Schwab over here--didn't dare tell me. But he makes it worth a whole
lot to me to get him, just the same. He knows darn well if I don't
I'll never dare to go back, and he'll be over seven thousand dollars
better off." Johnny, you will observe, had quite forgotten that
receipt in his pocket, which Captain Riley might find it hard to
explain if he attempted to withhold the money.

His doubt of the Captain increased when, looking back, he spied two
swift scouting planes scudding along a mile or two behind him. That
they might be considered a guard of honor rather than spies sent out to
see that he did not play false never occurred to him.

"Aw, you think maybe I won't do it!" he snorted angrily, his young
vanity hurt. "All right, tag along and be darned. I'll have Schwab
and be flying back again before you can bank around to fly hack and
tattle where I went. That's what I mean. I ain't going to be done
outa no seven thousand dollars; I'll tell the world I ain't."

Getting Schwab was absurdly simple, just as Johnny had felt sure it
would be. He flew to where he would be expected to cross the line had
he come from Los Angeles. Schwab would be impatient, anxious to get in
his fingers the money Cliff was supposed to bring. He did not wait at
the house, but came out to meet the Thunder Bird. Johnny had been sure
that he would do that very thing.

To keep the nose of the Thunder Bird toward Schwab so that he could not
see that only one man returned with her was simple. Until he was close
Schwab did not suspect that Cliff was not along. Even then he was not
suspicious, but came hurrying up to know why Johnny came alone. Schwab
wanted that money--they always do.

"Where's my man?" he demanded of Johnny, who had brought the landing
gear against an old fence post used to block the wheels, and shut the
motor off as much as he could and keep it running.

"Your man is sick." Which was true enough; Cliff was a very sick man
that morning. "You'll have to come to him. Get in--it won't take
long."

Schwab hung back a little, not from fear of Johnny but because he had
no stomach for flying. "Well, but didn't he send--"

"He didn't send a darned thing but me. He wouldn't trust me to bring
anything else. Get in. I'm in a hurry."

"What's the matter with him? He was all right last night." Still
Schwab hung back. "I'll wait until he can come. I--I can't leave."

Then he found himself looking up into the bar