"Where is he?" sez Barbie. "I want to see him an' then I can tell just about how much he could do on his own hook."
I was feelin' a sight better. I saw exactly how it was. Bill an' all the rest o' the fellers had done exactly what I had hinted at an' hadn't divulged my identity, an' Barbie hadn't the slightest idea that I was in the state. Those people who know precisely the right time to disobey orders, are a big help to humanity; but they're mighty scarce.
Bill, he opened the door of the shack, an' sez, "Come on out. Hank, a lady wants to be introduced to you."
I stepped to the door feelin' wonderful bashful, but when Barbie saw me, she went several different colors an' shouts:
"Happy, Happy Hawkins! What on earth do you mean by bein' here?"
Her voice was trembly an' accusin' an' reproachful an' glad an' a lot of other things; an' I found it mighty hard to come back with a joke, quick enough to suit me. I felt sort o' flighty, with her big dark eyes lookin' into me, an' while I was stutterin' she opened up on me an' give me a good old-fashioned scoldin'—an' I felt dandy. Bill, he was troubled some with startin' eyes. Jessamie was breedy all right, but compared to Barbie, she looked like a six o' suit alongside the queen o' trumps.
"Why," sez Barbie, turnin' to Jessamie, "everything always goes right when Happy's present. I might have known from your description that it was Happy who saw the only way—"
"Oh, pshaw, now," sez I, breakin' in, "I didn't do a blasted thing. Cupid here was the master workman on this job, while Bill—"
"That's all true enough," sez Barbie, "you have the gift of hidin' yourself in your work; but I can see you just the same."
It was certainly comfortin' to hear the way she went on about it; but it was a little too cold-blooded for my nerves, 'cause I hadn't done a thing this time but make one small suggestion; so we finally compromised by admittin' that now an' again, I was picked out to be the nail on the finger of Fate. Sometimes I rather think that comes purty close to hittin' me.