noon
Everyone said that Byrne 's future was assured . There was not a man in sight who could touch him , and none who had seen him fight the night before but would have staked his last dollar on him in a mill with the black champion . Cassidy wired a challenge to the Negro 's manager , and received an answer that was most favorable . The terms were , as usual , rather one-sided but Cassidy accepted them , and it seemed before noon that a fight was assured . Billy was more nearly happy again than he had been since the day he had renounced Barbara Harding to the man he thought she loved . He read and re-read the accounts in the papers , and then searching for more references to himself off the sporting page he ran upon the very name that had been constantly in his thoughts for all these months -- Harding . Persistent rumor has it that the engagement of the beautiful Miss Harding to Wm. J. Mallory has been broken .