He accepted himself more or less contentedly as a poor, striving young man who wanted to get ahead in the world and was eager to pick up what he called "side money," which might, if he were on to his job, amount to more than his wages.

Tex did not consider that he owed the Rolling R anything whatever save a certain number of days' work in each month that he drew a pay check.

He sold Sudden his time and his skill in the saddle--a month of it for fifty dollars.

But if he could double that fifty without harm to himself, Tex was not going to split any hairs over the method.
Tex was not displaying any great genius when he edged the boys on to tease Johnny beyond the limit of that young man's endurance, or when he tattled to Mary V a slighting remark about her ability as a poet.

Tex was merely carrying out an idea which had come to him when he saw Johnny with his hands full of aircraft literature.