that sheriff's posse
will mighty near eat up that new automobile she's been wanting, though.
Maybe next time--"

"I'll buy Mary V an automobile if she wants one--when I get the note
paid," Johnny stated boyishly, to show his disapproval of Sudden's
hardness.

Sudden once more passed his palm thoughtfully over the lower half of his
face. "Mary V ought to appreciate that," he said dryly, and Johnny
flushed.

"Anyway, it ain't right to make her suffer for being worried about me.
That was my fault, in a way. If you'll tell me how much you're out--?"

"That's all right. It's on me, for falling so easy for one of Mary V's
spasms. I was led to believe you had actually started for the ranch--in
which case I was justified in supposing you had come to grief somewhere
en route. We'll let it go." He cleared his throat, glanced at Johnny
from under his eyebrows, took a cigar out of a drawer, and bit off the
end.

"Now under the circumstances, I think I have a right to know how you
expect to pay that note. I realize that if I leave the flying machine in
your hands it's going to depreciate in value, and the chances are it'll
go smash and I'll be out my security. Don't you think you had better run
it under a shed somewhere and go to work? Of course it's nothing to me,
so long as I get my money, just how you earn it. Working for me you
couldn't earn any three thousand dollars in a year--you ain't worth it to
anybody. You're too much a kid. You ain't grown up yet, and I couldn't
depend on you like I can on Bill. But I could strain a point, and pay
you a thousand dollars a year, and split the debt into three or four
yearly payments. In four years," he pointed out relentlessly, "you might
come clear--with hard work and good luck."

"On the other hand, when Mary V marries with our consent she gets a third
interest in the Rolling R. Her husband will naturally fall into a pretty
good layout. So you might fix it with the kid to jump down the four
years some. That's between you and--"

"That's an insult! I'll pay you, and it won't be any Rolling R money
that does it, either. When I marry Mary V or any other girl it's my
money that will support her. I may be a kid, all right--but I ain't that
kind of a hound. I don't know the law on such things, but there ain't
anything in that Bill of Sale that says I've got to stand my plane in
your cow shed till I've paid the note, and I won't do it. The plane
ain't yours till I