did not want those
fellows out there to hear just how easily he had been fooled. They
seemed to know altogether too much about him as it was.

The commandant listened attentively to what John Ivan Jewel had to say.
John Ivan Jewel had nearly finished his story when he thought of
another phase of the affair, and one that had begun to worry him
considerably.

"I forgot to tell you about the money. I've got a good deal from them
since I started. They paid me on a sliding scale, beginning with
fifteen hundred dollars a week and ending with two thousand that Cliff
paid me this evening. I've got it all with me."

Prom his secret pocket Johnny drew all his wealth, counted off four
hundred dollars and handed the rest to his inquisitor.

"This four hundred dollars is my own, that I brought from Arizona," he
explained, flushing a little under the keen eyes of Captain Riley.
"This is honest money; the rest is what they paid me for flying back
and forth across the line."

The commandant turned the big roll of bank notes over, looking at it
quizzically.

"Who is really entitled to this money?" he asked Johnny crisply.

"Well, I--I don't know, sir. It's what they paid me for flying."

"And did you fly as agreed upon?"

"Yes, sir; I made trips back and forth whenever Cliff wanted me to.
That is, up to the time I lit out for here, so you could see for
yourself what he's up to. He ordered me to go back to Schwab's place,
but I wouldn't. I--I knocked him on the head and came on. But until
then I flew as agreed upon."

"Do you feel that you earned this money?"

"Well--taking everything into consideration--yes, sir, I do. I think
now I worked for them much cheaper than any other aviator would have
done.

"Yes. Well, you spoke of that four hundred being honest money, thus
differentiating it from this money. Don't you consider this is honest
money? What do you mean by honest?"

Johnny flushed unhappily. "Well, it's kinda hard to explain, but I
guess I meant that I wasn't doing the right thing when I was earning
that money you've got. I meant it wasn't clean money, the way I look
at it now. Because it was crooks I was working for, and I don't know
how they got it. I worked honestly for it, for them, but the work
wasn't honest with the government. It's kinda hard--"

"I think I'll just give you a receipt for this. How much is it?"

"There ought to be about seventy-two hundred there, all told, sir."

Capta