You clean out of here!" Eliph' coughed lightly behind his hand, but the words of reproof that he intended to launch softly at the Colonel were never spoken.
"Well, this IS lucky!" cried the attorney, holding out his hand to Eliph'.

"Colonel, this is the best luck we could have had.

Here we need a witness, and here we have him right on the spot! I was going to stop and get Skinner on the way down, and then I thought maybe, from what you said, you and Skinner were not very friendly, so I didn't, and now I'm glad I didn't.

We find a witness right here on the porch, just as if he had been ordered to be here.

I call that a good omen." The Colonel was not pleased, and he showed it, but he really had nothing that he could urge against this book agent, so he said nothing.