A guy
with lockjaw would have to laugh at it. Here was the Kid knockin' 'em
cold as fast as they come on, with their little trick hats and the pink
silk tights. There was a pile of Shakespeare actors a foot deep all
around him as far as you could see. Potts is laughin' louder than
anybody in the place, and when they finally shut the thing off he slaps
the Kid on the back.

"Great!" he hollers. "Wonderful! Who directed that?"

"_I_ did!" pipes Duke, throwin' out his chest. "Some picture, eh?"

"Joosta one minoote!" says Genaro, wakin' up, "joosta one minoote! It
was under my supervision, Mr. Potts! I feexa the--"

"Cut that strip of film off!" Potts interrupts, "and take four more
reels based on the same idea! Get somebody to write a scenario around
a fighter busting into the drama and playing Shakespeare! It's never
been done, and if the rest of it is as funny as that it will be a
knockout!"

"But Reechard!" says Genaro. "What of heem?"

"Drop it!" snaps Potts. "Everybody get to work on this and I'll stay
here till it's finished!"

I looked around and pipe the Kid--over talkin' to Miss Vincent, of
course.

"Say!" he wants to know. "Do we go to Oakland in that rabbit-chaser of
yours this afternoon, Miss Vincent?"

"Sir!" butts in De Vronde. "This lady and I are conversing!"

"Now listen, Cutey!" smiles the Kid. "You know what happened
yesterday, don't you?"

De Vronde turns pale and Miss Vincent giggles.

"Of course we're going to Oakland!" she laughs. "I'm going to be your
leading woman next week in 'How Kid Scanlan Won the Title.'"

"Suits me!" says the Kid. "But say, on the level now--I'm there
forty-seven ways on that Shakespeare thing, ain't I?"

CHAPTER II

EAST LYNCH

Success has ruined more guys than failure ever will. It's like a Santa
Cruz rum milk punch on an empty stomach--there's very few people can
stand it. Many a guy that's a regular fellow at a hundred a month,
becomes a boob at a hundred a week. What beat Napoleon, Caesar and
Nero--failure? No, success! Give the thing the once over some time
and you'll see that I'm right.

Success is the large evenin' with the boys at the lodge and failure is
the mornin' after. As a matter of fact, they're twins. Often you can
be a success without knowin' it, so if you been a failure all your life
accordin' to your own dope, cheer up. But when you get up to the top
where you can look down at all these other guys tr