The Thunder Bird Page 14

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  FATE MEETS JOHNNY SMILING

  Johnny inspected his room and bath on the sixth floor and straightwaybegan to worry about the bill. The shaded reading lamp by the bedimpressed him mightily, as did the smoking set on its own littlemahogany stand, and the coat-hangers in the closet. Johnny wasaccustomed to stopping in hotels where the furnishings were all butnailed down, and the little conveniences were conspicuously absent.This, he decided, was a regular place; a home for millionaires. Hedoubted very much whether the Thunder Bird was worth the furniture inthis one room, and wondered at his own temerity in making free with it.To brace his courage he must untie the roll of money Bland had givenhim in Tucson and count the bank notes twice.

  "By golly, I can stand one night here, any way," he reassured himselffinally, and took a long breath.

  Just then a bell boy tapped discreetly on the door, and when Johnnyopened it he slipped in with a pitcher of ice water, which he carriedto a table with the air of a loyal henchman serving his king, whichmeans that he was thinking of tips. In the exuberance of his freshsensation of affluence and his gratitude for the service, Johnny pulledoff a five-dollar bill and gave it to the boy. The bell boy said,"Thank you, sir," and added breathlessly, "Gee, I wish I was anaviator, Mr. Jewel!"

  Sir and Mister all in one breath, and to be called an aviator besideshad a perceptible effect upon Johnny. He swaggered across the roomthat had a moment ago awed him to the point of wanting to walk on histoes. Of course he was an aviator! Hadn't he been flying in his ownplane? What more did it take, for gosh sake? A pilot's license was amere detail, alongside the night he had made that day. He should sayhe was an aviator!

  The 'phone tinkled. A man from the _Times_ wanted to talk with him, itseemed. Johnny gruffly told him over the house 'phone that he didn'tcare to be interviewed. "You boys get too fresh," he censured. "Youdon't stick to facts. You're going to get in trouble if you don't letup on me. I hate this publicity stuff, anyway. I wish you'd go offsomewhere and die quietly and leave me alone."

  "Well, just let me come up and explain," the reporter urged. "All Iwant is a story of your flight across country. You're mistaken if youthink I'm guilty of--"

  "Oh, well, if that's all you want. But I'm just about off reportersfor life. You'll have to do some apologizing, believe me!"

  Johnny was sprawled on the nice, white bed, with his boot heels cockedup on the expensive mahogany footboard. He had the two big, puffypillows wadded under his head and the reading lamp lighted and throwinga rosy shadow on his tanned countenance. The smoking set was pulledclose and he was reaching for a match when the reporter knocked.

  "Come in," he called boredly, and fanned the smoke from before his facethat he might look upon this unwelcome visitor who was going toapologize for the sins of his colleagues in Arizona.

  The reporter, once he was inside, did not look apologetic, nor did heresemble a reporter, as Johnny knew them. He was a slim young man,tall enough to wear his clothes like the Apollos you see pictured intailors' advertisements. Indeed, he much resembled those young men.He wore light gray, with the coat buttoned at the bottom and loose overhis manly chest. He also wore a gray hat tilted over one temple in theapproved style for illustrated catalogues. He had gray gloves crumpledin one hand and a cane in the other, and he stood with his immaculatelyshod feet slightly apart, gently swung the cane, and regarded Johnnywith a faint smile of extreme boredom.

  Johnny bore the scrutiny in silence, stifling the impulse to rise andoffer Apollo a chair. Instead, he turned lazily and knocked the ashcollar off his cigarette, and afterward thumped the top pillow beforehe resettled himself.

  "Won't cost anything to sit down," he observed amiably. "Well, where'sthat apology?"

  The slim young man laughed to himself, deposited his cane and gloves ona chair, moved his feet slightly farther apart and produced a smallpad. "For the sins I may commit, I humbly apologize. Whatever it wasyour sagebrush scribes perpetrated I didn't write it, therefore weshould not quarrel. A few details on your trip to-day will be ofinterest, Mr. Jewel."

  Johnny grinned. "There ain't any details. We just flew till we gothere, and then we lit."

  "We?" The gray-clad one lifted a finely formed eyebrow.

  "My mechanic and me."

  "Ah." The fellow made a mark or two with his pencil and waited formore--until he perceived that more would not be forthcoming.

  "And now that you have lit, what do you expect to do, may I ask?"

  "Oh-h--" Johnny covered a wide yawn with his palm, "make money. Whatelse is there to do?"

  "Go broke," the reporter suggested, smiling again--with less boredom,by the way.

  "Old stuff," Johnny grunted. "I aim to be different."

  The fashion plate laughed almost humanly. "If half they said of you istrue, you've nothing to complain about. By the way--how much of it wastrue? I mean how you salvaged the plane from Mexico and used it tocatch horse thieves, and the Indian god stuff, and the Lochinvar--"

  Johnny sat up belligerently. "Say! What are you looking for?Trouble?"

  "Merely verifying rumors. A very natural professional caution, Iassure you."

  "Caution! Hnh! Funny way you've got of being cautious, old-timer.I'd call it a fine way of heading down-stairs without waiting for theelevator."

  "I understand--perfectly. So you have no settled plans for the future,I take it? Just ready for whatever turns up that looks promising?"

  Johnny grunted and looked at his watch. Hunger, which he had forgottenin the novelty of his surroundings, began to manifest itself again. Hegot up and gleaned his aviator's helmet from a branch of the mahoganyhatrack and looked at it dubiously, wishing that it was his Big FourStetson instead.

  "What I'm ready for right now is chuck," he said pointedly. "I ain'tfortune teller enough to give you any line on my future. I wish toheck I could. I'm out here to make good at flying. Money--that's whatI want. Lots of it. But right now I want a square meal more thananything. So I'm afraid--"

  "All right, Jewel. I cease to be a news hound and become your host,with your permission. Let me take you to a regular place, will you? Ihaven't had dinner yet myself."

  "You ain't? Good golly! What you been doing all day?"

  The reporter who had ceased to be a reporter checked a smile while hepicked up gloves and cane and opened the door.

  "Say! If I told you all I've been doing, old man, you'd think flyingfrom Tucson is a snap! It's a merry life we newspaper men lead. Not."

  They were at the elevator before it occurred to Johnny that he wasdeviating considerably from his intended line of conduct. Heremembered that Bland had promised to wait for him outside the door.He was not at all certain that Bland would do so in the face oftemptations,--such as hunger and thirst,--but it seemed a shabby trickto play him nevertheless. Instinct warned him that Bland could not beincluded in the invitation. Bland was indefinably but inexorably outof it. This fellow--and there Johnny remembered that he did not knowthe name of his host, and that he had but a moment ago all butthreatened to throw him down six flights of winding stairs built all ofsteel or marble or some hard fireproof substance that would makepainful tobogganing. He eyed askance the nameless one and wasimpressed anew by the absolute correctness of his attire. He wonderedthat the fellow was not ashamed to be seen in public with him.

  "My name, by the way, is Lowell. Cliff Lowell." This was in theelevator. "The desk clerk will tell you as much as any one need knowabout me, if you feel the need of credentials." The elevator halted,and the human automaton who operated it slid open the door. "I don'toften yield to these sudden impulses myself. But life is a bore--andyou are different. I somehow feel as if we are going to hit it off allright together. At any rate, I am willing to gamble on theacquaintance for one evening. I take it you are in the same boat--eh?"

  "Sure," said Johnny, flattered without in the least knowing what it wasthat warmed him toward Cliff Lowell
so suddenly. "I suppose I oughtto--my mechanic was to wait outside for me--"

  Cliff Lowell lifted an eyebrow and smiled a little smile. "You musthave a very well-trained mechanic if he really would wait outside atthis time in the evening." He bowed and lifted his hat to animpressive old lady in some glittery, lacy kind of gown, and Johnnybowed also and blushed because a girl just beyond the old lady gave hima slant-eyed glance and the shadow of a smile. Ten steps farther afierce looking man with a wide, white frontage and a high silk hatslowed his pace and cried, "Why, hello, Cliff!" in a manner not at allfierce. Between there and the entrance Johnny counted seven importantlooking persons who recognized his host as an acquaintance. He beganto wonder at his own presumption in receiving one of Los Angeles'leading citizens as he had received Cliff Lowell. It was with aconscious effort that he maintained his attitude of sturdy independence.

  Bland, it transpired, had tired of waiting for Johnny. He was nowhereto be seen, and with a parting salute from the white-gloved doormanthey set out briskly for the regular place Cliff Lowell had chosen tohonor with his patronage. The regular place was such a very regularplace that it had disdained blatant electric signs and portents of itspresence. Cliff led Johnny up a flight of narrow stairs and turnedsharply to the left through a subdued kind of vestibule that gave noinkling of what lay beyond, except that a chipper young hat boy tooktheir headgear and the cane and gloves before they went on.

  Johnny Jewel, desert product that he was, nearly stampeded before Cliffhad safely seated him, with the help of the head waiter, who spoke witha full French flavor. The table chosen for them stood before a longdivan whereon they sat side by side and faced the room filled tooverflowing with small groups of diners who seemed very much at homethere and very much pleased with life and with one another. Many ofthem called greetings to Cliff Lowell, who responded with his boredsmile, like a matinee idol who feels he needs a vacation.

  Girls with improbable complexions and sophisticated eyes sent Johnnycurious glances and provocative smiles when their companions were notlooking. "Movie queens," Cliff Lowell explained in an undertone,"coming and going. Some of them dreaming of coronation, others aboutready for the axe. It has taken them just about ten seconds toregister interest in the strange male person who must be Somebody or hewould not be here in high boots and flannel shirt."

  Johnny flushed. "You saw the clothes I had on, and you brought mehere," he retorted. "The joke's on you."

  "No less than seven have given me the high sign to bring you over andintroduce you," Cliff Lowell went on imperturbably. "They arefrantically searching their memories at the present moment, trying toplace you. They are positive that you are some star whom they have notmet, and they are trying to remember what picture they ought to mentionwhen the introduction has been successfully accomplished." He pausedlong enough to murmur an order to a hovering waiter whose English wasalmost unintelligible to Johnny because of its French.

  "Should the crisis have to be met suddenly, do you wish to dodge thepublicity that would follow if I told just who you are? There arecertain incidents which you do not care to have recalled. I made sureof that at the hotel, you remember."

  "I don't want to know anybody. I came here to eat. If I can't do thatwithout being introduced to a lot of folks, I'll beat it and find somelunch counter that will feed me without trying to make a boob outa me.I ain't dressed to meet company, anyway. And I don't want anythingfrom this bunch except to be left alone."

  "Fair enough," Cliff sighed contentedly and leaned back at his ease."You're wiser than you realize. Knowing this bunch wouldn't get youanywhere, except at the bottom of your pile, maybe. What you want isto steer clear of everything that will interfere with what you'reafter. Here come the eats--you'll know presently why I brought youhere."

  Waiters came, brought strange preparations of food which were arevelation to Johnny, to whom meat had meant just meat, boiled, roastedor fried, to whom salad meant two or three kinds of vegetables hashedtogether and served sour. Girls' glances were wasted upon him while hetasted dubiously, succumbed to each new and delicious viand, andexplored farther, secretly eager for more wonders.

  "I know now why you brought me here," he sighed contentedly after thecoffee was served. "It wasn't to see the girls, either. Grub's gotpossibilities I never dreamed about."

  Lowell smiled, sent a negligent nod toward a group that had just comein and recognized him, and tendered Johnny his tooled leather cigarettecase.

  "I never talk business until after I am fed," he observed. "Butnow--since you have nothing definite in view except the making ofmoney, suppose you listen to a little proposition I am going to makeyou. It's rather confidential, however--"

  "My ears are open," said Johnny, "and my mouth is shut. I don't haveto like your proposition, but in case I don't I can forget thingsmighty easy."

  "Good. I'll make it short, and you can take it or leave it. I am nota reporter; not the kind of reporter you mean. I gather special stufffor a big news syndicate. Big stuff, stuff the little fellows neverdream of going after. I get, of course, big returns.

  "My real object in seeing you to-night was not exactly the getting of anews item for any paper. I saw your name on the register, found thatyou had flown over here, and wanted to see you and take your measurefor the job I have in mind.

  "Briefly, the proposition is this: I need a flyer who can fly, knows alittle of the desert, has got some nerve on the ground as well as inthe air, and who can keep his mouth shut. It's harder than you maythink to find one who measures up, and who is willing to avoid thelimelight. They all want publicity, and publicity is what this jobmust shun. What I am working on now is big stuff across the border. Ican get the news, all right--I am in touch with some of the big menover there--but the deuce of it is the going back and forth. Thisembargo business that has been framed lately is interfering with mywork. I could get a passport, yes. Perfectly simple. I could goacross, and I could get the news I want. But the bother of it, and thedelay here and there is--well, it's a big handicap. You can see thateasily.

  "My idea, therefore, and I think it's a good one, is to hire you totake me over and back. It might take all your time and it mightnot--but I should want to have you on call, ready to go anywhere, anytime, at a moment's notice. It would make a tremendous difference inthe time-saving alone. You would have to--what about your mechanic?"

  "What about him? I don't just get you." Johnny looked at him startled.

  Lowell sat leaning one elbow lightly on the table, his slim, manicuredfingers tapping silently the rhythm of some tune which he wassubconsciously following. It was the only sign of nervousness hedisplayed, save a frequent swift scanning of faces in the room. Anydiner there who observed him would have said that Cliff was retailingsome current scandal which concerned an acquaintance. Any diner wouldhave said that the good-looking boy in flyer's togs was listening withmental reservations, ready to argue a point, but nevertheless eager tohear the whole story.

  "I mean, what about the mechanic? Have you any contract with him, orare you tied up with him in any way? Can you get rid of him, in otherwords?"

  Johnny studied his little cup of coffee, his subconscious mindregistering the incongruity of such a skimpy amount of coffee aftersuch an amazingly ample meal. Consciously he was having a hurried,whispered conversation with his native honesty.

  "Well--I ain't married to Bland," he stated judicially, meetingcandidly the other's intent stare. "I never made any contract withhim. He agreed to do certain things for me if I'd bring him here--andI brought him. On top of that, he talked about our doing certainthings when we got here--it was exhibition flying and taking upjoyriders--and I kinda fell in with the idea. I never said, right outin so many words, that I'd do it. I just kinda let it ride along theway he said. He sure expects me to go ahead, but--"

  Lowell exhaled a mouthful of smoke and sipped his coffee as though hewas relieved of some doubt. "That's all right, then. You are
free tochange your mind. And you're lucky that you have something to changeto, if I may say what I think. There's nothing in that sort of thingany more. It would scarcely pay for the wear and tear on your machine,I imagine. You certainly could not pull down any real money doing thatlittle stuff. Now let's see--"

  He smoked and studied some mental question until Johnny grew restiveand finished the demitasse at a gulp. "Let's see. Suppose we say athousand dollars a week for you and your machine. It will be worththat to me if you make good and take me across where I want to go,whenever I want to go, and fetch me back without bringing all theborder patrols buzzing around, asking why and how. That, frankly, isone point that must be taken care of. It is no crime to cross theborder without a passport--if you can get across. Technically it isunlawful at the present time, but in reality it is all right, if youcan get away with it. We could not walk up boldly and say, 'Listen, wewant permission to fly across the line on business of our own.' They'dhave to say no. That's their orders, issued to stop a lot of smugglingand that sort of thing. But we are not smugglers--at least," hequalified with a faint smile, "I am not. What I shall bring back willbe legitimate news of international importance, gleaned in a legitimateway. In fact it will be of some use to the government, though thegovernment could scarcely authorize me to gather it.

  "Now as to credentials, you will do me a favor if you look me up. Asto yourself, I know all about you, thanks to that adventurous spiritwhich brought you into the limelight and is really of tremendous valueto me. Seriously now, as a sporting proposition and a chance to makemoney, how does it strike you?"

  "Why--it looks all right, on the face of it." Johnny was trying to beextremely cautious. "I'll have to think it over, though. For onething, I'll want to do some figuring before I can say whether the priceis right. It costs money to keep an airplane in the air, Mr. Lowell.You'd be surprised to see just how much a fellow has to pay out to keepa motor in good mechanical shape. And, of course, I wouldn't look atit at any price unless I was dead sure it was straight. If you'llexcuse my saying so, I ain't after dirty money. It's got to be clean."

  "That's the stuff! I'm glad to hear you come right out and say so,because that's where I stand. I want you to look me up. Here's thecard of the International News Syndicate--they handle nothing but bigpolitical stuff, you understand. A sort of secret service ofnewspaperdom. Ask them about me and about the proposition. They'll bepaying you the money--not me. Ask any one else you like, only don'tmention this particular matter we've been discussing. As the lawyerssay, secrecy is the essence of this contract." He laughed and crookeda finger at the waiter who had served them so assiduously, got hisdinner check and paid it with a banknote that, even deducting the highcost of eating in a regular place, returned him a handful of change.He tipped the waiter generously and rose.

  "You'd have to keep under cover as much as possible," he continuedplanning, when they were again on the street. "How much attention didyou attract, Mr. Jewel, when you landed?"

  "Why, not any. It was about dark, and we lit in a beanfield overbeyond Inglewood. We left the plane there and came in on a street car.I don't guess anybody saw us at all."

  "Fine! This is playing our way from the start. If any one noticesyour name on the hotel register and asks you questions, you came aftercertain parts for your motor--any errand will do--and you expect toleave again at any time. This does not commit you to the proposition,Mr. Jewel. It is merely keeping our lines straight in case you doaccept. I want you to sleep on it--but please don't talk in yoursleep!" He laughed, and Johnny laughed with him and promiseddiscretion.

  The last he saw of Cliff Lowell that night, Cliff was talking with agroup of important-looking men who treated him as though they had knownhim for a long, long while. Their manifest intimacy struck Johnny as atacit endorsement of Cliff's character and reputation. It would seemalmost an insult to go around quizzing people about a man so popularwith the leading citizens, Johnny told himself. He would think theproposition over, certainly. He was not fool enough to jump headfirstinto a thing like that at the first crook of a stranger's finger, but--

  "Good golly! Talk about luck! Why, at a thousand dollars a week, Ican pay old Sudden off in a month, doggone him. And have a thousand tothe good. And if the job holds out for another month or two--"

  That, if you please, is how Johnny "thought it over and did somefiguring!"