Spring Street | Page 5

the Mexican dance back to his corner to be received joyously by his seconds. He saw Jack Dempsey looking up at him, nodding his head and smiling. He saw a terribly anxious look on a pale, strained face he slowly recognized as that of Charlie Chaplin.
He closed his eyes. If they would only let him alone and stop throwing water on him. He could not see out of one of his eyes. They tore the gloves from his hands and the sharp odor of smelling salts bit into his nostrils. His head ached, his lungs burned.
"Come on, kid, get back to da dressin' room," a husky voice said.
He pulled himself to his feet. He was whipped. His only chance to get money to pay for his father's funeral was gone. So weak that his body shook and his legs trembled, hysterical tears sprang to his eyes and he sobbed--gasping sobs that choked him.
The hot tears smarted like salt in the cuts on his cheek as he stumbled up the aisle toward the dressing rooms.
Someone came running up behind him. A hand grasped his arm and he heard a voice say:
"Just a minute, my boy, I want to talk to you."
CHAPTER II
He looked up into the whimsically comic face of Charlie Murray, famous in film farces--with funny features and gruff ways, but a heart as soft as a mother's. With no idea to whom he was speaking, John Gallant blurted:
"Please, not now--I can't."
"Just a word with you, son; come along, let's get back to your dressing room," said the other without taking his arm from his shoulder.
As they left the arena they heard the gong sound for the opening round of another bout. It brought back to John the bitterness of his loss in defeat and his chagrin. He had made a mess of things. How could he go back to his mother with his face battered and swollen and without the $200 he had expected to take to her to pay for his father's funeral?
He flung himself on a bench in his dressing room and buried his face in his hands. He sat for a time until he had choked back his hysterical crying and when he looked up he saw the stranger who had stopped him in the aisle gazing at him intently. He saw something in the mild blue eyes of this man that overcame the momentary feeling of shame he felt for having given way to his bitterness and despair.
"What's your trouble, son?" the stranger asked.
He sat silent.
"Out with it, son, something's wrong somewhere and I may be able to help you."
"Who are you?" John asked.
"I'm Charlie Murray--if that means anything to you. And, believe me, son, I know that something beside the licking you got out there is worrying you. That's why I followed you here. Let's have it; come on, tell me what's wrong. It'll make you feel better."
Before he really knew it, John was telling him his story.
"That's the reason I made a fool of myself," he said. "I couldn't help crying like that. I guess I was too far gone. I don't know what to do now. It will break my mother's heart when she sees me in this condition. It would have helped if I could have handed her enough to pay the funeral expenses.
"I don't know why I've told you all this. Making more of a fool of myself, I suppose."
Murray listened to it all, silently. Then he rose and went to the door.
"Oh, Murphy," he called, putting his head out the dressing room door.
The youth with the twisted nose whom John remembered as his second answered Murray's call.
"Fix this boy up, Murphy," said Murray. "Patch up his face the best you can and keep him here until I get back. Understand, keep him here until I get back. Don't let him out of your sight."
"I heardja, boss, I heardja," said Murphy.
And Murray hurried out, leaving John wondering, in Murphy's hands.
* * * * *
It was just before the main event that Murray came down the aisle and climbed into the ring, brushing the referee announcer, seconds and others into the corners. He stood in the center of the ring and held up his hand for silence. The crowd quieted.
"What is it, Charlie?" someone shouted.
"It's this, boys," he said. "I've just had a talk with the Gallant kid, who was knocked kicking a few minutes ago by Battling Rodriguez. You saw the fight he put up and you know it's only a good, game kid that can fight like that.
"I don't know how many of you saw it, but the Gallant kid--that's his real name, John Gallant--was crying when he went out of this ring and he wasn't bawling because he got licked, either.
"I'll tell you what he told me back