nd Halliday's inability to get up and go about
the business for which he had come so far.

"Aw, you'll be all right when you stir around a little," was the scant
comfort he gave. "It's a good big half mile over to where I've got it
cached. A ride'll limber you up--"

"Ride? On a horse? Not on your life! Honest, old top, I'm all in; I
couldn't walk if you was to pay me a million a step. On the square, bo--"

"Say, I wish you'd cut out that 'bo' and 'old top' and call me Johnny.
That's my name. And I wish you'd cut out the misery talk too. Why, good
golly! What do you think I brought yuh down here for? Just to give you a
ride? I've got an airplane to repair, and you claimed you could repair
it. If you do, I promised to take you to the Coast with it. That's the
understanding, and she still rides that way. Get up and come eat. We've
got to get busy. I ain't taking summer boarders."

"Aw, have a heart, bo--"

Johnny's code was simple and direct, and therefore effective. He had
brought this fellow to Sinkhole for a purpose, and he did not intend to
be thwarted in that purpose just because the man happened to be a whiner.
Johnny went over to the bunk, grabbed Bland Halliday by a shoulder and a
leg, and hauled him into the middle of the cabin.

"Maybe you can fly; you sure don't hit me as being good for anything
else," he said in deep disgust. "And I wouldn't be surprised right now to
hear you swiped that pilot's license. If you did, and if you don't know
airplanes, the Lord help yuh--that's all I got to say. Get into your
pants. I'm in a hurry this morning."

Bland Halliday nearly cried, but he managed to insert his aching limbs
into his trousers, and somehow he managed to move to the washbasin, and
afterwards to hobble to the table. He let himself down by slow and
painful degrees into a chair, swore that he'd lie on the track and let a
train run over him before he would sit again on the back of a horse, and
began to eat voraciously.

Johnny listened, watched the food disappear, gave a snort, and fried more
bacon for himself. His mood was not optimistic that morning. He was not
even hopeful. He had held an exalted respect for aviators, believing them
all supermen, gifted beyond the common herd and certainly owning a fine
valor, a gameness that surpassed the best courage of men content to
remain close to earth. He had brought Bland Halliday away down here only
to find that he lacked all the fine qualities which Johnny h