CHAPTER IX

LOVE AND A PRIZE-FIGHT


It is best not to repeat the expressions Brewster used regarding
one S. Jones, after reading his telegram. But he felt considerably
relieved after he had uttered them. He fell to reading accounts of
the big prize-fight which was to take place in San Francisco that
evening. He revelled in the descriptions of "upper cuts" and "left
hooks," and learned incidentally that the affair was to be quite
one-sided. A local amateur was to box a champion. Quick to see an
opportunity, and cajoling himself into the belief that Swearengen
Jones could not object to such a display of sportsmanship,
Brewster made Harrison book several good wagers on the result. He
intimated that he had reason to believe that the favorite would
lose. Harrison soon placed three thousand dollars on his man. The
young financier felt so sure of the result that he entered the
bets on the profit side of his ledger the moment he received
Harrison's report.

This done, he telephoned Miss Drew. She was not insensible to the
significance of his inquiry if she would be in that afternoon. She
had observed in him of late a condition of uneasiness,
supplemented by moroseness and occasional periods of irascibility.
Every girl whose occupation in life is the study of men recognizes
these symptoms and knows how to treat them. Barbara had dealt with
many men afflicted in this manner, and the flutter of anticipation
that came with his urgent plea to see her was tempered by
experience. It had something of joy in it, for she cared enough