"Oh, he can fly," Mary V admitted slightingly. "But he's so tricky, so--so absolutely impossible! A girl friend of mine has a brother that goes in for that sort of thing. I think he invented something that goes on a motor, or something. And I know he was terribly cheated by Bland Halliday. I think Bland borrowed a lot of money, or used a lot that was intended for something else--anyway, Jerry just hates the _name_ of Bland Halliday. I didn't know him that day I met him with you, because they look so different all togged up to fly. But I remembered him afterwards, and I was going to warn you, only," she looked at Johnny sidelong, "you're a very difficult person to warn, or to do anything with. You are always so--so pugnacious!" "I like that," said Johnny, in a tone that meant he did not like it at all. "Well, you always argue and disagree with a person. Besides," she added vaguely, "you weren't there. And I can't be riding every day to Sinkhole." "You could have seen me when I took those last horses back the other day," Johnny reminded her. "You did see me, only you pretended to be blind. Deaf, too, for I hollered hello when I passed, and you never looked around!" "Did you?" Mary V smiled innocently. "Well, I'm here now; and I came just on purpose to warn you about that fellow. And you haven't told me the stingiest little bit about your aeroplane yet, or where you got it, or what you're going to do with it, or anything." Johnny's lips twitched humorously. "I got it where it was setting like a hawk--a broken-winged hawk--on the burning sands of Mexico. I hauled it over here with four of the orneriest mules that ever flapped an ear at white men. It cost me just sixty dollars, all told--not counting repairs. And I'm going to ride the sky, and part the clouds like foam--" "'And brand each star with the Rolling R, An-d lead the Great Bear ho-ome,'" Mary V chanted promptly. "Oh, Skyrider, won't you take me along too? I've always been just _dying_ to fly!" "You'll have to stave off death till I learn how--and then maybe you'll wish you hadn't." "Oh, won't the boys be just _wild_! Where have you got it, Johnny? I've looked every place I could think of, the last two weeks, and I couldn't--" "Oh--_hoh!_" cried Johnny. "So it was you I've been trailing, was it? I wondered who was doing so much riding down this way. You had me guessing, and that's a fact." "Well, you've had me; now 'fess up the whole mystery of it, Johnny. You _know_ that wasn't you, telephoning with a cold, that night. You know very well you weren't at camp at all; not for a couple of days, anyway. Probably that was while you went to the burning sands of Mexico. I don't understand that part, either; how you found out, and all. But who was it 'phoned for you? There were things he said--"