"Some big bug amateur," observed Miss Yockley, shrewdly, "hence the
mask. Must have slipped on his auto-coat over his fightin' togs, to get
away that quick. Them seconds with the masks on was likely college
chums, or something. But, O teaberries! didn't he cover up from our
Nicky though! I never saw a man could do like that before.... Come on,
now, kid: let's get out in our car and wait for the boys. There's
something," Miss Stella added volubly, as she rose, "that I don't quite
understand, about that last round. Didn't seem as if the other man was
trying; he never started one punch. Can't get nothin' out of Nicky on
it--he's too close-mouthed. But Bob'll tell us."
It was not long after the two reached the automobile, standing long and
alert by the curb where Mr. Masterman and Daisy and Miss Yockley had
left it when they entered the theatre, till they saw the two men
approaching. Mr. Cluett had just had a shower-bath in one of the
dressing-rooms, and his hair showed wet and black around the edges of
his cap. He was silent, but the perennial smile was in its place. There
was not a bruise visible to Daisy, except the slight skin-break above
his eyebrow. She scrutinized the champion with a new, but not exactly
intensified interest, as he slipped into the tonneau beside her.
"Well," he said, taking off his cap and running his fingers through his
thick damp hair; "how's our little one? All here?"
Mr. Masterman, getting in by Miss Yockley on the front seat, swung his
head around as he took the wheel.
"Some boy with the mitts--eh, what?" he grinned at Daisy. Miss Yockley
caught the speaker by the ear, and promptly turned him eyes front.
"I'm _here_," she said, as she extracted a fresh piece of gum out of her
handbag, "not _there_. Now, who's this buck with the Hallowe'en fixings,
Bob?"
"I know," said Mr. Masterman, "but I'm ferbid to say."
"Well," observed Miss Yockley, as her teeth industriously kneaded her
new slice of gum, "he pretty near threw a monkey-wrench into our
machinery, whoever he is. Bar all masked fighters after this, is my
little word of advice to you boys. Eatin' snowballs ain't fattening, and
it wouldn't even be nice for a change.... But who was he, Bob? Come
o-on; we're all friends here."
Mr. Masterman shook his head. But, at the same time, the eyelid next
Miss Stella, answering a brief contraction of Bob Masterman's cheek,
swiftly closed and opened in a movement that the others did not see.
"Precisely, brother," acknowledged Miss Yockley; then, turning toward
the two in the tonneau, with her plump arm laid along the back of the
seat, she said, with a rapid change of subject;
"Here's a couple that ain't speakin', Bob. What does a fellow do in a
case like that?"
"Run for the Doctor," suggested Mr. Masterman, over his shoulder. "Where
do you want to go, Nick?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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