with Cliff's very evident sincerity, his easy assurance that
all would be well. Johnny had been canny enough to make the agreement
by the week--surely nothing much could go wrong in that little while,
and if he didn't like the look of things after a week's try-out, he
could quit, and that would be all there would be of it. It was too
good a chance to let slip by without a trial, anyway. A man would be a
fool to do that; and Johnny, whatever he thought of himself, did not
consider himself a fool.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

WITH HIS HANDS FULL OF MONEY AND HIS EYES SHUT

Under Cliff's direction, that afternoon Johnny did what a woman would
call shopping. He bought among other things a suit of khaki such as
city dwellers wear when they go into the wilds. Cliff had told him
that he must not appear among people in the clothes of a flyer, but
must be a duck hunter and none other when they left Los Angeles. When
that would be, Johnny did not know; nor did he know where they were
going. But a duck hunter he faithfully tried to resemble when he let
Cliff into his room at five o'clock in the evening, which meant after
the lights were on in the quiet hallways of the Alexandria, and the
streets were all aglow. Cliff looked, if not like a hunter, at least
picturesque in high, laced boots and olive-drab trousers and coat that
had a military cut.

"Fine! We'll get under way and eat somewhere along the road, if you
don't mind. What about that mechanic? Has he shown up yet?" Cliff's
boredom was gone, along with his swagger stick.

"Naw. I guess the little runt went on a spree. I thought he'd be here
when I got back, but he wasn't, and the clerk said nobody had called
for me except you."

"All the better. You won't have to bother explaining to him without
telling him anything. If you ever do run across him, give him a
temperance talk--and the boot. That will be convincing, without your
needing to furnish any other reason for letting him out. By the
way,"--reaching casually into a pocket,--"here is your first week's
salary. The boss made it fifteen hundred a week, straight. And he
said to tell you he would add a hundred every week that you deliver the
goods. That is giving a tremendously square deal, in my opinion. But
it's the boss's way, to make it worth a man's while to do his level
best."

Round-eyed, Johnny took the roll of bank notes and flipped the ends
with eager fingers. Golly! One with five hundred o