"Well," said the business manager, looking
at the ceiling, for he had no wish to meet Young
Sullivan's eyes just then, "the bank roll ain't
very fat, Charlie. "We could use a few thousand,
you know, and there's more money in losing to
Cline — don't get excited, kid; let me talk — than
we could get by winning from a flock of pork-
and-bean welters. That fight would draw forty
thousand if it draws a cent. If you win — and
it's no cinch that Cline will be as good as he
was two years ago — we can clean up a fortune
the first year, like shooting fish ! ' '

" If I win ! " said Healy bitterly. ' ' I tell you,
it'll murder me to get down to one-thirty-three !
I'd have to cut the meat right off the bone to
do it. You know I made one-thirty-five for
Kelly, and it was all I could do to outpoint him
in twenty rounds when I should have stopped
him with a punch ! ' '

[64]



ONE-THIETY-THEEE — ^RINGSIDE



"The loser's end ought to be eight thousand,
at least," said Avery, still looking at the ceil-
ing. "And in case you don't get him, you've
got a fine alibi — the weight stopped you. It was
your ptomach that bothered you in the Kelly
fight, remember that. ' '

"See here, Billy," said Charles Francis,
"you want me ta fight Cline, don't you? Even
at one-thirty-three?"

"We need the money," said the manager sim-
ply-

"I'll gamble you!" said Healy, producing a
silver half dollar. "Heads, I fight him; tails,
I don't. Will you stick by it, Billy, if it comes
tails?"

"Sure!" said the manager. "Will you go
through with it if she comes heads?"

"It's a promise!" said Healy.
