listen_ a minute, will you! I'm going to pay your dad for those
horses that were run off right under my nose while I was tinkering with
this airplane. I don't care what you think, or what old Sudden thinks,
or what anybody on earth thinks! I know what I think, and that's a
plenty. I'm going to make good before I marry you, or come back to the
ranch.

"Why, good golly! Do you think I'm going to be pointed out as a joke
on the Rolling R? Do you think I'm going to walk around as a living
curiosity, the only thing Sudden Selmer ever got stung on? Oh--h, no!
Not little Johnny! They can't say I got into the old man for a bunch
of horses and the girl, and that old Sudden had to stand for it! I
told your dad I'd pay him back, and I'm going to do it if it takes a
lifetime.

"I'm calling that debt three thousand dollars--and I consider at that
I'm giving him the worst of it. He's out more than that, I guess--but
I'm calling it three thousand. So," he added with an extreme
cheerfulness that proved how heavy was his load, "I guess I won't be
out to supper, Mary V. It's going to take me a day or two to raise
three thousand--unless I can sell the plane. I'm sticking here trying,
but there ain't much hope. About three or four a day kid me into
giving 'em a trial flight--and to-morrow I'm going to start charging
'em five dollars a throw. I can't burn gas giving away joy rides to
fellows that haven't any intention of buying me out. They'll have to
dig up the coin, after this--I can let it go on the purchase price if
they do buy, you see. That's fair enough--"

"Then you won't even listen to dad's proposition?" Mary V's tone
proved how she was clinging to the real issue. "It's a perfectly
wonderful one, Johnny, and really, for your own good--and not because
we are engaged in the least--you should at least consider it. If you
insist on owing him money, why, I suppose you could pay him back a
little at a time out of the salary he'll pay you. He will pay you a
good enough salary so you can do it nicely--"

Johnny laughed impatiently. "Let your dad jump up my wages to a point
where he can pay himself back, you mean," he retorted. "Oh--h, no,
Mary V. You can't kid me out of this, so why keep on arguing? You
don't seem to take me seriously. You seem to think this is just a whim
of mine. Why, good golly! I should think it would be plain enough to
you that I've got to do it if I want to hold up my head and look me