“No,” said Lawrence. “But we can learn a lot about him and we can at least keep him from eating our chickens. Don’t give up the ship. We’ll happen onto something yet.”
There are other rewards than money in this life of ours. Remarkable achievement of any sort usually brings us kind words of deserved praise from our fellowmen. It was so with Johnny and Lawrence. More than one settler had suffered from the night raids of Old Silver. Now that he was in prison his captors were highly praised.
Still the problem remained; should they give up their dream of complete independence and go in debt for a tractor?
“I think you’d better,” said Johnny. “There are only a few left and they are going fast.”
“There’ll always be the Titan,” Lawrence laughed.
“Yes, the Titan,” Johnny agreed. “But who could ever pay for that tractor?”
The Titan was a powerful new type of tractor. Only one had been brought on and that one was priced at a cool thousand dollars.
“We’ll wait a little longer,” was Mr. Lawson’s decision. “The tide of fortune may turn our way.”
CHAPTER V
JOHNNY FIGHTS FOR FUN
News travels fast in the north. When the time came for the boys to make one more journey to the store at Palmer everyone had heard of their catch.