The visitor rattled on, keeping his customers fairly convulsed with laughter, until he had equipped half the party with spectacles.
"You may pay me," he suddenly suggested, lowering his voice. "I've changed my mind. That will be two dollars apiece," he added in a loud, blustering tone.
The Overland Riders looked at him in amazement. Only a few moments before that he had proposed to "fit" them with glasses free of charge.
"Of course we will pay you," announced Emma Dean airily.
Elfreda and Grace, who had been eyeing Mr. Long inquiringly, saw motive in his sudden change. The quick, meaning glance he gave them convinced them that their surmise was right.
"What is it?" asked Grace, her voice down almost to a whisper.
"Yes, two dollars. Thank you. There are three men in the cornfield watching us," he added in a tone barely loud enough for the Overlanders to hear. "Don't look. If I don't run out of change I'll have you all fixed up in three shakes of a possum's tail," said Mr. Long, again boisterously.