Page:Lynch Williams--The girl and the game.djvu/276

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TALKS WITH A KID BROTHER

because he wanted to get everything that was coming to him as a college man. But finally this is what happened:

Did you ever hear of Ike Weir, the "Belfast Spider"? There used to be much about him in the sporting columns of the newspapers, in the old days when he was champion featherweight of the world. By this time he had reached the boxing-lessons stage of his career and was called "The Professor" at the Athletic Club of which Sinclair was a Junior member. Sinclair wrote a long letter that brought the Belfast Spider down to visit his former pupil. That night Bum Batter and a noisy little nuisance named Channing came around to have their usual sport with their victims. "Another skinny little poler eh?" drawled Channing, sticking his finger under Ike Weir's face. "You must have been looking for trouble to come into this room." The pugilist had a lean, intelligent face and had borrowed Sinclair's glasses and a cap for the occasion. "Take off your hat, Freshman," bawled Batter.

The Belfast Spider kept staring at a

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