Suppose it was straight, and he went into the deal with Lowell; and suppose he worked for two months, say.

That would be eight--well, say nine thousand, the way weeks lap over on the calendar.

Suppose by Christmas he had eight thousand dollars clear money.

(Five hundred a month ought to run the plane, with any kind of luck.) Well, what if he took the Thunder Bird and his eight thousand, and flew back to the Rolling R and lit in the yard just about when they were sitting down to their Christmas dinner.
He'd walk in and lay three thousand dollars down on the table by old Sudden, and tell him kind of careless, "I happened to have a little extra cash on hand, so I thought I'd take up that note while I thought of it.

No use letting it go on drawing interest." Say, maybe Sudden's eyes wouldn't stick out! And Mary V would kind of catch her breath and open her eyes wide at him, and say, "Why, Johnny-- ?" And say--no, jump up and put her arms around his neck and--slide her lips along his cheek and whisper-- An hour and a half later he awoke, saw with dismay that it was seven o'clock, and piled out of bed as guiltily as though an irate round-up boss stood over him.