n it--he had never
seen a five-hundred-dollar bill in his life, until this one. And
fifties--six or seven of them, and four one-hundreds, and the rest in
twenties and three or four tens for easy spending. He had a keen
desire to show that roll to Mary V, and ask her whether he could make
money flying, or whether she would still advise him to go to work for
her dad! Why, right there in his hand was more money than Sudden
thought he was worth in a year, and this was just one week's salary!
Why, good gosh! In another week he could pay that note, and start
right in getting rich. Why, in a month he could own a car like
Cliff's. Why--

Cliff, watching him with sophisticated understanding of the dazzling
effect of so much money upon a youth who had probably never before seen
fifteen hundred dollars in one lump, smiled to himself. Whatever small
voice of doubt Johnny had hearkened to, the voice would now be hushed
under the soft whisper of the money fluttering in Johnny's fingers.

"Well, I'll call a porter to get these things down so you can settle
for the room. You had better just check out without leaving any word
of where you're going." Cliff turned to the 'phone.

"That'll be easy, seeing I don't know," Johnny retorted, crowding the
money into his old wallet that bulged like the cheeks of a pocket
gopher, busy enlarging his house.

"Fine," Cliff flung sardonically over his shoulder. He called for a
porter to remove the luggage from room six-seventy-eight, and laid his
fingers around the door knob. "I'll be down at the S.P. depot waiting
for you, Jewel. There's a train in half an hour going north, so it
will be plausible enough for you to take a taxi to the depot. Go
inside, just as though you were leaving, see. And when the passengers
come off the train, you join the crowd with your gun case and grip, and
come on out to where I'll he waiting. Can you do that?"

"I guess I can, unless somebody runs over me on the way."

"Then I'll be going. The point is, we must not leave here
together--even on a duck hunt!" He smiled and departed, at least three
minutes before the porter tapped for admission.

There was no hitch, although there was a margin of safety narrow enough
to set Johnny's blood tingling. He had "checked out" and had called
his taxi and watched the porter load in gun case and grip, had tipped
him lavishly and had slipped a dollar into the willing palm of the
doorman, when he leaned in to ge