. The guards had been
curtly dismissed, for which he was grateful, and he had the
satisfaction of stating his case in private. Johnny