CHAPTER XVIII.

What Came of the Fight--Allen's Treachery--Attempts to Kill Ben in St. Louis.

The fight itself, whatever may be the view taken of it, was unsatisfactory. It was marked from the beginning by a desire on the part of Allen and his friends to resort to foul means in order to win the stake. I make this assertion in the full confidence that any unprejudiced person who was present on the occasion will bear me out in its accuracy.

The men stepped into the ring, and, in accordance with time-honored custom, shook hands with each other. The crowd pressed close to the ropes, the seconds took up their positions in opposite corners, and the event concerning which so much had been said became at last a reality.

The first round lasted eight minutes. After some little sparring and cautious feelers on both sides, Ben got in a square right-hander, which drew the claret, and counted first blood for our hero. This he followed up by a knock-down, and succeeded in getting his antagonist into a corner, where he attempted to throw him over the ropes. This, it will be remembered, was the strategy resorted to by Heenan in his world-famous fight with Sayres. But Ben was not heavy enough to handle Allen in this manner, and so, instead of throwing him over the ropes, he knocked him underneath. This ended the round.

The men responded promptly to the call of time, on the second round. This opened warily on either side, the pugilists standing off, and exchanging a series of scientific passes without any material advantage to either. Then Ben began to work Allen over towards the latter's corner, doing some splendid work in the way of dealing and warding off blows. It was at this point that Allen began the tactics to which allusion has already been made. After a feint with his left, he let drive with his right, striking Ben not only below the belt, but in a part of the body which is, perhaps, the most sensitive of any. Ben dropped at once. The physician who was in attendance, and who made a hurried examination of the wound, declared that he had been ruptured, and that it was impossible for him to go into the ring again. Before any explanation could be made, however, and even before Ben could enter his protest against the foul, which Allen had plainly been guilty of, Looney called time, and there was nothing to do but to respond to this call.

The third round was a hot mill, lasting from seven to eight minutes. Some twenty blows were exchanged on each side, and then Allen again began his attempt at fouls. The crowd was quick to detect this, and equally quick to discountenance it.

"Foul! foul!" was the cry on all sides. In another moment the ropes were cut, and the spectators pressed into the ring. Addressing Allen, some of them said:

"If you can't lick this man by fair means, you can't lick him at all!"

Talk became loud and furious, and some pistols were drawn, but without any serious results.

Meantime, in the midst of the intense excitement which prevailed, Ben was eager to go on with the fight. The referee, however, decided that it should stop, and as there was no appealing from this decision, the party made its way back to the train. On the way back Hogan fell into conversation with the referee, and asked him point blank what his final decision on the fight was to be. Ryan answered that he thought he should call it a draw. Ben insisted that the stakes ought to be given to him, inasmuch as he had won the first round, while in both the others Allen had been clearly guilty of a foul.

Eagan, the stake-holder, made his brags on the train that whatever the referee's decision might be, whether for or against Hogan, he, Eagan, had got the money in his possession, and should keep it.

Some of the party who were disposed to be friendly to Ben, suggested that he might secure Eagan's arrest for embezzlement, and accordingly upon their arrival in Omaha, the stake-holder found himself in the clutches of the law.

Three days after his arrest, Eagan gave up the money. He said before trustworthy witnesses that if he had had his own way about the matter, he should have paid over the entire stakes to Hogan, because, in Eagan's opinion, he was justly entitled to them. It may be added that, when Eagan got back to St. Louis, he stoutly denied ever having made any such assertion as this. But perhaps there were some strong influences brought to bear to induce the stake-holder to forget what he had previously said.

Ben remained in Omaha for some days after the fight. During that time he received a telegram from St. Louis informing him that, as soon as he made his appearance in that city, he would be shot on sight. In answer to this threatening communication, Ben simply telegraphed back to secure a hall for the purpose of a benefit. From which it would appear that he was not very much frightened at the threatening message.

Having secured the Comique, for the sum of two hundred and fifty dollars, he left Omaha, and in company with Sweeney proceeded to St. Louis. The two put up at the Southern Hotel, and Ben began to make preparations for his proposed exhibition.

Although he had not hesitated a moment to return to the city, he still did not under-estimate the danger to which he was exposed. He knew that he had aroused the hatred of a desperate gang of men, who would not hesitate to take his life at the first convenient opportunity. He knew, moreover, that he must rely largely upon his own coolness and courage to carry him through the danger. For these reasons he kept in his room the greater part of his time, and was on the constant lookout for unpleasant surprises.

On the Sunday afternoon following his arrival in the city, he accepted an invitation from two high-toned residents to take a carriage drive. Behind as fast a team of horses as there were in St. Louis, Hogan and his friends set out for their trip, which was destined to be one of exciting adventure.

At Ben's own suggestion, the party drove toward Wash Home, our hero little suspecting that his enemies were lying in wait there to kill him. As they neared the hotel, the gentleman who owned the team exclaimed suddenly,

"We are gone, as sure as fate!"

"What do you mean?" demanded Ben.

"I mean," answered his friend, "that there are Tom Allen, Jack Looney, Schmidt, and the rest of the gang. If they see you here, you'll be shot without mercy."

"Oh, well," answered Ben, "I guess they will give me some sort of show for my life. I'm willing to meet them all in a bunch, if I have a pistol."

The driveway leading to the hotel steps was in the shape of a semicircle, thus affording approach from either direction. Allen and the others were waiting on the steps at the point where they expected Ben to dismount. The carriage drove up as though intending to stop, but instead of doing so, the gentleman who was driving whipped up his spirited horses, dashed by the steps, and around the curve to the road again.

Perceiving that they had been foiled, Allen and the others started in hot pursuit. Some were in carriages, some on horseback, and some on foot. Eagan, the stake-holder, succeeded in closing up the gap between him and the carriage in which Ben was seated, and drawing his revolver, cried out:

"If you don't stop, I'll shoot!"

Just at that moment, Ben had neither the inclination nor the time to stop. Fortunately for him, the horses behind which he was driving were fleeter than any of those in pursuit, and so gained steadily upon Allen and his friends.

Ben was driven back to his hotel, where he parted with his friends. He went at once to the landlord and told him that it might be better for him to leave, as he did not care to disgrace the house by being killed there. The landlord only laughed and told him that he would take the chances on that.

Some of Allen's followers did call at the hotel, but confined their operations to blackguardism and windy talk.

Ben meantime remained quietly in his room until the day of the exhibition. All things considered, he thought it would be safer not to take any more carriage rides to Wash Home.

Frustrated in their designs of shooting Ben, his enemies resorted to a different course of tactics. They took advantage of the so-called vagrant law--one of the most disgraceful statutes that ever appeared in the law books of any city--and managed to procure the arrest of both Ben and Sweeney, while the two were at dinner in the hotel. The men were locked up, really guilty of no offense, unless it be a crime for a man to live in some other place than in St. Louis. The intention, of course, on the part of those who had entered the complaints, was to break up the exhibition. In this, however, their plans failed.

The Comique, that night, was open as advertised. A bigger house was never seen within the walls of a theatre. It was literally packed from pit to dome. When the hour for opening the entertainment had arrived, the manager stepped upon the stage and announced that the gentleman in whose benefit the performance was to be given had been arrested, and was at that time locked up in jail. He further said that if there were any present who desired to withdraw, their money would be refunded to them. Nobody cared to accept this proposition, and so the show proceeded.

After the performance it was discovered that a barrel of rocks and bolts had been carried in to the galleries with the intention of giving Hogan and Sweeney an unpleasantly warm reception. So, after all, it was a lucky thing for our hero that he was arrested.

At half-past eleven, that same night, Ben and his companion were released. In spite of their imprisonment, the benefit yielded nine hundred dollars in cash. When Ben was arraigned the next morning, the detective explained that the arrest had really been made to save Ben's life, inasmuch as he would certainly have been stoned and perhaps mobbed had he appeared on the stage of the Comique.

There was something singularly ridiculous in the idea of calling upon a man to answer to a charge of vagrancy, when he was stopping at a first-class hotel and had plenty of money, together with valuable jewelry locked up in the safe. However, it was in accord with the laws of St. Louis, and as has already been stated, it was a most lucky circumstance that the arrest had been made.

The witnesses against the alleged vagrants were Looney, Eagan and Allen. They failed to make out a case, and so Hogan and Sweeney were released. Before they left the city, an attempt was made to kill Ben, but this, like the other efforts of his enemies, proved unsuccessful.