Book excerpt: Johnny Jewel works as a cowboy but his ambition is to be an aviator and he spends much of his time studying and dreaming about flying. Johnny learns of a damaged plane abandoned in the desert on the Mexican side of the border, and comes up with a plan to put it to work. His affairs are being monitored by Mary V, the ranch owner's spunky daughter, who is slowly taking interest in Johnny. But in the meantime, a gang of rustlers are taking advantage of his passion for flying in order to distract him from his job of keeping an eye over the ranch's horses. The Thunder Bird is a sequel of Johnny Jewel's story and it looks like our heroes didn't learn their lessons, as Johnny seems more stubborn and Mary V more spoiled. Johnny is determined to pay his debt before going back to the ranch and to Mary V, but this time his affairs take a foray into an international intrigue. Bertha Muzzy Bower (1871-1940) was an American author who wrote novels and short stories about the American Old West. She is best known for her first novel "Chip of the Flying U" about Flying U Ranch and the "Happy Family" of cowboys who lived there. The novel rocketed Bower to fame, and she wrote an entire series of novels set at the Flying U Ranch. Several of Bower's novels were turned into films.