CHAPTER ELEVEN
THIEVES RIDE BOLDLY
Johnny Jewel heaved his weary bones off his bed and went stiffly toanswer the 'phone. Reluctantly as well, for he had not yet succeeded informulating an excuse for his absence that he dared try on old SuddenSelmer. Excuses had seemed so much less important when temptation wasplucking at his sleeve that almost any reason had seemed good enough. Butnow when the bell was jingling at him, no excuse seemed worth the breathto utter it. So Johnny's face was doleful, and Johnny's red-rimmed eyeswere big and solemn.
And then, when he had braced himself for the news that he was jobless,all he heard was this:
"Hello! How's everything?"
"All right," he answered dully to that. So far as he knew, everything wasall right--save himself.
"Feed holding out all right in the pasture?" came next. And when Johnnysaid that it was: "Well, say! If you get time, you might ride up andget one or two of these half-broke bronks and ride 'em a little. The boyshave got a few here now that's pretty well gentled, and they're workin'on a fresh bunch. The quieter they are, the better price they'll bring,and they won't have time to ride 'em all. You can handle one or two allright, can't yuh?"
"Yes, I guess I can," said Johnny, still waiting for the blow to fall.
"Well, how many will the pasture feed, do yuh think? You can turn out oneof the couple you've got."
"Oh, there's food enough for three, all right, I guess--"
"Well, all right--there's a couple of good ones I'd like to have gentleddown. Cold's better, ay?"
"I--why, I guess so." Johnny just said that from force of habit. His mindrefused to react to a question which to him was meaningless. Johnny couldnot remember when he had last had a cold.
"Well, all right--to-morrow or next day, maybe. I'll have the boys keepup the two I want rode regular. If everything's running along smooth, youbetter come up and get 'em. And when they're bridlewise and all, you canbring 'em in and get more. These boys won't have time to get more 'n therough edge off...."
When he had hung up the receiver, Johnny sat down on a box, took his jawsbetween his two capable palms and thought, staring fixedly at the floorwhile he did so.
It took him a full twenty minutes to settle two obvious facts comfortablyin his brain, but he did it at last and crawled into his bed with a longsigh of thankfulness, though his conscience hovered dubiously over thosefacts like a hen that has hatched out goslings and doesn't know what todo about them. One fact--the big, important one--was that Johnny stillhad his job, and that it looked as secure and permanent as any job canlook in this uncertain world. The other fact--the little, teasinglymysterious one--was that Sudden evidently did not know of Johnny'stwo-day absence from camp, and foolishly believed Johnny the victim of acold.
But Johnny's conscience was too much a boy's resilient fear ofconsequences to cluck very long over what was, on the face of it, apiece of good luck. It permitted Johnny to sleep and to dream happilyall night, and it did not pester him when he awoke at daylight.
Just because it became a habit with him, I shall tell you what was thefirst thing Johnny did after he crawled into his clothes. He went outhastily and saddled his horse and rode to the rock-faced bluff, turnedinto a niche and rode back to the farther end, then swung sharply to theleft.
It was there. Dusty, desert-whipped, one wing drooping sharply at theend, the flat tire accentuating the tilt; with its tail perked sidewiselike a fish frozen in the act of flipping; reared up on its landing gearwith its little, radiatored nose crossed rakishly by the gravel-scarredpropeller, that looked as though mice had nibbled the edges of itsblades, it thrilled him as it had never thrilled him before.
It was his own, bought and paid for in money, and the sweat of long,toil-filled miles. It looked bigger in that niche than it had lookedout on the desert with nothing but the immensity of earth and sky tomeasure it by. It looked bigger, more powerful--a mechanical miraclewhich still seemed more dream than reality. And it was his, absolutelythe sole property of Johnny Jewel, who had retrieved it from a foreigncountry--his prize.
"Boy! I sure do wish she was ready to take the air," Johnny said underhis breath to Sandy, who merely threw up his head and stared at the thingwith sophisticated disapproval.
Johnny got down and went up to it, laid a hand on the propeller, whereits varnish was still smooth. Through a rift in the rock wall a brightyellow beam of sunlight slid kindly along the padded rim of the pilot'spit; touched Johnny's face, too, in passing.
Johnny sighed, stood back and looked long at the whole great sweep of theplanes, pulled the smile out of his lips and went back to the cabin. Hewouldn't have time to work on her to-day, he told himself very firmly. Hewould have to ride the fences like a son-of-a-gun to make up for losttime. And look over the horses, too, and ride past that boggy place inthe willows. It would keep him on the jump until sundown. He wouldn'teven have a chance to go over his lessons and blue prints, to see justwhat he'd have to send for to repair the plane. He didn't even know thename of some of the parts, he confessed to himself.
He hated to leave the place unguarded while he made his long tour of thefence and the range within. He did not trust the brother of Tomaso, whohad been too easily jewed down in his price, Johnny thought. He believedold Sudden was right in having nothing to do with Mexicans, in forbiddingthem free access to his domain. Johnny thought it would be a good idea todo likewise. Tomaso was to bring back the pliers, hammer, and whateverother tools they had taken, but after that they would have to keep off.He would tell Tomaso so very plainly. The prejudices of the Rolling Rwere well enough known to need no explanation, surely.
So Johnny ate a hurried breakfast, caught his fresh horse out of thepasture, and rode off to do in one day enough work to atone for the twohe had filched from the Rolling R. He covered a good deal of ground, sofar as that went. He rode to the very spot where fifteen Rolling R horseshad been driven through the fence and across the border, but since histhoughts were given to the fine art of repairing a somewhat batteredairplane, he did not observe where the staples had been pulled from threeposts, the wires laid flat and weighted down with rocks, so that thehorses and several horsemen could pass, and the wires afterward fastenedin place with new staples. It is true that the signs were not glaring,yet he might have noticed that the wires there were nailed too high onthe posts. And if he had noticed that, he could not have failed to seewhere the old staples had been drawn and new ones substituted. Thesignificance of that would have pried Johnny's mind loose from even sofascinating a subject as the amount of fabric and "dope" he would need tobuy, and what would be their probable cost, "laid down" in Agua Dulce,which was the nearest railroad point.
As it was, he rode over tracks and traces and bits of sinister evidencehere and there, and because the fence did not lie flat on the ground, andbecause many horses were scattered in the creek bottom and the draws anddry arroyos, he returned to camp satisfied that all was well on theSinkhole range. He passed the cabin by and headed straight for his secrethangar, gloated and touched and patted and planned until the shadowscrept in so thick he could not see, and then remembered how hungry hewas. He returned to the cabin, turned his tired horse loose in thepasture, with Sandy standing disconsolately beside the wire gate, hishaltered head drooping in the dusk and his mind visioning heat and sandand sweaty saddle blankets for the morrow.
Dark had painted out the opal tints of the afterglow. The desert layquiet, empty, lonesome under the first stars. Johnny's eyes strained tosee the ridge that held close his treasure. He had a nervous fear thatsomething might happen to it in the night, and he fought a desire to takehis blankets and sleep over there in that niche. Tomaso's brother knewwhere it was, and the Mexican who had driven the mules that hauled itthere. What if they tried to steal it, or something?
That night, before he went to bed, he saddled Sandy and rode over to makesure that the airplane was still there. He carried a lantern because hefeared the moon would not shine in where it was. It was there, jus
t as hehad placed it, but Johnny could not convince himself that it was safe. Hehad an uneasy feeling that thieves were abroad that night, and he stayedon guard for an hour or more before he finally consoled himself with theremembrance of the difficulties to be surmounted before even the mostpersistent of thieves could despoil him.
After that he rode back to the cabin and studied his blue prints and histyped lessons, and made a tentative list of the materials for repairs,and hunted diligently through certain magazine advertisements, hoping tofind some firm to which he might logically address the order.
Obstacles loomed large in the path of research. The Instructions forRepairing an Airplane (Lesson XVII) were vague as to costs and quantitiesand such details, and Johnny's judgment and experience were even morevague than the instructions. He gnawed all the rubber off his pencilbefore he hit upon the happy expedient of sending a check for all hecould afford to spend for repairs, explaining just what damage had beenwrought to his plane, and casting himself upon the experience, honestyand mercy of the supply house. Remained only the problem of discoveringthe name and address of the firm to be so trusted, but that took him farpast midnight.
He was just finishing his somewhat lengthy letter of explanations anddirections and a passable diagram of the impertinent twist to the tailof his machine. The moon was up, wallowing through a bank of clouds thatmade weird shadows on the plain, sweeping across greasewood and sage andbarren sand like great, ungainly troops of horsemen; filling the arroyosand the little, deep washes with inky blackness.
Up from one deep washout a close-gathered troop of shadows came thrustingforward toward the lighter slope beyond. These did not travel in oneeasterly direction as did those other scudding, wind-driven nightwraiths. They climbed straight across the wind to a bare level which theycrossed, then swerved to the north, dipped into a black hollow andemerged, swinging back toward the south. A mile away a light twinkledsteadily--the light before which Johnny Jewel was bending his brown,deeply cogitating head while he drew carefully the sketch of his newairplane's tail, using the back of a steel table knife for a rule andguessing at the general proportions.
"Midnight an' after--and he's still up and at it," chuckled one of thedim shapes, waving an arm toward the light. "Must a took it into theshack with 'm!"
Another one laughed rather loudly. Too loudly for a thief who did notfeel perfectly secure in his thieving.
"Betcher we c'ud taken his saddle hoss out the pen an' ride 'im off, andhe wouldn't miss 'im till he jest happened to look down and see where hisboots was wore through the bottom hoofin' it!" continued the speakercontentedly. "Me, I wisht we c'd git hold of some of them bronks they'rebustin' now at the ranch. Tex was tellin' me they's shore some goodones."
"What's the good of wishin'?" a man behind him growled. "We ain't doingso worse."
"No--but broke hosses beats broomtails. Ain't no harm in wishin' they'dturn loose and bust some for us; save us that much work."
The one who had laughed broke again into a high cackle. "What we'd oughtado," he chortled, "is send 'em word to hereafter turn in lead ropeswith every hoss we take off 'n their hands. And by rights we'd oughta_stip_-ilate that all hosses must be broke to lead. It ain't right--thema gentlin' down everything that goes to army buyers, and us, here,havin' to take what we can git. It ain't right!"
"The kid, he'll maybe help us out on that there. I wisht Sudden'd take anotion to turn 'em all over to this-here sky-ridin' fool--"
And the "sky-ridin' fool," at that moment carefully reading his orderover the third time, honestly believed that he was watching over theinterests of the Rolling R, and was respected and would presently beenvied by all who heard his name. I wish he could have heard thosenight-riders talking about him, jeering even at the Rolling R fortrusting him to guard their property. This chapter would have ended witha glorious fight out there under the moon, because Johnny would not havestopped to count noses before he started in on them.
But even though horse thieves are riding boldly and laughing as theyride, you cannot expect the bullets to fly when honest men have not yetdiscovered that they are being robbed. Johnny never dreamed that dutycalled him out on the range that night. He went to bed with his brain awhirligig in which airplanes revolved dizzily, and the marauders rodeunhindered to wherever they were going. Thus do dramatic possibilities goto waste in real life.