12 Sports Aces, January 1943 — page 47: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

STOQOGE FOR A SPIKE KING 45 Bat Nordell was a dark, dead-panned guy. However, the story his eyes told was quite different. They were narrowed and there was almost a fierce glow in them. “Hudlin wanted a race and he got one,” Bat said. “He got the stuffing run out of him. Maybe he won’t be so anxious to try again.” Eddie felt a little ehill at Bat’s flat, cold-blooded statement. There was some- thing about him Eddie didn’t quite get. Away from Doc Hansen, the guy seemed to be a regular lone wolf, For the first time that coldness began to rub under Eddie’s skin. He didn’t like the rough, unsportsmanlike erack about Marty Hud- lin. Eddie was standing there a bit per- plexed when Chuck Oliver sauntered over. Chuck put out his hand to Eddie. “T see Bat is breaking you in to play stooge for him,” Chuck said. “You coulda capped the run tonight. But you don’t run to win when you’re working for Bate “You’d better come again on that one,” Eddie said, frowning, “Bat has done a lot for me. But he’s never asked for any help from me. He can take eare of him- self on the boards,” @huck laughed. “You'll smarten up,” he said dryly. “But for your sake I hope you get hep while you’ve still got a good pair of legs under you.” Eddie walked into a scene that was not pretty in the dressing room, Marty Hud- lin was there and Marty was steaming under the collar. Marty was saying: “You'll get yours yet, Bat. You’re on your way down—and fast, Those pins of yours won’t win you many more medals.” “You had your chance tonight and you muffed it,” Bat retorted, “I'll always be — good enough to whip you, Marty. The next crack you get at me you'll be wear- ing some other outfit’s colors. You’re through at the Olyphant A. C.” “Sure, Pm through,” Marty said bit- terly. “You’ve got the kid now to be your new plughorse. And when you burn him out, you'll find another. It’s happened be- fore me and i¥’}l happen after me.” Bat switched his sights to Bddie, then back to Marty again. eOres “If Eddie has the stuff, he’ll go places,” he said firmly. “I didn’t hold you back, Marty. You just didn’t have the stuff.” ~Marty Hudlin turned to Eddie, “Hullo, sucker,” he said. “So you’re Bat’s newest protége. Well, don’t take too many lead nickels. That’s all Bat passes out. But even they’ve got a string on ’em.” Marty closed the door hard behind him. Bat never blinked an eye. Bat locked at Eddie. “That was a punk race you ran out there,” he said. “I think you’d better do what Doc tells you the next time.” Eddie was silent a moment. In the last half hour he had learned a lot about Bat Nordell. Eddie wasn’t going to make the mistake of letting Bat shove him around. — Eddie said: “JT don’t know what this is all about, Bat. Maybe you’re all right and the other guys are all wrong. But somebody once told me that there are two sides to every argument. I haven’t heard much of your side of this one. I'll play ball and dig out the answers and make up my own mind.” Doe Hansen stepped in front of Eddie, stuck his bald head almost in Eddie’s face. “Why, you lousy, flat-footed bum,” Doc said excitedly. “You can walk out any time you want and nobody will miss you. You ought to be grateful but you’re turn- ing out to be another Marty Hudlin.” Doe said more, but Bat finally cut bim short, waving a silencing hand in front of him. “Doe gets excited once in a while, kid,” Bat said. “You make up your own mind on things.” HE next day a newspaper columnist Jet loose a blast at Bat Nordell. The fact was that Marty Hudlin had gotten to the columnist and given him a lot of “in- side” dope that made hot copy. The news- paperman had in turn really thrown the whole book at Bat. Eddie read every word of the write-up. He wanted to get the de- tails, find out more about the set-up in which he was involved. The story ran that Marty had been Bat’s pacemaker. Champion that Bat was, he couldn’t figure pace. He needed a guy EOPNICLOOKS (F@)