Waiters came, brought strange preparations of food which were a revelation to Johnny, to whom meat had meant just meat, boiled, roasted or fried, to whom salad meant two or three kinds of vegetables hashed together and served sour.  Girls’ glances were wasted upon him while he tasted dubiously, succumbed to each new and delicious viand, and explored farther, secretly eager for more wonders.

“I know now why you brought me here,” he sighed contentedly after the coffee was served.  “It wasn’t to see the girls, either.  Grub’s got possibilities I never dreamed about.”

Lowell smiled, sent a negligent nod toward a group that had just come in and recognized him, and tendered Johnny his tooled leather cigarette case.

“I never talk business until after I am fed,” he observed.  “But now—­since you have nothing definite in view except the making of money, suppose you listen to a little proposition I am going to make you.  It’s rather confidential, however—­”

“My ears are open,” said Johnny, “and my mouth is shut.  I don’t have to like your proposition, but in case I don’t I can forget things mighty easy.”

“Good.  I’ll make it short, and you can take it or leave it.  I am not a reporter; not the kind of reporter you mean.  I gather special stuff for a big news syndicate.  Big stuff, stuff the little fellows never dream of going after.  I get, of course, big returns.

“My real object in seeing you to-night was not exactly the getting of a news item for any paper.  I saw your name on the register, found that you had flown over here, and wanted to see you and take your measure for the job I have in mind.

“Briefly, the proposition is this:  I need a flyer who can fly, knows a little of the desert, has got some nerve on the ground as well as in the air, and who can keep his mouth shut.  It’s harder than you may think to find one who measures up, and who is willing to avoid the limelight.  They all want publicity, and publicity is what this job must shun.  What I am working on now is big stuff across the border.  I can get the news, all right—­I am in touch with some of the big men over there—­but the deuce of it is the going back and forth.  This embargo business that has been framed lately is interfering with my work.  I could get a passport, yes.  Perfectly simple.  I could go across, and I could get the news I want.  But the bother of it, and the delay here and there is—­well, it’s a big handicap.  You can see that easily.

“My idea, therefore, and I think it’s a good one, is to hire you to take me over and back.  It might take all your time and it might not—­but I should want to have you on call, ready to go anywhere, any time, at a moment’s notice.  It would make a tremendous difference in the time-saving alone.  You would have to—­what about your mechanic?”

“What about him?  I don’t just get you.”  Johnny looked at him startled.