Page:Arthur Stringer-The Loom of Destiny.djvu/80

The Loom of Destiny and envy this lion-hearted and tiger-toothed hero of a hundred fights. Nor was there a girl within twelve squares of the Sharkey residence (and strangely unpretentious was that residence for such an eminent inhabitant!) who did not furtively cast shy glances at the Shanghai. To be the "steady" of one by the name of Sharkey was something for future generations eternally to dream of, and talk over, and wonder at!

Notwithstanding these seductive advances, the Shanghai Sharkey, as a fighting man, publicly and with fitting dignity, proclaimed that it was not for him to waste his time and goodly strength on women folks. Far from it. At his father's solicitation he beguiled Mike Donovan, who kept the "Lincoln Saloon" on the next corner, to give him certain private tips on left hooks and advancing,—points on which even Timmie's father confessed a latter-day ignorance. Mike Donovan had been a boxer of repute in his youth, and even at the present time three stoop-shouldered young men, wearing gold eye-glasses, came to him twice a week and 68