The Project Gutenberg EBook of Shorty McCabe, by Sewell Ford

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Title: Shorty McCabe

Author: Sewell Ford

Illustrator: Francis Vaux Wilson

Release Date: August 5, 2007 [EBook #22249]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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[Illustration: She was a dream, all right.]

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SHORTY McCABE

By
Sewell Ford

Illustrated by
Francis Vaux Wilson

New York
GROSSET & DUNLAP
Publishers

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Copyright, 1906, by Mitchell Kennerley.

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SHORTY McCABE

CHAPTER I

Excuse me, mister man, but ain't you--Hello, yourself! Blamed if I
didn't think there was somethin' kind of natural about the looks, as you
come pikin' by. How're they runnin', eh?

Well say, I ain't seen you since we used to hit up the grammar school
together. You've seen me, eh? Oh, sure! I'd forgot. That was when you
showed up at the old Athletic club the night I got the belt away from
the Kid. Doin' sportin' news then, wa'n't you? Chucked all that now, I
s'pose?

Oh, I've kept track of _you_, all right. Every time I sees one of your
pieces in the magazines I reads it. And say, some of 'em's kind of punk.
But then, you've got to sling out somethin' or other, I expect, or get
off the job. Where do you dig up all of them yarns, anyway? That's what
always sticks me. You must knock around a whole bunch, and have lots
happen to you. Me? Ah, nothin' ever happens to me. Course, I'm generally
on the move, but it's just along the grub track, and that ain't
excitin'.

Yes, it's been a couple of years since I quit the ring. Why? Say, don't
ever put that up to a has-been. It's almost as bad as compoundin' a
felony. I could give you a whole raft of reasons that would sound well,
but there's only one that covers the case. There's a knockout comin