“Mary V’s fainted,” mommie interrupted him then.  “I guess it was too sudden, hearing you on the wire when she thought you was dead.  You better wait and call up after awhile when her mind’s more settled.  She’s had an awful hard time.  I’m real glad you’re all right, Johnny, but I’ve got to take care of Mary V now.”

Johnny’s eyes were very wide open when he came out of the telephone booth in the hotel lobby.  That Mary V should faint when she heard his voice sounded rather incredible, but it seemed to confirm the strange intent looks and the flustered manners of every one around that hotel.  People seemed to be flocking in from the street and from other parts of the hotel, and that they were gathering to gaze upon him, Johnny Jewel, came with a shock.

Three reporters came at him so impetuously that the foremost man skidded on the polished floor and all but fell.  Bland was plucking at his elbow and whispering, “You let me handle the publicity, bo!” The clerk was staring at him, both palms planted firmly on the desk, and men were pushing up and craning for a look at him.  Johnny whirled suddenly and retreated to the telephone booth, shutting the door tightly behind him.  It was the first time in his life that he had run from any one.

To gain time, he called up the Rolling R Ranch again and managed to get Bedelia, the cook, on the ’phone.  Bedelia was perfectly willing to tell all she knew, and she appeared to know a great deal.  Johnny held the receiver to his ear until his elbow cramped, and said “uh-huh” once in a while, and wondered how much Bedelia was exaggerating the truth.  As a matter of fact Bedelia was giving him a conservative history of the past three days and, indirectly, she was explaining the crowd in the lobby behind him.

Telephone booths are not any too comfortable on a hot day, and Johnny emerged rather limp and sober.

He edged in to where Bland was gesticulating in the center of a group that seemed to be drinking in his words eagerly.

“I’m going on to the ranch, Bland,” he said shortly.  “Jar loose here and come help get the machine ready.”

“In a minute, bo.  As I was saying—­”

“Ah—­I hear you had quite an adventure, Mr. Jewel, down among the Indians with your airplane.  Now, just where—­”

“I’m in a hurry,” Johnny hedged.  “I don’t know anything about any adventure.  We had a little carburetor trouble, and had to wait for gas before we could get back.  That’s all.”  He grabbed Bland firmly by one arm and hustled him outside, where men were seemingly waiting far his appearance.

“Oh, Mr. Jewel!  I wish you’d tell me—­”

“I’m in a hurry!  Good golly, folks seem to think talking is all there is to do in this world!  Come on, Bland.”  He hurried on, his mind absorbed in grasping the full significance of Bedelia’s excited report of events at the Rolling R and this curious crowd that gaped at him.  The thought of Mary V lying unconscious, stricken by the sound of his voice over the telephone, nagged at him persistently and unpleasantly.  He had not told Bedelia that he was coming, and now he feared that his unheralded appearance might be another shock to Mary V; but he would not take the time to go back and warn her, for all that.  Instead, he walked a little faster to where his plane was waiting.