Two weeks of that was beginning to pall.
But the money he was receiving did not pall.

It held him in leash, silenced the doubts that troubled him now and then, kept him temporizing with that uneasy thing we call conscience.
He climbed now into the cockpit, testing the controls absent-mindedly while he pondered certain small incidents that caused him a certain vague discomfort whenever he thought of them.

For one thing, why must a gatherer of news carry mysterious packages into Mexico and leave them there, sometimes throwing them overboard with a tiny parachute arrangement, as Cliff had done on the first trip, and flying back without stopping?
Why must a newspaper man bring back certain mysterious packages, and straightway disappear with them in the car?
That he should confer long and secretly with men of florid complexions and an accent which hardens its g's and sharpens its s's, might very plausibly be a part of his gathering of legitimate news of international import.

Though Johnny rather doubted its legitimacy, he had no doubt whatever of its world-wide importance.

Certain nations were at war--and he was no fool, once he stopped dreaming long enough to think logically.
Those packages bothered him more than the florid gentlemen, however.
At first he suspected smuggling, or something like that.