knows,â returned Miller, âHeâs faded out somewhere.â
Shane remained silent.
Buck Logan called to an assistant at the next desk. âGet Joe Watkinsâwe want a picture of this Damon and Pythiasâfor my collectionânot for the paperâit might look bad.â
Joe Mankerlitz came on from Phoenix as the manager of Barney McCoy.
âGive us a break for old timesâ sake, Shaneâlet Barney get a draw with you. Itâll be all right with Buck when he gets backâthereâs room for us allâyou can make it a fast goâjust donât knock him out. Youâve beat him onceâwe both know you can do it again.â
He had a more important match in Sioux City.
âYouâre on your way up,â Buck Logan had said before leaving for New York to report a fight between Jerry Wayne and Bud Fealy.
It might have been different had a telegram not reached him from Jack Gill. Buck Logan died of heart failure on the train.
Since boyhood, death had not touched Shane. He was fond of Logan. For hours the sportsâ editor would sit at a corner table in âThe Rendezvousâ and tell him tales of the ring.
Shaneâs cockiness in the ring, his bashfulness outside, had appealed to Logan. He became his constant companion.
The table was often surrounded by newspapermen. He would listen to their talk with deep attention.
Loganâs assistant was Ted Braly.
âIâve got an idea, Ted. I wanta do something for Buck. Suppose we start a collection. Iâll lead it off with a coupla hundredâheâs got an auntâshe might need something.â
âNo, ShaneâBuckâs okehâhe had some moneyâthe only thing you can do for him is carry him in your heart.â
He was still depressed when Mankerlitz came to his hotel.
âBuckâll understand wherever he is,â said Mankerlitz.
Shane consented to let McCoy stay the limit.
He realized too late that he was double-crossed. He lost the decision to McCoyâwho replaced him on the card in Sioux City.
He remembered Loganâs words about Mankerlitzââshady as a woods.â
He pleaded for a return match.
âIâd like to give it to you, Shaneâbut you know how it isâyou canât blame Barney and me for makinâ the most of things. Another win now over you wouldnât help us noneâweâre movinâ out of here for a while.â
The full force of his predicament came to Shane.
âSo thatâs it, huh.â
âSure, Shaneâthatâs itâyou oughta knowed better.â Joe Mankerlitz was not unkind. He laughed quietly.
The memory of Buck Logan and his own chagrin made him leave Omaha. The double-cross embittered him for weeks. He never again took the word of another in the ring.
IV
For several months Shane was too indifferent to seek matches. He had two thousand dollars, a large diamond ring, a half dozen silk robes, many suits of clothes, three trunks, and two watches.
As a road kid he had seen railroad employees look at watches of an expensive make. He paid a hundred dollars for one. âItâs a twenty-five year gold case and twenty-one jewels,â the salesman said.
âI know,â returned Shane, putting the money on the glass case.
All found their way to pawn shops. He had paid five hundred for the ring. âA diamondâs as good as money any day,â the jeweler explained when he bought the bauble.
He pawned it for sixty dollars. âNo more of these damn things for me,â he said to the pawnbroker.
âSixty dollars is better than no money,â the dealer in lost vanity said.
âBut itâs not as good as five hundred,â Shane pocketed the money.
âLook at the fun you had wearinâ it.â The pawnbroker looked at the stone.
He reached Cheyenne a year later where Jackie Connors, a one time bantamweight, was promoting fights.
âIâd like to
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