jingle in the jungle
BY ALDO GIUNTA
When even the Fight Commission is in
on the plot, and everyone knows that the
"fix" is on, when no one will help him,
what can a man do—except help himself?
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Worlds of If Science Fiction, June 1957.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
Charlie Jingle walked into the long room with the long table and longCommissioners' faces in it. He went to a chair at the head of thetable, and sat down, a small man in loose, seedy clothing lookingrather lost in a high-backed chair with a regal crest carved in thewood.
"You," asked one of the Commissioners, "are Charles Jingle?"
Charlie nodded his head, a small nod from a small man sitting in a bigman's chair.
"You are aware of course ..." began the Commissioner, but CharlieJingle waved his fingers and cut him off.
"Sure, sure, let's can the bunko and get down to cases."
"You have been summoned here ..." began the same Commissioner, andCharlie Jingle waved his fingers again.
"But I ain't gonna anyway," said Charlie Jingle. The Commissionersstirred, cleared their throats, slid their bottoms with unease on theirchairs.
"You understand," said the Commissioner, "that your license may berevoked if you insist on being uncooperative?"
"Sure," said Charlie Jingle. "I understand."
A bulky man, who had been standing at a window with his back to theseated members of the Commission while they talked with Charlie, turnedto face them. A man with a heavy, grey face that had no humor in it.Charlie Jingle watched him slowly cross to the table and recognized himas Commissioner Jergen, head of the Fight Commission.
"Jingle," said the man in a dry voice, "I'm going to make an exampleof you if you don't come across. I'm going to smear your name fromcoast to coast. I'm going to blackball you so hard you won't get a jobanyplace, at anything! Get the message?"
Charlie Jingle got up from his chair and walked to the door. "This theway out?" he asked.
"Hold on!" roared Commissioner Jergen, and Charlie Jingle stopped withhis hand on the knob, looking back with polite inquisitiveness at him.
"You goddam people think you can pull quick deals on the Public and onthe Fight Commission. I'm here to prove you can't!"
Charlie Jingle laughed.
"You're here to make a big noise, and scare all the scrawny citizensinto a confession, Jergen. Don't kid me!"
"I suppose you've got too many contacts to be frightened?"
"Contacts? No, I don't have a single damn contact. All I got is my twohands, and you already told me I ain't gonna be able to make a livin'with them, so why should I stick around here anymore?"
Commissioner Jergen pulled a chair forward.
"Siddown, Charlie. Let's talk like reasonable men," he said. CharlieJingle searched his face for a lie or a trick. Finding none, he wentback to the table and sat down.
The Commissioner waited a moment, and then said earnestly:
"Listen, Jingle. Seventy years ago this country outlawedprize-fighting. It was barbarous, they said. Men shouldn't fight men.Men shouldn't capitalize on other men as if they were animals. Okay.They changed it. Now we got the Pug-Factories. But we also have thesame thing that went on before. We have the grifters and the shystersand the fixers operating at full tilt all over the place. There's a fewhonest guys in the game. I hear you're one of th