"Oh, she did, did she?" rejoined Ben, a good deal interested in the narrative.
[Illustration: _BEN MAKING THE DUCATS FLY IN CHICAGO._]
"Yes," continued the woman; "you see, she has a fellow in the oil regions, Ben Hogan--perhaps you've heard of him--who gives her all the money she can spend. And every little while she comes on to Cleveland, and has a time with my fellow, and of course this Ben Hogan doesn't know anything about it!"
"Well, he must be a good deal of a fool," observed Ben, with a quiet satire, which the woman could not understand.
The information thus obtained induced Ben to cut short his visit in Chicago and return to Pittsburg. There, it will be remembered, Kitty was still living in the house which Ben had provided for her, and upon the latter's arrival he found so many lovers hovering about that it was really difficult to tell who was the master of the house. Hogan finally vindicated his right to this title by selling off the furniture, and afterward disposing of the house itself.
Meantime, Sweeney and Hogan gave an exhibition at Ames's Varieties, and during the week of the performance, Tom Allen arrived in Pittsburg. With a number of his backers, he went into Wood's saloon, and there began to talk about the Omaha fight. He did a good deal of tall bragging, and wound up by offering to fight Hogan the next week, for a purse of three thousand to two thousand dollars.
Ben replied that he was in no condition to make a match. He had not yet recovered from his fit of sickness, and more than that, he was suffering still from the effects of Allen's foul blow.
This ended the discussion for the time being. But after leaving the saloon, and thinking over the matter, Ben sent two of his friends, Sweeney and Fairchild, with two hundred dollars, and this message to Allen:
"Tell him that I will put up this two hundred dollars as a forfeit to fight him for even money, for the amount he has named, the fight to come off in thirty days."
Fairchild and Sweeney found Allen in Martin's Varieties; but the St. Louis pugilist refused the proposition on the remarkable grounds, that he did not care to add to Hogan's reputation by giving him the chance to have his name coupled with his (Allen's). After enjoying a benefit in Pittsburg, Allen went back to St. Louis, where he claimed that he had driven Ben Hogan out of the former city.