Pa is going to take me to the fight and only hope I will not faint or something with excitement. Suppose you will think me a fool for feeling this way in regards to two parties who I have never met, but as I told you before, am a girl that always lets their feelings get the best of them, though sometimes am sorry when it is too late. Hope you won’t make me sorry, Mr. Burke. That is, if you win. Am afraid for your sake, however, that you are doomed with defeat, as Mr. Kemp has a punch and you are just a boxer that can’t hit hard.
Well, Mr. Burke, must say ta ta for this time as am going to a toddle party at the Ritz.
And the morning of the big day he got this one:
Dear Mr. Burke: Just a line to let you know am thinking of you and if you beat Mr. Kemp, will call you up and see if we can’t meet somewheres and have a dance, or maybe you don’t care for la dance, but we can have a little chat if you don’t think me too much a fool.
Well, Mr. Burke, I won’t bother you when you must be already worried and nervous over the bout and will just say that I will be at the Garden and will see you even if you don’t see me and wished I could tell you where I will set but don’t know.
Well, Mr. Burke, good luck and may the best man win.
On the way down from the hotel that night, Burkey ast Jack and I if we’d bet on him. We told him no. So he says:
“If you want to make some easy money, bet some of these wise crackers that I’ll stop this bird in a round. I’ll slap him dead!”
VII
So I and Jack did get down a couple of bets, fifty apiece. We bet the kid would win by a knock out and we got three to one. The smart guys had looked over his record and didn’t see how he could stop Kemp.
But when they got in the ring, I wished for a minute I hadn’t bet. Instead of paying any attention to what was coming off, Burkey was looking all over the house trying to locate the little peach. I was scared he’d still be doing it yet when the bout started, and Kemp’d sock him before he got down to business. But Jack Grace seen the danger, and leaned over and w’ispered to the kid:
“You remember that Fester gal? She’s up in a box with her old man.”
“Where at?” ast Burke, all excited.
“It’s pretty dark,” says Jack, “but I’ll try and point her out between rounds.”
As you know, they wasn’t no “between rounds.” In the first two minutes Kemp made five trips to the floor, and he liked it so well the last time that he decided to sleep there.
And in the excitement, Jack pretended he’d lost sight of the gal.
VIII
Burkey stayed in the room all the next day, waiting for the phone call. The papers had went nuts over him and said he was the Benny Leonard of the welters, and that it was just a question of the date when the title would change hands. But for all the effect it had on Burke, they might as well of said he’d opened a bird store.
Meanw’ile, Nate and Jack Grace talked it over and decided to go through with Jack’s scheme—keep Esther alive till the Britton bout, but send her to Europe, where she wouldn’t be so much trouble. So late in the evening, w’ile Burkey was still waiting for his call, a special delivery come for him that said:
Dear Mr. Burke: Have bad news or at least hope you will agree with me and think it is bad. By the time you receive this note, will be on the old pond with pa, bound for Europe. He got a cable this a.m. calling him to the other side and insisted on me going along. So we hustled round and got rooms on the ship that sails this p.m. I cried when he said I would have to go and hope you feel as bad as I do. But it’s only for a short time and will be back in time to see you beat Britton and win the title. After that—well, Mr. Burke, I won’t say no more.
You was wonderful last night and am proud of you. Wished I could tell you in person how much I admire you, but will do that later on. Will drop you a note just the minute we get back. In the meantime, don’t forget one who is proud of you and wished I could meet my coming champion.
Well, it was a blow to the kid, but it would of worked out all right only for the toughest kind of a break. Nate had to hurry back to Chi, but before he left he seen Rickard and closed for the Britton bout. Burke’s end was to be $10,000.
So the second day after the Kemp bout, they was taking the Century home, and I and Jack Grace was over to see them off. They’d just shook hands and was starting through the gate when Burke seen her, the gal he’d went wild over at Miss Morgan’s show! She was saying goodbye to another pip.
“Wait!” says Burkey, and before Nate could stop him, he’d grabbed the gal by the arm.
“Esther!” he says. “Miss Fester! You didn’t go after all!”
The poor gal was speechless.
“Don’t you know me?” said the kid. “I’m Burke, the boy that beat Kemp, the boy you been
