Skip leaving was harder on Dutchy than he thought. He knew it was for the best, but he felt like he lost a good friend. Skip was the first friend he made after becoming a newsie, and even though he had not spent much time with him as before, it was odd not seeing him everyday or hearing his stories. Dutchy was glad that Specs was around, though. He was friends with everyone, but lately he and Specs had gotten along very well. They sold together and began to think up schemes to sell more papers and get things they wanted like extra food.
As the months went by Dutchy got easier without Skip around. All the boys were getting older and staying out more and more. Racetrack was gone all the time, and Dutchy noticed that he was not always at the distribution office with the rest of the newsies; he would go off somewhere else and come back late like always. He figured he had found some girl or something, but Racetrack still had money. Maybe he was winning at gambling lately, Dutchy figured he would ask him at some point, but did go out of his way to poke into his business. One night, however, Racetrack came home beat up and with another boy. All the newsies ran up to Racetrack wondering what happened and who this new person was.
Racetrack held his eye. "Hey, hey, quiet down. Dis is Cowboy, he helped me out after a run in with some folks."
Dutchy could see why the boy was called Cowboy. He had a red bandana, black vest, and cowboy hat. He looked just like those travelling rodeo guys Dutchy sometimes saw down the street. Cowboy was friendly, he talked about his big escape from the boys penitentiary where he snuck out on Teddy Roosevelt's carriage. All the boys were enthralled by his stories. He reminded Dutchy of Skip a bit, and was happy to hear outlandish stories again.
It was sort of amazing how fast Cowboy, also known as Jack Kelly, fit in with the newsies. He had confidence and an interesting style about him. His selling techniques were good, and most boys could not believe he had not sold papers before Racetrack brought him to the lodging house. Dutchy and Specs decided that they should step up their game if they were going to scheme the customers as good as Cowboy, which ensued a bit of friendly competition between the boys. One morning Specs and Dutchy walked beside Jack on their way to the lodging house.
"Hey Cowboy, me an' Dutchy gotta proposition for ya, if you're interested." Specs smiled at the boy.
Curiosity took over. "Yeah, and what's dat?"
"Well, we was thinkin' since you're so good at sellin' ya might want to make a bet on who can sell the most papes by the end of the day." Dutchy waited for an answer.
Jack scratched his head. "But dat's unfair seein' as dere's two of you and one of me."
The two had not thought of that. "How 'bout ya pick someone to sell with, dat's fair right?" Specs looked at Dutchy who nodded.
Jack thought. "Okay yeah." He looked around at the other boys until he spotted a boy who had come in just before he did. "Hey, uhh Blink right?"
The boy who was wearing and eye patch looked at Jack. "Yeah?"
"How would ya feel about takin' part in a bit of competition between these two clowns?" He smiled.
Blink smirked and looked over at Specs and Dutchy. "Yeah sure, what kind of competition?"
"We'se gonna see who can sell da most papes by the end of the day." Specs spoke.
Blink nodded. "Yeah okay, what do we get if we win?"
Jack thought for a second. "How about whoever wins gets to keep what da loser earned?"
The boys nodded and Specs spoke. "Sounds good to us."
"Yeah alright, why not?" Jack spit in his hand and held out, and the other boys mimicked the jester and shook everyone's hands.
The moment their hands left the others, the boys all ran up to the distribution office to try to get their papers first. Dutchy was able to run up to the window first, but Jack had weaseled his way behind him. Specs and Blink were pushing each other to get ahead, laughing the entire time. Jack rolled his eyes, but every time Specs started to get too close he made sure he stood his ground.
"Dutchy!" Specs threw him a coin and Dutchy caught it.
"Hey dat's cheatin'!" Jack looked offended.
"We'se never said that." Specs smiled.
Kid Blink huffed. "Fine den, here Cowboy." He handed him money.
As soon as Dutchy got the papers he and Specs ran with them down the street hawking the headlines. Jack and Blink stumbled with theirs for a second before mimicking the other boys, but instead going the opposite way down the street. Today would be an interesting day. When Dutchy and Specs got done selling to the main morning crowd outside the distribution office they got a chance to brainstorm.
Specs pushed up his glasses. "We're gonna have to pull every trick we know to pull dis off."
"Yeah, dere's no way I'm lettin' them get me earnin's today." Dutchy agreed.
"Me neither." Specs spotted a woman, in a pink and white dress, across the street. "Time to put on da charm." He smiled and brushed the wrinkles out of his shirt.
Dutchy rolled his eyes. "Well if we're goin' down dat road, then we're losin' for sure."
Specs faked laughed and walked across the street to the woman. Dutchy could not hear what he said, but she did not look like she was enjoying his company. Specs did, however, sell the paper to her, but by judging by the look on his face, the woman bought it so he would go away. Dutchy gave him an I told you so look.
"What? A papes a pape right?"
Dutchy shook his head and sighed. "Come on, we got more woirk to do."
They worked all day, harder than every before. Each boy pulled out every trick and scheme he could think of to sell more papers. By the end of the day they had sold all their papers, but did not have time to go back and get anymore. They had set a deadline and it was near approaching, so Dutchy and Specs decided to go meet Cowboy and Kid Blink at the Horace Greeley statue. When they got there the two boys were smiling, but they were holding a couple of papers.
"We have this." Specs nudged Dutchy.
"So shall we count?" Dutchy put their coins on the ground.
Jack did the same and they counted the money.
"Yes!" Kid Blink gave Cowboy a high-five.
"Ten measly cents was all we lost by?" Specs hit his knee.
"But we sold all our papes, you still got some." Dutchy could not believe what just happened.
"Oh, yeah, we got a few more after we sold out ours." Cowboy smiled.
Specs handed over their money. "We used every trick we could to sell our papes."
"Guess ya just don't got the skill we do." Jack laughed as he stuck out his chest and pulled on his vest.
Dutchy have a condescending laugh. "So ya wanna buy us lunch since we're broke now?"
Blink smiled. "Yeah sure, why not. We can talk about how we kicked your butts at your little contest."
That is exactly what they did. Although Dutchy and Specs got a free lunch, it did not help with embarrassment of the constant bragging coming from Cowboy and Blink. By the end of the day all the boys knew about their loss in the contest they wanted to have. It was all in good fun, and they were not truly upset by it, but their egos were bruised a bit. Back at the lodging house the bragging never stopped. When Racetrack got back from Sheepshead or wherever it was he went now, he shared in the jest of the two boys.
"Heya boys, Cowboy told me how ya lost today." He laughed.
"Yeah, yeah, dey just got lucky." Specs rolled his eyes.
Cowboy smiled. "Well if you're so confident we won on a fluke den ya wouldn't mind having another competition tomorrow."
"No!" Dutchy and Specs yelled at the same time.
The room was silent for a moment before all the boys burst out in laughter. They were definitely done with the competition, at least for a while. After that, though, a lot of the boys saw Jack's talent in selling and would often get advise from his on how to sell more papers. Dutchy and Spec's contest was the beginning of how Jack Kelly because a great newsie in the eyes of the other boys.
0000000000
AN: Thanks for reading!
