s. Kukor had not yet seen him. She had stationed herself at the foot
of Johnnie's bed, from where she looked down, her birdlike eyes
glistening with pity, her head wagging, her hands now waving, now
resting upon a heart that was greatly affected by the sight of Johnnie
in pain.

But Johnnie, looking up at her, knew that his hurt arm was not the whole
of her grief; knew that she was thinking how much to blame she was
herself for all that had happened. Guilt was on her round face, and
remorse in her wagging. That book! That _Alattin_! Ach, that she had
never given him that present. Oy! oy! oy!

Big Tom was making conversation. "Guess all of you work pretty hard out
where you live," he declared, "--even if you do jus' set on a horse. But
you bet you'd find my job harder. I tell y', I do my share when it comes
to the heavy work." His tongue pushed out one cheek, then the other, a
habit of his when boasting. "Why, there ain't a man workin' with me that
can do more'n two-thirds what I do! They all know it, too. 'Barber's the
guy with the cargo-hook,' is what they say. And Furman admits himself
that I'm the only man's that's really earnin' that last raise. Yes,
sir! 'Tom Barber's steel-constructed,' is what he tells the boys."

Meanwhile, Mrs. Kukor, still unaware of a strange presence, had been
whispering excitedly with Cis, from whom she had got the facts
concerning the wound. But even as she had listened, she had been aware
that Barber was talking, quietly, politely, good-naturedly. Surprised,
she came half-about ("goin' exac'ly like a spud with tooth-pick laigs,"
as One-Eye said afterwards, though not unkindly), and took a look in the
longshoreman's direction. And--saw the visitor.

Her hands dropped, her eyes fixed themselves upon those fur-faced
breeches, her bosom stopped heaving as she held her breath. Then, "Ach!"
she cried. "Could I believe it if so I did-ent saw it?--Mister Barber,
how comes here a cowpoy?"

_A cowboy?_

Then it was Johnnie who experienced sensations:
Surprise--bewilderment--doubt--staggering belief--awe--joy--more
joy--pride--triumph!

He sat up.

Now he understood why the shaggy breeches had struck him as somehow
familiar. Of course! He had seen just such a pair pictured on the
billboard across from the millionaire's garage. Now he realized how he
had seared the sight of his enemies as he and the Great One arrived side
by side in a taxicab!--Yet no one must ever know that he had been in