Then I said, "Damn!"
"Yeah?" said Hank. "Why for, Jim?"
"Something I meant to ask Biggs and forgot. But you can tell me, I guess. One thing I never did understand, was why Biggs got so excited when he found out you and Helen were not married. What difference did that make? Why did that cause him to show such great confidence that we were going to pull out of our jam?"
Hank flushed. "Well, you see—" he hesitated.
"I don't. But I'm listening."
"Well, it was this way. Soon as Lanse learned me an' Helen wasn't hitched, he couldn't help knowin' everything was gonna be all right. On account of it warn't logical her an' me should git kilt before we was married an'—an' had a youngster...."
His face was flaming. But I was inexorable.
"I still don't get it. Why not? Why wasn't it logical?"
"Aw, durn, Jim—don't you see? Because Biggs knew that much o' my 'history.' That is, my future, to me, is my past to him. He knew who I'd married, and that me an' my wife had a youngster, an' consequently if them things hadn't happened yet, we was bound to live an' make 'em happen!"