Johnny stilled him to silence with a round-eyed stare.
"Thank you, I'd much prefer to walk—if it was forty miles instead of twenty!" Mary V chilled him further. "What are we going to do, Johnny? I don't know what will happen if Bill Hayden finds out that I borrowed Jake. And then letting him get away, like that—"
"Sandy's at the pasture fence, I'd be willing to bet; but at that it's going to be the devil's own job to catch him, me afoot. And he wouldn't let you on him if I did. I guess it's a case of ride the sky or walk, Mary V."
"Then we better be stepping, bo, before the wind comes up, as I've noticed it's liable to, late in the forenoon. You dig up the gas, and I'll take her home."
"Thank you, I do not wish to trouble you, Mr. Halliday. Johnny can take me, if anybody—"
"Who—him?" Bland Halliday's smile was twisted far to the left. "Say, where do you get that idea—him flyin' after one lesson? Gee, you must think flyin' is like driving a Ford!"
"You could go to the shack and 'phone home for some one to come after you," Johnny suggested uncertainly.
"And let them know where I am? You must be absolutely crazy, if you think I'd consider such a thing. I'm supposed to be getting 'Desert Glimpses'—"
"Well, you sure got your glimpse," tittered Bland.
Mary V turned her back on him, took Johnny by the arm, and walked him away for private conference.