“Double-Cross” is a boxing story centered on Ace Jessel, an African American heavyweight champion who returns to his Southern hometown and encounters prejudice and a scheme against him.

A letter to Tevis Clyde Smith (letter #149 in Collected Letters, Volume 2), probably from about December 1930, says Howard based the fight on the Joe Goddard–Joe Choynski bouts. Goddard and Choynski fought three times: twice in Australia in 1891, with Goddard winning, and once in Philadelphia in 1898, which ended with no decision. The story was rejected. Howard told Smith that he had used “a dramatic description of the Goddard-Choynsky bout” with changes, including the ending.

“Double-Cross” was first published in Bran Mak Morn: A Play and Others (Cryptic Publications, 1983).