se I gotta start trainin' for Battlin'
Edwards."

"Oh, bother Battling Edwards!" she says. "I thought you promised me to
give up prize fighting!"

This was a new one on me, and it cleared up a lot of things I hadn't
been able to figure out before!

"I gotta take it back," I hear the Kid sayin' in a kinda dead voice.
"I pulled a bone play when I did that! I can't give up fightin' no
more than you can give up the movies! The only thing I got is a
wallop, and that won't get me nowhere in the movies or society, but it
got me the title in the ring. I guess I'll stick to my own game!"

"Oh, come!" she tells him, kinda impatient. "You have the blues!
Shake 'em off--I don't like you when you scowl like that. Come on down
and have a dance with me. You'll feel better."

"You said somethin'!" answers the Kid. "But I can't--on the level. I
gotta train for this guy, or he's liable to bounce me, and, if I lose
this quarrel, I'm through! Y'see, this ain't no movie, this is gonna
be the real thing! If this guy flattens me, he'll be the champion and
you _know_ that bird is gonna be in there tryin' till the last bell!"

I peeked through them little wooden cheaters on the window and I seen
her kinda stiffen up and register surprise.

"I am not accustomed to coaxing people to dance with me, Mr. Scanlan,"
she says, "and--"

"Yes, and I'm not used to havin' dames like _you_ ask me!" butts in the
Kid. "But I gotta beat Edwards--and I can't beat him by stayin' up
late!"

She just breezes past him and down the deck without another word.

The Kid kicks a fire bucket that was standin' there into the Pacific
Ocean, and from the way he slammed the door of his stateroom I'll bet
all them trick beer mugs that Potts had on the wall fell on the floor.

Well, the next mornin' we all go over to the island again and the Kid
is up at daybreak, trottin' over the hills. He's got four sweaters on,
although it's as hot as blazes, and I'm taggin' along in back of him.
Then he comes back, changes his clothes and works in the picture till
noon, when we knock off for the eats. Miss Vincent passed us once when
we was talkin' to Genaro, and she deliberately passed the Kid up!

After that it was suicide to give Scanlan a nasty look.

Along around two o'clock that afternoon, another yacht shows up a
little ways off the island and in a few minutes it stops and five guys
and a woman hops in one of them trick launches and put-puts over to us.