“You poor fish, she don’t know you’re on earth!”
“Maybe not; maybe not. Just the same, there’s one stiff she’s keen enough about. And I thought maybe she said sumpin about him—see? If she did, she mighta mentioned me. ’Cause this bird and me’s pals. They call um Falcon the Flunky. How ’bout it?”
“She said somethin’ about a stiff with a moniker like that first time I met her,” admitted Wing o’ the Crow, her curiosity aroused.
“What’d she say, apple blossoms?”
“Say, for Heaven’s sake. Apple blossoms! You’re kinda nutty, ain’t you? She just said he was at Mangan-Hatton’s.”
“Uh-huh—he’s s’posed to be a flunky there. Is, fer that matter. But everybody don’t know what I know about um. Him an’ me’s pals, and he slipped me the dope about umself last night. I’ll bet you’d open yer eyes if you savvied what I do, Wing-o. An’ lissen—you don’t wanta ferget about that guy. He’s strong for me, and I’ll bet if you knew what I do you wouldn’t be so placid, kinda.”
“You talk like a Hamburger sandwich! I heard you say you had somethin’ to tell me.”
“Ain’t I tellin’ you? But I can tell you more: This little Canby girl is nuts about Falcon the Flunky. First day she was in camp she was there to see Mangan. An’ Mangan he was showin’ her ’round—see—and when he takes ’er to the cook shack she sees Falcon the Flunky, and from then on she gives Mangan the begone sir. Lissen: Every night Falcon the Flunky beats it out over the desert, and pretty soon here she comes to meet um from the ranch. Everybody’s onto it—even Mangan.”
“I don’t believe it!”
“It’s the truth, so help me! But lissen: There’s a joker. If you knew this Falcon the Flunky an’ what I do about um you’d savvy. Nobody knows it but me—see?”