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 don’t pay.  Seems to me you better wait till the note’s due before you begin to worry, Mr. Selmer.  And I’ll set your mind at rest on one point, anyway.  The plane may go to smash, as you say, but if I don’t smash with it, I’ll pay you that three thousand.  And you don’t have to strain any point, either, to give me a job.  When I want to work for you I’ll sure tell you so.  In the meantime, I don’t know as it’s very businesslike for you to go prying into my plans.  You’ve accepted my note, and you’ve got your security, and what the hell more do you want?”

Sudden was very much occupied with his cigar just then, and he did not answer the challenge.  Moreover, he was having some difficulty with his poker face, which showed odd twitchings around his mouth.  But Johnny did not wait for a reply.  He was started now, and he went on hotly, relieving his mind of a good many other little grievances.

“You don’t go around asking other men how they expect to meet their obligations a year from now, do you?  Then why should you think you’ve got a right to butt in on my private business, I’d like to know?  Put my plane in your cow shed and go to work for you!  Huh!  I’ve caused you trouble and expense enough, I should think, without saddling myself on you like that.  I appreciate all you have done—­but I absolutely will not get under your wing and let you pet and humor me along like you do Mary V. Why, good golly!  You’ve spoiled and humored her now until I can’t do a thing with her!  Why, she harps on my staying here at the ranch—­under dad’s wing, of course!—­instead of getting out and making something of myself.  You didn’t fool around and let somebody else shoulder your responsibilities, did you?  You didn’t let somebody plan for you and dictate to you and do all your thinking—­no, you bet your life you didn’t!  And nobody’s going to do it for me, either.  If I haven’t got brains enough and guts enough to make good for myself, I’ll blow the top of my head off and be done with it.”

He rose and pushed his chair back with a kick that sent it skating against the wall.  His stormy blue eyes snapped at Sudden as though he would force some display of emotion into that smooth, impassive, well-fed countenance, the very sight of which lashed his indignation into a kind of fury.

“If you really think I don’t amount to any more than to hang around here for you to support, why the devil don’t you kick me out and tell Mary V not to marry me?  You must think you’re going to have a fine boob in the family!  And it’s to show you—­it’s—­why the hell don’t you—­what I can’t stand for,” he blurted desperately, “is your insinuating right to my face that I’d want to marry Mary V to get a third interest in the Rolling R. I want to tell you right now, Mr. Selmer, you couldn’t give me any third interest nor any one millionth interest.  If I thought Mary V had put you up to that I’d absolutely—­but she didn’t.  She knows where I stand.  I’ve told her straight out.  Mary V’s got more sense—­she knows me better than you do.  She knows—­”