“You’ve done what?”
Billy repeated his statement, gloomily enough. Dan stared at him in the light of the barn lantern and remarked:
“Well, you don’t look any crazier than common. And I expect you’re telling me the truth. But I don’t understand it. How did you buy it—from whom—what with?”
“Hold on!” exclaimed Billy. “Let me tell you all about it.”
“That’s right. It don’t sound very real to me,” said Dan, rubbing his head. “By the way, where’s the machine?”
“Up in the air,” returned Billy, with a grin.
“Huh! in a garage attached to one of those ‘castles in Spain’ that they tell about?”
“I bought Maxey’s wrecked machine. I paid five hundred dollars for it—or, I promised to do so on Monday—and I don’t even know whether I can get the thing out of the tree where it’s roosting!”
Billy blurted all this out in a hurry. The information left Dan fairly speechless.