The Flying Us Last Stand | Page 8

good, I'm liable to jump it myself."
Miss Hallman laughed and twisted her red lips at him in what might be
construed as a flirtatious manner. She was really quite taken with Andy
Green. "I'll take a chance. I don't think you'll jump it. Do you know
anything about Dry Lake, up above Havre, toward Great Falls--and the
country out east of there, towards the mountains?"
The fingers of Andy Green closed into his palms. His eyes, however,
continued to look into hers with his most guileless expression.
"Y-es--that is, I've ridden over it," he acknowledged simply.
"Well--now this is a secret; at least we don't want those mossback
ranchers in there to get hold of it too soon, though they couldn't really
do anything, since it's all government land and the lease has only just
run out. There's a high tract lying between the Bear Paws and--do you
know where the Flying U ranch is?"
"About where it is--yes."
"Well, it's right up there on that plateau--bench, you call it out here.
There are several thousand acres along in there that we're locating
settlers on this spring. We're just waiting for the grass to get nice and
green, and the prairie to get all covered with those blue, blue wind
flowers, and the meadow larks to get busy with their nests, and then
we're going to bring them out and--" She spread her hands again. It
seemed a favorite gesture grown into a habit, and it surely was more
eloquent than words. "These prairies will be a dream of beauty, in a
little while," she said. "I'm to watch for the psychological time to bring
out the seekers. And if I could just interest you, Mr. Green, to the
extent of being somewhere around Dry Lake, with a good team that you
will drive for hire and some samples of oats and dry-land spuds and
stuff that you raised on your claim--" She eyed him sharply for one so
endearingly feminine. "Would you do it? There'd be a salary, and

besides that a commission on each doubter you landed. And I'd just
love to have you for one of my assistants."
"It sure sounds good," Andy flirted with the proposition, and let his
eyes soften appreciably to meet her last sentence and the tone in which
she spoke it. "Do you think I could get by with the right line of talk
with the doubters?"
"I think you could," she said, and in her voice there was a cooing note.
"Study up a little on the right dope, and I think you could
convince--even me."
"Could I?" Andy Green knew that cooing note, himself, and one a
shade more provocative. "I wonder!"
A man came down the aisle at that moment, gave Andy a keen glance
and went on with a cigar between his fingers. Andy scowled frankly,
sighed and straightened his shoulders.
"That's what I call hard luck," he grumbled got to see that man before
he gets off the train--and the h--worst of it is, I don't know just what
station he'll get off at." He sighed again. "I've got a deal on," he told her
confidentially, "that's sure going to keep me humping if I pull loose so
as to go in with you. How long did you say?"
"Probably two weeks, the way spring is opening out here. I'd want you
to get perfectly familiar with our policy and the details of our scheme
before they land. I'd want you to be familiar with that tract and be able
to show up its best points when you take seekers out there. You'd be so
much better than one of our own men, who have the word 'agent'
written all over them. You'll come back and--talk it over won't you?"
For Andy was showing unmistakable symptoms of leaving her to
follow the man.
"You KNOW it," he declared in a tone of "I won't sleep nights till this
thing is settled--and settled right." He gave her a smile that rather
dazzled the lady, got up with much reluctance and with a glance that
had in it a certain element of longing went swaying down the aisle after

the man who had preceded him.
Andy's business with the man consisted solely in mixing cigarette
smoke with cigar smoke and of helping to stare moodily out of the
window. Words there were none, save when Andy was proffered a
match and muttered his thanks. The silent session lasted for half an
hour. Then the man got up and went out, and the breath of Andy Green
paused behind his nostrils until he saw that the man went only to the
first section in the car and settled there behind a spread newspaper,
invisible to Florence Grace Hallman unless she searched