“Hell, you haven’t seen her. Wait until she comes out from under that bathrobe. Nice disposition too. Cute little devil. Cute as they make ’em. How do you want your eggs?”
“I’ve had three breakfasts, thanks.”
“That’s right. You said you had. I have to eat good breakfasts. It takes food to keep me going. She’s a cute kid, but she’s not much on cooking.”
“Why don’t you teach her?”
“Oh, I will after a while, but I don’t mind.”
He unwrapped some sliced ham, tossed it in a frying pan, put the frying pan on the gas plate, and said, “I have to hand it to you. You’re a fast thinker.”
“Not so fast,” I said. “I was lucky.”
“I laid myself wide open,” he admitted. “It was a damn fool thing to do. I never thought of you pulling a stunt like that. Where were you? Under the rods?”
“That’s right. Under the rods on the freight car.”
“Cripes, but you think fast. Just the way you run out of petrol with a glimpse of my headlights in your rearview mirror and you were wise. You must have made a dash for it the minute your car stopped.”