“I reckon if your fifty-dollar-a-day man had gone up there and done what I did, you’d all be pattin’ him on the back. Like as not there’d be a piece in the paper about it.”
Mr. Elder was even more embarrassed.
“When he goes up to-morrow,” went on Bud, “I reckon you’d better insist that he skim around over the ground. I tell you what I think, Mr. Elder,” said Bud, suddenly growing more serious, “a big bluff goes a long ways. You wouldn’t dare to criticise your professional aviator. Why? Because he’s an expert. And yet there isn’t one of you knows whether he knows more about aeroplanes than I do. He’ll get the glad hand. I get a good swift kick. Good bye.”
Mr. Elder was at Bud’s side before he could leave the shed.
“You certainly are a touchy boy,” he said in a not unkind voice. “I don’t see why I should apologize to you,” he added, “but I’d like to do one thing—here’s ten dollars for helping us out.”
Bud looked up with a peculiar expression. Never before in his life had he earned so much money in practically one day. For a moment, he worked his foot back and forth in the dust. Then he said:
“That just proves what I said. It’s the bluff that gets the money and the praise. I told you I’d do what I could for nothing. I’m satisfied if you are. But, if I took any pay, why shouldn’t I have as much as your professional?”
Mr. Elder grew red in the face.
“He is to get fifty dollars a day. What can he do that I haven’t done? I’m much obliged to you, Mr. Elder, and I don’t want you to put me down as a smart aleck. I either work for nothing or I’m worth as much as the fellow who is no better.”
The disturbed official became restless.