"Of course," he assented cheerfully, "I knew she wasn't namby-pamby. It's rather nice of her, I think, to take so much interest."
A few days after that Jerry left me and I knew that Briar Hills was closed again.
The events which were to follow came upon me with startling unexpectedness. Scarcely two weeks had passed since Jerry's departure and I had hardly settled back into my routine at the Manor, where I was trying again to take up the lost threads of my work, when a message came over the wire from Jack Ballard asking me to come down to New York to visit him for a few days. I inferred from what he said that he wanted to see me about Jerry, and, of course, I lost no time in getting to the city and to his apartment, where I found him before his mirror, tying his cravat.
"Pope, my boy, I knew you'd come. Just itching for an excuse anyway, weren't you? But you needn't look so alarmed. Jerry's all right. He hasn't even run off; with a chorus lady or founded a home for non-swearing truckmen."
"Not much--merely engaged to become one of the principals in a prize fight in Madison Square Garden."
"It's quite true. Sit down, my boy. Have you break-fasted yet?"
"Just reproach! But the early worm gets caught by the bird, you know. I never get up--"
"Tell me," I broke in impatiently, "where you heard this extravagant tomfoolery?"
"From the extravagant tomfool himself. Jerry told me yesterday. I'm afraid there's no doubt about the matter. The articles of agreement are signed, the money, five thousand a side, is in the hands of the stakeholder--one Mike Finnegan, a friend of Flynn's, who keeps a saloon upon the Bowery."
"Preposterous! It hasn't come out, the newspapers--"
"They're full enough of it as it is. Jerry's opponent is a very prominent pug--an aspirant for the heavyweight title, no less a one than Jack Clancy, otherwise known as 'The Terrible Sailor, Champion of the Navy.'"
"But your father--the public--! It will ruin Jerry--ruin him--"
"Wait a bit. Fortunately Jerry's anonymity has been carefully kept. At Flynn's gymnasium he's called Jim Robinson, and it's as Jim Robinson, Flynn's wonderful unknown, that he will make his public appearance."
"But a name is a slender thread to hang Jerry's whole reputation on. He'll be recognized, of course. This thing can't go on. It must be stopped at once," I cried.