e essence of this contract." He laughed and crooked
a finger at the waiter who had served them so assiduously, got his
dinner check and paid it with a banknote that, even deducting the high
cost of eating in a regular place, returned him a handful of change.
He tipped the waiter generously and rose.

"You'd have to keep under cover as much as possible," he continued
planning, when they were again on the street. "How much attention did
you attract, Mr. Jewel, when you landed?"

"Why, not any. It was about dark, and we lit in a beanfield over
beyond Inglewood. We left the plane there and came in on a street car.
I don't guess anybody saw us at all."

"Fine! This is playing our way from the start. If any one notices
your name on the hotel register and asks you questions, you came after
certain parts for your motor--any errand will do--and you expect to
leave again at any time. This does not commit you to the proposition,
Mr. Jewel. It is merely keeping our lines straight in case you do
accept. I want you to sleep on it--but please don't talk in your
sleep!" He laughed, and Johnny laughed with him and promised
discretion.

The last he saw of Cliff Lowell that night, Cliff was talking with a
group of important-looking men who treated him as though they had known
him for a long, long while. Their manifest intimacy struck Johnny as a
tacit endorsement of Cliff's character and reputation. It would seem
almost an insult to go around quizzing people about a man so popular
with the leading citizens, Johnny told himself. He would think the
proposition over, certainly. He was not fool enough to jump headfirst
into a thing like that at the first crook of a stranger's finger, but--

"Good golly! Talk about luck! Why, at a thousand dollars a week, I
can pay old Sudden off in a month, doggone him. And have a thousand to
the good. And if the job holds out for another month or two--"

That, if you please, is how Johnny "thought it over and did some
figuring!"

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

ONE MORE PLUNGE FOR JOHNNY

The grinding clamor of passing street cars jarring over the Spring
Street crossing woke Johnny to what he thought was moonlight, until it
occurred to him that the pale glow must come from street lamps. The
air was muggy, filled with the odor of damp soot. He sniffed, turned
over with the bed covering rolled close around him, snuggled his cheek
into a pillow, yawned, rooted deeper, opened his eyes again