12 Sports Aces, January 1943 — page 67: what you’re looking at

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

It wouldn’t have leoked good. So he kept in the background.” Rowdy was scowling. His blood was be- ginning to bubble. “How’d you find out all this?” Marty said, “It started with.a hunch. Frosty was spending too much dough in the hot spots. He had to get it from some place and the fight game looked logical. He likes the dolls, and a guy who likes dolls and drinks as much as he does-is apt to talk. Somewhere along the line he usu- ally jilts a doll and she resents it. I asked a few questions around. I got a couple of sports writers to help me. We found the right doll—one he’d given 9 dirty deal. She told us what we wanted to know.” The buzzer sounded again. But Rowdy wasn’t finished. “‘That’s how you got the fight for me. You made ‘em kick in or face the publicity.” “Yeah,” Marty said. He saw the blaze in Rowdy’s eyes. He looked at Gunner Borklund. “Poor Gunner,” he said, under his breath, as he stepped down out of the ring. Rowdy was all right now. His head was clear and he was mad. He heard the bell and he leaped toward the center of the ring. He saw the champ stalking him, and for an instant he was looking at a hydra-headed monster. The champ’s body, the champ’s face. The other face was a grinning Frosty Brown. OWDY blocked a left with his-own left. He feinted with his right. The maneuver drew a lead and Rowdy ducked under it. He came up inside. He had a punch in his system and he got it out. He belted the champ in the mid-section. And hard. The champ’s breath was coming out, but he sueked it back into his lungs. He tried to cover. But his beliy ached. He was leaning forward and there was a lit- tle piece of forehead sticking above his guard, Rowdy belted that piece of forehead and the guard came up all the way. But there was a bigger expanse of midsection exposed and so Rowdy belted it. The champ staggered, tried to hang on, But Rowdy remembered a trick he had KILL THE CHAMP(t 65 $9 Pn On du PH Oude BiOuOudubsbuerOrOeeQubnOHONO OH Oren Or On Pu OndnPiGurhir On Sr Sew Or OnOnBuBiOrou den OuduSiduPuPusnOnPurOrGerGneeierOraree Pe learned from the Gunner, He brushed Gunner aside, kept backing away. The Gunner would take a step forward, trying to clinch, Rowdy would belt him in the teeth and take a step backward. He had the Gunner running after him, trying to tie him, trying to rest. And all the time Rowdy was backing a step, belting, back- ing another step, It was a hell of a way for a beaten fighter to be taking pun- ishment. But {t was working. Gunner Borklund’s strategy of getting fat while fighting in the sticks had been fine—until now. But it boomeranged on him. In the sticks he had forgotten how to take punishment, He had learned only how to dish it out. But now he had to take it—take it from a man who should have been whipped by now. It was too much, too bewildering, Rowdy read these things in the champ’s eyes and it gave him strength. He was in the center of the ring. He fired a tong, looping right. The champ ducked. Rowdy came in close and his left swept up from the floor. He caught the champ at the end of the chin. Gunner Borklund came up off the floor, bounced off the ropes, fell for- ward and landed on his face. Rowdy went to his neutral corner and the ref made the count, It was over and a new champion was born. The crowd surged into the ring, a grinning Marty Allen leading them. The crowd was yell- ing Rowdy’s name. Everything was sud- denly all right again. —~ Eventually the press guys had enough and the radio had to-go back selling soup again, The extras were on the streets and the world was settling down and Rowdy and Marty took the long walk to the dress- ing room together. They went inside and closed the door. Marty had a nice smile on his face. He said, ““We’ve got a jackpot now. Enough for both of us. My eyes are getting better all the time. I wonder how we would look in uniforms, There’s some place they can use us in,” Rowdy saluted. He turned and went into the shower. He wasn’t gone long. He came back out at once and took off his wet clothes. Then he went back in again and he was whistling. Eomichbooks (eC)