The imperious desire for bodily sustenance began to compete successfully for Fillmore"s notice with his spiritual anguish.
"Let"s go to the hotel and talk it over. We"ll go to the hotel and I"ll give you something to eat."
"I don"t want anything to eat, thanks."
"You don"t want anything to eat?" said Fillmore incredulously. He supposed in a vague sort of way that there were eccentric people of this sort, but it was hard to realize that he had met one of them. "I"m starving."
"Well, run along then."
"Yes, but I want to talk..."
He was not the only person who wanted to talk. At the moment a small man of sporting exterior hurried up. He wore what his tailor"s advertis.e.m.e.nts would have called a "n.o.bbly" suit of checked tweed and--in defiance of popular prejudice--a brown bowler hat. Mr. Lester Burrowes, having dealt with the business which had interrupted their conversation a few minutes before, was anxious to resume his remarks on the subject of the supreme excellence in every respect of his young charge.
"Say, Mr. Nicholas, you ain"t going"? Bugs is just getting ready to spar."
He glanced inquiringly at Sally.
"My sister--Mr. Burrowes," said Fillmore faintly. "Mr. Burrowes is Bugs Butler"s manager."
"How do you do?" said Sally.
"Pleased to meecher," said Mr. Burrowes. "Say..."
"I was just going to the hotel to get something to eat," said Fillmore.
Mr. Burrowes clutched at his coat-b.u.t.ton with a swoop, and held him with a glittering eye.
"Yes, but, say, before-you-go-lemme-tell-ya-somef"n. You"ve never seen this boy of mine, not when he was feeling right. Believe me, he"s there!
He"s a wizard. He"s a Hindoo! Say, he"s been practising up a left shift that..."
Fillmore"s eye met Sally"s wanly, and she pitied him. Presently she would require him to explain to her how he had dared to dismiss Ginger from his employment--and make that explanation a good one: but in the meantime she remembered that he was her brother and was suffering.
"He"s the cleverest lightweight," proceeded Mr. Burrowes fervently, "since Joe Gans. I"m telling you and I know! He..."
"Can he make a hundred and thirty-five ringside without being weak?"
asked Sally.
The effect of this simple question on Mr. Burrowes was stupendous. He dropped away from Fillmore"s coat-b.u.t.ton like an exhausted bivalve, and his small mouth opened feebly. It was as if a child had suddenly propounded to an eminent mathematician some abstruse problem in the higher algebra. Females who took an interest in boxing had come into Mr. Burrowes" life before---in his younger days, when he was a famous featherweight, the first of his three wives had been accustomed to sit at the ringside during his contests and urge him in language of the severest technicality to knock opponents" blocks off--but somehow he had not supposed from her appearance and manner that Sally was one of the elect. He gaped at her, and the relieved Fillmore sidled off like a bird hopping from the compelling gaze of a snake. He was not quite sure that he was acting correctly in allowing his sister to roam at large among the somewhat Bohemian surroundings of a training-camp, but the instinct of self-preservation turned the scale. He had breakfasted early, and if he did not eat right speedily it seemed to him that dissolution would set in.
"Whazzat?" said Mr. Burrowes feebly.
"It took him fifteen rounds to get a referee"s decision over Cyclone Mullins," said Sally severely, "and K-leg Binns..."
Mr. Burrowes rallies.
"You ain"t got it right" he protested. "Say, you mustn"t believe what you see in the papers. The referee was dead against us, and Cyclone was down once for all of half a minute and they wouldn"t count him out. Gee!
You got to kill a guy in some towns before they"ll give you a decision.
At that, they couldn"t do nothing so raw as make it anything but a win for my boy, after him leading by a mile all the way. Have you ever seen Bugs, ma"am?"
Sally had to admit that she had not had that privilege. Mr. Burrowes with growing excitement felt in his breast-pocket and produced a picture-postcard, which he thrust into her hand.
"That"s Bugs," he said. "Take a slant at that and then tell me if he don"t look the goods."
The photograph represented a young man in the irreducible minimum of clothing who crouched painfully, as though stricken with one of the acuter forms of gastritis.
"I"ll call him over and have him sign it for you," said Mr. Burrowes, before Sally had had time to grasp the fact that this work of art was a gift and no mere loan. "Here, Bugs--wantcher."
A youth enveloped in a bath-robe, who had been talking to a group of admirers near the ring, turned, started languidly towards them, then, seeing Sally, quickened his pace. He was an admirer of the s.e.x.
Mr. Burrowes did the honours.
"Bugs, this is Miss Nicholas, come to see you work out. I have been telling her she"s going to have a treat." And to Sally. "Shake hands with Bugs Butler, ma"am, the coming lightweight champion of the world."
Mr. Butler"s photograph, Sally considered, had flattered him. He was, in the flesh, a singularly repellent young man. There was a mean and cruel curve to his lips and a cold arrogance in his eye; a something dangerous and sinister in the atmosphere he radiated. Moreover, she did not like the way he smirked at her.
However, she exerted herself to be amiable.
"I hope you are going to win, Mr. Butler," she said.
The smile which she forced as she spoke the words removed the coming champion"s doubts, though they had never been serious. He was convinced now that he had made a hit. He always did, he reflected, with the girls.
It was something about him. His chest swelled complacently beneath the bath-robe.
"You betcher," he a.s.serted briefly.
Mr. Burrows looked at his watch.
"Time you were starting, Bugs."
The coming champion removed his gaze from Sally"s face, into which he had been peering in a conquering manner, and cast a disparaging glance at the audience. It was far from being as large as he could have wished, and at least a third of it was composed of non-payers from the newspapers.
"All right," he said, bored.
His languor left him, as his gaze fell on Sally again, and his spirits revived somewhat. After all, small though the numbers of spectators might be, bright eyes would watch and admire him.
"I"ll go a couple of rounds with Reddy for a starter," he said. "Seen him anywheres? He"s never around when he"s wanted."
"I"ll fetch him," said Mr. Burrowes. "He"s back there somewheres."
"I"m going to show that guy up this afternoon," said Mr. Butler coldly.
"He"s been getting too fresh."
The manager bustled off, and Bugs Butler, with a final smirk, left Sally and dived under the ropes. There was a stir of interest in the audience, though the newspaper men, blase through familiarity, exhibited no emotion. Presently Mr. Burrowes reappeared, shepherding a young man whose face was hidden by the sweater which he was pulling over his head.
He was a st.u.r.dily built young man. The sweater, moving from his body, revealed a good pair of shoulders.
A last tug, and the sweater was off. Red hair flashed into view, tousled and disordered: and, as she saw it, Sally uttered an involuntary gasp of astonishment which caused many eyes to turn towards her. And the red-headed young man, who had been stooping to pick up his gloves, straightened himself with a jerk and stood staring at her blankly and incredulously, his face slowly crimsoning.
3