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Until this moment he had scarcely considered him as an active participant in the scene at all, and he felt strongly that this sort of thing was bad form. It was not being done by sparring-partners. A juster man might have reflected that he himself was to blame. He had undeniably been careless.
The public had never been any too sure that this fellow Bugs Butler had a chance of putting up a scrap with the champion that would be worth paying to see; and, when they read that he couldn't even stop his sparring-partners slamming him all around the place they simply decided to stay away. Poor old Fill! It was a finisher for him.
"Of course he'll eat this red-headed gink," went on the first wise guy. "That's the thing he does best, killing his sparring-partners. But Lew Lucas..." Sally was not interested in Lew Lucas. That numbing fear had come back to her. Even these cognoscenti, little as they esteemed Mr. Butler, had plainly no doubts as to what he would do to Ginger.
It was his practice to open a course of training with a little gentle road-work; and it was while jogging along the highway a couple of miles from his training-camp, in company with the two thick-necked gentlemen who acted as his sparring-partners, that he had come upon the broken-down taxi-cab.
His friend, also plainly a guy of established wisdom, assented with a curt nod. "Ah!" he agreed. "Lew Lucas," said the first wise guy, "is just as shifty, and he can punch." "Ah!" said the second wise guy. "Just because he beats up a few poor mutts of sparring-partners," said the first wise guy disparagingly, "he thinks he's someone." "Ah!" said the second wise guy.
Ginger, too, was thinking hard thoughts. He had not had an easy time since he had come to the training camp, but never till to-day had he experienced any resentment towards his employer. Until this afternoon Bugs Butler had pounded him honestly and without malice, and he had gone through it, as the other sparring-partners did, phlegmatically, taking it as part of the day's work.
He turned irritably, but beamed in a distrait sort of manner when he perceived the source of the interruption. "Who him?" he said in answer to Sally's whispered question. "He's just one of Bugs' sparring-partners." "But..." Mr. Burrowes, fussy now that the time had come for action, interrupted her. "You'll excuse me, miss, but I have to hold the watch. We mustn't waste any time." Sally drew back.
It was the fact that Bugs Butler was lowering himself to extend his powers against a sparring-partner that shocked Mr. Burrowes. There is an etiquette in these things. A champion may batter his sparring-partners into insensibility if he pleases, but he must do it with nonchalance. He must not appear to be really trying. And nothing could be more manifest than that Bugs Butler was trying.
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