Page:Hugh Pendexter--Tiberius Smith.djvu/69

 champion of the Little Seal River and Hudson Strait. A million-dollar baby boy was the gate receipts, and the winner was to take all.

"Now, you know, I had always hankered for the boxing-game a bit, but Tib, because of his New England upbringing, had but little use for the sport, and always insisted an angry man in a righteous cause could mace the average pug into oblivion. Yet, despite his aversion to professional bouts, he opened a new vista in fistic possibilities, and was the first man to introduce the sprocket-wheel smash to the shores of Ungava and the Strait. Dear, dear! what a mill it was, and neither of 'em wore the American flag or talked into phonographs! You see, he fought for charity, sir, and it was a wonder he wasn't massacred. For the ozone of Ungava Bay nourishes some robust youngsters, I can assure you, and he came out whole only by employing a bit of Delsarte, invented on the spur of the moment, and combining in technique the radical action of a circular-saw and the nervous energy of a ratchet screw-driver.

"But let me hark back and not spoil the finale. The circus management had given Tib carte blanche to pick up whatever odds and ends he could in event of failure to snare a giant, and as a side issue he had brought along the faithful old picture-machine that once made him President of Arcate. It was