“Why it’s nothing at all to do with you,” he retorted, beginning to look serious.
“Oh, isn’t it?” I said. “You just look at our contract. It says that I am to have fifty-five per cent. of the gross takings for this week. If you’re going to wedge in a matinée I’m entitled to my fifty-five per cent.”
There was a lot more talk, and in the end he said he washed his hands of the whole business, and I’d better telephone through to Mr. Macnaughton, in London, whose tour it was.
This I did, and after a lot of palaver I issued an ultimatum to him in the following terms. “Look here, Mr. Macnaughton,” I said, “I agree that a mistake has been made. But the mistake isn’t mine. Now you’re a sportsman, so am I, and I’ll tell you what I’ll do. Instead of fifty-five per cent., to which I am legally entitled according to the strict letter of my contract, I’ll take twenty per cent., and I will myself fight anybody Harrison likes to put up, as an extra attraction. Then you will have a full house, if you like.”
“Agreed!” he said. “That’s a bargain. Send Harrison to the ’phone.”
In five minutes it was fixed up, and the agreement was signed there and then.
But Harrison was a bit nettled over it, and turning to me, he said: “It serves you right. I’ve got a chap here who’s a terror. They call him the ‘Champion of the Meat Market.’ He was unlucky enough to get beaten on points in the semi-finals last week. I’m going to put him up against you, and I hope you get a jolly good hiding.”
“All right,” I said. “I don’t care. Put up whom you like. For forty pounds or so I’ll take the hiding, if it comes off, and be thankful.”
That afternoon I made inquiries in the town, and everywhere I heard alarming accounts of the hitting powers of my prospective opponent; so I promptly went into training for the intervening three days.
Meanwhile the bills were got out, and the affair at once became the talk of the town. Every seat that could be booked was taken in no time, and when Friday afternoon came round the “house full” boards were up in ten minutes after the doors were open.