ft his eyes from the dominoes beneath his
fingers. If he had he would have seen, as Ogden saw, that Denny's
smile faded away--disappeared entirely. But when he replied the boy's
voice was unchanged.

"I don't know's it's particularly important to you," he answered.
"That's what I came down for--to see. I was directed--back a day or
two I was told that maybe if I looked you up you'd have some opening
for me, down here. I was told you were looking for a--a good
heavyweight fighter!"

Bobby Ogden threw back his head to laugh. And instead he just sat
there with his mouth wide open, waiting. He felt sure that there was a
better moment coming. Hogarty fiddled with the dominoes and seemed to
be considering that information with due deliberation and from every
angle.

"I see," he murmured at last. "Surely. Quite right--quite right! And I
may, I believe, safely assure you that I have several fine openings in
the establishment for young men--for just the right sort of young men,
of course. May I--er--inquire if you wish employment by the--er--week,
or just in your spare time, to put it so?"

The question was icily sarcastic. Denny's answer came sharp upon its
heels. His voice was just as measured, just as inflectionless as
Hogarty's had been.

"If you hire them here by the week," he said, "or for their spare
time, I--I reckon I've come to the wrong establishment. I was only
asking you for a chance to show you whether I was any good or not. I
was told you'd be just as interested to find out as I was myself.
Maybe--maybe I've made a bad mistake!"

Bobby Ogden was sorry he had waited to laugh. There was a hardness in
the big-shouldered figure's words that he did not like; a directly
simple, unmistakable rebuke for the sneer concealed in Hogarty's
question that could not be misinterpreted. And something utterly bad
flared up in the lean-faced black-clad proprietor's eyes--something
of enmity that seemed to Ogden all out of proportion with the
provocation. All the smooth suavity disappeared from his speech just
as chalk marks are wiped out by a wet sponge. And Hogarty came
swiftly to his feet.

"Maybe you were--maybe you did make a bad mistake!" he rasped out in a
dead, colorless monotone that scarcely moved his lips. "But no man
ever came into this place yet, and went out again to say he didn't get
his chance. I know a few specimens who make a profession of pleading
that. They're quitters--and they assay a streak of yellow