me," he explained. "I'm riding here and I'm see
you jus' like friend. You boy like me. You got picshurs them thing what
flies. You tell me you don't say nothing for my brother when I'm tell
you that things sets over there." He waved a dirty, brown hand to the
southward. "Me, I'm _trus'_ you. Tha's secret what I'm tell. You don't
tell no-_body_. You promise?"

"All right. I promise." Very gravely Johnny made the sign of the cross
over his heart.

Tomaso's eyes lightened at that. More gravely than Johnny he crossed
himself--forehead, lips, breast. He murmured a solemn oath in Spanish,
and afterwards put out his hand to shake, American fashion. All this
impressed Johnny more than had the detailed description of the thing
which sat.

If he still laughed at the story, his laugh was not particularly
convincing. Nor was his jibing tone when he called after Tomaso when that
youth was riding away:

"Tell your brother I might buy his flying machine--if he'll sell it
cheap!"

CHAPTER FIVE

DESERT GLIMPSES

Mary V was indefatigably pursuing a new and apparently fascinating
avocation, for which her mother expressed little sympathy, no enthusiasm
whatever, and a grudgingly given consent. Mary V was making a collection
of Desert Glimpses for educational purposes at her boarding school. She
had long been urged to do so by her schoolmates and teachers, she told
her mother, and now she was going to do it. It should be the very best,
most complete collection any one could possibly make within riding
distance of the Rolling R. Incidentally she meant to collect jackrabbit
ears and rattlesnake rattles, for the purpose of thrilling the girls, but
she did not tell her mother that. Neither did she tell her mother just
why her quest always lay to the southward when there was plenty of desert
to be glimpsed toward the north and to the east and the west. She did not
even tell herself why she did that.

So Mary V, knowing well the terrific heat she would have to face in the
middle of the day, ordered her horse saddled when the boys saddled their
own--which was about sunrise. She did not keep it standing more than half
an hour or so before she came out and mounted him. She was well equipped
for her enterprise. She carried a camera, three extra rolls of film, a
telescoped tripod which she tied under her right stirrup leather, a pair
of high-power Busch glasses (to glimpse with, probably), two duck-covered
canteens filled and drippi