The Thunder Bird

by B. M. Bower

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  JOHNNY IS NOT PAID TO THINK

  On that same Saturday afternoon, at about the time when Mary V sightedBland at the southeast corner of Sixth and Spring, Johnny stood justunder the peak behind Mateo's cabin and saw a lone horseman ride acrossthe upper neck of the little valley and disappear into the brush on theside opposite him. He waited impatiently. The rider did not reappear,but presently he saw what looked like a human figure crouched behind arock well up the slope. Johnny stared until his eyes watered with thestrain, but he could not be sure that the object was a man. If itwere, the man was without a doubt placed there for purposes ofobservation. The thought was not a pleasant one.

  He waited, himself crouched now behind a jutting fragment of rock, andthought he saw the object move. A little later the sun, slidingfarther down the sky, reflected a glittering something just above thatrock. A bit of glass would do that--the lenses of a field glass, forinstance. Two lenses would shine as one, Johnny believed, and wasthankful that his slope was in shadow.

  Taking it for granted that some one was watching the valley, he studiedthe spot where the glitter had already winked out--possibly because theman had moved the field glasses, sweeping the valley. It was a goodplace for a spy, Johnny admitted. There was a slight ridge just there,so that the view was clear for some distance in either direction;Mateo's cabin was in plain sight, and the surrounding hills. He hopedthe fellow would see nothing suspicious and would presently give upthat post; in the meantime he was effectually treed. There was noshelter that he dared trust on the first rocky half of the descent, andto climb up and over the peak he would surely reveal himself, unlessthe fellow's attention happened to be centered on something else.

  Johnny studied his predicament. The man could see everything--butcould he hear? He was half a mile off, Johnny judged, estimating thedistance with an accuracy born of long living in the country of farskylines. The spy would need sharp ears indeed to hear anything lessthan a shout.

  Johnny picked up a pebble, aimed, and threw it at the roof of Mateo'scabin. The pebble landed true and rattled off, hitting the ground witha bounce and rolling away in the grass. The children, playing in theopen as they always did, stopped and looked up inquiringly, then wenton with their play. Mateo came cautiously from the back door and tohim Johnny called, thankful that the observer on the hillside could notsee through the cabin to where Mateo stood.

  "Stay where you are," he called. "Can you hear me?"

  Mateo nodded emphatically.

  "All right. Take your gun and start off across the flat, down the wayCliff will come. Act like you didn't want to be seen. There'ssomebody across on the hill, up here, and I want to see if he'll followyou. You get me?"

  "Si, yes. I'm go."

  "After awhile you can come back. If you see Cliff, tell him he's afterducks. Sabe?"

  "Yo se. I'm onderstan'."

  "All right. Go back in the house and come out the front door and startoff."

  Mateo waved his hand and disappeared. In five minutes or less Johnnysaw him walking away from the cabin and glancing frequently at thehills upon either hand. His manner might have been called stealthy, ifone were looking for stealth. Johnny was looking for something else,and presently he gave a grunt of satisfaction. The object behind therock stood up and levelled his glasses at Mateo. Johnny waited untilhe was sure and then scrambled down to the protection of anotherbowlder. He peered from there up the valley and after some searchingdiscovered his man working carefully along a side hill, evidentlyanxious to keep Mateo in sight. Johnny worked down another rod or two,reconnoitered again, made another sliding run for it, and stoppedbehind a clump of brush. In that way he reached the shelter of theoak, feeling certain that he had not been seen.

  Through the screen of branches he looked out across the little valley,but he could not see any one at all, not even Mateo. So he turned tohis one solace, The Thunder Bird, and dusted it as carefully as a younggirl dusts her new piano. With a handful of waste he went over themotor, wiping it until it shone wherever shining was possible, andtried not to think of the man on the hillside. That was Cliff'saffair--until Johnny was ready to make the affair his.

  "I wish I knew just what he's up to," Johnny fretted. "If I just_knew_ something! I'd look like a boob now, wouldn't I, if the guardsnabbed us? They might try to pin most anything on me, and I wouldn'thave any comeback. It don't look good, if anybody asks me! And ifthey--"

  "Man's come here," Rosa announced close behind him in a tense whisper."Walking."

  Johnny jumped and went on his toes to a spot where he could lookthrough the foliage.

  "Walking down," explained Rosa, and waved a skinny hand toward the hillbehind them.

  "Did you see him?"

  "No, senor. I'm seeing rocks falling where somebody walks down."

  There was nothing to do but wait. Johnny pushed the girl toward thecabin and saw her scramble under the lowest branches and join theothers unconcernedly, tagging the boy Josef, and, then running off intothe open--where she could see the hillside--with Josef running after.She did not seem to be watching the hill, while she was apparentlyabsorbed in dodging Josef, but Johnny gathered from her gestures thatthe man was still coming and that he was making for the cabin. He waswondering what she meant by suddenly sinking to the ground in shrilllaughter, when he heard a step behind him. He whirled, startled, hishand jerking back toward the gun he wore.

  "I approve your watchfulness, but you happened to be watching in thewrong direction," said Cliff, brushing dirt from his hunting clothes."Well, they are getting warm, old man. They have eliminated Riversideas a probable hang-out for the mystery plane, and--" He waved a handsignificantly while he stood his shotgun against the bole of the tree.

  "Some one saw us land in this valley," he added. "Luckily they do notsuspect Mateo yet. I saw him going down the flat and sent him on totell the patrol a lot they already knew. He saw the plane come down,but has not been able to find the exact spot. He thinks it took theair again. His ninos told him of a big bird flying east. Great boy,Mateo. Great kids. Did they see me coming?"

  "Sure they did. Rosa's eagle eye spotted a rock or two rolling downand came and told me."

  "Good girl, Rosa. The car's over in another valley, parked under atree very neatly and permanently and in plain sight. Its owner is offhunting somewhere. By its number plates they will never know it. Goodold car."

  "You seem tickled to think they're after you," Johnny observed, rollinga cigarette by way of manifesting complete unconcern. "What's the nextmove?"

  "Get me across without letting them see where we come from. Can youfly at night?"

  "Sure, I can fly at night. Don't the Germans fly at night all overLondon? I won't swear I'll light easy, though."

  "There'll be a moon," said Cliff. "I've got to get over, and I've gotto light, and I've got to get back again. There are no if's this time;it's _got_ to be done."

  "A plane chased us, day before yesterday," Johnny informed him, fanningthe smoke from before his face and squinting one eye while he studiedCliff. "It was a long way off, and I got down before it was closeenough to see just where I lit. It came back yesterday and scoutedaround, flying above five thousand feet up. To-day I saw two of themsailing around, but they didn't fly over this way. They were overbehind this hill, and high. We'd better do our flying at night,old-timer."

  "You can dodge them. You've got to dodge them," said Cliff.

  "If I fly," Johnny qualified dryly.

  "You've got to fly. You're in to your neck, old man--and there's aloop ready for that." Then, as though he had caught himself sayingmore than was prudent, he laughed and amended the statement. "Ofcourse, I'm just kidding, but at that, it's important that you makethis flight and as many more as you can get away with. There'ssomething to be brought back to-night--legitimate news, understand, butof tremendous value to the Syndicate." He reached into his pocket anddrew out an envelope su
ch as Johnny had learned to associate with money.

  "Here's two thousand dollars, old man. The boss knows the risk andadded a couple of hundred for good measure, this week. When you landme over there to-night I'll give you this." He smiled disagreeably."I think you'll fly, all right--for this."

  "Sure, I'll fly--for that. I was kidding. For two thousand I'd fly toBerlin and bring back a lock of old Kaiser Bill's hair."

  "That's the way to talk, old man! I knew you were game. I told theboss so, when he asked if we could count on you. I said you had nerve,no political prejudices, and--that you need the money."

  "That's my number, I guess," Johnny admitted, grinning.

  Cliff laughed again, which made three distinct impulses to laughter inone conversation. This was not like Cliff's usual conservatism. AsJohnny had known him he laughed seldom, and then only at somethingdisagreeable. He was keyed up for something; a great coup of some sortwas in sight, Johnny guessed shrewdly, studying Cliff's face and thesparkle in his eyes. He was like a man who sees success quite suddenlywhere he has feared to look upon failure. Johnny wondered just whatthat success might mean--to others.

  "I bet you're putting over something big that will tickle Uncle Sampurple," he hazarded, giving Cliff a round-eyed, admiring glance.

  "It will tickle him--purple, all right!" Cliff's tone had a slight edgeon it. "You're sitting in a big game, my boy, but you aren't paid toask questions. You go ahead and earn your two thousand. You do theflying, and let some one else do the thinking."

  "I get you," said Johnny laconically and took himself and his thinklessbrain elsewhere.