Honey opened the door a little and peered out at them. He had never seen either of them before, but the lamplight illuminated their faces enough to show their grins.
“Fix the roof?” he said slowly. “Oh, yeah. Well, I’ll bet we do need help.”
He opened the door.
“C’mon in out of the wet.”
They shuffled the mud off their boots and came in. The two girls stood near the dining-room doorway, each of them holding a receptacle, looking curiously at Hashknife, who removed his dripping hat and grinned widely at them. Hashknife’s grin was irresistible. Honey grinned foolishly and shuffled his feet.
“My name’s Hartley,” said Hashknife. “This soakin’ wet object with me is named Stevens. He was sufferin’ from a bad tooth, and we went huntin’ a dentist in the rain.”
“Yuh went huntin’ a dentist?” queried Honey foolishly. “Wh-where didja expect to find one?”
“Sounds kinda queer,” grinned Hashknife. “Yuh see, we was actin’ as a couple of chambermaids to a train of cows, but the bridge caught on fire and we got stalled. Sleepy’s tooth shore needed help; so we started out to find the wagon-bridge, figurin’ to find this Pinnacle City. But we didn’t find the bridge.”
“Oh, yeah,” Honey scratched his head. “The railroad bridge caught fire. Uh-huh. Ho-o-o-old on!”
He ran across the room, grabbed up a wash-basin and placed it under a fresh leak. Then he came back and introduced the girls to Hashknife and Sleepy.