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Show THE LEGS OF FRECKLES i By E. vazt n i every woodon-hcaded wit in San Fran-ciyro Fran-ciyro that I feci r should like to tell what really happened and lot the public judge. It was Clarence Kent who was responsible re-sponsible for the whole affair. In a manner man-ner of speaking. Clarence was a New Yorker a very decent-appearing sort of a chap who turned up at the club on his way back from Australia. He had letters from excellent people, and you know how we are in San Francisco. We accept a man at his face value, and CUrence had a good face. We're not old enough or fusyy enough as a state to po prowling back two or throe hundred years to see if a man's ancestors were received in the. beat society. It'H as much as we can do j to go back to 1S49, when evcrybodv was broke and starting even and the best and strongest men won. Quite far enough, back, too, if you ask me. Kent was one of the best athletes T ever saw in my life. He could wrestle, he could box and hit like a pile driver with either hand, and at handball we hadn't every wooden-headed wit in San Fran- 21 cittco that I feel r should like to tell what -'.; really happened and lot the public judge. I : . H was Clarence Kent who was re- ' f ' sponsible for the whole affair. In a man- ner of speaking. Clarence was a New Yorker a very decent-appearing sort of a " ' - V chap who turned up at the club on his 2M f way back from Australia. He had letters from excellent people, and you know how we are in San Francisco. We accept a J man at his face value, and CUrence had X a good face. We're not old enough or I fusyy enough as a state to go prowling back two or throe hundred years to see "k. ' if a man's ancestors were received in the J r 'l best society. It'H as much as we can do V to go back to 1S49, when every bodv was $ j broke and starting even and the best and v tl strongest men won. Quite far enough. V C M 7 back, too, if you ask me. v H '" lf Kent was one of the best athletes T ever V4PS?'i saw in my life. He could wrestle, he J ''S'P'A 4v could box and hit like a pile driver with yV &'yr 'j) V--5 either hand, and at handball we hadn't ifJWTv ffr-, ZfyuX,' ,. OiA X ,,,, "N.LMER HE.BNTV'AY says that you ' -an tell more about a man's real "l character by looking into his eyes I than you can by chasing him I. through tho latest volume of ' 10's Who." I know that Reggie Ma- ,n always looks at a man's hands n he Is introduced, and Charlie hfunny old dog. Charlie says that : can generally tell a policeman by his '"i a prize fighter by his ears All Jw silly rot, I fay. I don't think '" vou can tell anything about anybody K Mug at h.m. You can't tell how far t; can jump by watching him when he ffinz still. That isn't my own prov- - vouri understand, but it's a good one. '. ?hP amc. If we had to depend upon ' l.itelv original remarks, conversation irt becon.e one of the lost arts, so when l-.ra ood thing I pass it along. .-. is for judging man by his '' . I submit that Lombroso himself ::: vt that the name of that foreign me who wroto books and things ' t tho shape of a man's head? '"' in't have told a thing about Freckles ' ookinz at him, and yet Freckles was , a personage in his own particular :. But, if you don't mind, I'll tell the CJ'name Is hastings Freddy Hastings. " 'eric of course, but I have been called idv for so many years that I fee! quite iin 1 shall never be called anything . even if I live to be as old as Uncle. ' ; ' Parrish, the oldest member of the t Iml'e club. Uncle Dick can remember ' J back Into the days of the vigilance "'mlttee and he has told those forty-;..' forty-;..' stories so often that he really he-"'a he-"'a ihem himself now. Some of the ;' iscr men about town joko me about - ace but, as a matter of fact, I'm ' a shade over 45, and am often taken ;" less That comes of having gone in 'i 'ubieties In my twenties. hen I was younger I was quite a devil fellow around San Francisco. I be- - ed to the old Corinthian club run--C and rowing and boxing, and all that . of thing, you know; but boxing was ''"'specialty. You might not believe it 50k at me now, but I've had on the -. es with some of the best professional ' " lleweights In the country, in private, '"jourse, and they all said that the t-fltig I made was remarkable. .'' the Old Days. "t--e had somo wonderful fights In San " Klsco In the old days. That was be- boxing became commercialized. Now-::' Now-::' b all a fighter seems to think of is he can avoid being hurt, and a boy w a good left jab can muke a fortune ? out taking as much punishment as 17 of the old-time fighters used to take "i single engagement. Personally, I k the fighting game is going to the '-i, what with these perfectly out-v-ous prices and purses and things of ' sort In my time fighters really I:ht each other. They did not dance "'stand awav and pose for the moving iEirea, and they did not demand J.20,000, i lose or draw. They knew a lot i; ir than that. ".((ten wonder what the oldtlme fight-7. fight-7. -the real raw-knuckle boys who knew t lighting means think of these in- i purses. They fought for what the It' was pleased to offer them, they rj.ht hard, and were grateful for the jirice, and the winner's end was not ' jgh to keep him comfortably pickled lampasne for mouths afterward. All better for lilm. says I. In those days ihtcr lasted longer, kept himself in 6'ir trim, and was able to put up a .': ir exhibition for a tenth of the in'.ey paid today. Vastly superior to the icfint system. "I iarllo French Charlie is a dynamiter r: eart argues that I am wrong. He 7f: that a modern Tighter Is entitled to C;;:nd just as much money as ho feels t:z an get; In other words, all the traffic !.-bear a sentiment with which we of "...'ornia should bo fairly familiar. .:;,'lle even went so far as to draw a ;.): ulous comparison, reminding me that "0V 1 the railroad wanted my strip of erty down near Fourth and Towns-'rl Towns-'rl stuck them a pretty stiff price for m,,' ecause, said he. I knew they would 'vy to pay It. The idea of comparing 7:-rfertly legitimate business deal with " finldup method of (he modern fighter! -38 otiito soro at Charlie for as much week! Hang It! I halk at paying ity dollars to see a pair of second's second-'s with pillows on their hands playing for the moving pictures and never a kdown In twenty rounds, and never . of blood. Absurd. lave wandered awav from Freckles ..tho story, and t shall hurrv back. 1 pjys ?o large a bit when I get to talk-ihout talk-ihout high finance and the manly art ilf-drfcnse. They dn tint belong to-sr: to-sr: I don't care a tinker's continental ilfl'- Charlie French savs. I want it understood, however, that v years ago I was regarded as quite . Ko of form in a fighter, and a great j of money was bet and won upon Wnlon and advice. It was quite the t for Colonel Rumsum and Judge ;s and some of the other heavy bet-Jhoiit bet-Jhoiit tho club men who liked 'to bet ne snke of hotting and not. that thev (y ' nnvthlng of the i-atne-lo ask rne V I thought of Kid So-and-So and had ,- chance, riit j think, with the other . And then thev would place their :' a. Hkly as not, clean up hand-'i hand-'i . Vihv, even the newspaper chaps ' -i , "M "fter me for a prediction -. J championship events. But I didn't ivji'C , m!, rr me, no! They would ;i nad me In type along with u column : ot guesses of saloon keepers and -" man! Bad company, that. Clarence. vi';'' 'wenty years ago I was regarded : i an oracle upon the subject of .i.in. i have not been so regarded f my experience with Freckles, and ' what this story Is to be about. It ' i . s",n of a standing Joko for "ntl In the course of time has come , ojBarbled and manhandled by : would shoot out like ' McGhee's head would r- . . on nia shoulders. Vou could never tell what the fellow was going to do until he had done it, and then you never knew how it was done 1 Freckles had a style all his own. It took us several years to decide that lie was the most awkwardly clever and dangerous danger-ous fighter in the wond. because he broke ail tho rules of thobox'nc instructors and d:d thinj; s his own way; but you may imagine what we though thai mght. seeing see-ing him for tho first time and believing that all the queer things were done by aeciriem ! ' At the end of the first round, he sprung another surprise on us. Ho waved tho towel swingers and handlers out of his corner, kicked the stool under the ropes atid stood uptight, rolling his small bald head upon his immense shoulders, and looking from side to side. He caught my eye, and his lace lit up with the most radiant smile, and to save me 1 could not help smiling bark at him! There was something so honest and kindly in the look he gave me that I was disarmed in an instant, even though I wished for his defeat. Three hundred dollars is quite a sum of money, quite a lump sum. I saw. as 1 Matched him. that he was thoroughly enjoying the sensation hrt had created. The place hummed like a beehive. They were till arguing about that knockdown. I believe that at th time it was tho general consensus of opinion that it was a lucky fluke. If it was a fluke, we had many more upon which to sit in judgment. Clarence Sheds Light. Billy McGhee opened the second round with a savage charge. J'Yecklcs knocked him down with a short right hook on tho side of tho head, and I for ono realized that this Australian carried heavy guns starboard and port. Perhaps a gamer man than Billy McGhee never lived. He was the true typo of fighting human animal, and his courage was worthy wor-thy of a better profession; but after the second round was over, and McGhee. puffed and bleeding about the face, waa back in his corner, wo all knew that it was only a question of how long our favorite fa-vorite could stand the grueling. Stimson passed benind McGhee's corner cor-ner during the minute's rest, and Billy, pulling up on eyelid with tho thumb of his glove, hailed him hoarsely. "Hi! You're a nice one. you are! T thought you said this, feller couldn't hit!" "Can he hit, Billy?" asked Stimson, for it was plain that he had to say something. some-thing. "Oh. my Gawd!" said Billy McGhee. and that was as near a prayer as ho ever got in his life. Well, we cheered him to the finish. Nobody No-body ever said that the Corinthians threw down a favorite. Billy deserved it for his gameness. Nine rounds that battl lasted nine rounds, and every one of them a martyrdom for Billy McGhee. And all the time Freckles was shuffling and sidling about tho ring, smiling to himself him-self and inventing new ways to use bin hands upon a man's head. I eay again that I never saw anything like it. Kight hand, left hand, hooka, swings, jabs, up-percuts up-percuts there seemed to bo no end to the repertoire of Freckles, and every time he landed a solid blow a few hundred hun-dred woll-fed gentlemen grunted out o sympathy for the dollars which they had risked at the ratio of thrco for one. Some men who bet on a fighter feel that they havo a perfect right to koo him slaughtered in the ring, if he cannot win. I speak for myself and three hundred hun-dred was. and Is. a large bet for me 1 was delighted when it was all over. C had seen enough. But f could not niakn up my mind whether Freckles was tho greatest middleweight the world had cer seen or just the luckiest. Clarence Sheds Light. I saw Clarence afterward. lie had been collecting his beta, and he scorned to have all the surplus money in California concealed about his clothes. To do him justice, he did not rub It In any more than I would havo done had conditions been reversed. "Well," said he, cackling like a silly ass, "how's tho wiso boy? Are ou happy. Freddy?" I led him away into a corner. "Tell me this." I said, "before T clmkn you, how did you know Freckles was such a good bet?" "Why." said Clarence. thumbing a. sickening roll of yellow-backed bills, "he told me so." "He? Who's he?" "Why, Freckles, of eoun-f Vte'd hnv told you, too, if you had allied him. Only you seemed so sure about those leg 3 of his." "Told me wha t?" The si tun 1 Ion wm getting upon my nerves. "W hat would Freckles have told me'"' "Why." sa id Cln re nee, "about his record. rec-ord. This fallow licked every good man in Australia before he came over here. Stopped five men in one night, and on of them was our old friend blade, tho Maori '." "And you believe thrU?" T demanded. "Don't you '." sn id ( 'larenr c. "Well, dash it ail, Clarence, If you knew he whs as good as that, why didn't you say something? "Why didn't you tell everybody ?" "Ah." s;(id Clarence, nnd here he revealed, re-vealed, his low cunning, "thnl would havo spoiled the price, and 1 Ilko to put a lorg shot over once in a vhil" You e;n think anything ynu p!o;ic-o; tt'e the truth that I never fell quite the phiijo toward Clarence Kent from that day to this. Freekleu owefi me no money, however. I won that three hundred buck when lift fought the Nonpareil for the middleweight cho mploiifihlp of the world Irn- th;m a, year later. And t.rven yerpi u 1 1 erw.-j id, when he bent a Cullfornljin ffr the hviivy-we hviivy-we I, stht rh;i mpionship of the w'-d, he carried all the money J felt 1 could a l ford to rink. Not a great deal, of l oui'se. for I am no gambler, but th.-ro If; sur-h a thing as a reasonable c'Ttainty. "Can he hit, Billy?" asked Stimson, for it was plain he had to say something. "Oh, my Gawd!" said Billy McGhee. wav in which to place a saving bet on Freckles fo that news of it woud not leaK out. And Clarence might tell. It would havo been iust like his sense of humor. That would have been a fine story to neddle about the Corinthian club! Freddy Hastines petting every one to bet 3 to l and then hedging ha own bet! And af:er all the sarcastic things I had said aout Freckles' s legs, too! No. it wouldn t do. "Clarence, vou're a fool!" I said, should not have used such an express-on, but 1 was ruffled at the time. "All risht, Freddy!" said he. with his aggravating laugh. "You can bet your socks that if I'm a fool there'll be a lot of sore wise hovs around here after this light. Don't forget that I told you to g1 dowi on Freckles'." You should have heard them laugh when Freckles came into the ring. He had no bath robe, of course, and his lighting equipment was of the plainest and cheapest cheap-est kind. Cotton trunks always make a man look like a selling-plater. The laugh started as soon as Freckles came in sight, stalking down tho aisle on those tremendously tre-mendously long thin shanks of his. I realtv felt sorrv for the poor fellow! Tils shiny, bald head and his funny red face kept turning from side to side with an expression of alarm, as much as to say: "Where's the joke? What are they all laughing at?" Billy McGhee received the real welcome. There was no laughter in the cheer which rose as he climbed through the ropes, big and burlv and fit. I felt better about my three hundred as soon as T saw him. Freckles hoisted himself out of his chair and offered his hand to McGhee. McGhee took it rather ungraciously, shook it once like a pump handle, and then, standing away, surveyed Freckles from head to foot, lingering a long while over his marvelous legs. Then he laughed, and walked to his own corner, and almost everyone in the house laughed with him. Il was a neat bit of byplay, but McGhee Mc-Ghee was famous for that sort of thing. Rather a comedian in his own way. Coarse, to be sure, but very funny at times. I was glad that he had made that point about Freckles's legs, because I had told everybody about how very dickey they were. Explaining Things to Freckles. Freckles looked about him in a puzzled puz-zled manner as he sat down, and I'll swear that he blushed all over, but, for all that, I felt certain that he was relieved at the sight of the man he was to meet. You know the feeling you have after you have waited an hour or so on the dentist and he comes in and tells you the chair is waiting? You are glad it is going to begin, because you know it will be over the sooner. Odd sensation. Then, of course, they fussed and fiddled and fooled around until everybody had the fidgets. The referee took off his coat and eased himself under the ropes, paying pay-ing no attention to friendly remarks the way a referee always does. When he called the men to the middle of the ring. Freckles had to have everything explained to him, as though he had never heard of the Marquis of Queensberry or his rules before. I believe he gave as an excuse that, as this was his first fight in America, Amer-ica, he did not wish to make any mistakes. mis-takes. Peter Paul, the referee, told him about hitting with one arm free and protecting himself in the breakaway and all that sort of thing, which everybody knows by heart, and Freckles listened intently, wagging his head from side to side or bobbing; it up and down like a clown. Billy McGhee scowled and grumbled all through the conference. He was very nasty and disagreeable, but Freckles did not pay the slightest attention to him. which, of course, was the proper thing to do. I caught a glimpse of Clarence just as the bell rang. He was out on the edge of his seat, trying to get as near the ring as possible and smiling as if he expected to see something of a highly humorous nature. na-ture. I may have been smiling myself, for, after teeing Freckles's legs again, 1 was quite firmly convinced that a man with that sort of a foundation could never whip a sturdy fellow like McGhee. My three-to-one bet didn't look half bad as the men came out of their corners. McGhee seemed to be in a hurry to get It over, and came to the scratch with a rush, but Freckles stopped six feet awav from htm and began sidling about In aii uncertain manner. It appeared to me that he did not know which way to go or how to act. "Come on and fight, you bald-headed kangaroo!" said McGhee. and it was so quiet that everybody heard the remark. That wasn't all he said, either, and Freckles seemed surprised. He looked at the referee. "My word!" said Freckles. "Do they allow al-low a man to fight with Ms bloomin' mouth in this country? You didn't mention it!" And then McGhee ran at him, letting fly with the right hand as he did to. T never knew which wav Freckles went, or how he did it. He did not jump, he did not sidestep, as we understand the word. He merelv seemed to drift out of Mc-Ghee's Mc-Ghee's way. and the right swing which was ticketed for his jaw missed by three feet. "Bloomin' good judge o' distance!" paid Freckles, with a leer. "Ow! I can fight with me mouth, too! A.n' sometimes I fight with me bloody ands!' As he spoke he did something which I have never teen In a ring before or since. He appeared to lead with both hands a most amazing tort of a double feint but he pulled the right hand back smartly, and I can swear it was the left which knocked out three of McGeo's front ieeth. There was no argument about that aftcr-wa aftcr-wa rd. "They're in your way." said Freckles. "You'll talk freer nnd better without 'emi" I give my word that 1 never saw such a punch as that one was. The real blow did not travel iTioro than tweive inches, yet there must have been a terrific forre behind be-hind it, for it knocked M'-Qhee sprawling on his bark. He whs up again like a flash, spittiru? out what Ciarence called his Ha vi lands, though 1. for one, could never see any connection between china and teeth. Billy Decides He Can Hit. McGhee was not badly hurt, but he was furiously angry and net upon getting at clo?e quarters, where he could rough it in the clinches. Freckles did not rare for that sort of thing. He Fhuffled and sidled nnd floated out of range, and every little while one of t hose long freckled anna He had some of the monev left which he got out of the Nonpareil fight, and or course he thought he should be allowed al-lowed to spend it. Jt is reallv remarkable remark-able the way these fighters trv tn dictate dic-tate when they think thev have a chance. McGhee wanted the earth with a nice little whitewashed fence around it. "What sort of a guy is this Freckles?" he asked, when Stimson broachud the matter to him. If McGhee had been broke, he would rot have asked any tjueattons. ' That is another argument against paying a fighter fight-er too much for his services. They are too hard to do business with when they have any money. Stimso.i was very patient. He explained that Freckles, whom he had seen in the meantime, was an Australian who had just landed in the country and didn't know anything about McGhee. hence was foolish enough to take a chance. He said Freckles wasn't much of a fighter. "Can he hit hard'." asked McGhee. "My nose is bad yet from what this champion done to it." "He can't break a derby hat!" said Stimson. "Not if you give him a hammer. ham-mer. Yrou can stop htm in three rounds, because his legs are bad. Nothing but pipetems." "Well," and then of course McGhee began to grumble like a man who was going to grant a favor. "I don't want no more long, hard fights for a while. I ought to have a nice, long rest" (until the money was gone). "Why not wait a few weeks?" But Stimson persuaded him. He was really a rnarvul -when it came to handling those rough fellows. Me made McGhee see that Freckles was what ho called "a pick-up," and that it would be a shame to give any of the other middleweights a chance to make some easy money. "We're really tossing a lot of money your way. Billy," said Stimson. "That's because we think you are entitled to something for the good fight you put up with the Nonpareil." "It's time something was coming my way!" growled McGhee. "Look at the beating I took for three hundred dollars! Worth double the money!" Stimson told McGhee he could make the winner's end as long as he liked, because be-cause it was in the nature of a benefit, anyway, and all Freckles wanted was the loser's end. The Winner's End Was Big. The match was made at seventy -five and twenty-five, and I happened to be present in Stimson's office when the men signed articles. Freckles had never signed any before, and he insisted upon having everything explained to him before be-fore he would write his name. You might have thought he was a man of means, afraid-that his signature might turn up at the bank at the- foot of a thirty-day note! It was quite amusing. All the chaps at the club were delighted delight-ed when they heard that Stimson had signed a man for McGhee. and Clarence Kent who was a silly ass in a lot of ways and thought himself funny insisted insist-ed upon telling all the chaps at the Corinthian and the Yosemite clubs that Freckles was my protege and that I had gone to Stimson to get him the match. You can always twist the truth around to make a lie out of it. Clarence knew very well that I had appeared in the matter simply because he asked me to and because I felt that Freckles needed the money. Quite naturally, the men at the clubs began to ask me questions, but I soon set them right on the matter. Some of the nVen who bet on every fight and liked 'to play a short-ender on the percentage per-centage came to me to find out If they should bet on Freckles against McGhee. I told them the whole story, and they wero rather disappointed, because they had been hoping Freckles might bo a dark horse. They thought so, they safd. because my name had been connected with him by that ass Clarence. When I made it plain to them that Freckles, according to my judgment of a fighter, hadn't a chance on earth, they began to bet on a number of rounds, and some of the plunger chaps offered three to one on McGhee. and no takers. Freckles had gone off up the country somewhere to train, though I believe he said he didn't need any preparation, as be had not been living very high in San Francisco. The club advanced him a little money for training expenses, so that was probably the reison he trained at all, for he was a very honest fellow, and not at all like most fighters in money matters. From what I heard, his training did not amount to much. They say he spent most of his time pitching horseshoes quoits, you know and fooling around a blacksmith's shop. So his system of preparation prep-aration seemed to be as extraordinary as the rest of him. Clarence Kent took a mean delight in getting a crowd around to listen while he argued with me about Freckles. It got so that I was almost afraid to go into the club at all. I wouldn't have minded it so much if we had been alone, but a good talker can always turn the laugh on a man when there Is an audience to do the laughing. One night at the Yosemite club he exasperated me beyond endurance, and T flared up at him. "The first thing you know," I said, "you will talk yourself into betting some money on Frecklesd, and then you will be sorry." "Bet some money on him?" said Clarence. Clar-ence. "Of course. I'm going to bet some money ou him! Why not?" I Start Something. There was where it started. Harry Powell, whose fa t her owned some smelters smel-ters or things up in Montana and had a terrible time trying to spend his allow-a allow-a nee. offered Clarence all the 3 to 1 he wanted, and some of the others took it up, and inside of ten minutes (hat lunatic Clarence had bet $lci00 and put the money up on Freckles to win from McGhee." Mc-Ghee." And everybody gave him 3 to 1 . When I thought, it had gone beyond a joke, 1 warned him, but he only laughed at me. "And don't forget, old Stick -In-the-mud," said he to me that being one of his notions of persiflage -"that I've got you for another hundred." "What !'' said some of the chaps. "Is Freddy here betting 3 to 1 on McGhee?" Mc-Ghee?" You see. they knew that I never made a bet unless I felt morally certain of my grounds and almost never gave odds. "That's good enough for us." they said. "Here. Kent! Got any more of that short end ?" So, instead of stopping it, I added fuel to the flame, and they bet Clarence to o standstill, so tha t he beean v. r! t ip? checks. I wished then that I had held my tongue, but you can see how those chaps at the club regarded my judgment of a f'ghtti. On the night of the fight I met Clarence Clar-ence outside the gymnasium where our phows were held. I asked him how much he stood to lose. "Lose?" said he. "Ask me Imw much I stand to v ia '" Whn Freckles grt ' s through with this big bonehead, ,V-Ghe. ,V-Ghe. there won' t be gold enough in the st:ie of California to pay ir. with!" Then Iil came over and v. hispered into my esr: "There's f!i!: Plen,V nf that 3 to 1 left." he &aid. "Take the ad vie, of a friend arid co and get Feme of it!" "Are you crazy?" T asked. "You've arg-:ei with me for so long that you've made yourself bMve. Freckles cn win!" "Tif course( he'll win." fnid Claren'.e. "Man, this is the soft1- thing you'll ever have a c hi nee at! 'in ard rK"k your r'.nthea and put a be'L on Freckles! I'm telling ou 1" A Warning Unheeded. Tt. didn't ta ke ha i f an eye to se that i;arei-..ei was in earne.-t. and for a f-v Pf-cnv! 'l was r.ndiy larred. I thoueht ; he might kr.ow sonK-'h.n? aho:jr. the unknown un-known A ,:1 " v.'. : .; n. For the s;.f- of r,r-rif-fp hre-.t' I re;"y .-onsi-ic-red h'-"!i:i;ji n.y rt on y.. -;.,.,.. I fiM, a;.-! I roj.f,-?, i ' . Th'-n 1 r-ii'f'ini'riH tr;it n A ir, fr-nds ::: t a k . i my a !,- and g!-. e Z to , a;.d, ocsjd-:;:, I could think of i: a man who could take his measure. He'd never done anything else in his life, you see. But he was keenest of all on prize righting. Shortly after he turned up In San Francisco, Fran-cisco, we had one of tho best fights I can remember. The Nonpareil, the middleweight mid-dleweight champion, met a very tough customer named Billy McGhee. Of course, none of us was foolish enough to think that McGhee, who was a sort of a local plugugly, could beat rhe Nonpareil. That had only been done once in seven years. I was forlunato enough to see that'fight, too for T didn't miss many engagements in those days and it was the barest fluke imaginable. i A sailor dropped tho champion with a blow which was afterward declared a foul and barred from the prize ring the pivot punch, and a very unsportsmanlike unsportsman-like blow it was. r should never have been counted against the Nonpareil. Sixty-three fights in seven years, forty-two forty-two of them won inside of ten rounds, and only one defeat and that on a fluke blow landed by a man already beaten! That was the sort of a fighter the Nonpareil Non-pareil was; vie haven'v any like him these days. As I was saying, we did not expect McGhee to make much of a showing against the champion, and most of the betting I might say all of it was on the number of rounds he would be able to stand up before the Nonpareil. All the short-round bets went wrong that night, for McGhee surprised us by lasting twenty-eight rounds with the champion, giving the great Nonpareil a sledgehammer sledgeham-mer argument all the way through. It was really amazing to see the way Billy took punishment and came back for more, fighting like a wildcat. We didn't think he had it in him. The Mysterious Australian. The referee stopped it in the twenty-eighth twenty-eighth round quite right, too for the case was hopeless, and there was no good in slaughtering a. man just because he was too game to know when to quit. On McGhee's showing that night he was entitled en-titled to class with the very best topflight top-flight middleweights in the country. A few weeks afterward, Kent came to me. "look here, old chap." said he, "you've some sort of influence with the entertainment enter-tainment board of the Corinthians, haven't you the fellows who hire the fighters for the club shows?" I said that I believed I had. "Well, then." said he, "I've met a queer bird down the street an Australian just landed and he tells me he'd like to get a. fight with somebody McGhee preferred. I heard the other nieht that the Corinthians wanted to offer Billy McGhee a match, but they were having some trouble In getting a man to meet him. Shouldn't wonder If his showing with the. Nonpareil had scared off most of these local middleweights. How about that?" I happened to know that it was true that Stimson, who handled the matchmaking match-making for our club entertainments, had been having the deuce and all of a time trying to get a local fighter to go on with McGhee. They were nil afraid of him. Our members wanted to see Billy matched with someone, feeling that after his great stand against the champion he was entitled to something soft, as they say. He had taken a very short end against the Nonpareil, and we all thought he should be rewarded. "Why not give this Australian a chance?" argued Kent. "He's willing to fight McGhee. or anybody else, fur that matter. He'll cut the purse any way they want it cut, because he's pretty light in the vest, and can't be particular. He really seems a deserving sort of a chap, and you never can tell about these Australians they've sent us some great fighters in the last few years." The result of all this was that I made an appointment to go with Clarence and inspect this stranger, who was bold enough to offer to meet Billy McGhee. "He's a quaint sort of a hairpin," said Kent, with a grin. "Not at all the cut of the average fighter. I call him Freckles, because, upon my word, he has the most marvelous crop of 'em that ever grew upon a human being. And wait till you see his logs!" We found Freckles sitting in the back room of a Powell street bar, sprawled about a glass of beer and a generous platter plat-ter of that noble San Francisco institution, institu-tion, free lun?h. Baker beans, if my memory serves me. The man seemed wrapped in an a tmosphere of gloom, which brightened considerably when he recognized Kenr. Sitting down, he seemed to be all shoulders, elbows and ha nds. but I remembered what Kent said about the legs as soon as he stood up to give us greeting. Fp. up, up toward the ceiling he went, and when he was once upon his feet Freckles seemed to be all legs. And such legs! Imagine a slightly knock-kneed sandhill crane or an adjutant bird, and you have a faint conception of the frail and spidery quality of Freckles's underpinning, under-pinning, drapsd though it was with trousers. trous-ers. My heart misgave me when I saw those legs. How could a man hope to fight on stilts? Some words were mumbled, and Freckles Frec-kles crushed the bones of my right hand in a hairy fist, the back of which was covered with long, white hair. I must have said something, but I have no recollection rec-ollection as ( o that. Probably it was something" quite inane, for I was profoundly pro-foundly impressed, though not at all favorably, by the man's physical endowments. endow-ments. I was taking him in bit by blt, and bit by bit I must describe him to you, for no single phrase could hope to give the general effect of that man's physique. Not at All a Beauty. He had pulled off Ivs cap. and his head, which seemed tiny in proportion to his broad shoulders, was quite bald, save for a flaming red fringe over the ea rs. His eyes wero smu II, and twinkled in a friendly, bewildered manner, like the eyes of a young bird. His ears were large, his nose was small and rather reddened red-dened by sunburn : his mouth was wide and vn gue, and the lower I'p drooped somewhat. The general effect of his features upon the beholder was such as to suggest that they, finding themselves cramped for room upon that small face, had forced the front hair to retire over the top of the head where it would be out of the way. His expreson was not in the least ferocious. In fact, it was quite mild and Earnest helpless. There was something of an appealing nature aboit the man; he seemed to ask for friendship nnd sympathy. sympa-thy. Smiles trembled upon that droop-ing'lower droop-ing'lower lip; childlike confidence looked out. of those small, twtnklinsr eyes. I know a baby would have held mit Its arms to Freckles, and dogs wouM hp.v followed him. A nd perha ps cats. A ud overlying ail was the wistful look of a lonesome man. I submit that no man evr had l.ss of a true fight ine fare. The shoulders were nvt to impress themselves upon me. Th'v were tremendously tre-mendously so.nare and broad nn-r out of all pronortion to the rest of his hodv. hinting that thev must have been develored b a op Ma 'n kind of ma nna labor which had Wt the rest of his phvsique untonohed. j The ches' was der-7, and seminely asj flat as a board, and the arms wero nn? j and powerful, ending in broad beny hanis w i f h t rem endoT's knur k is. i Below the ch.es t th man simplv fHl ! away like an xrhima tion point, jhoul- I ders. arms and chest .-.5. he had t''ose. : and no man better cifte i but ih rst of his anatomy was built alone: ;ej t her we; eh t lines, and seemed, in con-,parion vitk his shoulders, quity inade'iuate. to sav the least. This, then, was Frek'es us I saw I nn first . eat inc be a rs in the 1 "i.-k room of , Mart in P: inn's p'a 10 ru c!l ?' r---M . jjnd I maintain to this dw his wonderful record to the contrary that no m.m eer looked less like a great fighting machine, perfect in every part. Freckles was a freak, and we will never see another man like him. Why, think of his legs alone! "This." said Clarence, "is the gentleman gentle-man who thinks he can arrange matters so that you will get a fight with McGhee." "Pleased to meet y'im," said Freckles, bobbing his bald head at me, "and glad to 'ear it. McGhee or anybody else in the bloomin' country!'' I Give a Promise. He spoke like a cockney, shuffling his ''hV regardlessly. T began to feel that I should warn this, guileless stranger. "Of course," I said, "you realize that McGhee will be a hard man to beat. A 1 terrific puncher, and game, and all that sort of thing you know." ! "I can 'it some myself," Freckles said. : "There ain't no man as can Mt a 'harder , blow than what I can." The fellow spoke simply, as if stating a fact which was plain beyond belief. I think I said that I was glad to hear it. "You know that McGhee stood up twenty-eight rounds with the Nonpareil," I said. "All one to me," said this peculiar being. be-ing. "And McGhee is a big fellow, too," I said. "The bigger they are." said Freckles, "the 'arder they fall." Did you ever hear anything sillier than that? I quite lost patience with him. I did my best to hint, in a general sort of way, that he was in for a most tremendous tre-mendous licking, because, to tell the truth. . I didn't want the credit for digging un a loser. Freckles was absolutely unimpressed, unim-pressed, though I told him how the Nonpareil Non-pareil hit McGhee as hard as he could without flooring him. My breath was wasted. Freckles simply waved his big red hands and tossed his "h's" around like : a conjurer, making them disappear, to , turn up in the most unexpected places. 1 If I hadn't felt a bit sorry for him, I think I would have called it off then and ; there, but. in spite of his awful conceit, there was something about the fellow which one had to like in spite of one- ' self. When I left him to finish his beans he had alreadv finished the beer he had my promise that I would see Stimson at once and set the thing going. I "What d'ye think of him. Freddv?" ! asked Kent, as we walked up the hill toward to-ward the club. "I don't see him as a fighter." I said. "The man's build is dead against him. Confound it. all! One good punch in the bread basket and he'd break in two!" "Ye, but he's got a great pair of shoulders, and his arms are a.ll right." "What good." safd I, "are shoulders and arms when a man hasn't got a thing 1 under them? Couldn't you see that he '. has dickey legs?" j I was really becoming: annoyed. I felt 1 certain that Stimson would laugh when ; I he saw Freckles and spread it around I the club that I had gone out and found a fighter without any legs. A man hates to be made to look foolish around his club, particularly if it is all the home he! has. Some of the members are sure to I have a tiresome sense of humor save j the markl and if they ever get a joke; on a man they never let him hear the i last of it. That's the worst of a club, j As if with the express purpose of ag- j cravatlng me, Clarence began to argue that Freckles had a chance with McGhee. and when I pointed out to him how ri- ! diculous was his contention, he onlyi laughed. Clarence was able to outpoint : me with tho gloves that was because he always foreot my -veak stomach and hit' too hard but in spite of that I felt ; morally certain that he did not know ! as much as I did about the real points ! of a fiqhter. ! "You go on like a goori fellow and get ! him the match. Freddy." taid he. "and ! I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll make a : bet of a hundred with you at the prevailing pre-vailing odds, and you can have ihe McGhee end." I didn't care to bet, because I have always been set against gam Dims, but I took him up. to teach him a lesson. A "Benefit for Billy." "Well, Stimson wa s delight ed to know about Frerkies. He wanted to know where be could find him, and asked me a lot of questions, which I answered the best way I could. T explained, of cour?e. that I was only doing it as a favor to Clarenre. and I told Si iir.son tha ' I was quite certain that Freckles wouldn't have a riymg man's chanre with a tough feilnw liko McGhee. Stimson didn't seem to mind that in the l.-ast. He said that the softer Freckles was the better the ciuh in embers vou Id be pleased. "We'll make it a kind of a benefit for P-illv." he said. "He's entitled to tome-thing." tome-thing." of course, after thai, I felt that my skh'ts wert ch ar. Then t h - y hul to u e diplomacy i n getting McGhee to agree to the nt.tcii. |