ays that she had
forgotten to give him any details of the coming struggle. Andy was sorry
for that. He wished, on the way home, that he knew just what Florence
Grace Hallman intended to do.

Not that it mattered greatly. Whatever she did, Andy felt that it would
be futile. The Happy Family were obeying the land laws implicitly,
except as their real incentive had been an unselfish one. He could not
feel that it was wrong to try and save the Flying U; was not loyalty a
virtue? And was not the taking of land for the preservation of a fine,
fair dealing outfit that had made itself a power for prosperity and
happiness in that country, a perfectly laudable enterprise? Andy
believed so.

Even though they did, down in their deepest thoughts, think of the
Flying U's interest, Andy did not believe that Florence Grace Hallman or
anyone else could produce any evidence that would justify a contest for
their land. Though they planned among themselves for the good of
the Flying U, they were obeying the law and the dictates of their
range-conscience and their personal ideas of right and justice and
loyalty to their friends and to themselves. They were not conspiring
against the general prosperity of the country in the hope of great
personal gain. When you came to that, they were saving fifty men from
bitter disappointment--counting one settler to every eighty acres, as
the Syndicate apparently did.

Still, Andy wondered why he had represented himself and his friends to
be such bloodthirsty devils. He grinned wickedly over some of the things
he had said, and over her womanly perturbation and pleading that they
would spare the lives of their enemies. Oh, well--if she repeated half
to Florence Grace Hallman, that lady would maybe think twice before she
tackled the contract of boosting the Happy Family off their claims. So
at the last he managed to justify his lying to her. He liked Miss Allen.
He was pleased to think that at least she would not forget him the
minute he was out of her sight.

He went to sleep worrying, not over the trouble which Florence Grace
Hallman might be plotting to bring upon him, but about Miss Allen's
given name and her previous condition of servitude. He hoped that she
was not a stenographer, and he hoped her first name was not Mary; and
if you know the history of Andy Green you will remember that he had a
reason for disliking both the name and the vocation.

CHAPTER 11. A MOVING CHAPTER IN EVENTS

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