Argosy, Vol. 147, No. 1 — page 155: what you’re looking at

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

of that, just as sure as one of the main causes of baldness is sittin’ in the front row, the Kid will beat the Bat- tler in a manner as hollow as a summer hotel in January. And likewise it ain’t the sweet bill of ex- penses which this cheap actor, Morgan, is running up, either, and which he claims 1s necessary to support the distracting but phony Gladys Delano in the style to which she is accustomed—such as livin’ at a swell hotel, and at least one new gown the week, and all this and that, though of course maybe it’s necessary in order to keep up the deception, as Eddie and Morgan both claims. No, it ain’t either of these things that’s got me walking the floor nights, startin’ at every little sound like Vd been shot, and exhibiting other equally alarmin’ symptoms ‘of being about an even one inch this side of nervous prostration. But Vl tell you what it is. The fact of the matter is, the Kid’s got a temper like a nervous wildcat, and when he finds out the way we have handed him the work— well, what then, hey? Because believe me, that boy swings a mean bare knuckle! Yes, right there, ladies and gentlemen, is the arsenic in the pie crust. However, just about then I wasn’t the only one whose favorite hobby, as you might say, was viewin’ the situation with alarm. We simply got to have a showdown with the Kid right away after the Rothstein battle, and as the fatal time draws near, friend Eddie, who had introduced the be- witching but synthetic Gladys to the Kid, and had also played quite a prominent part in the subsequent proceedings—well, Ed- die likewise begins to feel himself slipping. So me and Eddie get together a number of times and discuss the matter with much care and considerable earnestness, and we finally come to the conclusion that there's only one way out of it. Eddie and Mor- gan’s engagement at the Regal had come to an end only’a day or so after we started to frame the Kid, and they hadn’t tried cause I am positive to get another booking because Mr. Cav- eney might accidentally drift into the place where Morgan was doing his stuff—in which case the beans would have been spilled ‘VAMP TILL READY. right there and then. Otherwist, = gan had been working somewhere, W could have steered the Kid to the plist} let him find out for himselt—witht results it is difficult to say, and oS it ain’t so difficult. ae - But the way things were, why, it loc like the only way is for all of us to together in my place of business the mor ing after the Rothstein battle, and con | clean to the Kid, by no means omitHr to tell Mr. Caveney how it was all for Bi own good, and so forth, and if the Kuc burns up and starts to wreck the joint, in- cludin’ his three earnest well-wishers, Mr Bigelow, Mr. Morgan and myself—well there’s always a cop handy on the cornel turbance before it amounts to anything more than a couple of hospital cases or th At least let us hope so! 2 So, for want of a better, that was the plan we agreed on—though, believe me, hac it been possible, I would have m ach pre- ferred to handle the matter by radio fron Moscow. woe): : See Well, durin’ my long and useful ree I can remember passin’ quite a number highly enjoyable evenings at Mrs. son’s Square Garden, but the eve ¢ Kid Caveney met Battling Roths the light-heavy championship of this world ain’t one of ’em. Far from you know, I had rated Battling F as nothing more or less than a p for Mr. Georges Carpentier, 2nd, Caveney, and the Battler would h all of that if—well, if the Kid had sprung a complete surprise on the hund of ring worms which had foregathered view the obsequies, not to mentio You see, always before this the Ki gone after his man right from the of at chime, and had usually succeeded : =a ing the opposing candidate slantwise t the victim found out whether struck by a resemblance or a cycle you might say. a With a few scattering exception of the kid’s scraps had gone stanzas at the most—with the Ki there tryin’ all the time. But thi _ €omicbooks.com Al eaten ; Xe