“You talk as if you was an encumbrance your dad had to pay me to take off his hands,” blurted Johnny distractedly.  “Our being engaged doesn’t make any difference—­”

“Oh, doesn’t it?  I’m tremendously glad to know you feel that way about it.  Since it doesn’t make any difference whatever—­”

“Aw, cut it out, Mary V!  You know darn well what I meant.”

“Why, certainly.  You mean that our being engaged doesn’t make a particle—­”

“Say, listen a minute, will you!  I’m going to pay your dad for those horses that were run off right under my nose while I was tinkering with this airplane.  I don’t care what you think, or what old Sudden thinks, or what anybody on earth thinks!  I know what I think, and that’s a plenty.  I’m going to make good before I marry you, or come back to the ranch.

“Why, good golly!  Do you think I’m going to be pointed out as a joke on the Rolling R?  Do you think I’m going to walk around as a living curiosity, the only thing Sudden Selmer ever got stung on?  Oh—­h, no!  Not little Johnny!  They can’t say I got into the old man for a bunch of horses and the girl, and that old Sudden had to stand for it!  I told your dad I’d pay him back, and I’m going to do it if it takes a lifetime.

“I’m calling that debt three thousand dollars—­and I consider at that I’m giving him the worst of it.  He’s out more than that, I guess—­but I’m calling it three thousand.  So,” he added with an extreme cheerfulness that proved how heavy was his load, “I guess I won’t be out to supper, Mary V. It’s going to take me a day or two to raise three thousand—­unless I can sell the plane.  I’m sticking here trying, but there ain’t much hope.  About three or four a day kid me into giving ’em a trial flight—­and to-morrow I’m going to start charging ’em five dollars a throw.  I can’t burn gas giving away joy rides to fellows that haven’t any intention of buying me out.  They’ll have to dig up the coin, after this—­I can let it go on the purchase price if they do buy, you see.  That’s fair enough—­”

“Then you won’t even listen to dad’s proposition?” Mary V’s tone proved how she was clinging to the real issue.  “It’s a perfectly wonderful one, Johnny, and really, for your own good—­and not because we are engaged in the least—­you should at least consider it.  If you insist on owing him money, why, I suppose you could pay him back a little at a time out of the salary he’ll pay you.  He will pay you a good enough salary so you can do it nicely—­”

Johnny laughed impatiently.  “Let your dad jump up my wages to a point where he can pay himself back, you mean,” he retorted.  “Oh—­h, no, Mary V. You can’t kid me out of this, so why keep on arguing?  You don’t seem to take me seriously.  You seem to think this is just a whim of mine.  Why, good golly!  I should think it would be plain enough to you that I’ve got to do it if I want to hold up my head and look men in the face.  It’s—­why, it’s an insult to my self-respect and my honesty to even hint that I could do anything but what I’m going to do.  The very fact that your dad ain’t going to force the debt makes it all the more necessary that I should pay it.