Chances are you're just stringing me.
But if you are, old boy, I'm going to take it outa your hide--and don't
you forget that." He grinned at his own mental predicament. "Honest,
Andy, is this some josh, or do you mean it?"

"By gracious, I wish it was a josh! But it ain't, darn it. In about
two weeks or so you'll all see the point of this joke--but whether the
joke's on us or on the homeseekers' Syndicate depends on you fellows.
Lord! I wish I'd never told a lie!"

Weary sat knocking his heels rhythmically against the side of the box
while he thought the matter over from start to hypothetical finish and
back again. Meanwhile Andy Green went on with his work and scowled over
his well-earned reputation that hampered him now just when he needed the
confidence of his fellows in order to save their beloved Flying U from
slow annihilation. Perhaps his mental suffering could not rightly be
called remorse, but a poignant regret it most certainly was, and a sense
of complete bafflement which came out in his next sentence.

"Even if she wrote me a letter, the boys'd call it a frame-up just the
same. They'd say I had it fixed before I left town. Doctor Cecil's up at
the Falls. They'd lay it to her."

"I was thinking of that, myself. What's the matter with getting Chip to
go up with you? Couldn't you ring him in on the agent somehow, so he can
get the straight of it?"

Andy stood up and looked at Weary a minute. "How'd I make Chip believe
me enough to GO?" he countered. "Darn it, everything looked all smooth
sailing till I got back here to the ranch and the boys come at me with
that same old smart-aleck brand uh talk. I kinda forgot how I've lied
to 'em and fooled 'em right along till they duck every time I open my
face." His eyes were too full of trouble to encourage levity in his
listener. "You remember that time the boys' rode off and left me laying
out here on the prairie with my leg broke?" he went on dismally. "I'd
rather have that happen to me a dozen times than see 'em set back and
give me the laugh now, just when--Oh, hell!" He dropped the finished
cinch and walked moodily to the door. "Weary, if them dry-farmers come
flockin' in on us while this bunch stands around callin' me a liar, I--"
He did not attempt to finish the sentence; but Weary, staring curiously
at Andy's profile, saw a quivering of the muscles around his lips and
felt a responsive thrill of sympathy and belief that rose above his long
training in caut