So she made him get on his horse, which was difficult on account of being shot in the leg, and then it seemed cruel and unnecessary to tie him, because they had both been sufficiently shot by her to know what they might expect if they did it again.  And that was how it happened that she drove them both ahead of her without being tied or anything, as a person would naturally expect outlaws and horse thieves and kidnapers would be.  But Mary V would like to know how, for gracious sake, a person could do everything right, with a horse to manage and a gun to hold, and only two hands to their name?

What Bill had said was that he had kept an eye on Tex, because it looked to him like Tex was at the bottom of the whole business.  He had seen Tex working away from the others, innocent as a hen turkey with a nest hid out in the weeds.  Bill had done some innocent kinda sidlin’ off himself, and he had seen Tex suddenly duck into a narrow wash and disappear.

Wherefore, knowing the country even better than did Tex, Bill had ducked into another draw that would intercept Tex, if Tex was going where Bill guessed he was aiming to go.  Tex must have aimed that way, because Bill got him and brought him back with his hands tied behind him and his gun riding in Bill’s holster, and with no bullet holes in his person such as Mary V’s captives carried.

Johnny did not know that the other boys had been signaled back with shots, and that the prisoners had been turned over to them while Bill, Bland, and Mary V stayed with Johnny and waited for Sudden to negotiate that rough stretch of country with the Ford.  That was what Mary V’s voice referred to when she couldn’t see why he didn’t hurry.

Between times, Bland told their side of the adventure, as far as Bland understood it.  He told of the horses they had scared back, and of the horse thieves left afoot several miles across the line.  He did not know just where, however.  He told of the rancho they had flown to that morning, the rancho Johnny had discovered a short mile from where he had got the plane in the first place.

The horses which they had turned loose from the field would probably make their way back, Bill said.  So would the last little bunch.  But he would send the boys down after them just as soon as they had put the three prisoners away in the cabin with a guard until the sheriff could come and get them.  Which would be easy, Bill said.  They’d telephone to the ranch and have the message repeated on the town line.

Everything was easy, Bill said, except getting Skyrider to a doctor quick, without shaking him up too much.  And getting the flying machine outa there—­though he guessed mebby Skyrider wouldn’t want no more flyin’ in his.  He guessed mebby Skyrider would aim to keep one foot on solid ground hereafter—­if he didn’t go clean under it.  That shore was a bad lookin’ head he had on ’im.

Which brought forth questions from Mary V, and the somewhat qualified comfort of Bland’s experience.