"My oldest brother's a lawyer, and I caught some of it from him.

And my expert, legal advice is this: to get into a row with the Old Man, maybe--anyway, quit him cold, so we get our time.
We must let that fact percolate the alleged brains of Dry Lake and vicinity--and if we give any reason for taking claims right under the nose of the Flying U, why, we're doing it to spite the Old Man.

Sabe?
Otherwise we're going to have trouble--unless that colony scheme is just a pipe dream of Andy's." The Happy Family had learned to respect the opinions of the Native Son, whose mixture of Irish blood with good Castilian may have had something to do with his astuteness.

Once, as you may have heard, the Native Son even scored in a battle of wits with Andy Green, and scored heavily.
And he had helped Andy pull the Flying U out of an extremely ticklish situation, by his keen wit saving the outfit much trouble and money.
Wherefore they heeded now his warning to the extent of unsmilingly discussing the obstacle he had pointed out to them.

One after another they read the paragraph which they had before passed over too hastily, and sensed the possibilities of its construction.