“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.”