I managed to catch the waitress’s eye and told her to bring Danny Boy another glass of vodka. She said, “Right. And another Coke for you?”

I’d been getting little drink urges off and on ever since I sat down and now I got a strong one. My gorge rose at the thought of another Coke. I told her to make it ginger ale this time. Danny Boy was still on the phone when she brought the drinks. She put the ginger ale in front of me and the vodka on his side of the table. I sat there and tried not to look at it and my eyes couldn’t find anywhere else to go. I wished he would get back to the table and drink the damn thing.

I breathed in and breathed out and sipped my ginger ale and kept my hands off his vodka and eventually he came back to the table. “I was right,” he said. “He’ll be at the Garden tomorrow night.”

“Are the Knicks back? I thought they were still on the road.”

“Not the main arena. Matter of fact I think there’s some rock concert. Chance’ll be at the Felt Forum for the Friday night fights.”

“He always goes?”

“Not always, but there’s a welterweight named Kid Bascomb at the top of the prelim card and Chance has an interest in the young man.”

“He owns a piece of him?”

“Could be, or maybe it’s just an intellectual interest. What are you smiling at?”

“The idea of a pimp with an intellectual interest in a welter-weight.”

“You never met Chance.”

“No.”

“He’s not the usual run.”

“That’s the impression I’m getting.”

“Point is, Kid Bascomb’s definitely fighting, which doesn’t mean Chance’ll definitely be there, but I’d call it odds on. You want to talk to him, you can do it for the price of a ticket.”

“How will I know him?”

“You never met him? No, you just said you didn’t. You wouldn’t recognize him if you saw him?”

“Not in a fight crowd. Not when half the house is pimps and players.”

He thought about it. “This conversation you’re going to have with Chance,” he said. “Is it going to upset him a lot?”

“I hope not.”

“What I’m getting at, is he likely to have a powerful resentment against whoever points him out?”

“I don’t see why he should.”

“Then what it’s going to cost you, Matt, is the price of not one but two tickets. Be grateful it’s an off-night at the Forum and not a title bout at the Main Garden. Ringside shouldn’t be more than ten or twelve dollars, say fifteen at the outside. Thirty dollars at the most for our tickets.”

“You’re coming with me?”