“That’s true enough,” says Crawley. “If the public does want the match.”
“You know they want the match!” said Moon. “Or if you don’t I do. And promoters wants it, too, from the number of offers I’ve had.”
“Offers from who?” says Guthrie.
“I ain’t at liberty to tell,” says Larry. “But it don’t make no difference anyway. You’ve got first crack at it on account of your contract. The question is, do you want it?”
“Yes, we want it,” said Crawley. “That is, if we can get it at a reasonable figure.”
“I’m listening,” says Larry.
“Well,” said Crawley, “your man is champion and entitled to the biggest share. We’d guarantee you a hundred thousand and Goulet fifty.”
“I see what you mean,” says Larry. “You mean you don’t want to handle it and you’ll release Goulet.”
“Where do you get that?” says Guthrie. “We don’t mean no such a thing! We’re making a legitimate offer and a good big one.”
“You’re kidding,” says Larry. “I got a hundred thousand for the match with Barnes and that was just a workout. But forgetting me entirely, what about Goulet? The least he’ll take is two hundred thousand, and if you don’t believe it, cable his manager.”
Just then in come Larry’s butler, or whatever he is.
“Two gentlemen to see you,” he says.
“Who is it?” says Larry.
“Them two foreigners again,” says the man.
“Oh, the two Cubans,” said Larry. “Take them in the side room and tell them to wait. Now,” he says, “where was we? Oh, yes, I was telling you what La Chance wants. If you don’t care to take the trouble to cable, here’s a letter from him.”
And he give them a letter to read. When they’d read it he said: “You see what he says in there about you. He says Mr. Crawley has treated him OK and he wants him to have first refusal of this match. That’s the only reason I’ve bothered you gentlemen. Confidentially, I didn’t think you’d want to handle a thing as big as this. So just give us our release and they’s nobody hurt.”
“Who would you give it to?” says Guthrie.
“Well,” says Moon, “I’m going to tell you men something, but I don’t want it to go no further. They’s two men in the next room that’s been pestering me to death. I promised they’d have their final answer today, but I didn’t expect them to get here till you fellas had left. When I got a release from you, I was going to phone Charley Riggs and tell him he could have the match at our figure, which is $500,000. That’s the $200,000 Goulet demands, and $300,000 for me. I know he’ll take it at that, but the only reason I’m going to offer it to him is to keep the match in this country. Because I’ve got a better offer from outside.”
“Where at?” says Guthrie.
“Havana, Cuba,” says Larry. “It’s two bankers from there that’s in the next room.”
“I’d like to meet them,” says Guthrie.
“I guess it’d be all right,” says Larry, and he touched the button. “One of them can talk pretty fair English. He’s the one I been dealing with. But the other one, I think, is the real money guy, though as far as understanding him is concerned, he might as well be a deaf mute. Show them two gentlemen in here,” he says to the butler.
Well, they come in, dressed for a wedding.
“Hello there, gentlemen,” says Larry, shaking hands with them. “I must apologize for keeping you waiting. I was busy with these two gentlemen here. Mr. Crawley and Mr. Guthrie, meet Senior Lopez and Senior Pancho, from Havana.”
Senior Lopez pulled an envelope out of his pocket and waved it.
“I’ve had this tended to,” he says, “and I guess you’ll find it all right.”
He handed the envelope to Moon and Moon opened it up. For all as I could see, it was a regular certified check.
“It looks all right,” said Larry, and waved it towards Guthrie and Crawley. “Six hundred thousand fish,” he says, “and I wished it was all mine. But I don’t even know yet whether I’m going to let these gentlemen put it up or not. If the seniors will pardon me, I’ve got a little telephoning to do, and then you can have my answer, just as I promised. If I decide on Havana we’ll take the check downtown and leave it with one of the newspapers over night, and deposit it tomorrow.”
“That satisfies us,” says Senior Lopez, and Senior Pancho mumbled something that was probably Spanish for Swiss on rye.
“Now,” says Larry to Crawley, “I know you and Mr. Guthrie will excuse me for hurrying you off. I wished we could of done business, but as long as we can’t I’ve got to close with somebody else.”
“Would you mind waiting a minute?” says Crawley. “Before you do anything, I’d like to have a word or two with Mr. Guthrie and talk to you a moment in private.”
“Well,” says Moon, “I’ve already kept the seniors waiting quite a w’ile.”
“That’s all right,” says Lopez. “We don’t mind a little wait as long as you ain’t going to disappoint us.”
“Then I’ll take you in the other room,” says Larry, and we left Crawley and Guthrie alone. In a few minutes they called Larry back.
“Now listen,” said Guthrie: “You said something about cutting your price from $600,000 to $500,000 to keep the fight in America. You ain’t doing that out of patriotism!”
“You bet I ain’t!” says Moon. “If I do it, it’ll be for two good reasons. One is that all I’ll get anyway is my $300,000; the Cubans is so fair-minded that they want to see Goulet get just as much as me. The other reason is that Dugan’s scared to death of fever and he thinks Cuba’s full of it. He won’t go there unless he has to.”
“Listen,” says
