Page:Fighting Back (1924).pdf/148

 your training expenses. On the other hand, if you fight here to-night you will be well paid. Señor Young has accepted my offer. You have promised on the word of an American gentleman to assist me in bringing those six villains to book. I await your answer with confidence, señors!"

Ain't we got fun?

Well, as Kid Roberts told me afterward, Pancho's deadly seriousness, the novelty of his proposition and his cool nerve in making it, appealed—to his sense of humor. The Kid had disliked the six strangers at first sight and the fact that they held him so cheap against Young that they was willin' to bet half a million he would lose aroused in him a strong desire to see them taken. But the winnin' argument was that hundred thousand Pancho was goin' to give us, Pancho's hundred thousand grand was important money to Kid Roberts. It meant a swift exit from the ring, a healthy stake to start a new trick with, and the return of the beautiful Dolores.

That's the way Pancho's stunt sized up to Kid Roberts, and in spite of my frenzied protests he accepted it. O sole mia!

The instant the Kid agreed, Pancho Nogales became the busiest guy in the land of Mexico. Trusted messengers was sent scamperin' to the trainin' camps of both Kid Roberts and Bob Young for their handlers. Others rode away to get Young's manager, the official timekeeper, and the referee. Pancho told his messengers that if one word leaked out to the authorities, they knew what to expect. From the way them cholos