The Argosy, Vol. 81, No. 4 — page 92: what you’re looking at

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

658 workings and customs of a training camp so that there was no fear of his mistaking the punching bag for the hat-rack, Dono- van summoned a photographer and the Mountain Lion was photographed in a score of heroic postures, each one different, _ with the one exception that in every picture the peerless wonder’s face was either averted or hidden by his arm or glove. That was one of Donovan’s strategic points in the bold campaign. The great find was to be at once a marvel and a man of mystery. Here was a thing to appgal to the curios- ity of the public, and the sport writers en- tered into it with enthusiasm. They had found a new angle to write about. Almost immediately the “Fist of Mystery,” ‘The Man in the Leather Mask” and “The Face- less Fighter” took unrestricted possession of the sport columns. So irresistible was the mystery appeal that it was not long before the woman’s page welcomed it and pictures of the Moun- tain Lion were run over a series entitled, “Could You Love a Man Without Seeing His Face?” Even the editorial writers could not ignore such an opportunity. It was pleasant diversion to turn for a day from the everlasting pounding for or against national defense and woman suffrage to ramble along for a few paragraphs on “The Value of a Man’s Face,”’ while the nimble-brained paragraphers constructed and reconstructed the faceless face until it became almost as widely dreaded as the Ford joke. : Thus the Mountain Lion, thanks to Don- ovan’s genius, became famous at a single bound. That sport writers did not put over a scoop by printing a full-face view of the new wonder secured by their own photogra- phers was not due to a lack of enterprise; rather to a keen sense of it. To publish such a picture would have been to rob them- selves of the very thing they had seized upon so eagerly—a novelty. A few weeks of this and the public was itching to throw its money at the box office for a mere glimpse of the new fighter. Here at last was a worthy rival for the unvan- quished and wunconquerable One-Round Higgin! The day set for the fight drew near and still Tobias Brewer, unaware of his fame as the mysterious Mountain Lion, did not know who his adversary would be. Having THE ARGOSY. put the question daily to Donovan for weeks and always receiving the same evasive reply, Tobias began to have a vague notion that there wasn’t going to be any adver- sary. Just what Donovan’s game was he could not fathom, but he was being fed well and housed well, and though the daily workout was not always to his liking, it made him glow with health and strength so that his outlook became optimistic. Feeling that he might have struck much worse luck in the big city, he was content to let matters drift along as they were as long as Donovan was willing to foot the bills. He had not been told the date of the fight, and somehow the nearer the fatal day approached the more convinced Tobias Brewer became that there wasn’t going to be any fight at all. From the large number of people that visited at the camp he conceived the idea that perhaps Donovan had made a sort ‘of side show freak of him and was deriving his income from the admittance charges. If so he was satisfied. That promise of ten thousand dollars had been too marvelous to be true to begin with. Tobias Brewer had had dreams of wealth before so there was no harm done if this, like the other dreams, failed to materialize. But he did not even dream that his pictures with the hidden face appeared in every newspaper of any importance and that his new name held sway in the sport columns. Now as always he had no natural desire to read a newspaper and the Kid saw to it that none got into his hands. Time and again there had been narrow escapes, but the Kid was always on the job. Meanwhile the illustrious One Round Higgin passed the time leisurely. He pre- tended to train to satisfy the sport writers, but took more interest in displaying his diamonds and enjoying his motor-cars. He posed for innumerable photographs and visited the newspaper offices, assuring the public that he never felt more fit in his life. With a patronizing smile that dis- played the diamond settings in his teeth the champion admitted that he expected the Lion to put up an interesting fight, pos- sibly even the most interesting-one in his career, but of the outcome there was no doubt. His highly prized one round repu- tation would not suffer, of that he was cer- tain. The champion’s absolute confidence was COMMICLO® S (C@