The Thunder Bird Page 4

  CHAPTER FOUR

  MARY V TO THE RESCUE

  Mary V Selmer was a young woman of quick impulses, a complete disdainfor consequences as yet unseen, and a disposition to have her own way,to override obstacles man-made or sent by fate to thwart her desires.Ask any man on the Rolling R Ranch, where Mary V was born; they willbear witness that this is true.

  Mary V had fired the first gun in the battle of wills. She had toldJohnny Jewel that she would expect him to fly straight to the ranch--ifJohnny loved her. Mary V did not mean to seem dictatorial; she merelywanted Johnny to come back to the Rolling R, and she took what seemedto her to be the surest means of bringing him. So, serenely sure ofJohnny's love, she had no misgivings when the sun went down and thosewonderful, opal tints of the afterglow filled all the sky.

  Johnny would be hungry, of course. She wheedled Bedelia, the cook,into letting her keep the veal roast hot in the oven of the gasolinerange. She herself spread one of mommie's cherished lunch cloths onBedelia's little square table in the kitchen alcove, where she andJohnny could be alone while he ate. She dipped generously into thenewest preserves and filled a glass dish full for him. She raided thegreat refrigerator, closing her eyes to the morrow's reckoning. Johnnywould be hungry, Johnny was a sort of prodigal, and the fatted calfshould be killed figuratively and the ring placed upon his finger.

  She told her mommie and her dad that Johnny was coming, and thateverything was all right, and Johnny would be sensible and settle downnow, because he was not going to enlist after all. She kissed themboth and flew back to the kitchen because she had thought of somethingelse that Johnny would like to eat.

  This, you must understand, was while Johnny was feeding Bland,--andhimself,--in "Red's Quick Lunch", and worrying because Bland tactlesslychose such expensive fare as T-bone steak and French fried. She wasout on the porch, watching the sky toward Tucson and looking ratherwistful, while Johnny was generously sorting out clothes for Bland andinsisting upon the bath and the change before Bland should sleep inJohnny's bed. Mary V, you will observe, had no telepathic sense at all.

  She watched while dark came and brought its star canopy,--and did notbring Johnny. Long after she saw the rim of hills draw back into vagueshadows, she remained on the porch and listened for the hum of theairplane speeding toward her. He would come, of course; he loved her.

  Johnny did love her more than he had ever loved any one in his life,but a man's love is not like a woman's love, they say.

  "He must have had some trouble with his motor," Mary V observedoptimistically to her sleepy parents, when their early bedtime arrived."I'm going to leave the lights all on, so he'll see where to land. Itwill be tremendously exciting to hear him come buzzing up in the dark.It'll sound exactly like an air raid--only he won't have any bombs todrop."

  "He'll have himself to drop," her mother tactlessly pointed out. "Iguess he won't do much flying around in the dark, Mary V. Not if he'sgot sense enough to come in when it rains. You go to bed, and don't besetting out there in the mosquitoes. They're thick, to-night."

  "Well, for gracious sake, mom! It's perfectly easy to fly at night.Over in France they _always_--"

  "It's the lightin' I'm talking about," her mother interrupted with thatterrible logic that insists upon stating unpleasant truths, "And thisain't France, Mary V. You go on to bed. I'm going to turn out thelights."

  "And have him bump right into the house? A person would think youwanted Johnny to smash himself all to pieces again! And it isn't goingto cost anything so terrible to leave the lights on for another littleminute, mom! A few cents' worth of gas will run the dynamo--"

  "For land's sake, Mary V, don't go into a tantrum just at bedtime.Who's talking about cost? Your father can't sleep with all the lightsturned on in the house, and neither can I. And it ain't a particle ofuse for you to sit up and wait for Johnny; he won't come to-night, andyou needn't look for him."

  Mary V did not want to hear a statement of that kind, even if it were amere argumentative flourish on the part of a selfish, unsympatheticparent who would jeopardize a person's life rather than annoy herselfwith a light or two burning. Mary V immediately had what her mothercalled a tantrum. That is, she began to cry and to declaimunreasonably that no one cared whether Johnny smashed himself all topieces in the dark--that perhaps certain persons wished that Johnnywould fall and be killed, just so they could sleep!

  Her mother may have been weak in discipline, but now that Mary V wasspoiled to the extent of having tantrums, she proved herself asensible, level-headed sort of woman. She went away to her bed quiteunmoved by the tears and self-pity, and left Mary V alone.

  "You turn out all the lights except the porch light, Mary V," OldSudden himself commanded from his bedroom door. "I guess if he comes,one light will be as good as a dozen. You better do as your mothertells you. The kid's got more sense than to tackle flying from Tucsonafter sundown. If I thought he didn't have, I'd kick him off theranch!"

  This perfectly heartless statement served to distract Mary V's mindfrom her mother's lack of feeling. She obediently turned out thelights,--all the lights, since they meant to kill Johnny in coldblood!--and wept anew upon the darkened porch, while swarms ofmosquitoes hummed just without the screen, sending a slim scout throughnow and then to torment Mary V, who spatted her chiffon-covered armsviciously and wished that she were dead, since no one had any feelingsor any heart or any conscience on that ranch.

  It was midnight before healthy youth demanded sleep and dulled herhalf-feigned agonies of self-pity. It was morning before she began tofeel really uneasy about Johnny. After her tantrum she slept late, sothat when she awoke it was past time for Johnny's arrival, supposing hehad started at sunrise, which she now admitted to herself was the mostsensible time for the flight. Eight o'clock--and he must have started,else he would have called her up on the 'phone and told her he was notcoming. For that matter, he would have called up the night before ifhe had not meant to do as she wanted him to do. Of course, Johnny wasawfully stubborn sometimes, and he might have waited until morning,just to worry her. But he would have called up if he hadn't intendedto come. A little thing like hanging up her receiver would not botherhim, she argued, and a little obstacle like long-distance toll neveroccurred to Mary V, whose idea of poverty was vague indeed.

  He must have started this morning, at the latest. And he should havebeen here before now. To make sure that he had not come while sheslept Mary V went to a window overlooking the open space between thehouse and corrals. It was empty, but to make doubly sure she askedBedelia. For answer, Bedelia threatened to quit, declaring shrillythat she would not work where nothing was safe under lock and key, anda girl might work her fingers to the bone putting up jell for spoiled,ungrateful, meddlesome Matties to waste, and so forth and so on.

  Mary V wisely withdrew from the kitchen without having her questionanswered. She asked no more questions of any one. In silk kimono andIndian moccasins, one of her pet incongruities, she forthwith exploredthe yard down by the corrals which the bunk house had hidden from herview. There was no sign of Johnny Jewel's airplane anywhere. Mary Vwas thorough, even to the point of looking for tracks of the littlewheels, but at last she was convinced, and returned to the porch todigest the ominous fact of Johnny's failure to arrive.

  He must have started,--she would not admit the possibility that he haddeliberately ignored her ultimatum,--but she would make sure. So shecalled Tucson on the telephone and was presently in conversation withthe clerk at Johnny's hotel.

  Hotel clerks are usually quite positive that they know what they aresupposed to know about their guests. This clerk interviewed somebodywhile Mary V held the line, and later returned to assure her that Mr.Jewel had been seen leaving the lobby the night before, and had notreturned. A strange young gentleman had occupied Mr. Jewel's room.No, Mr. Jewel had not been seen since last evening. The clerk waspositive, but since Mary V's voice was young and feminine, he permittedher to hold the line while
he called the night clerk to the 'phone.The result was disheartening. Mr. Jewel had brought in a young man,and later had left the hotel. The young man had gone out very earlyand neither had returned. Could he do anything else for her?

  Mary V thanked him coldly and hung up the receiver, mentally callingthe clerk names that were not flattering. Why in the world did he keepharping on that one fact that Johnny had gone out and had not comeback? Why didn't he know where Johnny had gone? What, for gracioussake, was a hotel clerk for, if not to tell a person what she wanted toknow? The strange young man who had slept in Johnny's room meantnothing at all to Mary V just then.

  She had a dislike of creating unnecessary excitement, but it did seemas though something ought to be done about Johnny. All her faith waspinned to the fact that he had let her final word stand uncontradicted;he had not told her he would not come. She went outside and stared forawhile in the direction of Tucson, turning with a little start when hermother spoke just behind her.

  "Did Johnny tell you he was coming, Mary V?"

  "My goodness, mom! Of _course_, he--well, it was just the same assaying he would. I told him he had to come and I'd expect him, and hedidn't say he wouldn't. Why, for gracious sake, do you suppose I wentand fixed his din--dinner--?" Mary V gulped down a sob she had notsuspected was present.

  "Well, there, now, don't cry about it. You'll have plenty betterreasons to cry after you're married to him. Seems to me the boy'schanged considerable, if he comes and goes at the crook of your finger,Mary V. Johnny's most as stubborn as you be, if I'm any judge. If Iwas in your place, Mary V, I'd 'phone and find out if he's started,before I commenced crying because he was late."

  "I did 'phone. And he wasn't at the hotel--"

  "Land sakes, child, I heard you! You might as well have asked what theweather was like. If I was you I'd ask if his airplane is there. Ifit is, there's no sense in you straining your eyes looking for it. Ifit ain't, he's likely on the way somewhere. But from what I heard ofyour talk last night, and from what I know about Johnny--"

  "For pity's _sake_, mom! If you listened in--"

  "There now, Mary V, you shouldn't object to your own mother overhearinganything you've got to say. And if you expect me to clap my hands overmy cars and start on a long lope across the desert the minute you beginto 'phone--"

  Mary V laughed and gave her mother a bear-hug. Mommie was a plumpmatron, and the idea of her loping across the desert with her handsover her ears was funny. "You do have tremendously sensible ideas,mommie, though you simply do not understand Johnny as I do. I amperfectly positive that he would not disappoint me. However, I'll justmake sure when he started. I'm so afraid of some horrible accident--"

  "Well, you 'phone first, before you begin to borrow trouble," hermother advised her shrewdly. "I know if you had laid down the law tome the way you did to Johnny, I'd stay away if it was the last thing Idid on earth. And Johnny--"

  Mary V called Tucson again, and mommie subsided so as not to interrupt.There was a delay while the hotel clerk obligingly sent a boy over towhere Johnny kept his airplane. While she waited for his ring, Mary Vwent restlessly out to watch the sky toward Tucson. Half an hourslipped away. Mary V was just declaring pettishly that she could walkto Tucson and find out, while she waited for that idiotic clerk, whenhe called her. Mary V listened, hung up the receiver with tremblingfingers, and went to find her mother in the kitchen.

  "Mommie, the plane is gone, and they are almost sure he went lastnight, because he was seen going that way after he left the hotel. Sohe did start, just as I told him to do--and something awful hashappened to him--and where's dad?"

  Mary V's father, whom men for some unaccountable reason called "Sudden"when he was not present, crawled out from under the rear end of hisbattered touring car when Mary V's moccasins and the fluttering hem ofblue kimono moved within his range of vision. Sudden's face wassmudged with black grease and the dust of the desert, and in his handwas a crescent wrench worn shiny where it had nipped nuts and bolts.

  "You musta done some fancy driving the other day," he greeted hisanxious-faced daughter. "Didn't you know you was sliding a wheel everytime you threw on the brake? Wonder to me is you didn't skid off agrade somewhere!" He hitched himself into a new and uncomfortable poseand set the wrench on a nut, screwing his well-fed face into anagonized grimace while he put his full strength into the turn. "If Icould find a man that I'd trust my life with on these roads, I'd haveme a chauffeur," he grumbled for the millionth time. "That reformedblacksmith musta welded these nuts on to the bolts," he added, andmuttered something savage when the wrench slipped and he barked aknuckle. "Well, what yuh want? Go ahead and have it, or do it--onlydon't stand watching me when I'm trying to--" He gritted his teeth,threw the wrench away and picked up another. "Go ask your mother," heexclaimed. "Tell her I'll let you if she will."

  At another time Mary V would have deeply resented the implication thatshe never approached her dad save when she wanted something; or morelikely she would have stated her want before her dad had time to speak.Just now she was hopefully watching a buzzard that sailed onoutstretched, rigid wings, high in the sky. It seemed to be circlingtoward the ranch, and it looked like an airplane flying very high.Mary V's heart forgot to beat while she watched it. But the buzzardsighted something, flapped its wings and went off in another direction,and the girl winced as though some one had dropped a leaden weight onher chest.

  "Dad!" The voice did not sound like Mary V's, and her father ducked hishead out where he could look up at her with startled attention. "Wemust have the car--and all the boys--and get out and find Johnny.He--he started in his airplane, to come to the ranch. And they haven'tseen him since last night, and--and you know what happened at Sinkhole!"

  Sudden got heavily to his feet and stood looking down at her, hiswhimsical mouth slack with dismay. But he pulled himself together andtook the dominant, cool initiative which was so much a part of hisnature.

  "You say he started last night. How do you know?"

  "The hotel clerk--I 'phoned--oh, don't start cross-questioning, dad! I_know_! His plane is gone, and--he should have been here last night!He was alone, and--oh, get the boys and start them out! There isn't aminute--he may be dead somewhere--or hurt--"

  "Now, now, we'll only bungle things by getting excited, Mary V. I'llsend the cook after the boys while I fix this brake and fill up the gastank. You go get some clothes on, and tell your mother to get theemergency box ready, in case he's hurt. And if you can be calm enough,you 'phone to Tucson to the sheriff, and tell him to send out a partyfrom that end, and work this way. Tell them to scatter out, but keepthe general airline to the ranch. We'll start in from here. And forLord's sake, baby, don't look like that! We'll find him--and thechances are he's all right; maybe landed for some little repair orsomething. Now hurry along, if you expect to go with me, because Iwon't wait a minute."

  Mary V looked at her dad, standing there grease-smudged and calm andcapable, and half the terror went out of her eyes to leave room forhope. Her dad had such a way of gathering up the threads of logic anddrawing them firmly into coherent action--just as a skilled driverwould take the slack reins of a runaway team and pull them down to asteady pace. It seemed to her that Johnny Jewel was half found beforeever her dad laid down the wrench and began unscrewing the cap of thegas tank.

  Like a fluttering bluebird she flew back to the house to do hisbidding. Excited she was, and worried, and more than ever inclined toexclamation points and unfinished sentences; but she was no longerpanic-stricken. She was the Mary V who would move heaven and earth andslosh all the water out of our five oceans in her headlongdetermination to do what she had set out to do.

  In two minutes she had her mother and Bedelia rushing around likescared hens, trying to collect the things she wanted to take forJohnny's comfort and welfare. In three she was bullying thelong-distance operator. In five she was laying down the law to thesheriff, just as though he were one
of her father's cowpunchers.

  "Get all the men you can," she commanded, when she had reached thedetails, "and scatter them like a round-up. You know how, of course.And keep them within sight of each other, and make them keep watch inevery hollow and wash and high brush--because an airplane might notshow up very plainly if it's all smashed. And 'phone to all the placesdown this way, and make all the men you can get out and help. It'stremendously important that you find Mr. Jewel immediately, because hemay be badly hurt. My father will give a thousand dollars to the manwho finds him. You tell that to every one, Mr. Sheriff, will you,please? And say that the Rolling R will pay well for the time of thosewho aren't lucky enough to win the reward. We will pay every mantwenty-five dollars that goes out. And have an automobile follow you,with a doctor in it, to take care of John--Mr. Jewel, when he is found.We will start all our riders out from here, and ride until we meet you.Now hurry! Don't stop for a lot of red tape and orders and things--getright out on the trail. And don't forget the thousand dollars reward."Just when the sheriff was saying "Aw right--goo'by," Mary V thought ofsomething else.

  "Be sure and have every man carry an extra canteen for Mr. Jewel.Injured men are always tremendously thirsty. And don't forget thatevery man will get twenty-five dollars, and the man that finds him--"

  The sheriff had hung up, which was rude of him. Mary V had severalother little suggestions to make--but men never do want to be toldanything, especially by a woman. Mary V was glad she had not beenpermitted to say that the sheriff would of course receive an especiallyattractive reward. He could go without, now, just for his smartness.

  The Rolling R boys, hastily summoned by the cook who had galloped offwithout removing his flour-sack apron, came racing in and saddled freshmounts. In a surprisingly short time they were filling canteens andgathering in a restive circle around the big touring car where the bosssat behind the wheel, and Mary V, fidgeting on the seat beside him, wastelling them all for gracious sake to hurry up and get started, and notfool around until dark.

  Bill Hayden got his orders, leaning down from his horse so that MaryV's impatient young voice should not submerge her father's in Bill'sbig, sun-peeled ears. "All right--better scatter out right now, soonas we git past the fence. You foller along about in the middle." Hewheeled and was gone, overtaking the boys who were already starting forthe gate, which little Curley held open until the last man should pass.

  Sudden stepped on the starter, the big car began to gurgle. The searchwas on. A hundred men were presently combing the desert land andlooking for an airplane that had not flown that way--just becauseJohnny Jewel was true to his supreme purpose in life. And just becauseJohnny's whole heart and soul were set upon repaying a conscience debtto Mary V's father, Mary V herself was innocently saddling hisconscience with a still greater debt. For that is the way Fate lovesto set us playing at cross-purposes with each other.