never seen so much of this here de collect stuff in my life. I heard a
lot of talk around the studios at the camp about "exposures," and,
well, I seen what they meant all right that evenin'. It got me so
dizzy, never havin' no closeups like that before, that I ducked for my
stateroom about nine o'clock when the joy was just beginnin' to be
unconfined and I hadn't been up there five minutes, when the Kid comes
up and knocks at my door.

"I'm goin' to hit the hay," he tells me. "If I gotta fight Battlin'
Edwards in two months, I'm gonna start readyin' up now! I been puttin'
on fat since I been here, and it's got to come off. I'll get up at
five to-morrow and do a gallop around the island, and I just dug up a
couple of ex-bartenders among the extry people which will gimme some
sparrin' practice every mornin' till they give out!"

"Great!" I says. I was hardly able to believe my ears. It sounded
like the old Kid Scanlan again!

I closed the door, and just as he was turnin' away, I heard the swish
of skirts and then I got Miss Vincent's voice. It was low and sweet
and kinda soothin' and--well, she was the kind of dame guys kill each
other for! Do you get me?

"Oh!" she kinda breathes. "Why are you up here all alone?"

I heard the Kid's deep breathin'--it was always that way when _she_
spoke to him, and I knowed without seein' 'em that his nails was
engravin' fancy work on the palm of his hand.

"Why," he says, tryin' to keep his voice steady. "I'm off this tango
thing--and the last time I had one of them dress suits on, I was
mistook for a waiter!"

Y'know there was a funny little catch in the Kid's voice when he pulled
that, although he tried to pass it off by coughin'. That boy sure did
want to mix with the big leaguers, and, bein' Irish, it come hard to
him to miss anything he wanted. Usually he got it!

I heard Miss Vincent sneer.

"Don't flatter these conceit-drugged travesties on the male sex by
caring about anything _they_ say," she tells him. "You have so many
things they never will have! Why, you're a big, clean, two-handed man
and--" She breaks off and gives a giggle that I would have took Verdun
for. "But there!" she goes on. "I--I--guess I'm getting too
enthusiastic!"

I could almost feel her blush, and I knowed how she looked when she did
that thing, so I says, "Good-by, Kid!"

"That's all right!" pipes the Kid. "It wasn't these guys here. But I
can't go downstairs anyhow, becau