He could not afford to sell it for any less.

Yet there did not seem to be a man in the country willing to pay three thousand dollars for it.

It was a curiosity, a thing to come out and stare at, a thing to admire; but not to buy, even though Johnny had as an added inducement offered to teach the buyer to fly before the purchase price was taken from the bank.
The stalking shadow of a man moving slowly warned Johnny of an approaching visitor.

He did not trouble to turn his head; he even moved farther into the shed, to tighten a turnbuckle that was letting a cable sag a little.
"Hello, old top--how they using yuh ?" greeted a voice that had in it a familiar, whining note.
Johnny's muscles stiffened.

Hostility, suspicion, surprise surged confusingly through his brain.