rsion into
the land of large promise (and problematical fulfillment) which lay east
of Dry Lake.

Rumors of the excursion seeped through the channels of gossip and set
the town talking and chuckling and speculating--after the manner of very
small towns.

Rumors grew to definite though erroneous statements of what was to take
place. Definite statements became certified facts that bore fruit in
detailed arrangements.

Came Florence Grace Hallman smilingly from Great Falls, to canvass the
town for "accommodations." Florence Grace Hallman was a capable woman
and a persuasive one, though perhaps a shade too much inclined to take
certain things for granted--such as Andy's anchored interest in her and
her project, and the probability of the tract remaining just as it had
been when last she went carefully over the plat in the land office.
Florence Grace Hallman had been busy arranging the details of the coming
of the colony, and she had neglected to visit the land office
lately. Since she cannily represented the excursion as being merely a
sight-seeing trip--or some such innocuous project--she failed also to
receive any inkling of recent settlements.

On a certain sunny morning in mid-May, the Happy Family stood upon the
depot platform and waited for the westbound passenger, that had attached
to it the special car of the homeseekers' Syndicate. The Happy Family
had been very busy during the past three weeks. They had taken all the
land they could, and had sighed because they could still look from their
claims upon pinnacles as yet unclaimed save by the government. They had
done well. From the south line of Meeker's land in the very foothills
of the Bear Paws, to the north line of the Flying U, the chain of
newly-filed claims remained unbroken. It had taken some careful work
upon the part of the Happy Family to do this and still choose land
not absolutely worthless except from a scenic viewpoint. But they had
managed it, with some bickering and a good deal of maneuvering. Also
they had hauled loads of lumber from Dry Lake, wherewith to build their
monotonously modest ten-by-twelve shacks with one door and one
window apiece and a round hole in the roof big enough for a length of
stove-pipe to thrust itself aggressively into the open and say by its
smoke signal whether the owner was at home. And now, having heard of the
mysterious excursion due that day, they had come to see just what would
take place.

"She's fifteen minut