"Hello?" cried Johnny, wondering vaguely who could be calling him from
San Diego. "Oh--who? Mary V! Why, good golly, where did you come
from? . . . Oh, you did? . . . Say, that was some bronk-riding I did
up there among the clouds--what? . . . Oh, yes, I just happened to feel
that way."
In the U.S. Grant hotel Mary V was talking excitedly into the 'phone.
"I don't know why I happened to drive down here, but I did, and I just
got here in time to see you come flying over and then you did all those
flip-flops--Johnny Jewel, do you mean to tell me _that's_ the way you
have been acting all the time?"
"Oh, no--I happened to have a fellow along that I wanted to give him a
treat!"
"A _treat_! Do you call that a treat, for gracious sake? What are you
doing over there? I want you to come over here just as quick as ever
you can, Johnny. Bland is here; I brought him down with me because
he's a very good mechanic and besides, he was very much worried and
trying to find you, so I thought he could help, and he did. He saw the
Thunder Bird come sailing overhead before I noticed it, for I was
driving, and a street car was hogging the crossing and trying to head
me off, so I didn't happen to look up just then. And when I did--why,
Johnny, I thought sure you were coming right down on top of us! Did
you do that deliberately just to scare me, you bad boy? Now you come
right over here just as quick as ever you can! I am sure I have been
kept waiting long enough--"
"You have," Johnny agreed promptly. "I'm coming, Mary V, and when I
get there you're going to marry me or I'll turn the town bottom side
up. You get that, do you? Your dad ain't going to head us off this
time, I've made good, and doggone him, I can pay that note and have
enough left over to buy me an airplane, or you an automobile or both,
by golly! And tell Bland I'll make it all right with him, too. I
kinda left him in the lurch for awhile, but I couldn't help that. I've
been thinking, Mary V, what I'll do. I'm going to give Bland the
Thunder Bird. Doggone it, he's done a whole lot for me, and I guess
he's got it coming. There's planes here that can fly circles around
the old Thunder Bird, and I'm going to have one or break a leg. I'll
. . . What's that? . . . Oh, all right, I'll come on and do my talking
later. Being a government line, I guess maybe I'd better not hold this
telephone all day. Sure, I'm crazy to see you! All right, all right,
I'm coming right now!"
"With apologies for overhearing a private conversation," said Captain
Riley, "speaking of getting a new plane, why don't you enlist as an
aviator? I can use you very nicely and would like to have you here.
How would a second lieutenancy strike you, Jewel? I can arrange it for
you very easily--and let me tell you something: Before many months roll
by it will be a matter of patriotism to serve your country. We shall
be at war before long, unless I miss my guess. Better come in now.
You--your being married will not interfere, I should think--seeing you
intend to continue flying, anyway. I wonder, by the way, why I am not
invited to be present at that wedding?"
"Well, good golly! You're invited right now, if you mean you'll go.
Mary V will be one proud little girl, all right. And say, Captain, of
course I'll have to talk it over with Mary V first, but that offer you
just made me sure listens good. I tried to enlist--that's what I
wanted all along--but I was turned down. But if you'll say a word for
me--"
"Your Mary V is wanting," Captain Riley grinned. "And if I may judge
from the brief conversation I had with her over the 'phone just now, we
had better be on our way!"