Friday morning I got a wire from one
of the South Bend boys, Goat Anderson,
sent from Buffalo, saying he'd be in New
York that night and would I meet him at
the Belmont at seven o'clock. So I went
in Town from the track and waited round
till pretty near nine, but he didn't show
up. I started to walk across to the Penn-
sylvania Station and on the way I
dropped in at a place where they was still
taking a chance. I had one up at the bar
and was throwing it into me when a guy
in the back part yelled "Hey! Come
here !" It was Mercer yelling and it was
me he wanted.
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ONLY ONE 177

He was setting at a table all alone with
a highball. It didn't take no Craig Ken-
nedy to figure out that it wasn't his first
one.
"Set down before I bat you down!" he
says.
"Listen," I says: "I wished you was
champion of the world. You'd hold onto
the title just long enough for me to reach
over and sock you where most guys has a
chin."

"Set down!" he says. "It's your wife
I'm going to beat up, not you."

"You ain't going to beat up nobody's
wife or nobody's husband," I says, "and
if you don't cut out that line of gab you'll
soon be asking the nurse how you got
there."

"Set down and come clean with me,"
he says. "Was your wife the one that
told Daley about your sister-in-law and
I?"

"If she did, what of it?" I says.
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178 THE BIG TOWN

"I'm asking you, did she?" he says.
