did when
something stirred him unexpectedly. "I could call up, Mr. Selmer, and ask
if I can speak to Mary V. That wouldn't scare her mother."

"Sure, you can find out; only don't you say anything about the wagons
being camped here. If she asks, say you haven't seen us yet. She'll think
we made camp somewhere else. Go ahead."

It did not take long, and when Johnny turned to Selmer he had the white
line around his mouth. "She says Mary V went out with you and the boys,
to a round-up somewhere down this way."

"Well, maybe she just rode farther than she intended. But she was on
Jake; she deviled us into letting her take him. Bill thinks Jake isn't
very safe. I don't think he is, either. You say the rustlers were away
down across the line, driving a bunch of horses, so there's no danger--"

"I didn't say all of them were down that way. I don't know how many there
are. They were just little dots crawling along--but I guessed there were
about four riders." Johnny started for the door, picking up his rifle
from the table where he had placed it. "I wish I'd got after 'em as I
wanted to, but Bland kept hollering about gas--" He balanced the
propeller on his shoulder again, and turned to Sudden.

"Don't you worry, Mr. Selmer, we'll get right out after her. Which way
did she go? There's times when an airplane comes in kinda handy, after
all!"

"You young hound, there wouldn't be all this hell a-poppin' if it wasn't
for you and your bederned airplane! Don't overlook that fact. You've
managed to hold up all my plans, and lose me Lord-knows-how-many horses
that are probably the pick of the herds; and you've got the gall to crow
because your flying machine will fly! And if that girl of mine's in any
trouble, it'll be your fault more than anybody's. If you'd stuck to your
job and done what I've been paying you wages to do--"

"You don't have to rub all that in, Mr. Selmer. I guess I know it better
than you do. Just because I don't come crying around you with a lot of
please-forgive-me stuff, you think I don't give a cuss! Which way did
Mary V go? That's more important right now than naming over all the kinds
of damn fools I've been. I can sing that song backwards. Which way--"

"She went east. Damn yuh, don't yuh stand there talking back to me, or
I'll--"

"Oh, go to--war," said Johnny sullenly, and hitched the propeller to a
better balance on his shoulder, and went striding back whence he had
come.

He had not meant to cr