On a Saturday afternoon Spring Street at Sixth is a busy street, as
timid pedestrians and the traffic cop stationed there will testify. In
times not so far distant the general public howled insistently for a
subway, or an elevated railway--anything that would relieve the
congestion and make the downtown district of Los Angeles a decently
safe place to walk in. But subways and elevated railways cost money,
and the money must come from the public which howls for these things.
Gradually the public ceased to howl and turned its attention to dodging
instead. For that reason Sixth and Spring remains a busy corner,
especially at certain hours of the day.
On a certain Saturday, months before the traffic cops grew tired of
blowing whistles and took to revolving silently at stated intervals
with outspread wings after the manner of certain mechanical toys, Mary
V Selmer came from the Western Union's main office, and thanked heaven
silently that her new roadster of the type called the Bear Cat was
still standing at the curb where she had left it. Just beyond it on
the left a stream of automobiles grazed by--but none so new and shiny,
so altogether elegantly "sassy" as the Bear Cat. Mary V, when she
stepped in and settled herself behind the steering wheel, matched the
car, completed its elegant "sassiness," its general air of getting
where it wanted to go, let the traffic be what it might and
devil-take-the-fenders.
Mary V was unhappy, but her unhappiness was somewhat mitigated by the
Bear Cat and her new mole collar that made a soft, fur wall about her
slim throat to her very ears and the tip of her saucy chin, and the
perky hat--also elegantly "sassy"--turned up in front and down behind,
and the new driving gauntlets, and the new coat that had made dad groan
until he had seen Mary V inside it and changed the groan to a proud
little chuckle of admiration.
Mary V was terribly worried about Johnny Jewel. She had been sure that
he had come to Los Angeles, and she had pestered her dad into bringing
her here in the firm belief that she would find him at once and "have
it out with him" once and for all. (Just as though Mary V could ever
settle a quarrel once and for all!) But though she had haunted all the
known and some of the unknown flying fields, she had found no trace of
Johnny. That messenger boy in Tucson had insisted that the plane
climbed high and then flew toward the Coast. And at Yuma she had
learned that the Thunder Bird had alighted there for gas and oil and
had flown toward Los Angeles. But so far as Mary V could discover, it
was still flying.
Hoping to wean her from worrying about Johnny, dad had bought the Bear
Cat. Mary V had owned it for ten days now, and its mileage stood at
1400 and was just about ready to slide another "1" into sight. The
Bear Cat had proven itself a useful little Cat.
Now she shifted from neutral to second, disdaining low speed
altogether, and swung boldly out into the stream of traffic. A Ford
shied off with a startled squawk to let the Bear Cat by. A hurrying
truck that was thinking of cutting in to get first chance within the
safety zone passage thought better of it when Mary V honked her big
Klaxon at him, and stopped with a jolt that nearly brought the Ford to
grief behind it.
But Mary V ignored these trifles. She was busy wondering where she
should go next, and she was scanning swiftly the faces of the
passers-by in the hope of glimpsing the one face she wished most of all
to see.
She reached the corner just as the frame closed against her, and with
one small foot on the clutch pedal and the other on the brake, she
leaned back and scanned the crowd. Abruptly she leaned and beckoned,
saw that her signal went unregarded, and gave three short but terrific
blasts of her Klaxon. Five hundred and forty-nine persons reacted
sharply to the sound and sent startled glances her way. The traffic
cop whirled and looked, the motorman on the car waiting beside her
leaned far out and craned, and the conductor grasped both handrails and
took a step down that he might see the better.
Mary V ignored these trifles. Bland, for whom she had meant it, jumped
and turned a pale, startled pair of eyes her way, and to him she
beckoned imperiously. He hesitated, glanced this way and that, making
a quick mental decision. Mary V had once been candidly tempted to
shoot him and had dallied with the temptation to the point of cocking
her sixshooter and aiming it directly at him. She looked now quite
capable of repeating the performance and of completing what she had
merely started last summer. He went to the edge of the curb, obeying
her expectant stare. The expectant stare continued to transfix him,
and he stepped off the curb and close to the Bear Cat that was growling
in its throat.
"Bland Halliday, where have you _been_, for gracious sake? And where's
Johnny?"
"I ain't been anywhere but here--and I wisht I knowed where Johnny was.
I--"
"Bland Halliday, you tell me instantly! Where's Johnny?"
"Honest, I don't know. I been looking for him myself, and--"
"Bland Halliday, do you want to be torn limb from limb, right here on
the public street before everybody? I want to know where Johnny is,
and I want to know _now_."
"Aw, f'r cat's sake! I ain't saw Johnny f'r three weeks--not since the
night we got here. I been looking--"
Behind them sounded a succession of impatient honks that extended
almost to Seventh Street. The traffic cop had blown his whistle, the
street car had clanged warning and gone on. The truck had shaved past
Mary V and the Ford had followed. Other cars coming up behind had
mistaken the Bear Cat's inaction for closed traffic and had stopped.
Others had stopped behind them; then two other street cars slid up and
blocked the way around.
Mary V was quite oblivious to all this. She was glaring at the one
link between herself and Johnny Jewel. She was bitterly regretting the
fact that she had no gun with which to scare Bland into telling the
truth, and she was wondering what other means of coercion would prove
effective. Bland knew where Johnny was, of course. He was lying, for
some reason--probably because he had the habit and couldn't stop.
Bland kept an eye on Mary V's right hand. He suspected a gun, and
when, in involuntary obedience to the frantic honkings behind her, she
let her hand drop to the gear lever, Bland turned to flee.
"Bland, you come back here!" Bland came. "What do you mean, trying to
avoid answering a perfectly civil question?"
"I did answer it," Bland protested in his whining tone. "I said I
didn't know--"
"That's no answer; that's nothing but a plain old lie. You do know
perfectly well where he is. You left Tucson with Johnny, and you left
Yuma with him. Bland Halliday, what have you done with him?"
Bland's eyes turned slightly glassy. Like a trapped animal, he sent
roving glances here and there--and took in the purposeful approach of
the traffic cop. He turned again toward the curb.
"Don't you dare attempt to leave before--"
"What's the matter here? What you blocking traffic for? Don't you
know I can--"
"Oh! Am I in the way here? I shall move immediately, of course.
Thank you so much! It's really no trouble at all, and I'm tremendously
sorry if I have inconvenienced you or the general public any. I
believe you are really _glad_, down deep in your heart, when somebody
gives you an excuse to leave that horrid little square spot for a
minute. Don't you nearly go wild, having to--Bland! What are you
standing there holding up traffic for? Get in!"
Looking completely dazed and helpless, Bland got in.
"Now we're all ready, Mr. Policeman. Run along back and point the herd
again before all the nice little tame Fords get walked on. I hear one
squalling now. And thank you so much."
Mary V let in the clutch. The Bear Cat slid out across the street,
scattering pedestrians and jeopardizing wheels and fenders as it ducked
past them. The traffic cop stood still for a minute, rubbing his chin
vaguely and staring after Mary V. Then he went back to his post,
grinning and frowning--which gave him a strange, complex expression.
"Aw, say, Miss Selmer--"
"Will you be quiet? Haven't you done harm enough, for gracious sake?
Aren't you satisfied with getting me almost put in jail innocently? If
you had told me at once where Johnny is, I'd be miles away by now. But
no--you hold up traffic trying to deceive me, and I almost get pinched.
I should think you'd be ashamed. Where is Johnny? If you have done
anything to him, Bland Halliday, I'll--hang you!"
"I been telling yuh all I know about it. I don't know where he is, and
I don't know where the plane is. They're both of 'em gone, and that's
Gawd's truth, Miss Selmer. Last I seen of Johnny he was goin' in the
Alexandria. He said he was going to stop there. He registered all
right--I seen his name. He stayed all night, and he was gone the next
day when I went after him. And the plane's gone, I been out there, and
I can't find so much as a sign of it. And that was three weeks ago.
And you kin hang me till I'm dead, but I can't tell nothin' more.
Don't yuh spose I want to know where's he at?"
"Well--" Mary V crossed the path of a street car, leaving the motorman
shivering while he stood on the bell that clamored wildly. "Maybe you
are telling the truth--but I doubt it." They were across Figueroa
Street and speeding out toward Westlake. The Bear Cat was breaking the
speed law, and Mary V had no time to say more.
"Where you takin' me, f'r cat's sake?"
"Oh--for a ride. Don't you like to ride?" Mary V's voice was filled
with amiability; too much so to satisfy Bland, who eyed her with
suspicion.
"Aw, a fellow can't never git a square deal no more. Here I been
hunting the town over trying to git some line on Skyrider. Went and
left me in the lurch after me helping him to a roll of kale that would
choke a nelephant! And I never charged him nothin' for flying, except
just what we agreed on before he got throwed in jail. Handed him over
close to five hundred dollars when he come out--piloted him here, took
him into town, and was planning on helping him to make more money, and
what does he do? Ducks into the Alexandria, leavin' me waitin'
outside, hungry and thirsty and tired as a dog. Him with five hundred,
me with seventy-five! And _he_ wouldn't a knowed any different if I'd
trimmed him! Who was to keep tabs on how many passengers I took up?
And what does he do? Gives me the slip right there in the Alexandria,
that's what he done. I ain't been able to locate him yet, but if ever
I do--"
Mary V swung the Bear Cat out and passed a limousine as though it were
standing still--which it emphatically was not. What if Bland were
telling the truth? What if Johnny had actually dropped out of sight
with five hundred dollars in his possession? That would mean--she
refused to consider just what it would mean. She would wait until her
dad had gotten the truth out of Bland Halliday. She was taking Bland
home, hoping that her dad was there so that she would not be compelled
to keep Bland any longer than was necessary. Bland was seedier than he
had been in Tucson, if that were possible. Too evidently he had no
part of the seventy-five dollars left, if he had ever possessed that
much. Mary V would like to disbelieve everything he said, but a
troubled doubt of his falsity assailed her.
She drove a little faster and presently brought Bland to the door of a
cheerful, wide-porched bungalow patterned somewhat after the Rolling R
home. Old Sudden was just pulling on his driving gloves ready to step
into his own car when the Bear Cat slid up and stopped. He looked at
Bland casually, looked again quickly, pursing his lips. Whereupon his
poker face hid what he thought.
"Dad, come back into the house and talk to Bland Halliday. He told me
the strangest story about Johnny, and--and I wish you'd just talk to
him and see if it's true." Mary V was not altogether without
consideration for the feelings of another, but candor was the keynote
of her nature, and she was very much perturbed, and she did not really
feel that a fellow like Bland Halliday had any feelings to consider.
Sudden smoothed a smile off his mouth. "Well, now, this is very
thoughtful of you; very thoughtful. I appreciate your coming to
consult me before you have settled the whole thing yourself. Come into
the house, young man."
An hour later, Sudden leaned back in his chair and looked at Mary V.
Tight-lipped, paler than she had any right to be, Mary V met the look
wide-eyed. Bland moved his feet anxiously, watching them both.
"I played square with him," he whined. "Either he didn't, or else--"
Sudden's eyes turned to Bland and settled there meditatively. "Yes, I
guess you did," he admitted. "Looks like you had played fair. Where
are you stopping? I'll take you back down town. Need money?"
"Dad! Aren't you going to _do_ anything? If Bland is telling the
truth, don't you see what it means? Something must have happened--"
"Well, now, that will all be attended to, kitten. According to Bland,
Johnny checked out before he disappeared. Also his airplane
disappeared with him. That doesn't look like he'd been made away with,
exactly. He's all right, probably--but we'll find out. I've a right
to know what he did with that flying machine; it's security for that
note of his!"
Mary V sprang to her feet and faced him. "Dad Selmer, I would never
have believed a person on oath if they had said you could be so
perfectly mean and mercenary! If that's all you care about, why take
the Bear Cat and give me that note! Go on--take it! I guess Johnny
has a right to do as he pleases until the note is due, at any rate.
You might at least treat Johnny with ordinary business courtesy, I
should think. You know perfectly well that you wouldn't dare hound
your other creditors like that. But if you are really worried about
that note, I shall deem it a pleasure and a privilege to pay it myself,
and I'm sure the Bear Cat is good for the amount, or if you prefer you
may hold back my allowance, and I shall go without clothes and
everything until it is paid. It's a perfect outrage to keep nagging
Johnny when he's doing his level best and not asking any help from you
or any one else. I'm sure I honor and respect him all the more, and
you would too if you had a drop of human blood--now what are you
grinning for--and trying to hide it? Dad Selmer, you do make me
perfectly furious at times!"
Mary V laid hands upon her father and for his shortcomings she
"woolled" him until his grizzled hair stood straight on end. Sudden
protested, tried to hold her off at arm's length and found her all
claws, like an excited wildcat.
"Now, now--"
"Tell me then what you are going to do. And don't try to make me
believe you only care for that horrid note. Every time I think of you
making that poor boy sign over everything he had on earth, except me,
of course, and you wouldn't let him have me when he wanted--why, dad, I
could shake you till--"
Bland was edging to the door. He had no experience with families and
domestic upheavals, and he did not know just how serious this quarrel
might prove. He expected Sudden to order Mary V from the house--to
disown her, at the very least. He did not want to be a witness when
Sudden broke loose. But Sudden called him back and turned to Mary V.
"Here, let me go. You're scaring off the only evidence we've got that
Johnny landed here. You stay right here and behave yourself, young
lady. I might want to 'phone you, if I get a clue--"
"Oh, dad! Cross your heart you'll 'phone the very instant you find out
anything? Here's your hat--do, for gracious sake, hurry!"