admit, of
course, that while your explanation as to your errand was strictly to
the point, it was scarcely comprehensive. My own unfortunate temper
was, no doubt, largely the cause of your brevity."

He hesitated a moment, clearing his throat and gazing blankly at the
grinning Ogden.

"As Ogden here has of course told you, I'm--well, rather touchy when
interrupted at my favorite pastime, and especially so when I am trying
to get a few minutes relaxation with a pin-headed person who insists
upon playing without watching the board.

"But you spoke of wanting an opportunity of--er--entering the
game professionally. I'm not admitting you're a world-beater,
understand--or anything like that! You've just succeeded in
putting away a man who was as formidable as the best of them,
five years ago. And five years isn't today, by any means. I've been
looking for a real possibility to appear for so long that I've
grown exceedingly sensitive at each fresh failure. And yet--and yet,
if you did have the stuff----!"

Again he stopped and Denny, watching, saw the proprietor's face glow
suddenly with a savage sort of exultation. His eyes, half-veiled
behind drooping lids that twitched a little, went unseeingly over the
boy's head as though they were visualizing a triumph so long
anticipated that it had become almost a lost hope. Again that promise
of something ominous blackened the pupils--something totally dangerous
that harmonized perfectly with the snarl upon his lips.

Hogarty's whole attitude was that of a man who wanted to believe and
yet who, because he knew that the very measure of his eagerness made
him doubly easy to convince, had resolved not to let himself accept
one spurious proof. And all his skepticism was shot through and
through with hate--a deadly, patient sort of hatred for someone which
was as easy to see as it was hard for the big-shouldered boy to
understand.

There was craft in the ex-lightweight's bearing--a gentleness almost
stealthy when he leaned forward a little, as if he feared that the
first abrupt move or word on his part would frighten away that timid
hope.

"I believe that you said some one sent you. You--you did not mention
the name?"

Denny leaned over and picked up his coat from a chair beside the
bench, searching the pockets until he found the card which the plump,
brown-clad newspaper man had given him. Without a word he reached out
and put it in Hogarty's hands.

It bore Jesse Hogarty's