t the address to give the driver. And
then, just as the taxi was moving on, over the doorman's shoulder
Johnny distinctly saw Bland turn in between the rubber plants that
guarded the doorway. A pasty-faced, dull-eyed Bland, cheaply
resplendent in new tan shoes, a new suit of that pronounced blue loved
by Mexican dandies, a new red-and-blue striped tie, and a new soft hat
of bottle-green velour.

For ten seconds Johnny was scared, which was a new sensation. For
longer than that he had a guilty consciousness of having
"double-crossed" a partner. He had a wild impulse to stop the taxi and
sprint back to the hotel after Bland, and give him fifty dollars or so
as a salve to his conscience, even though he could not take him into
this new enterprise or even tell him what it was. Uncomfortably his
memory visioned that other day (was it only yesterday morning? It
seemed impossible!) when he had wandered forlornly out to the hangar in
Tucson and had found Bland true to his trust when he might so easily
have been false; when everything would seem to encourage him to be
false. How much, after all, did Johnny owe to Bland Halliday? Just
then he seemed to owe Bland everything.

It was all well enough for him to argue that his debt to Bland had been
paid when he brought him to Los Angeles, and that Bland could have no
just complaint if Johnny declined to continue the partnership longer.
Bland, he told himself, would have quit him cold any time some other
chance looked better. It was Johnny's plane, and Johnny had a right to
do as he pleased with it.

For all that, Johnny rode to the S.P. depot feeling like a criminal
trying to escape. He took his luggage and sneaked into the waiting
room, sought an inconspicuous place and waited, his whole head and
shoulders hidden behind a newspaper which he was not reading. Cliff
Lowell could have found nothing to criticize in Johnny's manner of
screening his presence there; though he would probably have been
surprised at Johnny's reason for doing so. Johnny himself was
surprised, bewildered even. That he, who had lorded over Bland with
such patronizing contempt, should actually be afraid of meeting the
little runt!

A stream of hurrying people, distinguished from others by their seeking
glances and haste and luggage, warned him presently that he would be
expected outside. He picked up his belongings and joined the
procession, but he came very near missing Cliff altogether. He wa