Johnny Thompson saw no more of the mysterious Gray Shadow among the clouds that morning. He was soon enough to forget all about him, for fresh adventure lay before him.  
Hardly had they left the Shadow and his cloud behind than he began thinking of his promise to Curlie. He had agreed to drop from the sky and to play the part of good fairy to a crippled child.
 
Johnny was very fond of small children, crippled children most of all. But as the plane sped on high in the air, as they came nearer and nearer to the place where Curlie must turn and give him the signal to prepare for the leap, he found himself wishing that the sky lay close to the ground where one might step off at any time.
 
253
“Well,” he sighed at last, “there must always be a first time.
 
“And,” he groaned a moment later, “if anything goes wrong, the first is last and the last is first.”
 
At that he began thinking of Curlie’s instructions: “Walk out on the wing. Watch your balance. Play you are on a diving board. Make a dive. Count five. Pull the cord. The parachute will do the rest. Only, when you come close to the earth, see that your knees are bent. Don’t land stiff-legged. That’s dangerous.”
 
Buttoned inside of Johnny’s jacket was a doll. Wrapped about the doll was the marked money.
 
“Anyway,” he sighed, “I’ll be through with that money. They’ll never suspect this trick of ours. And they’ll never find it. This is once in my life when I do the Robin Hood.”
 
Hardly had he thought this through than Curlie turned his head about to nod. He held up three fingers.
 
254
“Three fingers. Three minutes!” Johnny’s mind went into a whirl. Three minutes of sunshine and fleecy clouds. Three minutes of glorious freedom and life. And after that?
 
He rose stiffly to his place. As he put out a hand to steady himself it seemed that he was stiff as a wooden soldier.
 
“What nonsense!” He got a grip on himself. “Gotta go through! Lots of fellows have.”
 
At this he felt better. He moved carefully a little way out on the wing, looked to the straps about his body, allowed his eyes to circle the sky; then, putting his hands together, he made a perfect dive.
 
............