ain't sure I want the thing,
anyway. It's probably broke, and it takes _money_ to fix a busted plane,
let me tell you. And there might be complications; and besides, I've got
to ride this range. I can't go rambling around all over Mexico hunting an
airplane that probably wouldn't be any good when I found it."

Tomaso's brother rose from the doorsill to gesticulate while he argued
those points and others which Johnny thought of later. It was a beautiful
flying machine. By every object impressive enough to make oath upon,
Tomaso's brother swore that it was as he said. Look! Not one peso would
he accept until Johnny had seen. And the range? Would it run off in two
days, perhaps? Look, then! Tomaso's brother would make the bet. He would
agree. They would go for the airship, and they would return with it, and
of the fifty pesos that was the full price he asked, not one centavo
would he accept until the senor had seen that all was as he had left it.
Look! That very night they would go, and by noon to-morrow they would be
there. And under the great wings would they rest. And they would return
in two more days--such a little while it would take--

Johnny's jaw lengthened. Making due allowance for the lying tongue of
Tomaso's brother, it would take a week to get the thing home. And that
would mean that Johnny would have no job when he returned; which would
mean that he would have no fifty dollars a month coming in; which would
mean that he would be broke and would have to hunt another job. And you
couldn't pack a government airplane around under your arm. Not once did
it occur to Johnny that he might sell it for more money than he had ever
possessed in his life, for more than what a full course in aviation would
cost him. As his own precious plane he saw it. His to keep. His to fly,
his to worship--but never to sell.

He looked away to the southward where the land stretched gray and dreary
to the low skyline broken here and there with the pale outline of distant
hills. A night and half a day of riding to take them there, and an
airplane to haul back through brush and rocks, maybe, and across draws
and gulches--Good Lord! The thing might almost as well be in Honolulu!

"But the desert places--me, I'm making the plan how it can be brought
across the sand, with little brush to cut away." Tomaso's brother began
arguing away his unspoken fears. "We fix that, you bet! Two days, that's
all. You got strong, good fence; horses, they d