by B. M. Bower
CHAPTER TWELVE
THE THUNDER BIRD TAKES WING
The days dragged interminably, but they passed somehow, and one morningJohnny was free to go where he would. Where he would go he believedwas a matter of little interest to him, but without waiting for hisbrain to decide, his feet took him down the sandy side street to thecalf shed that had held his treasure. He did not expect to see itthere. For three days he had not heard the unmistakable hum of itsmotor, though his ears were always strained to catch the sound thatwould tell him Bland had not gone. Some stubborn streak in him wouldnot permit him to ask the jailer whether the airplane was still intown. Or perhaps he dreaded to hear that it was gone.
His glance went dismally over the bare stretches he had used for hisfield. The wind had levelled the loose dirt over the tracks, so thatthe field looked long deserted and added its mite to his depressedmood. He hesitated, almost minded to turn back. What was the use oftormenting himself further? But then it occurred to him that his wholeworld lay as forlornly empty before him as this field and hangar, andthat one place was like another to him, who had lost his hold oneverything worth while. He had a vague notion to invoke the aid of thelaw to hold Bland and the plane, wherever he might be located, but hewas not feeling particularly friendly toward the law just now, and theidea remained nebulous and remote. He went on because there was reallynothing to turn back for.
His dull apathy of despair received something in the nature of a shockwhen he walked around the corner and almost butted into Bland, who hadjust finished tightening a turnbuckle and stepped back to walk aroundthe end of a wing. Bland's pale, unpleasant eyes watered withwelcome--which was even more surprising to Johnny than his actualpresence there.
"Why, hello, old top! They told me you'd be let out t'day, but Ididn't know just when. You're looking peaked. Didn't they feed yuhgood?"
Johnny did not answer. He went up and ran his fingers caressinglyalong the polished propeller blade that slanted toward him; he fingeredthe cables and touched the smooth curve of the wing as if he neededmore evidence than his eyes could furnish that the Thunder Bird wasthere, where he had not dared hope he would find it. Bland came upwith an eager, apologetic air and stood beside him. He was like a dogthat waits to be sure of his mastery mood before he makes any wilddemonstrations of joy at the end of a forced separation.
"I been overhauling the motor, bo, and I got her all tuned up and infine shape for you. She's ready to take the long trail any old time.I flew her for a couple of days, bo; took up passengers fast as theycould climb in and out. I knew you said you was about broke, so I wentahead and took in some coin. I'll say I did. Three hundred bones thefirst day,--how's that? There was a gang around here all day. Ididn't get a chance to eat, even. Second day I made a hundred andninety, and got a flat tire, so I quit. Next day I took in a hundredand thirty. Then I put her in here and went to work on the motor. Ifigured, the way they had throwed it into you, you'd probably want tobeat it soon as you got out, and I was afraid to overwork the motor andmaybe have to wait while I sent to Los Angeles for new parts. It wastime to quit while the quittin' was good, bo. Here's your money--allexcept what I spent for gas and oil and a few tools and one thing andanother. I kept out my share, and I ain't chargin' you for flying.That goes in the bargain, that I'll fly in an emergency like that. Sothis is yours." Then he had to add an I-told-you-so sentence. "Goesto prove I was right, don't it? Didn't I say there was big money inflyin'?"
He held out a roll of bills tied with a string; a roll big as Johnny'swrist. Johnny looked at it, looked into Eland's lean, grimy facequeerly. "Good golly!" he said in a hushed tone, and that was thefirst normal, Johnny-Jewel phrase he had spoken for six days.
"Well, there's plenty to see yuh through, if you want to try theCoast," Bland urged, watching Johnny's face avidly. "Way they done yuhdirt here, bo, I couldn't git out quick enough, if it was me. I'll sayI couldn't. And out there's where the real money is. Here, I've takeneverybody up that's got the nerve and the ten dollars. In Los Angelesyou can be taking in money like that every day. F'r cat's sake, bo,let's git outa this. They ain't handed you nothin' but the worst ofit."
He had changed his point of view considerably since he painted thepicture of easy wealth in Tucson, to be won on the strength of thenewspaper publicity Johnny had acquired. He had seen something inJohnny's face that encouraged him to suggest Los Angeles once more asthe ultimate goal of all true aviators. Johnny had nothing to holdhim, now that Mary V had broken with him--as Bland understood theseparation. With Mary V's influence strong upon Johnny's decisions,Bland had bided his time; but there was nothing now to hold him,everything to urge him away from the place. And Bland pined for thegay cafes on Spring Street. (They are not so gay nowadays, but that isbeside the point, for Bland remembered them as being gay, and for theirgayety he pined.)
Johnny resorted to his old subterfuge of rolling and smoking acigarette very deliberately while he made up his mind what to do. AndBland watched his face as a hungry dog watches for flung scraps of food.
"Aw, come on, bo! F'r cat's sake let's get to a regular town where wegot a chance to make real money! Why--think of it! We can start now,and with luck we can sleep in Los Angeles to-night. And it won't behot like it is here, and you can git a decent meal and see a decentshow while you put yourself outside it. And," he added artfully,giving the propeller a pull, "the Thunder Bird is achin' to fly. Lookunderneath, bo. I've got her name painted on the under side, too, soshe'll holler her name like a honkin' goose as she flies. And youdon't want her to go squawking Thunder Bird to these damn' hicks, Iguess, and keep 'em rememberin' that you spent six days--"
"That'll be about all," Johnny cut him short. "No, I don't wantanything more of this darn country. I'm willing to fly to Los Angelesor Miles City, Montana--just so we get outa here. Come on, if you'reready. We'll make a bee line for the Coast. We'd better take grub andwater in case of accidents. You know what happened to the poor devilsthat lost this plane in the first place, before I got it."
Bland's jaw went slack. Los Angeles, that had seemed so near, waveredand receded like a fading mirage. What had happened to those who hadabandoned the plane where Johnny had found it was a horror Blanddisliked to contemplate; a horror of thirst and crazed wanderings overhot Band and through parched greasewood, with lizards and snakes forcompany.
"There can't be any accidents, bo," he said uneasily. "I've went overthe motor careful, and we oughta make it with about two stops for gasand oil. If I thought we'd git caught out--"
Johnny threw away his cigarette stub and straightened his shoulders."Well, we're going to try it," he stated definitely. "You needn'tthink I'm anxious to get caught out in that damned desert--I know whatit's like, a heap better than you do, Bland. There's ways to commitsuicide that's quicker and easier than running around in circles on thedesert without water. I aim to play safe. You go down town and buy anextra water bag and some grub. And when we start we'll follow therailroad. Beat it--and say! Don't go and load up with sandwiches likea town hick. Get half a dozen small cans of beans, and some salt andpancake flour and matches and a small frying pan and bucket and a hunkof bacon and some coffee. And say!" he called as Bland was hurryingoff, "don't forget that water bag!"
Bland nodded to show that he heard, and struck a trot down the street.And Johnny, while he occupied himself with going over the plane andmaking sure that the gas tank was full and there was plenty of oil,almost whistled until the thought of Mary V pulled his lips down at thecorners. He wanted to call up the ranch and see if she were there, andtell her where he was going, but that seemed foolish, after a week ofsilence from her. He shrank from the possibility of being told thatMary V wished to have nothing to do with him. So pride stiffened hisdetermination to go on and let them think what they pleased of him.
Bland came back with a furtive look in his pale-blue eyes. Johnny gavehim a keenly appraising glance, edged close and sniffed, and decidedtha
t he was too suspicious and that Bland's sneaking look was merely anoutcropping of his nature and had nothing to do with prohibition.Bland had the supplies in a gunny sack and made haste to stow them awayto the best advantage.
Bland carried a guilty conscience. The hotel clerk had hailed him ashe passed and had inquired for Johnny. "Long distance" had a call forhim, and had insisted that Johnny be found at once and put inconnection with the "party" who wished to talk with him. Bland hadpromised to find Johnny and tell him, and had hurried on. A blockfarther down the street a messenger boy had hailed him and asked him ifhe knew where Johnny Jewel was. "Long distance" was calling and hadorders to search the town and get Johnny on the 'phone at once. Thecall had come in just after Johnny had left the jail, and no one seemedto know where he had gone.
"It's his girl--the one he tried to elope with," the boy had informedBland with that uncanny knowledge of state secrets which messenger boysare prone to display. "She'll tear the telephone out by the roots ifwe don't get him. Is he over to the flying-machine shed?"
Bland lied, and promised again that he would try and find Johnny andtell him to hurry to a telephone. Bland had shaved seconds off everyminute thereafter, getting through with his errand and back to thehangar. He had expected to be followed out there, and he was in asecret agony of haste which he betrayed in every move he made.
But Johnny was himself in a hurry to be gone, and excitement over theadventure and a troubled sense of running away occupied his mind sothat he gave little heed to Bland. He climbed in, and Bland raised histwo arms to the propeller blade and waited with visible impatience forthe word. He had that word. And Bland, who had glanced over hisshoulder and glimpsed some one coming,--some one who much resembled amessenger boy,--turned the motor over with one mighty pull, and madethe cockpit in two jumps and a straddle.
"We're off, bo! Give it to 'er!" he shouted, in a tone quite foreignto his usual languid whine, and fastened his safety belt.
Johnny settled himself, felt out his controls, gave her more gas. Auniformed young fellow, running toward them, shouted something, butJohnny gave no heed. Uniforms did not appeal to him, anyway. Hescowled at this one and went taxieing down the field, spurned theearth, and whirred off into the air.
"We want to climb to about ten thousand," Bland shouted over hisshoulder, "and f'r cat's sake, don't let's lose sight of the railroad."
Rapidly the earth dropped away. The town shrunk to a handful of toyhouses flung carelessly down upon a dingy gray carpet, with a yellowseam stretched across--which was the railroad--and yellow gashes hereand there. The toy houses dwindled to mere dots on a relief map ofgray with green splotches here and there for groves and orchards notyet denuded of leaves. Their ears were filled with the pulsing roar ofthe motor, their faces tingled with the keen wind of their passingthrough the higher spaces.
Away down below, where the dust they had kicked up had not yet settled,the messenger boy stood open-mouthed, with his cap tilted precariouslyon the bulge of his head, a damp lock of hair straggling down into hisright eyebrow, while he craned his neck to stare after the dwindlingspeck.
He waited, leaning against the shady side of the shed with his feetcrossed; but the Thunder Bird did not circle back and prepare todescend the invisible spiral it had climbed so ardently. Twocigarettes he smoked leisurely, now and then tilting back his head andsquinting into the silent blue depth above. He drew out his book andlooked at the slip saying that Johnny Jewel was being called by theRolling R Ranch on long-distance telephone. He squinted again at thesky, cocked his ear like a spaniel and got no faint humming, replacedthe slip in his book and the book in his torn-down pocket, andpresently meandered back to town.
Away off to the west, so high that it looked a mere speck floatingswiftly, the Thunder Bird went roaring, steadily boring its way tojourney's end. And a little farther to the south, Mary V was makinglife unpleasant for the telephone operator and for her mother whopreached patience and courtesy to those who toll, and for her dad whohad ventured to inquire what she wanted to dog that young imp for,anyway, and why didn't she try waiting until he showed interest enoughin somebody besides himself to call her up? And where was her pride,anyway?
Then, after what seemed to Mary V sufficient time to call Johnny fromthe farthest corner of the universe, the telephone jangled. Theoperator told her, with what Mary V called a perfectly intolerable toneof spite, that her "party" could not be located for her at present, ashe had left town.
"And I hope to goodness he stays!" gritted Mary V, slamming thereceiver on its hook. "With dad acting the way he did and treatingJohnny like a _dog_, and with Johnny acting worse than dad does andtreating me as if I were to blame for everything, I just wish men hadnever been born. I don't see what use they are in the world, except todrive a person raving distracted. Now, dad, just see what you havedone!" She confronted Sudden like a small fury. "You wanted to teachJohnny a lesson, and you refused to let me see him while he was injail, just because he told you to go somewhere. And you know perfectlywell that you swore worse about him. And he did not plan to elope.He--he just did it because I was right there and--handy. And now seewhat you've done! You wouldn't let me go to him, and now he's out, andhe has left town, and nobody knows where he is! I should think, for aparent who is responsible to heaven for his offspring's happiness,you'd be ashamed of yourself. You let me be engaged to him, and nowyou've gone and balled things up until I wish I were dead!"
About that time Johnny turned his head and stared wistfully down at thegray expanse sliding away beneath him. Off there to the left was theRolling R Ranch--and Mary V. He wondered dully if it would hurt her,this abrupt ending of their dreams. Or had she ever really cared?
Bland, sitting in front with his guilty secret, felt the swing Johnnywas unconsciously giving to the plane, and set his control against it.The Thunder Bird veered, hesitated, and came back to the course.Johnny took a long breath and turned his eyes to the front again. Thepast was past--the future lay all before him. He set his teethtogether and drove the Thunder Bird straight into the west.
